Here’s February’s edition of the idea of Giftology.

Yet again, I went to the local dollar store and found a ton of ideas you can use throughout the month to give to your clients, leads and prospects – and every single one of them are safely inside RESPA guidelines.

Remember, an “item of value” is not branded. It does not have your logo on it. It’s truly a gift.

In this video, I’m talking about leveraging the power of gifts… not stuffing promotional items in people’s faces.

I share several client appreciation events and small gift ideas you can use in February to grow your business.

Check it out: (video above)

Here’s how to leverage gifts, not promotions, to build more relationships and bring in more business.

BOOK I mention (and show) in the video:
Giftology: http://amzn.to/2iEygjw

APPRECIATION ideas I mention in the video:
Margarita Day – 22nd
Drink Wine Day – 18th
Mardi Gras – 28th
Fettucini Alfredo Day – 7th
Valentines Day – 14th

Have fun!!

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TRANSCRIPT:

Hey there! This is Christina with Leads and Leverage and today I’m coming to you with another kind of a whole video, but it’s more again how to leverage gifts in February to help grow your business. And remember the concept that I’m using and the thought behind this is based on the giftology concept where we’re not promoting, we’re not giving out logo items, we’re not giving out like stuff with all of our logos on it.

We’re actually giving gifts. We’re taking opportunities through maybe some holidays or national day of whatever, so that we can actually say thanks and connect with people that we have done business with in the past and we want to do business with the future or maybe people that we’re working with a little bit  just to kind of get to know them on a different level.

So just remember that is the concept that we’re using, Giftology. This is not about logo stuff. This is not about getting our name out there. This is about connecting on a “Hey, thank you” level. Even if we’re just going to leads or our neighborhood farm or things like that, it's just “Hey, you know here’s something for you. Thank you.”

So let’s get started. I actually again went to the dollar store. I want to keep you inside a respite guideline so as a real estate agent, it’s kind of hard sometimes because we have ideas and maybe they go over the dollar amounts that we’re allowed to spend. So that’s why I’m going to the dollar store with every single one of these and you don’t have to go to the dollar store but I just want to show you that for one or two dollars, you can easily give a gift without falling foul of any regulations or issues.

Now I wouldn’t just stick with the dollar store. There are several opportunities this month in February that you could totally use other resources, other things. For example, one of them is February 22nd, “Margarita day”. So pair up with a local Mexican restaurant that serves margaritas and see if you can give away a free margarita to people and you can give out the gift certificate to give a free margarita. It would be great if you could without any stipulations attached. Not a meal attached, not nothing attached, just a free margarita.

(I would also pair…) Look at another one, “Froyo day,  Frozen Yogurt day”, that was pretty easy around here. I get tons of like three ounces of free yogurt from some of our local places and I give those out all the time. I’m constantly giving those out, people love those.

This one’s kind of funny you can actually do maybe a fundraiser type thing for a local shelter or humane society or whatever. And you could go do, and I got both of these at the dollar store. Now they were out of fettuccine alfredo. However, you can get a fettuccine alfredo and alfredo sauce from the dollar store. You can even deliver those to people just as a funny, happy fettuccine alfredo day.  Just as a goofy blah blah thing that you can do.

The other thing that you can do is a “Drink wine day”. That’s a big one, we’re wine lovers and so we like to do wine tasting, host free wine tasting things like that. So we’ll totally do that and then of course you’ve got two major holidays this month that people like to celebrate. The first of course is Valentine’s Day and the second is Mardi Gras.

So let me show you a couple things with a couple of ideas. Now for Valentine’s like you know there’s everything. I got two big huge baskets of stuff. Here I’m going to show you this big huge basket of stuff. I’m actually going to make some of these things for another event that we’re going to. So let me just give you a real quick idea. Like these bags, there were three for a dollar, so that’s easy. So I would literally just put together some bags. Throw some candy, throw some stuff in it.

Now when I went to the dollar store there was more than just candy. There were things like pencils, there were Valentine’s Day. There were these sticker boxes. They have stickers and stuff and then there were like, these are whack a balloon things like that.

