reprint of the playing cards

I just counted. I have 5500 decks left here.

I would very much like to unload nearly all of those asap. And it seems like people want these at christmas about 20 times more than any other time of the year.

So it seems like right now is the time to get the word out. But how?

And here is the big one: it seems like I have one week to try to infect brains with these permaculture thoughts. And this was one of the missions with the cards: paying for advertising which leads to infecting more brains with permaculture. Only, in the end it all breaks even. So it seems like today is the day to best figure out how to get into thousands of new brains.

We paid for some advertising on facebook - and that seemed to work. I think for every dollar we spent on facebook, we made about $3 in sales. But I think we've done about as much as we can on facebook.

Paypal contacted me and said that they would be willing to pony up about $5000 for advertising or something - a sort of interest free loan. Apparently, they want to make more money collecting their 3% over more paypal payments.

But I'm struggling to even figure out where I would try to spend this money if I were to try it. Any suggestions?

paul wheaton wrote:But I'm struggling to even figure out where I would try to spend this money if I were to try it. Any suggestions?

You probably wouldn't be able to set it up before christmas but you could use the money to pay the expenses related to setting up a permies booth at relevant conferences or gatherings. Push paypal as the preferred payment method to help make paypal happy...

Don't spend it on advertising. Spend it on Public Relations. Get the word out to the media directly to infect more brains.

Laura Wagner wrote:Don't spend it on advertising. Spend it on Public Relations. Get the word out to the media directly to infect more brains.

Do you have a suggestion on where to spend money on PR?

I would take 3k of the sum and find the most permaculture-enthusiastic, young [perhaps between 25-35 yrs of age] aboriginal, culturally connected person i could find, sit down and outline a project with them. Help them create a replicable, scalable planting system incorporating their community's needs to gain social investment so that when you step away, it is sustained by the community. Spend 1k promoting their community project, perhaps a kickstarter or something could be part of that budget so theirs a little bit more startup cash. The last 1k connecting your groups: digital infrastructure, education resources, updates about activities, etc. Had to reply on the fly, so these thoughts could probably use some refinement, but thats what i got down in the 10 mins i got. Just one opinion of course. A hui hou kakou =] Have a great day all!

There are no doubt PR professionals in Missoula. I have been reading your e-mails for some time and love what you do. Others do also. Word of mouth is a great way to start spreading the good news of permaculture (as are the playing cards) but at some point you have to reach people who may not know the people you know. With PR professionals, you pay for their time. They should put a plan together for you, write up articles and news pitches for you, and reach out to gardeners, trade publications for alternative lifestyles, gardening, etc. to get the folks already thinking about life differently - who may not know about your blog or the cool stuff permies are up to. It's good to start where you are - because then you can meet with your person, they can take photos, and see what they can do locally for you first. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Missoula+montana+public+relations. But if you can't find like-minded folks where you are, I can always help.

You will get A LOT more bang for your buck with PR than advertising. Any advertising you do can support the PR already in place.

All the best, and GO PERMIES!

And Keahi Maumauma is right. Every project you undertake can be promoted. You can invest in the projects as well as the promotion. Continue to do good work.

First, Paul, I would not give in to the urgency. Yes, this might be a good time of year to unload the decks. No, it's not the only powerful time. Here's my thought: as a vendor, use the $5000 (or whatever amount) to attend conventions of a horticulture or agriculture nature. Give out and/or sell the decks at the convention. If giving out the decks, create some kind of game for people to play (at your booth) that engages them in connecting with you, where they receive the deck for playing the game. This is much more powerful than just handing them out.

I hope this helps contribute to brainstorming ideas for you.

If people are on the PR train, could someone please give us a link or contact info for a PR person that they KNOW is great?

We've tried doing the PR thing, but it never does much for us. When I say "much" I mean "anything".

Cassie: It looks like you are in Florida. I am sorry to hear it hasn't been good for you yet. Surely there are a few good PR folks where you are. Going local is best - because local folks know where you are and who you want to connect with in your area better than anyone else. Any Florida folks who have worked with good people? Any local companies you like that you could ask? City or Chamber groups?

I think we are looking for US PR, and not really missoula PR. I think missoula PR can be nice, but if the mission is to move 5000 decks of cards, I don't think it is going to be 5000 in missoula.

