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Auction Listings Are Vital to the Success of Fundraising Auctions

Fundraising Auction Tip: You should always provide potential bidders with a printed Auction Listing of both your Live and Silent Auction items at any Fundraising Auction. A printed Auction Listing is vital for several reasons:

An Auction Listing informs bidders of the order of sale, and what is coming up next. If you keep your bidders guessing, they will simply not bid.

If bidders are not 100% certain of what they are bidding on, they will not bid. A printed Auction Listing should answer any and all questions about what is being sold in order to encourage bidders to bid as much as possible.

Bidders often need time to plan their bidding strategies, especially on multiple and/or larger value items. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Couples often need time to consult with each other about what they are willing to spend on something. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Potential bidders need to know the specifics, the benefits, and the restrictions on any item they are going to bid on, especially on travel and/or other higher value items. A printed Auction Listing should answer all of their questions, in writing.

After bidders see that they have lost an item to another bidder, a printed Auction Listing makes it easier for them to re-strategize on what else they can bid on.
Printed Auction Listings generally come in 3 forms:

Printed in the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-inserted into the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-delivered to all attendees, or left on each dinner table in the room.
Auction Listings cost practically nothing to produce and they can make the difference between the success and failure of a Live and Silent Auction. You should never conduct a Fundraising Auction without one.

A Case Study

Let me share a real-life experience with you. Once I was hired to conduct a Fundraising Auction for a nationally renowned organization. The event was held in a major hotel, in one of the country’s largest cities, with several hundred “black tie” participants attending. It was an extremely professional event, with the music, singing, lighting, speeches, and awards all perfectly timed and choreographed. Everything was done to perfection… exception the Fundraising Auction.

Although I had signed an agreement to serve as their Auctioneer nearly one year in advance of the event, no one bothered to contact me for any advice or help. Approximately one week prior to the Auction date, I contacted the group to see if they had replaced me with another Auctioneer. But they said that I was still their man.

Upon arriving at the event I asked for a copy of the Auction Listing. I was told that there were none. I’m not sure whether they felt that the Auction Listing wasn’t necessary, or whether someone forgot to have them printed. This was never made clear. When I asked what I was to use at the podium, I was told to copy the list of Live Auction items from a committee member’s computer. It took me about 30 minutes to copy three pages of hand-written notes in order to prepare for my role as their Auctioneer.

I knew that they had created a PowerPoint program showing the various Live Auction items. When I asked whether the PowerPoint slide order corresponded to the order of sale I had copied from the committee member’s computer, I was met with a blank stare. The committee member left to check the slide order, and returned to let me know that the slide order did not correspond my notes, and he provided me with the correct slide order… hand-written on a paper napkin. This forced me to re-arrange my three pages of hand-written notes before taking the podium.

There was a Live Auction Table with descriptions of the Live Auction items that were to be sold, but the table was not clearly marked, and it received significantly less attention than the Silent Auction Tables, which were clearly identified. Since the Live Auction Table was located adjacent to the “Raffle Table”, it appeared that most people thought it was part of the raffle and therefore paid very little attention to it.

According to the event program (which did not include an Auction Listing), I knew approximately when I was to begin the Live Auction. At the designated time the Master of Ceremonies announced the start of the Live Auction to the several hundred people in attendance, and introduced me as Auctioneer. As I approached the podium I realized that photographs of award winners were still being taken… directly in front of the podium where I was to stand… which required me to stand aside for several minutes until the photographers were done. Can we say “awkward moment”?

As the photographers cleared, I approached the podium and began my Live Auction introduction. Approximately one minute into my introduction, the “Raffle Committee” approached the podium and stopped my Live Auction Introduction in order to pull the 8 or 9 Raffle Winners. These drawings lasted about 5 minutes. Upon it’s conclusion I was allowed to resume the start of the Live Auction.

When standing at the podium two intense and extremely bright spotlights were pointed directly at the podium. The lights were so bright that I literally could not see the center 1/3 of the room. I could see the tables on the right, and on the left, but was totally blinded when looking straight ahead. It took perhaps five minutes before the spotlights were turned off.

While at the podium and describing Lot #1, I had to ask someone to start the Lot #1 PowerPoint Slide… because apparently no one was assigned that job.

So with only the Auctioneer’s verbal description, and a PowerPoint slide, it appeared that few people in the room had any idea about what we were selling… or when we were selling it… until it was announced by the Auctioneer. As a result, bidding was extremely light and the final results fell several thousands of dollars short of where they should have been
The learning experience is this:

The Live Auction is where you place your better items, and where the real money should be made at any Fundraising Auction. Let bidders know as far in advance as possible what you will be selling, and the order of sale, so they can get excited about the Auction, and plan their bidding strategy accordingly.

Auction Listings are absolutely vital to the success of both Live & Silent Auctions. In my opinion, revenues at this Auction fell thousands of dollars short of where they should have been, because no Auction Listing was provided to the guests.

