Online Fundraising

Are you tired of selling candy bars or cookie dough door to door for your school, youth or sports team? Stop eating your fundraising profits and start raising more money fundraising online. Are you a parent that is tired of writing checks for all of the items you son or daughter didn't sell?

Online fundraising is an awesome and profitable alternative.

Some of the benefits include:

• There is no product to sell
• There are no upfront costs
• There is no money to collect
• There are no orders to tally
• There is no delivery day

Now, if all that sounds too good to be true, think again. This is how most national non-profit organizations set up their volunteers to raise money.

Volunteers are encouraged to use online fundraising, often gaining access to easy-to-use website templates. With some simple personalization, their fundraising pages look professional and ready to send out to family, friends and co-workers.

In fact, I bet you have contributed to someone's efforts this way. Maybe they were running a marathon or a 5K and sent you a link to their donation page. It's fun to see their fundraising thermometer grow with each donation!

Let's face it, millions of dollars are raised every year this way. And it's great, because all the donations are made typically using a secure source like PayPal. Most people can give a little bit more money if they can use their credit or debit card. If your like most people, you probably rarely carry cash or checks any more. And who wants the hassle of having to go back and deliver product and collect money?

Think about it...have you ever seen a professional fundraiser selling candy bars?

Probably not!

You can imagine how pleased I was to find that I can help my son's band and my daughter's photography club, raise money online, for free, just like the national charities do!

All we had to do was add a photo of our group, information about our fundraiser and why it is important to raise this money.

Hint: People don't want to know you need the money, rather, they want to know why you need the money.

Make sure the information you include on your personalized online fundraising website includes how their donation will impact the groups education, experience or potential to impact others in a meaningful way.

So, stop raising your money one dollar at a time with candy bar fundraisers and help your kids raise money like the professionals.

Your school, club or group will thank you for it, and so will your waistline!

Promotional Coupons to Aid Corporate Branding

Recently, vouchers and coupons have began to replace gifts and rewards. Although they are practical, how welcome are these? And in what situations are your customers willing to accept them? Nowadays, immediately after you open a magazine, you will see vouchers and coupons for promotional items. Various stores distribute coupons of loyalty and they have a system of points to accumulate in order to win various prizes or free products. For the companies' coupons and vouchers when used as promotional items are one of the most effective ways of corporate branding.

To promote their products, entrepreneurs adopt the fashion of coupons and vouchers. The coupon has the logo of the company, the address and other data that help the customers to find the company to make an order. The vouchers usually represent an attractive discount for the company's product and services.

The fact is that vouchers are a convenient and cheap way to attract new customers and to draw attention to the company's products and services. However, they constrain the person who receives them to use them with the promoting company. For example, if you receive a coupon with 25% discount for a fitness subscription, you can not ask for its amount in cash, you have to pay for the fitness subscription; thus successfully generating new business.

I guess that for all of us it is natural to benefit from a discounted price, but to what extent varies form person to person. I know many women who collect discount coupons for promotional items as children collect stickers, they are very excited about. However it varies from person to person whether they use them or not. Many women believe that these coupons encourage continued spending and buying. Moreover, promotional coupons and vouchers often provide substantial benefits.

The best way to use promotional vouches is with an e-mail flyer or magazine advertisement. Here you will not only get a space to advertise your company, but give the reader an attractive offer they can't refuse. Corporate branding is all about effective advertisement and promotional coupons can really keep a campaign fresh and alive.

Using promotional coupons encourages new business; this in turn contributes to corporate branding. A coupon is an encouragement for a customer to make a purchase or sale as they feel they are getting a bargain. They not only give the customer value for money, but also give them an incentive to make a purchase there and then. Therefore, you must use coupons and vouchers as promotional items for your company and see the wonders they do for your brand.

It's Time to Think About Rollup Banners

Study businesses which have achieved success in their niche market, and chances are they have created not only a strong name for themselves but a strong image. So much of business today is in the marketing of image. It's not enough to be good at what you do, and for potential customers to hear that, they have to see it as well.

With the array of online marketing avenues out there, it's easy to neglect offline marketing practises. As important as it is to be Twittering and Facebooking, it's equally important to be creating a consistent strong impression offline. And your marketing message needs to be visual. And if you are someone who hasn't heard of the term Banner Stands or even better Rollup Banner, you may have a little catching up to do.

A Rollup Banner is essentially a portable movie screen. It sounds enticing already doesn't it. When you attend your next Trade Show to pitch your company's products and or services to potential clients, you want to walk in through the door with a Rollup Banner. The same goes for the next corporate meeting you present at. The first thing you should place strategically alongside briefcase, so that you don't forget to take it with you, is your Rollup Banner.

The no. 1 selling feature of a Rollup Banner, oddly enough, is how discrete the Rollup Banner is. You want your presentation to flow seamlessly with the environment you present in, be it a corporate office or a stand at a Trade show. Carrying in boxes of set-up paraphernalia will just look clumsy because it suggests effort. The CEO and Procurement Managers are interested in the results and success story you can help create for their company. Your job will be to focus on the results you can help them achieve, all the while reminding them of the behind-the-scenes work you will be doing.

Another feature of the Rollup Banner is that it has a nifty recoil or rewind mechanism. This allows for quick set-up and dismantling of the Rollup Banner. The best way to determine how viable a marketing tool the Rollup Banner is to gauge their impact on you, as a consumer, when you next attend a Trade Show. Imagine for a moment you are now entering a room, filled with vendors, all trying to promote their products and services. You'll probably stop for a moment, do a full 360 degrees turn to take in the room and look to see what catches your eye first. Trust you me, that the first stand you visit will have the most attractive marketing visuals on that floor. I, personally, would be surprised if they didn't have a Banner Display of sorts.

After all, Trade Shows are a lot like window shopping. Sure you may go with an idea of what you're looking for, and even with a plan, but that plan may very well be forgotten as soon as you see something that catches your eye.Be one of the companies that stands out. Be cutting edge. Set up that Rollup Banner.