So far, we have moved about 1500 via the dailyish email and 1000 via facebook. And I've sent another 1000 to amazon - who has sold about 150 so far.

If it's just about moving the cards - then there are a ton of ways to do it. Yes, as others have posted - give-aways at events, provide to gardening groups as a teaching tool, universities, soil scientists for bridge clubs, etc. Uncommongoods and other unusual gift sites would love to know about your product. Amazon will get the shipping done for you - but not the promotion. There are good PR firms you can hire who will help you get national coverage also - but since you want to move the cards now - you may want to start contacting the digital storefronts yourself. PR is more of a long-term goal to get the word out about permaculture.

paul wheaton wrote:I just counted. I have 5500 decks left here.

I would very much like to unload nearly all of those asap. And it seems like people want these at christmas about 20 times more than any other time of the year.

But I'm struggling to even figure out where I would try to spend this money if I were to try it. Any suggestions?

There is a core problem with advertising as it applies to what you are doing -- advertising is a means to convince someone to buy a product they generally don't need for a perceived failing they don't have with money they can ill afford to spend. You have products but you really sell concepts/solutions.

My money? I might try church newsletters located in near exurban locations. Pitch a DVD of permaculture gardening as a means for providing food as part of an outreach effort in their communities. You would be surprised at the number of churches that have open lands next to the church that could be put to productive use. Half page ads in newsletters are pretty cheap.

These guys might be somewhere to consider, they always seem to have interesting things that aren't mainstream, but there is also a social component that might be a bit time-consuming. Which might also serve as a platform for edufication https://www.thegrommet.com/citizens-gallery/index/new/

Suggest a Grommet Idea
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It's a wonderful product still waiting in the wings, just ripe for discovery. It has great utility, or style, or invention. Or, very often it has all three. It comes from a designer, or inventor, or artist, or manufacturer who is clearly passionate about what they create. Someone who loves to share their creations and talk to people about why they do what they do. It comes from a company that treats its customers well. Finally, like any intelligent or beautiful product, it has a great story, ready to be told.

Please note: by clicking "Submit Suggestion," you are posting this nomination to our Citizens' Gallery, and you will receive an email confirmation of its success in a few minutes. You won't be able to edit your entry once it's posted. Please use the Preview button to review your submission. Once you click out of that, you can edit your post. Press "Submit Suggestion" to send it to The Grommet team.

Good luck!

Love The Grommet! Church land/newsletters is very interesting. That's what I like about this forum!

My advice:

1. You have already done the first great thing - create a simple link to the cards. Permies.com/cards is easy to remember.
2. On the permies.com/cards site, bring the Amazon link to the top of the page and make it obvious. It is a great deal, especially with prime. Bring it to the top, with the price and a thumbnail if possible. Make it very obvious at the top to find. That way, anyone driven to your site can buy it before they read all the other stuff if they want to.
3. Think of a survival/permie topic that you can break into 4 or 5 five minute segments of audio (like 5 points of rendering human waste harmless, 4 points of building a hugelculture, etc.). Record the 4 or 5 segments and at the end of each pitch your cards and use the permies.com/cards link or the amazon link.
4. Ask Jack to play the multi-segment series daily on his show over a week. It will only take up 5 minutes of his show, but would give you daily exposure. Give a little, get a little hopefully.
5. You might also follow that up with posting to some survival forums a link to the series so that they can listen to it as well.

Tim

I might offer cash prizes for funky videos that explained permaculture in 15 seconds with a strong 4-second lead-in (as per youtube's cut-off for ads), to be hosted on the creator's own youtube channel and linking to your special perma-explained landing page. The videos that get the most public votes win. That way we get both the views and some ideas as to what message/approach works. Oh, and 'funky' because the competition is aimed at the young-uns.

UK's Channel 4 regularly run something like this: http://estings.e4.com/

Hi there. I have a marketing firm called South Lake Promotions, where I help rural micro businesses in the Inland NW. This is a long answer, but bear with me. The answer to your actual question is at the bottom because there are some things that need attention before you post an ad, imo.

What you need right now, considering your goal, is a kamakazee marketing campaign. (Good luck finding talent willing to drop everything and do this for you). Maybe you can do it all in house.

First, get started on an effective Landing Page with convincing copy and a convenient Buy-it-Now link right up top.

