Tips or a Smooth New Year’s Eve – Exploding Balloons and Balloon Drops

New Year’s Eve is such an important occasion. Expectations are high! Everyone wants it to be memorable and the "best night ever!" Venues charge top rates for people to attend a gala or party, and many charge customers to even visit a bar or club that would normally be free. So there is huge importance and responsibility on the event decorator to get it right!

Matthew Lewis, CBA, of No Ordinary Balloon Company in Coventry, United Kingdom, is very busy leading up to New Year’s Eve (NYE) and mainly offers special effects to his clients. I asked Matthew if he would share some of his top tips when planning his NYE campaign.

Happy Birthday 'The Very Best Balloon Blog'

This weeks see's our first birthday... yes, it's a whole year since I published the first ever 'The Very Best Balloon Blog!

So, it is very fitting that this blog should be all about blogs! 

I would like to start by talking about the benefits of writing a blog:

They are search engine-friendly and one of the easiest, fastest and least expensive ways to increase the online exposure of your business.

Blogs, are fast and reasonably easy to create. They are less formal than a newsletter. They are interactive, and they are loved by the media as well as by search engines (particularly Google) love blogs.

Blogs make your site “stickier” and more likely to be revisited by prospects looking for fresh, interesting content.  Google will re-index your site more frequently (meaning new pages you put online will appear in the search results more quickly) and it will also give your rankings a boost.... and we all want that!

(‘Sticky’ is a word used in web design, online marketing and search engine optimisation to describe a site or page’s ability to hold an internet user’s attention. The longer the internet user sticks around, the more sticky the site is. Sticky sites are also the sites that attract repeat traffic.) 

There is a great article 7 steps to a stickier website just click HERE for a link, there are other great articles linked to this site!

I suppose it is easy for us all to say that we have not got enough time to write a blog, but from all the evidence that I have read, it is probably one of the best and more effective online tools that you can use to attract greater online awareness for you and your business!

So where do you start if you have never written a blog before?

There are a number of free blog hosting sites, such as  www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com These are both really very easy to use sites that can help you set up your blog free, with great templates and themes, tools for writing, up to the minute stats, tagging systems and help and advice when you need it... so what are you waiting for!

To give you a little inspiration I have highlighted a few 'balloon blogs' - There are a number of great 'balloon blogs'... sadly, too many for me to feature :(

We'll start with Matthew Lewis Displays - blog. Matt is a regular blogger and keeps his blogs short, fresh and regular... Matt often posts his blogs on the Qualatex Facebook Group page, freely sharing many of his ideas and experiences! 

To see Matts blog click HERE

Here's another great blog! You can already see that it looks so very different from Matt's or "The Very Best Balloon Blog' with a strong black background and white print... this blog is hosted by Wordpress, one of the free sites that I recommended earlier.

I really like this blog, the author known as '007' is in fact David Saker. David has many years experience in the balloon industry and runs a business known simply as Balloon.co.uk. David shares some great stories and offers some truly great tips! I strongly recommend that you read his blog "Small Twitter Tip", if like me you are unsure how to make Twitter work for you, I think this will explain it pretty well... thank you for the great  'Twitter Tip' David!

To view David's Balloon.com blog click HERE

Bunch of Balloons use their blog to show off their AMAZING skills of venue transformation!

I really love the way they explain how they work with their customers to completely fulfil their needs and the attention to detail that they go to making sure that the customers gets what they want and more!

Showing the transformation of a venue is a great way to show off the power of balloons and the art of decor at its best! 

To view Bunch of Balloons Blog click HERE

The last blog that I would like to feature is Miller's Balloon Blog. Once again it has a completely different look from the others. I really enjoyed reading their article on weather and balloons along with their other blogs. The author Jodie, really helps to explain using personal experiences on how to work with balloon in different weather conditions, she also emphasis's how you should have agreements (contract) with your clients should you need to make changes because of the weather!

To view Millers Balloon Blog click HERE

I hope that this blog inspires you to start writing your own, and if you already have a 'balloon blog' and would like others to read it,  please post a link in the comments section below.

