ADVICE ON PROMOTING JIGSAWS

WHY PEOPLE BUY JIGSAWS. Ideas you can leverage.

1. They enjoy doing them.
2. Brain training. Jigsaws are used in therapeutic situations to help keep brains active. We have heard of them used with Alzheimers patients as well as early onset dementia patients as with people with ordination challenges.
3. Doing a jigsaw can be helpful for arthritis sufferers.
4. To relax.
5. To destress.
6. Because they love the image.
7. As a gift to annoy someone.
8. As a family / friends activity.
9. They love the licence the jigsaw relates to.
10. To make fun of someone they think will never do a jigsaw.
11. No batteries required.
12. Can be taken on trips.

WHERE / HOW TO PLACE JIGSAWS.

1. Keep moving them to help more people discover your range. It would be a mistake to have a permanent location that you do not change.
2. Near or next to crossword magazine titles as there is good crossover between the categories.
3. Always have a secondary location with a table setup and a jigsaw under way.
4. Let shoppers easily see the images with some placed front on.

MARKETING TIPS.

1. Have the best range in your area and tell people you have that.
2. Have the most knowledgable shop team in your area.
3. Change your layout / display regularly.
4. Always have a jigsaw on a table, for shoppers to do.
5. For birthdays and seasons have a jigsaw gift pack: a jigsaw, some tissue paper, a gift bag and a card - place a small selection with this display.
6. Host a party with completing a challenging jigsaw as a core activity. Donate a jigsaw to:
   1. A community group.
   2. A nursing home.
   3. Local school.
7. Get people to share photos of jigsaws they have done. Put these on your Facebook page.
8. Regular Facebook posts with a single jigsaw each time, choose the image well and talk to it in your post.
9. Place cards with jigsaws to show why they make a good gift. Cards that work are: birthday, thank you, farewell and get well soon.
10. For seasons consider the jigsaw ready to go gift - in a gift bag with a card, all set to go.
11. Offer jigsaws gift wrapped.

SUGGESTED SOCIAL MEDIA TEXT.

While you will be tempted to promote and pitch jigsaws as jigsaws, new traffic, unexpected traffic, will come through promotion of jigsaws in less obvious ways. Here are suggestions to get you thinking. We have written these as Facebook text you could use:

1. This 5,000 piece Ravensberger jigsaw is a perfect gift for a mate with little patience and no interest in quiet contemplation. Go on, tag them.
2. Medical experts tell us that doing jigsaws exercises our brain in a way that is useful. It can make is healthier.
3. There is no better way to relax after work, or when the kids are in bed, than with your favourite bevvie and a jigsaw. It calms the mind and soothes the soul.
4. Doctors tells us that regularly doing a jigsaw can improve hand to eye coordination.
5. Doing a jigsaw during a business meeting can help you resolve complex issues more easily.
6. Unplugging and disconnecting while you do a jigsaw together can be a perfect family or friends activity.
7. Create your own masterpiece by doing this jigsaw of a masterpiece.
8. Every jigsaw you complete together is another memory to cherish.
9. If you've ever been to Paris and seen the Eiffel Tower, completing this jigsaw will add to your happy memories.
10. Get two 1,000 piece jigsaws, two teams, beer, wine and nibbles and have a race. It will be a fun night.
11. Every piece of the puzzle is a solution of itself. When you give a jigsaw as a gift you give the gift of certain satisfaction. 
12. This jigsaw is a perfect gift for .... Include a photo of the target person you suggest in the post, explain why it is perfect.

The goal of these is to get you thinking abut ideas you could try, multiple posts. We think you could need 15 to 20 posts over a couple of months to get into the hears of people that what you have is not the usual jigsaw offer.

The personal benefits of doing jigsaws.

This list is from Dr Shen-Lee Li.

• enhances visual perception
• hones coordination
• improves memory
• develops critical thinking
• increases dopamine production in the brain
• heightens creativity
• stimulates the whole brain

According to the “brain fitness tips from Posit Science“, the jigsaw puzzle must be complex enough to be challenging for you – that is, no fewer than 500 pieces (obviously more if 500 is too easy for you).