Any marketer worth their salt will say your carefully nurtured mailing list is your most promising asset. Send out a Holiday greeting/special offer to everyone on your mailing list, like buy a pack at regular price and include second at a discount. Offer free shipping. (Use some of your advertising budget to defer these costs).

Include a link to your thoughtful and convincing Landing Page that makes it super easy to buy. Don't force your potential customers to scroll down and hunt for the button, as is the case on your merchandise page. Put the button right next to the picture of the cards.

On your email, landing page, and any other copy you create, make the content about the BUYER not the seller.

For example, look at that rambling explanation on the merchandise page of how the cards came about. Move it down the page. The prime real estate ("above the fold") provides about two seconds to grab people's attention by telling them what the cards can do for THEM. What do the cards do for them?

Tell people the REASON THEY NEED THE CARDS

Effective ad copy takes time to develop and test -- and time is what you don't have since you want to sell a lot of cards by Christmas. So, I suggest you put out a forum post that asks people -- What would you say if you had two seconds to tell the world why permaculture is crucial? You might also ask for an image or meme that can powerfully convey this message. Facebook is a good venue for this kind of stuff.

Whatever you come up with, use this consistently as the header for the materials in your campaign.

Scramble your forces and get a 1.5 minute or less video together of people -- including kids -- having a blast during Christmas playing with the cards. Maybe you can get some plotkateers who already have their cards and their Xmas decorations up to submit the visuals for you. Audio should include your REASON why people need the cards. Tag the video well with SEO keywords.

Post it on Youtube, vine, and Facebook video. Connect it on Pinterest, Instagram. Open with your REASON. Link video to your landing page.

After deciding what advertisers you want to use, design a compelling banner ad according to their specs that links to your landing page.

Now, finally, here is an answer to your question. This answer is based on a quick web search. The resources have not been vetted by me. They are a starting point for you to call reps and get more info.

hortmag.com
Average of 100k page views per month and 35k unique visits
Contact: Michelle Kraemer 888.427.2873 x 13245, Michelle.Kremer@fwcommunity.com
Media Kit: http://media2.fwpublications.com.s3.amazonaws.com/BLA/2015HorticultureMediaKit.pdf

Country Living Magazine
http://www.countryliving.com/about/advertise-online/
Hearst Magazines Digital Media is a powerful portfolio of websites that serve as the companions and guides for over 60 million highly-engaged readers monthly. From men to women to young women, every day our readers show an unparalleled commitment to our brands and content. For more information about advertising with any of the Hearst Magazines Digital Media properties, please contact:
Todd Haskell, Senior Vice President – Chief Revenue Officer
Hearst Magazines Digital Media
hdmadvertising@hearst.com
(212) 649-3026

Natural News
http://www.naturalnews.com/AdvertisingInformation.html
Email: ads@naturalnews.com
Phone: 520-232-9300

Rodale's Organic Life
Ellen Carucci
212-808-1689
Ellen.Carucci@Rodale.com

I'd multiply my exposure with site linkage... I've never seen so many ads, as when I'm looking at somebody's ad for something I want. Maybe make mutual point and click agreements... I'll link you, if you link me... I just ordered my first 1/2 brick of these cards... more in support of the movement than having specific people to give them to. They are beautiful and tediously well thought out, but they have to appeal to, and be affordable to the masses. Maybe use them as giveaway's on someone's Chicken Video, or other Permaculture site. It helps them get a few extra sales by offering a freebie (while supplies last), it helps you get great exposure for the cost of shipping them a few cases. People will forever remember Permies.com, and they will be seen over the coming years. Hopefully you have a small, shameless reference to permies.com on each card, so someone could put 2, and 2 together...

for older people, maybe gardener's clubs, botanical garden members, or other such organizations
for younger people, maybe students at colleges, or even in high school, taking botany, agriculture, microbiology, etc. type classes

You could contact a few webmasters of permaculture friendly websites . Give them a banner, an affiliate link. Have a landing page set up. Give the affiliate webmasters a share of the profit. Less risky that just paying for banner placement.


Set up a facebook retargeting pixel on permies.com and richsoil.com. Do your facebook ads again but targeting those people.

Besides the current playing card thing, I would work on search engines, so your site turns up earlier, more often, with a wider variety of words, so even when people search "gardening" or something, up pops your site. I'm sure you've done much of this, but the faster it comes up on searches the more people get infected. Maybe I'll finally by some cards to help some for now...