You could put a whole bunch of different things. That was just one set of gift bags. There were these kinds of gift bags that you could get there, like $25 in a gift bag. That’s the typical kind that I see a lot of people get and then there were loot bags, things like that.

I tend to like the ones with handles because you can hang those on doors easier. But there is a lot there. And of course you want to throw out a little bit of confetti too and of course I found these. So I found a lot of these. Every single lot of it is I’m sure you for a dollar and there’s multiple things in each one.

Now as far as the candy goes you don’t have to stick with the dollar store because sometimes candy is more expensive there than say Costco or Winco or things like that. But I found a ton of stuff, so I have a nice variety of things that I can throw into these packages and hand them all out.  That is Valentine’s.

Now the other one that I would probably turn this into, especially if you’re in the southern states, I would turn this more into a little bit of a customer appreciation event. I would combine the Drink wine day with Mardi Gras. You could even give out free things or whatever and say hey come dressed up as someone Mardi Gras flavor and I will give you something free. Don’t say “something” I’m actually picked something. My suggestion for this would be a free meal somewhere. To give out free meals and this would be more along the client appreciation.

People who have actually been part of your past business. So let me just show you, I found all these things at the dollar store. I mean there’s all kinds of different masks, Mardi Gras masks. There are Mardi Gras sunglasses, necklaces. All kinds of stuff. You could even just go give those out. Go get a whole bunch of these and just go give them out especially if people in your area tend to celebrate. (I’m sorry I’m doing that right in the mic), tend to celebrate Mardi Gras.

So you want to leverage these holidays and think a little creative. You don’t have to go get logo stuff. In fact, I highly recommend you don’t get “logo stuff” the thing with the gift bags and things like that. Yeah, I would probably attach your business card to it and make sure they say “Hey, have a Happy Valentine’s Day from Jane Doe realtor” or whoever you are obviously.

So I would do that part but don’t give them logo stuff, logo branded stuff and think that you’re giving them a gift because you’re not. That’s a promotion. You give them a gift and you can let them know who gave it to them. Just don’t broadcast on the gift itself that “Hey, hey, hey, I want your referrals. I want your business.”

If you’re going to use a business card, get a business card made just for gifts. Just say “Appreciating you today” and your name and your brokerage name. Something like that. You really want to separate the “hey give me business” from that “hey here’s it something for you”.

You want to separate that because people think there’s something attached to everything and see you want to purposefully be very purposeful in making sure that they realize you appreciate them. That’s the goal with all of this.

So take advantage of all of those days and all those different things and the dollar store and have some fun. If it’s overwhelming to do as many people as you have. Pick 20 people a month that you’re going to do this for. When you do your customer appreciation stuff not everybody’s going to show up obviously.

It’s all you to be very specific so when we do wine tastings and things like that we invite all of our past clients and clients that we’re currently working with and then we’ll also invite people that we would maybe, we’re referred to us or they give it as referrals but  haven’t actually done business with us yet.

So those are the kind of people that we invite to the wine tastings because we actually host them. We work with a wine shop and it’s a private wine tasting event and we pay for it. But it’s so worth it because that’s a timeframe where you’re not asking for business but people are going to ask you questions. That’s going to be obvious. They’re going to want to know some questions and stuff but it’s really just a time to have another social connection with people. Under your terms, what you like. What you like to do.

I don’t really like going to the Chamber event. I don’t really like going to the other stuff or the home shows and things like that. Because people aren’t there to engage with you. I want to engage with people. I want to get to know people. When you get to know people on a level outside of “Hey, do business with me” that’s when your business changes.

That’s when they start “Oh yeah, I’ve been going to these wine tastings. I want to do business with them” and they talk to you and they get to know you and that’s how people see you as an expert because it’s just general conversations rather than you constantly selling.

Anyway I'm hoping you’ll use some of these ideas or you know, leverage them and do something else with them but I really hope these ideas work for you. Let me know this is Christina with Leads and Leverage. Comment below. Let me know you’ve been watching. Let me know if you used any of the ideas. What you’ve done, if you’ve done something different, things like that.

Have a great day!