Ecommerce, Is it for you? Listen to the Expert.

In an effort to continue my journey toward “mastering” social media and the wonders of the web I attended a monthly talk presented by HeroWeb Marketing and Design entitled “Kick Start Your Ecommerce Business”. It was a great presentation by Michael Stearns one of the founders of HeroWeb. The focus was on creating an ecommerce website. He covered topics ranging from Domain Registration, Low-Cost Hosting, and Platforms for Developing Ecommerce Websites. The wealth of information he shared left me once again realizing how much I don’t know and wanting to glean more.

We (KAP Art Inc.) have future plans to make our “Weddings by KAP Art” site an ecommerce site, where brides can order invitations directly from the site. At this point in time we do direct consulting and designing based on personal interaction with our soon to be married couples. I love the one-on-one approach but with busy life styles it is sometimes just easier to order online. Our goal is to cater to those couples pressed for precious time, at the same time continuing on with the personal interaction some couples prefer.

The talk by Michael gave me a better understanding of how we need to approach our future ecommerce goal. What will make us stand out from similar ecommerce sites, and how do we realistically evaluate the probability of success?

HeroWeb will be hosting future monthly talks. I encourage you to get to know them, check out their website and possibly register for their next talk. Oh, and it’s FREE!

See you at the next talk.

Dentists Market with Giveaways.

It’s been a while since I’ve given you a run down on our line of specialty advertising products. Missy Johnson is our go-to-gal for any of our clients looking for special giveaways advertising their business. We have found that dentist and orthodontist have a big demand for such items. Last time I was at the dentist I was given a bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste, and dental floss. The bag had an imprint with the logo of my dentist on it. I have come to expect a goody bag whenever I go, love it!

Missy has supplied dentist with a variety of items, most of which include the dentist logo, address, and phone number. Some of the products popular to our dentist clientele are; imprinted plastic bags, and tote bags, as well as lip balm, water bottles, cups with straws, mints, pens and pencils.

The great thing about giveaways is the number of times an item will be used. My favorite lip balm came from one of Missy’s dentist. It’s smooth, tasty, and has the dentist name and phone number on it. I look at it several times a day, and the lip balm has lasted for months. What a great way to imprint a business in the minds of its clientele, as well as making contact info readily available.

I highly recommend giveaways that will have repeated use, a onetime investment capable of multiple views. Seems like pretty efficient advertising to me.

Wedding Website Live!

It happened…our new KAP Art website focusing on wedding invitations, save-the-dates, reply cards, directional cards, thank you cards, programs… most things wedding, is now live.

We thought it was important to have the sight go live before the Lane County Wedding Show opened in mid January. In doing so we were able to direct many brides to the sight, which offered them the opportunity to gain a better overview of what KAP Art has to offer. The two-day event was successful, and connected us with brides we are now working with to create beautiful invitations.

Each year Eugene Magazine publishes a special edition glossy called “Eugene Weddings”. Each bride registered at the show was given a complimentary copy. Several of our invitations and save-the-date cards were featured in the magazine (pg. 72 & 74), as well as beautiful examples of cakes, cupcakes, and flowers. If you are a bride and groom, or involved in the planning of a wedding, the magazine is a great resource and gives full details (pictures included) about four weddings. Every aspect of each wedding is documented; from the venue, to rings, to dresses and tuxedos, to the photographer, caterer, flowers and cake. “Eugene Weddings” is full of inspirational ideas with great information, a perfect resource for the planning process.





Make sure to check out "Weddings by KAP Art" for even more inspiration. In the future we plan to design unique invitations you can order on line, with the ability to change the quantity, text, colors, and photo (where applicable). For now, all our designs are created in collaboration with our bride and groom, and are original one-of-a-kind invitations exclusively for them.

2012 Resolutions and Trends

Welcome to the year 2012. It seems every year passes a little more quickly than the prior year. In turn, the making of “New Years Resolutions” seems to come at much shorter intervals. Have you made resolutions for the coming year?

One of my favorite bloggers and social media gurus Ray Hiltz posted “3 Self Improvement Tips for 2012” full of good ideas as well as links to other suggestions for the New Year. A resolution to follow him would be a great resolution for 2012.

If you want your new years resolution to focus on up coming trends, here is a blog post (a Ray Hiltz recommendation) by Aaron Lee: “5 Social media trends that will lead 2012”. Are you wondering where to put your marketing dollars? This article could be pretty helpful and is worth reading through to the end.

Here’s my resolution, I’m saying this out loud…I resolve to follow the blogs that will help me become better informed and understand the world of Social Media Marketing. There, I said it. I will pass on good information to you to help keep you informed as well.

Happy New Year!

Time Managing Social Media

In past blogs I have talked of the importance of posting regularly, unfortunately I have neglected to follow that advise. During busy times social media seems to be the first place we tend to cut back when we have time constraints. It has been a busy season here at KAP Art, no excuse, but hopefully we will get up to speed in our exploration and integration of our social media goals in 2012.

Here is a link to a blog, which gives great information about web marketing, even focusing on time management. Authored by, Rich Brooks, President, Flyte New Media.

“3 STEPS TO BETTER TIME MANAGEMENT OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING" When talking about social media marketing I’m often asked “how much time does this take,” …more

I have recently subscribed to this blog and look forward to further educating myself on the world of social media marketing, and will continue to share information with you. If you have a favorite blog you would like to share with us, please do. There are so many great blogs and articles available on the web. Recommendations are always welcome.

Marketing Via Facebook

The power of facebook is amazing. We recently picked up an apparel/screen print job because someone saw one of our sweatshirts in a facebook photo. They were in need of a similar item, liked our design so followed-up to see where it came from. It was that simple, and now we are creating a design and having sweatshirts screened for them.

We developed our facebook page as a means for creating a two-way conversation with you. If you are not our friend we would love you to become one. Facebook has become so much more than a two way conversation… it has become a great way to market a business or event with little or no budget required. I recently came across this blog, which really gives a great testimonial to “Small Budget… Event Marketing” using facebook, written by Joshua Ramsey, a guest blogger for a branding company.

“No budget, no marketing dollars, no existing clientele, a business name, great event ideas, and a drive to succeed…

This was me, six months ago, when I decided to leave my job and embark on a journey of entrepreneurial passion. I had the winning idea, but — with my limited budget — how was I to promote it and spread the word?” more-

I hope this article gives you great ideas to help create your own facebook marketing strategies. If you do some marketing or event promos via facebook, be sure to share them on our facebook page as well.

KAP Art Weddings

We have learned that the last remaining wedding invitation representative in Eugene has closed their storefront. For the newly engaged this may mean traveling to Salem or Portland to order invitations. No need… KAP Art is close by and ready to serve you. We carry not only commercial invitations, but also custom invitations and all the related items imaginable. Our team of designers, and wedding consultants are available to create and guide the bride and groom as they prepare for one of the most important days of their lives.

We are dedicated to filling the void left as the wedding stores have disappeared, and will soon be launching a second website dedicated to everything wedding. The site will include some samples, both original and from the book. We hope the sight will inspire the newly engaged to make an appointment to come and see us.

Our doors are open and our creativity is flowing. We hope our presence will make it easier for future bride and grooms to find what they’re looking for right in their own back yard. With attention to detail, and our friendly demeanor our goal is to insure they feel confident and comfortable with all their wedding day decisions.

I will let you know when we launch the new site. Stay tuned.