You could also use contacts with schools. Is there a school with a Freinet-style of education or any other kind of school, you could contact ? These schools are kind of open to permaculture ideas. Kids and their parents grow and eat food on the school grounds providing the kids with an interesting way to learn stuff.

I have not found much english refferences but you might get an idea from these links.

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freinetonderwijs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9lestin_Freinet

In Wevelgem the people involved with the Levensboom (tree of life) school grow fruit, mulch, make compost, etc.... Other non-freinet schools make compost, grow fruit, etc.... dependant on the amount of space they have.

One non freinet school here has an orchard, beehives, chickens, vegetable patch, .... Most schools even have dedicated teachers who teach environmental awareness across all classes.

Schools and teachers and teacher unions are linked to each other - if you have one teacher who incorporates the cards successfully in the school curriculum and perhaps writes about the experience, others will pay attention and perhaps buy the cards as well. Of course you might recruit the youngsters as well. They would not have to unlearn a lot of faulty practices On the road to world dominion, conquer hearts and minds in the schools ?....



Have you contacted distributors of educational games ? Looking at the number of educational games my fiancee (kindergarten teacher) has, there must be some potential there.



That, i realise is of little help to unload your playing cards before christmass.

I finally convinced myself that this is the year I will send my extended family some presents. You have provided the perfect way for me to accomplish this task while at the same time helping me show them the kinds of things that I have been reading about for the last 2-3 years. Thank you, can't wait to get my brick.

On the subject of selling the playing cards, the Seattle Flower and Garden Show is coming up in February, and there will be many vendors selling all kinds of gardening related stuff. I imagine there will be other spring shows as well, in other cities. Have you thought about approaching some of the large nurseries that typically have booths at these shows and selling wholesale to them? Also, some organizations, like Seattle Tilth, have a lot of members interested in gardening, climate change, and other areas of interest closely related to permaculture. They might be interested in selling some cards at their booth.
Although it's a little late for selling Xmas presents, a lot of people get money for Xmas and buy gifts for themselves in the early part of the year, so I would think you (or the folks you sold them to) could expect decent sales figures through spring.
Cathy

Paul, before I go into something about PR can we back up a moment. I feel like we need to go step by step here.

Why do you want to sell the 5500 decks of cards? Is it because you are tired of them being in a garage or is it because you are
hoping that by selling those you'll infect 5000+ brains about permaculture? Or something else?

What is the goal?

Depending on your answer I have different responses/ideas.

Sheri

Infecting brains. Getting my money back out of the cards.

If we get rid of all of them but, say, 1500 decks, then I'll be in pretty good shape.

Paul, I see Infecting brains and getting your money out of it as two way different things.

I haven't seen the cards in person yet but I did order a pack of 6 from Amazon a couple of days ago with a friend so I will see them soon.

I don't think that the cards are going to infect brains. I do hope I'm wrong. Here is why:
1. Many times when you give someone a pack of cards it will sit on the shelf for years before it is picked up
2. Even if they are picked up immediately, I'm not sure people will "get it". they might pick up some trivia but I think to really
drive interest in permaculture enough to look into it more you need to see a video like Geoff Lawton's Greening the Desert. Something
that is so inspirational and full of hope that it makes you want to know more.

I've got other ideas for infecting brains but that is for another post.

Ok, getting your money back on the cards - reducing inventory by 4000 decks. I don't think Amazon is the best way to sell these.
It might help to get noticed but I was playing with Amazon as a seller the last few months myself and by the time they take out all the fees, you really
don't get much. Looks like you get under $6 a pack and that is without shipping. i'm also not sure what you're even paying per pack.

I have some other ideas. I think I'll send you an email about what i did in the past with something similar and also about PR

Sheri

However at the same

Your best return on investment is most likely paid search engine advertising. I think you already know the power of free search engine listings in the growth of permies.com.

I did some quick research, and here are a few keywords you could buy ads on, and the type of traffic they get, and the cost per click:
unique playing cards: 1,000/month @ $1/click
permaculture: 90,500/month @ $1.90/click
gifts for gardeners: 3,6000/month @ $1/click

So how it works, is you bid on specific keywords, your text ad shows up on the search results page when a person searches for that keyword. You only get charged when they click on your ad. The ad points to the website page of your choice.

