The last four companies that we’ve introduced you to in the Rafflecopter Brand Showcase have been companies with products that we’ve personally tried (and loved!). But this next company is a company you might have heard us mention a lot despite having never tried their products. With that being the case, we have a unique relationship with them that we’d love to share with you.
Pür Minerals is a company based in Atlanta, GA that has been selling mineral-based makeup and cosmetics from their site PurMinerals.com since 2002.
Think Back To 10 Years Ago – The Pre-Facebook Days
That was when a 56k modem was still considered pretty fast and banner ads were sold on a cost-per-click basis instead of based on impressions.
Running an online business was ahead of its time in 2002. But for a business owner in 2012, having a website is no longer a strategy, it’s a necessity. Why? In 2002, there were 182 million internet users in North America. Today, there are close to 175 million North Americans on Facebook alone! As consumers, we spend way more time on the internet today than we did 10 years ago. In 2002, we spent on average 7 hours a week online. If you own a smartphone, when are you not online?!
When that many eyeballs gravitate towards the web, businesses follow. And for a business five years ago, Google Adwords was a fantastic advertising channel. Become familiar with search engines, buy a few keywords related to your business, get displayed on Google, and be on your merry way.
Today, you can bet that hundreds of companies are bidding on different variations of the keyword “makeup”. With the popular internet advertising mediums becoming more and more saturated, companies like Pür Minerals are looking for different ways to raise awareness of their products online.
Over the past year, we’ve been fortunate to work closely with the folks at Pür Minerals, helping them tap into the blogosphere through Rafflecopter. Today, we’re happy to introduce Andrew Hughes who is the Director of Ecommerce at Pur Minerals. We’ve asked him a handful of questions about Pür Minerals, blog outreach, and what they think about when they decide to partner with blogs.
Hey Andrew – Tell Us About Yourself & Your Position at Pür Minerals
Hey everybody – my name is Andrew Hughes, and I’m the Director of E-Commerce for Pür Minerals makeup and skincare. Using technology and marketing, I aim to keep existing Pür Minerals consumers happy while attracting new consumers to the brand through our website. One of the most challenging things for any marketer is finding new consumers. We are always looking for new and creative ways to introduce ourselves to people who might like our makeup and skincare.
Can You Give Us A Brief Description About Pür Minerals & The Products You Sell?
Sure. Pür Minerals is an Atlanta-based beauty company with a worldwide retail, web and television presence. What started as breakthrough mineral makeup concept—using pressed instead of loose powder—has since become a global brand renowned for multitasking cosmetics with built-in skincare.
In just a few years, we’ve gone from being primarily a television and retail marketer to being a serious online player. Today, our goal is to provide an attractive interface to our brand and our products that is informative, convenient and easy to use.
Pür Minerals has brought women of all ages multitasking products that save time and help improve their skin’s appearance. We offer a full line of complexion-perfecting skincare and makeup with skin-correcting ingredients, many of which are exclusive to Pür. Our products contain NO harsh chemical dyes, petroleum-based oils, fragrance or fillers, just pure mineral pigments and nourishing ingredients that ALL skin types can enjoy. Many of our products, like our award-winning 4-in-1 Pressed Mineral Makeup, are currently used by professional makeup artists and celebrity stylists worldwide.
How Important Are Blog Outreach Promotions In Your Marketing Plans?
Blog outreach is very important to our brand because they help us spread the word about our products and brand naturally. We believe in our products. We know that once we introduce our products to new people, they are likely to become consumers for life. So when we send them to bloggers to try out and write reviews, we know that they’re going to love them and share their positive experiences with their readers. It really helps us get in front of new people, so that hopefully they’re more likely to try our products down the road.
In One Sentence: What’s The One Thing You Look For In A Blogger Before Deciding To Partner With Them?
We want to work with bloggers who are passionate about their blog, their content and their readers. It’s hard to quantify: when you find it, you know it.
Can You Explain How Rafflecopter Has Been Helpful Up To This Point?
Rafflecopter makes it so easy to partner with bloggers. The widget itself has been really easy to set up and share with our bloggers. We can use one widget across multiple blogs (including our own); all the entries end up in one central location. When we draw winners, they appear right there in the widget for everyone to see. We don’t have to send out an announcement email, coordinate with bloggers, etc. to make the announcement. It just happens.
From our perspective, Rafflecopter makes the sweepstakes process very natural because a blogger’s readers can enter our sweepstakes directly in their blog. Before Rafflecopter, we would have to create an entry form (or use a third party) and take readers away from the blog to enter. This is awkward to the consumer because it then becomes a “hard sell” situation, but it also takes traffic away from the blog. This is not our goal. Our goal is always to partner with bloggers – not to compete with them for their readers.
With Mother’s Day In Mind – Tell Us What You’re Promoting!
To celebrate Mother’s Day 2012, we’re giving away 5-Piece Start Now Kit to five lucky entrants. If you can’t wait to see if you win, you can get one today at half price. Use promo code RCSTART at our checkout to try one today (code lasts through the end of the month).
Enter using Rafflecopter below by telling us what shade of the 5-Piece Start Now Kit you’d like if you’re one of the five chosen winners. You can earn extra entries by following Pur Minerals on Twitter, liking them on Facebook, or tweeting a message.
Thanks again to Andrew and the rest of the folks at Pur Minerals for the opportunity. Below is a giveaway that is open to folks in the US/Canada. Giveaway ends on Friday, 5/18 at 12:01am. Five winners will be chosen and shipped a 5-Piece Start Now Kit. Rafflecopter was not required to write this post, we asked the folks @ Pur Minerals to be featured. All opinions we’ve expressed are our own. We’re disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Enter The Giveaway Below:
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