Seastone Revamps Gift Card Packaging Program

Seastone, a Provo, Utha-based supplier of specialty gift card packages and gift card promotional programs, recently announced plans to advance the gift card category by revamping its packaging program. “The gift card industry has matured rapidly in its brief 10-year history and is here to stay,” said Phil Rist, retail analyst at BIGresearch. “2006 was the year of the gift card, growing to an estimated $82 billion. We are now seeing the maturation of the gift card package category and will see some innovative developments in this area as a value-add to gift cards.” Over the past three years, Seastone has enhanced its gift

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Tips of the Trade: Should You Blog?

By Ilise Benun, Marketing Mentor Should you have a blog? That’s the question “du jour” these days. The answer: it depends. (We’ll be answering the question live and in more detail in a free conference call on April 26. If you still don’t have a Web site, a blog is a simple way to put one up. A blog literally takes 10 minutes to create and you don’t need any technical expertise. Plus, the simple ones—blogger.com or typepad.com—are free (or almost)! If you do have a Web site and want to integrate a blog, that’s good too. “Blogs are conversations, not ads. They’re less

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30-year Industry Vet Named President of Webb Company

Webb Company, Rosemount, Minn., recently announced the appointment of industry veteran Keith H. Olivit as the company’s president. Of the appointment, Alan Webb, founder/CEO, stated: “Keith’s extensive knowledge of the industry and his expertise in developing and managing leading industry supplier companies makes him an exceptional candidate to lead our company.” “We are committed to focusing on the needs and wants of distributors,” Webb continued. “Keith’s experience will assist us with managing our overall product selection, shortening our production time and expanding our growth categories of candy and mint products, as well as health and beauty products.” Olivit’s career in the

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Tips of the Trade: The Most Important Metric for Your Business

By Ilise Benun, Marketing Mentor www.marketing-mentor.com With the first quarter behind us, you should be 25 percent toward achieving the 2007 goals you set in January. Are you? If not, it could be because you haven’t broken the big goal down into the tiny tasks required every week, even every day, that will eventually add up to that goal. Here’s the most important metric you need: how many proposals do you have to submit each month in order to make your numbers? From there, how many calls (cold or warm) must you make to be asked for that number of proposals? How many prospects

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Smartblast.com and Apparelspider.com Partner to Offer ApparelBlast

In an effort to better target and focus on the growing apparel market, Smartblast.com, an e-mail marketing services company, and Apparelspider.com, provider of a complimentary Web-based quoting/sourcing platform to apparel buyers, have announced their strategic partnership and the creation of ApparelBlast—an apparel-specific e-mail broadcast service geared toward companies that purchase apparel, headwear and related services. The first e-mail broadcast is scheduled for Wed., April 18. “Apparel is clearly the largest segment of the promotional products industry. It is a dynamic and growing product category, and we want to focus on that,” noted Michael Ryan, president of Smartblast.com. “Apparelspider.com’s technology is of tremendous value to

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