None of the keywords above are great, but I needed something to illustrate the idea. Using round numbers, you will convert 10% of searches into clicks, and 10% of clicks into sales. That means out of 1,000 searches, you could generate 100 clicks ($100) and 10 sales. Needless to say, we need to find keywords that cost much less per click to make this turn a profit.

I think this may be the page you would use as the landing page for the ads:
http://richsoil.com/cards.jsp

If so, before you do this, I would consider updating the page a bit to look more like ecommerce above the fold. This part is critical. It may even convert better to point at the Amazon landing page. people thayt don't know Paul or permies.com would likely feel safer putting their credit card into amazon.com (the paypal thing in place helps a bit).

The best part is that doing this can very much be self-service, it is 100% trackable in your own website analytics, and can be up and running in hours (assuming the landing page tweaks can happen in hours).

As a bonus, Google Adwords, the largest paid search network, has a matching program for not-for-profits and cause types that this effort might qualify for:
https://www.google.com/grants/

I have done this type of thing successfully for around a hundred clients over the past few years. I would be happy to volunteer my time to run this type of thing for you (I believe in the mission), or train Cassie and/or Paul to do it self-service.

Your question was "If you had $5000 to spend on advertising to infect brains with permaculture, how would you do it?"
My answer: use those $5000 to start a permaculture foodforesting garden somewhere in a very crowded place, so everyone can visit it and see how it looks, feels, tastes and how it really works!

If you do end up choosing doing more online advertising:

1) There are companies out there that combine your retargeting needs for different platforms (e.g. facebook + google).

One example is https://www.perfectaudience.com/retargeting/

I haven't ever worked with them so this isn't a recommendation of their services.

2) Make sure you know your margin per sale. You don't want to spend more than a multiple of that on testing a campaign.

Keep track of everything: cost per click, lander click through rate, conversion rate, earning per click

If you have a campaign that seems to convert, you will want to cnsider doing some A/B testing with your banner/landing page/targeting etc.

I have had this thread open for several days. There are so many excellent suggestions, that I definitely want to go point-by-point through each of them. And ... we are now past the holiday shopping season. So, for the next 11 months, sales/interest in the cards will be a tiny fraction of what it is during december.

So I will hold on to all of this information until next october or so.

In the meantime, I need to turn my focus on ... marketing the world domination gardening 3-dvd set.

More soon! (my next three days is a little too full)

Although I kinda thought there would be a bunch of new reviews of the cards at amazon.

Brick has been received in excellent condition and right on time! I had just the right amount of time to get them individually packaged and shipped out to my family and friends before Christmas. So far I have 9 out of 10 confirmed positive reactions and one person out of town from his mailbox until January. Thanks again for a wonderful, pertinent, and educational gift for me to give my loved ones. You guys rock.

This is not a fully formed idea yet, but have you tried reaching out to one of one of your neighbors, the VlogBrothers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhVxNo-HA8g
I have no relation to them, other then I am a fan of their channels and I'd think your missions could align around Permaculture if they learned more about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-enGOMQgdvg
I'm not sure this specific $5k is the one to bridge you together, but having watched many of their videos, I would love to see them doing one on Permaculture or maybe getting kids into gardening.

Just trying to get you to infect new brains,
Richard J Hauser

Richard Hauser wrote:This is not a fully formed idea yet, but have you tried reaching out to one of one of your neighbors, the VlogBrothers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhVxNo-HA8g
I have no relation to them, other then I am a fan of their channels and I'd think your missions could align around Permaculture if they learned more about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-enGOMQgdvg
I'm not sure this specific $5k is the one to bridge you together, but having watched many of their videos, I would love to see them doing one on Permaculture or maybe getting kids into gardening.

Just trying to get you to infect new brains,
Richard J Hauser

Yeah, I've actually tried to reach out to them before. And I think Paul tried at one point too. No response.

Well it was probably lost in the torrent of other mail, I'm sure Paul and probably you can relate.
So if you don't mind, I will try again.
They posted that they specifically do not respond to snail mail, so I will try the options they suggested.
http://hankandjohn.com/
Maybe others here could do the same and one will get spotted in the torrent.

Keep up the great work.
Richard J Hauser