Thank you for reading my blog, I really enjoy writing them! If you have any requests for future topics for my blog please let me know, just drop me an email sue@suebowler.com

Happy Ballooning!
Sue 
www.suebowler.com

Benefits of Business Cards as a Marketing Tool - Update

After publishing yesterdays blog 'Benefits of Business Cards as a Marketing Tool', I have received some great business cards and comments from you! There are some truly great suggestions and idea's.

I have learned so much about business cards in the past few days and how very important they are as a business marketing tool. I would like to say a huge thank you to all the contributors to this article.

David Taylor from New South Wales, Australia, says "Just wanted to add my two cents if that is OK.

1) also make sure that you have a decent quality, thick cardstock for your card. It is more expensive, but again, it adds to the professional image of your business.

2) like you I do not have any balloons on my business card. I have squares."

  

Aaron here from Singapore.

From you blog, I decides to share my name card with fellowmate ...

 

All namecard are design by myself as I want my name card to be out stand from other balloon decorator/twister/retailers...

I want a namecard that with just a simple glimpse it know what we are dealing...I them to see lots of things and know that we are in balloon business.

Colorful name card is one of the condition to capture my customers' attention...

Secondly, pictures shows a thousand words and it tell them what we are dealing.. well you get what I am saying after you see my name card...

In my name card I also states what services we are dealing so people get the idea and know who and what to look for when they going thru your name card..

name card stock is important too.. my name card is 300gsm and its think with offset printing compare to digital print and I make use all the space i have on the name card to

tell my client what I am selling...

Quality of namecard is important as it shows your status of your profession...

Aaron Chee

Creative Art Designer / Trainer

Qualatex - C.B.A

(Certified Balloon Artist)

Balloon Artist, Entertainer,

Matthew Lewis, Coventry, UK. has 2 company names offering specific services and has different business cards that clearly defines each business. This allows him to target specific markets and customers.

Hey Sue

I'm enjoying your blog -

Attached is my business card,  thought I would share -- my logo works great on my vehicles, T-shirts and banners too.

Readability is 'sooo' important...and when I go to conventions I'm 'sooo' surprised when people are still printing their own on the perforated cardstock....thanks for sharing the info you do on your blog!  That was one of the keys I hit on in Class at FLOAT last year, was letting people know when you go to Market and Network you want to have professional looking cards...

Joette Giardina, Certified Balloon Artist

Creating Memorable Celebrations http://www.partypeoplecelebrationco.com

Recent events http://www.partypeoplecc.blogspot.com 

Jolanda & Tibor - Party Bord, Netherlands,

Hi Sue,

Read you blog about presenting yourself to clients, a.o. with the

'right' business card.

Attached our business cards (of both Tibor and myself). This is a design of a few years back. As our business is not only

ballondecoration (also inflatables, bouncy castles, party goods etc.) We had to come up with a design that represents 'party', and when people think of 'party', they think about balloons and (in Holland)

flagbanners, right?

The orange flagbanners in our design are very recognizeable because of

their rigid shape. The diagonal flagbanners also 'protect' our website photo's against copying (of course clients compare prices. This way our logo is in the picture :) ).

At the bottom of the attached card is in text what we do: inflatables

- flagbanners - balloons - Helium - bouncy castles - light & sound.

We are planning to design new cards, just with balloons. Our business

is shifting towards balloon decoration (instead of inflatables, as

there are more and more rental companies rising). Also the balloon

business is where we can excel and specialize ourselves, plus: many

location managers and catering companies are not interested in

inflatables and other rental stuff.

Nina Dee's of 'Deesigns Balloon Creations' CA, USA says "Being also in graphics, I esp liked your comments on DIY business cards: a personal sore spot with me & the folks in this industry! So thanks.

Attached is a copy of my balloon business card that I am quite happy with. It relies on the marketing tenet that people like to do business with people they know, hence my photo. If they don't know me to start with, they will after looking at this a few times. And it shows a plethora of balloons which supplies plenty of color. I also use my signature font which brands all my marketing materials, and has plenty of white space so is comfortable to look at. It is printed on heavy weight gloss stock so feels substantial to the touch. 

Denisse Sanchez - Deco Inn, Puebla, shares her great business card... I love pink!

Thank you again everyone for your input, I am truly inspired by the diverse range of business cards shown here, I look forward to seeing some great business cards when I meet you at future events!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue 

www.sue Bowler.com