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Keepers

Sandra Paluzzi
The Bead Peddler®

We all want customers to keep our name and contact information readily available.  Christmas brings a number of free goodies from our vendors - pens, rulers, calendars, etc all bearing the vendor's name and contact info.  Of course, we could also pass out cheap pens imprinted with our name and phone # or website address.

While a pen is a good promo item because people tend to keep it, you have to buy large quantities to offset your printing costs.  Pens also have nothing whatsoever to do with beads or beaded jewelry.  A bead seller could get a small (6 inch) ruler with inches on one side and millimeters on the other to help customers with conversions.  But there are several other options that are both cheaper and more bead focused than the standard 'keeper' fare.

I hope that I have turned the Bead Peddler's® business card into a keeper.  My website lists the dimensions of beads in millimeters as that is how bead measurements are typically given.  I got many phone calls asking how many inches the beads measured.  The back of my business card has a standard millimeter to inch conversion chart.  I spent the extra money to have the cards laminated so they would last forever.  These business cards are the perfect size to fit in wallets when beaders hit the bead shows.  Every order that goes out of here has my business card attached. 

Flyers can also be turned into keepers.  What questions do your customers ask you?  What do you sell?  If you sell Mother's Bracelets, why not make up a flyer that lists the 'birthstones' for the months of the year?  List a little romantic lore or trivia about the gemstone.  Put your name and contact info on the flyer and pass it out liberally.  Make wedding jewelry? A  little social history on weddings would catch most bride's attentions  A flyer with a wedding check list also stands a good chance of being kept.  Regardless of what type of jewelry you sell,  a flyer listing different jewelry cleaning techniques would also work.  Bead stores can have a flyer with a beading project on it.  Alternatively, bead sellers could have a monthly bead type featured with a flyer on that particular type of bead.  A general tip on flyers - white background is best so people can copy them.  Test all of your flyers to ensure they are Xerox friendly before distributing them.

Jewelry packaging itself can be turned into a keeper.  You can simply put a personalized label on the top of a white cardboard jewelry box.  I don't know about you, but I don't know anyone who has too many jewelry boxes.

Romance cards are great keepers.  A romance card is a small card that is frequently enclosed with jewelry.  It will give information on that piece of jewelry.  You can take romance cards one step further and give them away if someone expresses an interest in an item.  For example, if someone is looking at all your garnet, give them a romance card on garnet.  They just may keep it and come back to you when they're ready to buy.  They could also pass it on to someone who wants to buy them a birthday or anniversary gift. 

I'm sure you can let your imagination go and come up with plenty of inexpensive keepers to distribute. Just keep in mind that the information is what is most important to your customer.  Make sure the info is the most prominent thing on the card.  Your contact info should not interfere with the data.  Instead, it should be separate from the data.  My business card says 'This conversion chart is compliments of the Bead Peddler, http://www.beadpeddler.com".  The bigger the piece of paper, the larger your contact info can be.  While you don't want it to dominate the surface, neither do you want it to get lost.

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