If bidders are not perfectly clear on what is being sold, including both the item’s specifics, benefits, and restrictions, they will not bid.

When you have a committee of volunteers, especially volunteers having full time jobs and/or very busy schedules, the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can help to keep the committee on track.

And once you retain the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer… use the services that you are paying for.

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5 Tips on How to Market a Home Based Business Via Trade Shows

If you are looking for a great way to market a home based business, try becoming a vendor at a trade fair. When you attend a trade show you will be given a table where you get the opportunity to display your product or service to potential targeted customers who have specifically come to the trade show looking for products similar to yours. A Trade show is great because it is typically filled with other business people who understand business and could also be interested in becoming your business partner, so if done correctly it’s an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Since trade shows are filled with business owners if you happen to sell a product these customers will most likely be looking to buy on a larger scale potentially increasing your business volume and inevitably your bottom line. Once you finally make the decision to market your business many people, think that they have to attend those HUGE shows and invest tons of money. That’s not necessarily the case. There are many small local events that may be in your area that could potentially be JUST as effective for your home based business if not better. In fact, many of the smaller local events can be more cost effective, and at times more productive. People are often more eager to stop and talk at your booth for longer periods of time. This will allow you to build a better rapport with your potential client.

A great way to find a trade show in your area is to start with a search at your neighborhood Chamber of Commerce. They should have a listing of events in your area. You can then contact the event planners for each event to get specific pricing for the booth spaces.

Another idea when looking to market a home based business in your local area via trade shows is to, do a Google search for “trade shows [city]” or “expos [city]“. When you contact the coordinators for these events, ask if they know of any other upcoming events, since they are in the industry they may be better able to point you to some other exclusive events.

Now that you are ready to market a home based business at a trade show; here are few tips to help you succeed:

1. First impressions are everything; especially when marketing a home based business. Make sure you have a good looking booth. People are naturally attracted to what looks good. Have great attractive colors in your booth, have a large banner or sign so that you are not missed by anyone. Have images and picture stands of different heights to make it look interesting. Not confusing. Have your products displayed neatly on your table so that everything looks well managed and streamlined. Your display will tell a lot about you as a business owner.

2. Be fully stocked. Trade shows are mainly business events people may want to purchase your products right there, make sure that your booth is fully stocked with your products. Even if they are not displayed all at once always be prepared for buyers. You can get an idea of how many products to bring by asking the event coordinator the amount of attendee he/she expects. On that same note, be sure to have plenty of brochures, flyers and business cards. That provides information about your business and products. Even if people don’t purchase they will always take a brochure.

3. Give the attendee some type of incentive to come to your booth, a good way is to give away some sort of free item, for everyone such as a bowl of candy or free goodie bags with a key chain or pen with your business name on it. People will be more inclined to come to your booth for something free that they are almost guaranteed to get. If you give away a goodie bag for example, it will keep people standing at your booth longer because people will always stand in line for free stuff! It helps to keep people for just a little bit longer.

4. Have an inviting and interactive display. If you are allowed to have music, you can have soft inviting music to make people feel relaxed once they get into your booth. Music should be low background music, not load head banging music. Have as many sample products on hand if possible. Do demonstrations, show how it’s used. Make your display and booth interesting. The goal is to have people come in and stay so you have a chance to have a conversation.

5. Have a free raffle giveaway. Raffle off a product or service from your business. Have contact information forms, in order to be eligible for the raffle, they have to fill out their information. This way you can capture information of potential future customers or business partners. Include spots for people to mark if they would like to learn more about your product or the business opportunity as well. Make sure to follow up in a timely manner.

Events are a FANTASTIC way to collect contact information, get information in to people instantly, and converse with people about your business. If the cost is an issue, consider sharing the booth with another member of your team or another noncompeting business. Just remember, you’ll need to share the leads as well.

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Internet Advertising

We are all familiar with newspapers, magazines, coupons, and billboards. Let us examine how the trend of direct mail and print advertising is taking an ever-increasing back seat to online advertising.

In order to reach a specific customer, you would select a particular type of print mail advertising. For example, if you wanted to target someone driving home everyday, you would pay for an expensive billboard campaign. This is a costly type of advertising, but how many customers does it reach? Do you survey customers when they walk into your business and see if they got off the exit based on the billboard ad? If you did not ask the customer how they found you, then how do you know if you should continue to pay for that pricey billboard investment?

Everyone knows the coupon clipper. So where would you advertise to get their attention? Of course, the Sunday paper, and perhaps you might even consider the back of grocery store receipts. Coupon clippers are everywhere, and there are many direct print advertising companies who can provide you with various services. Have you ever purchased something from a Val Pak coupon, or a coupon from a post card you received in the mail? Most likely, yes.

