Donald Hansen of The Viking Trader, a company that makes Nordic jewelry, wrote today to thank me and the rest of the Publicity Hounds for their wonderful suggestions a few months ago on how he can market his Nordic jewelry.

His question was posted in my ezine, “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” and you can read the question and all the answers here.

Here’s what he said:

Since you ran Help this Hound for us, we have been inspired and quite motivated to enlarge our marketing efforts.

And we should, coming from a country whose capital city is called “Merchants’ Harbor (Copenhagen).

We listened to the helpful comments of those who kindly responded, and have acted on some of them.

Here is what we’ve done since that time:

* Increased the number (and expanded the geography) of Nordic festivals we attend, carefully selecting those that attract the widest audience (Hollywood, San Francisco, Seattle — all with large Nordic populations and good publicity)

* Contacted celebrities with Nordic roots and will send small Viking jewelry gifts to them. Still awaiting answers from some, but several Hollywood “personalities” have become our customers. It is quite difficult to find agents’ names or direct contact addresses for most celebrities as they are, understandably, well shielded. We think we can now send a Viking gift directly to Garrison Keillor.

* Made a banner ad in the Danish Pioneer website — the largest & oldest Danish publication in the U.S.

* Joined the Danish American Chamber of Commerce, which then supplies members’ names. We’ve sent two large mailings to them.

* Contacted the Sons of Norway and have sent promotional literature to many officers

* Increased our Google Adword campaign

* Increased our volunteer activities at Seattle’s fine Nordic Museum and have contacted other U.S. museums.

* Refreshed our news release and will resend to some with news of recent improvements and to a broader range of publications across the US.

* Give talks to Nordic ethnic groups including the University of Washington as an invited lecturer on Viking culture.

We’re also doing small marketing activities on a sustained basis.

Once again, we thank you for publicizing our work.

Yours sincerely,

Donald Hansen at The Viking TraderTHE VIKING TRADERtm
Viking Age Artifacts in Replica from Scandinavia

It’s great to know my Hounds can help, and that people follow through on their suggestions.