Hi there Coachella Valley Nerd Alliance businesses!
So far the participants in NERD WEEK (March 23-29) are:
The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs
Thanks for your patience as this pilot program takes shape.
I’ve gotten great thoughtful feedback from a number of you about the details of this promotion, for which I’m grateful.
Both Danny from Starbase 505 and my wife Amy (with whom I run Comic Asylum) voiced concern about requiring folks to post a selfie (which some people can’t or aren’t inclined to do). And each proposed a similar solution (great minds think alike!). So I’ve restructured the plan a bit, with details below. I think this new structure both makes it more inclusive and hopefully pays for the minimal costs. Here’s the plan :
I will order a bunch of 5x7 postcard “passports” that will be available for purchase at each particpating location for $1 (they will cost roughly 25 cents each to make). Purchasing this passport is what’s needed for customers to participate in any part of this promotion.
The passport would contain the basic rules of the promo, each business’ logo with a blank white space next to it, a map indicating all the locations, and the URL www.cvnerdalliance.com (as well as an easy QR code that leads to the same page). A passport bought anywhere gets the buyer access to ALL participating businesses’ promo DEALS/DISCOUNTS.
Each business would also get a custom stamp with their logo and “CVNA Nerd Week.” When someone makes use of their passport to obtain the deal at your business, they get their passport stamped with your custom stamp. The deal at each location can be used ONCE. So someone can’t, say, get the deal at a business (getting their passport stamped) on Tuesday, then come in again to that same business on Wednesday to get an additional deal. Once a particular space on the passport is stamped, that specific deal is considered used and done.
The stamps themselves would cost around $25 apiece (which each business would pay). The idea is that the sales of the $1 passports would offset the cost of both the stamp and the postcards. For instance, a store buying 50 postcards and a stamp would pay roughly $37.50. If they sold 38 passports, they’d recoup their full investment. Regardless, it’s a fairly small up-front cost, and hopefully the additional business traffic and exposure alone would make it worthwhile.
The RAFFLE part of the promo would work like this;
Each store will offer a prize for the raffle, and ONE WINNER will take all. Comic Asylum will be offering a CGC-rated Batman issue and a Conan the Barbarian omnibus (big hardcover book compiling a series of comic issues). The details of what each business is offering for the raffle will be on the web page and the CVNerds Instagram profile.
Doing any of the following will get a person one raffle entry (and they can do as many of these as they like!)
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Get their passport stamped. Each stamp is an entry. Before the end of Saturday March 29, they’d have to either submit the passport to you (and you would then send me a pic), or they could send a pic directly through the promo’s web page (I’ll create an easy form to do so).
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Post a pic taken at the store (selfie or otherwise) to Instagram, tagging both the store they’re in and @cvnerds. Each pic/post gets them an entry (1 per store per day). The more locations they visit, the more entries they get! I will keep track of these post numbers via the @cvnerds Insta account.
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SO HERE'S THE NEXT STEPS...
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Please tell me if you're still in (I'm happy to field any questions/concerns) - comicasylum760@gmail.com​
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Please tell me
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What your deal/discount for the week will be​
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How many postcards passports you would like to purchase to have available at your location. I'd recommend over-estimating rather than under-estimating.
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Please send me the $ for the stamp ($25) and the passports (at 25 cents each). You can send that to me via Zelle (connected to comicasylum760@gmail.com), Venmo (@hellojoesmith), or PayPal (connected to mail@joesmith.com, paid as "friends & family rather than as a business please). I am also happy to have you stop by the store. I would like to put in the order for the passports on Monday, so a timely transaction would be appreciated. ​
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What you would like your logo to link to on the CVNA web page (your website, Insta profile, or other)​
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At some point I will also need to know what your raffle prize will be, though because that'll be on the web page and not the passports, there's not quite as much of a rush on that.
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Once we have the passports printed and the web page settled, I will seek out digital event calendars and such to submit the info to, as well as speak with the Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce. But if anyone else has resources beyond that, including Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, bloggers/influencers, or any other way to get the word out, please do so! The more buzz, the better for everyone. And of course any and all social media posts are encouraged. I will send you all various logos & images you can use. Hopefully we'll all not only get business that week, but more followers!
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Thank you all for being game for this, and for whatever promotional efforts you can make. I'm excited about this, and look forward to seeing it grow. Lets do this!
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Joe
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