Then we have magazines. If you are looking to reach customers who might be interested in workout machines, the possibilities for your print and direct mail advertising is endless. Do you have a local, national, or global customer audience for which you would like to sell your products?

Your choices would be the local newspaper in the health and fitness section, or large ads in the proper placement in certain sections of the newspaper. You could also advertise in national magazines to reach customers in the United States, or even a global magazine, to reach customers all over the world. You could place classified, banner, or article ads in Muscle and Fitness, or even Maxim.

What does offline advertising have to do with online advertising? Everything.

The mentality for the majority of business owners is still stuck in the print mail era. More and more business owners are losing customers locally, nationally, and globally, because they believe their potential customers find them through direct mail, offline advertising methods. They spend more and more on these efforts, and eventually go out of business. They will forever be puzzled as to why all of their efforts did not prove to be financially fruitful.

In the year 2007, over 70% of the United States alone uses the Internet to find local, national, and global products or services. If you try explaining this to local business owners, they look at you like you are actually lying and only trying to make a buck from them!

This is no joke. I have a local web site and spent $75,000 building and marketing it just for our community. Business owners are losing customers, so I walked door-to-door in over 105 degree heat to let them know their customers are actually looking for them online and almost every business owner completely blew me off!

I offered the most inexpensive web site advertising with an amazing, highly targeted customer audience, and practically no one wanted to advertise online. Honestly, I was disgusted with these business owners, because my efforts and financial investment were enormous. I cannot get that time back, but my education was invaluable. I am very happy this venture took place.

One thing I have learned over the years in working with clients and potential business clients is that as soon as I hear they are waffling about paying for Internet web sites, SEO, AdWords, and hundreds of hours of my valuable time and expert marketing efforts, I let them go–quite easily.

There is no hard selling anything. After I explain the facts to business owners, they either get it, or they do not. And you move on to an owner who gets it, and is willing to pay you for your expensive education, time, hard work, and honest, ethical marketing skill sets put into their online advertising.

So what are your online advertising options? I am glad you asked.

Let us look at some of the many ways you can advertise online, and then let us look at whether or not these ways are actually paying off for business owners.

Without looking at the YES, NO, or POSSIBLY categories toward the bottom, see how well you would fair in using online advertising to get more customers.

Which would you choose?

- Web Site (basic, no SEO)

- web site (flash with moving images, pictures, and AdSense, no SEO)

- web site (with proper title; header tags; related meta name description; limited, relevant key words; includes proper on page SEO build, but no online, content related and keyword rich articles with the proper density)

- web site (with proper title; header tags; related meta name description; limited, relevant key words; includes proper on page SEO build, includes content related and keyword rich articles with the proper density)

- video advertising throughout the Internet on the major search engines (pay per click services, or membership site)

- banner advertising throughout the Internet on the major search engines (pay per click services, or membership site)

- image advertising throughout the Internet on the major search engines (pay per click services, or membership site)

- text ads throughout the Internet on the major search engines (pay per click services, or membership site)

- link exchange directories

- FFA (free for all) directory submissions

- article writing content submitted to relevant categories on reputable directories

- search engine submission of your web site to thousands of directories

- coupon web sites

- putting your web site link on a friends’ site, or anyone else you ask who will put a link to your web site on theirs

As you can see, the list above is not all-inclusive, but it gives you the major online advertising venues in which you may or may not be able to get traffic for your business.

I will break this list down with a summary of which you should use, should not use, or might use (if you use them correctly)

Yes – Definitely!

- article writing content submitted to relevant categories on reputable directories (but be very careful here!)

No – Absolutely Not!

- Web Site (basic, no SEO whatsoever)

- web site (flash with moving images, pictures, and AdSense, no SEO whatsoever)

- FFA (free for all) directory submissions

- putting your web site link on a friends’ site, or anyone else you ask who will put a link to your web site on theirs (no, no, no!)

- search engine submission of your web site to thousands of directories (new technology and algorithm changes, know what you are doing before you submit anywhere!) This is in the NO and POSSIBLY category because you can hurt your efforts if you do this wrong.

Possibly – Using these correctly could be rewarding, but using them incorrectly could cost you every penny you have and still not get you any customers

- web site (with proper title; header tages; related meta name description; limited, relevant key words; includes proper on page SEO build, but no online, content related and keyword rich articles with the proper density)

- video advertising throughout the Internet on the major search engines (pay per click services, or membership site)

- banner advertising throughout the Internet on the major search engines (pay per click services, or membership site)

- image advertising throughout the Internet on the major search engines (pay per click services, or membership site)

- text ads throughout the Internet on the major search engines (pay per click services, or membership site)

- coupon web sites

How did you do? Which type of online advertising would you have chosen?

As you can see, the choices are mind boggling, and all of your options have not been listed. These are your meat and potato, primary online advertising choices.

Building a web site takes knowledge, education, and experience. SEO (search engine optimization) is critical to your business, just as print advertising once was 10 years ago.

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