Are you targeting a specific audience in your marketing campaigns?

An interesting postcard showed up in my mailbox this week from a gym in my area. The headline and photos on the postcard advertised the gym’s child care facility where members can drop off their kids while they workout. Sounds like a great amenity that many people would want to take advantage of! There is just one problem- I don’t have any children. This postcard has no relevance to me as the receiver, so my first instinct is to throw the postcard in the trash.

With the exception of the kid friendly focus, the gym actually had a really great marketing piece. The postcard had wonderful graphic design and was aesthetically pleasing, it had a unique offer to use a temporary pass to visit the gym with no membership obligation, and it had a call to action that I needed to call a toll-free number to obtain my complimentary visitors pass.

The problem with this mailer is that it did not reach its intended target audience of a gym seeker with children. After further examination, I also noticed that the postcard was addressed to “current resident” which tells me that this gym has no clue who I am and is probably mailing to every address in my area.

The underlying issue is that this gym did not do their research. Without good data, and a good list, your great offer/messaging/design will fall on deaf ears. Even a really bad marketing piece sent to the right target market can earn results, but a great marketing piece sent to the wrong target market will earn no results.

Identify Your Target Audience

Identifying your target market is easy. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Who buys from you?
• What do they buy?
• When do they buy?
• Where are they located?
• What are their buying habits?
• What are your customer demographics? Consider age, gender, lifestyle, family, residency, income level, etc.

Cookie Cutter Marketing Doesn’t Work

Don’t try to generalize you marketing to fit all of these demographics or assume that one type of marketing strategy will work for everyone (like the gym postcard). You need to market to all of these audiences differently as every audience has different needs and preferences.

Bianca Te Rito, contributing author for She Takes on the World, said it best when she blogged that, “It is a big mistake in online personal branding (or any branding for that matter) to try to be all things to all people.  If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one”.

I agree with Te Rito that we cannot try to approach all audiences in the same. My experience confirms that many people try to create cookie cutter marketing strategies that can apply to everyone, but this just simply will not work.

Instead of sending everyone in the area a postcard advertising their child care services, this gym could have greatly benefited from three distinct mini campaigns.

One could have targeted parents of young children with the messaging and imagery that was in the original postcard.

Another could target young adults with photos of young, good looking, fit individuals and the gym’s state of the art equipment.

Another could have targeted active seniors by showing images of the diverse ages present at the gym and perhaps advertise senior friendly group fitness classes.

Cost

The first reaction I get when I suggest three mini campaigns to my clients is that it must be more expensive to do three mini campaigns than one campaign, but this is not necessarily true. It costs just as much to mail 3,000 of the child care post cards as it would to mail 1,000 child care, 1,000 young adult, and 1,000 senior target postcards. If you have customer data on file, and you probably do, than you might not need to buy multiple mailing lists. If the only design variations in your postcards are images and a headlines then the graphic design charges for three postcards will not be that much more than the one.

Target audience and good data are key a successful marketing campaign. Don’t just spray and pray for success. Having a clear marketing strategy target towards a specific audience will increase response rates exponentially.

Amanda Moore

www.piptampa.com

–So you have an amazing website-what do you want your visitors to do once they get there?

Are you funneling your website traffic into valuable sales leads?

Should your visitors know exactly what to do when they get to your site? In a perfect world yes, but they will be depending on your clues and navigation to guide them there.

Driving general traffic to your company website is great for brand awareness and conveying information. In his ebook, Seth Godin’s Incomplete Guide to Building a Web Site that Works, marketing guru Seth Godin states that the goal of a website goes further than brand awareness and its main purpose is to “turn a stranger into a friend, and a friend into a customer.” The trick is to figure out how to convert those visitors into sales leads. Not everyone will purchase your product online or pick up the phone and solicit your service, so you need to find an effective way to capture information from visitors for future marketing efforts.

Capturing information usually starts with obtaining the visitor’s email address to add to your email marketing campaign. Email addresses are typically the easiest information to get because it results in the least intrusive marketing efforts. However, in some instances it might be necessary for you to obtain a mailing address or phone number-but you might have to work a little harder to get it.

To get your visitors to turn over their valuable contact information you need to optimize your website to capture this information.

Use a call to action

Tell the visitor what you want them to do. Prompt their participation by letting them know what types of interaction you offer. Subscribe to us, share this, get our e-newsletter, etc.

Be sure the call to action is easy to find

Most sites feature their subscribe buttons and share buttons at the top right corner of the website. Internet surfers are accustom to finding this type of content here so make it easy for them to find by featuring your call to action in this area.

Screen shot from PIPtampa.com

I would also suggest that you duplicate this on every page so that if the viewer navigates away from the home page, and we hope they do, they can still find the call to action no matter what page they are on. We utilize this technique on our own corporate site to encourage visitors to subscribe, follow us, request a quote, and more. Check it out at www.piptampa.com.

Encourage sharing

Make your website visitors your extended marketing arm by making it easy for them to share, like, or tweet you webpage. Rather than going through the hassle of copying and pasting the link into their newsfeed, they can participate with a few simple clicks. Making these sharing tools readily available also encourages visitors to share when they might not have considered it on their own without your suggestion. This technique may not provide you with an email address but you can track these social media interactions in order to locate leads for social media marketing. See how Business Networking Life utilizes a social media sharing contest to incentivize sharing and capture leads.

Social media share buttons.

Add value

Be creative with your offer. Everyone these days seems to be offering an e-newsletter, so think outside the box. Offer a creative or valuable incentive for people to surrender their precious contact information. Notice that Busniss Networking Life offers a weekly email update for networking events rather than asking viewers to join an email list.

Subscribe box from BusinessNetworkingLife.com

Consider required vs. optional fields

The attention span of a website visitor is short to say the least. The best way to capture the necessary information you need with an opportunity to gather more information is to utilize opt-ins that offer required and optional fields. This way you get the information that you need such as email address and name, but give the options for visitors to provide more. Make sure you only require a limited amount of information to satisfy visitors who don’t want to offer as much.

Example of an opt-in box with optional and required fields.

Utilizing required and optional opt-ins also gives you the ability to use check boxes to request even more detailed information that the visitor might be interested in. In this case, what region the visitor is from. This gives you the ability to segment your data and get even more specific lists.

These are just a few general practice tips that will hopefully encourage your visitors to opt-in and share their contact information. I would suggest that you test one or more of these options on your own website and compare your opt-in conversions to your website’s analytics to measure your conversion rates.

You are certainly not limited to these suggestions as many sites utilize creative tactics to capture visitor information. Does your website have a different conversion tool that I haven’t listed here? Or have you visited a website recently that did a good job of encouraging you to supply your contact information? Please let us know!

Amanda Moore

www.piptampa.com

Frustrated by your marketing?

I can’t generate new leads! My customers have left me for my competitor! They are not buying enough! I can’t seem to gain market share! They are not responding to my mailers! That postcard is too expensive! –My marketing isn’t working!

Everywhere I turn these days it seems that everyone is questioning their marketing. Although there is no sure fire formula that will bring success, there are ways to improve your marketing, enhance your response rates, and see a better return on your investment.

The next few blogs are intended to analyze your marketing efforts and will be presented in six short segments where we will discuss:
•    Message and Copy
•    Frequency and Timing
•    Creative and Branding
•    Call-to-Action and Incentive
•    Target Audience and Data
•    Response Mechanisms

Amanda Moore

www.piptampa.com

Your marketing persistence will pay off!

A surprise phone call today from a prospect got me thinking that consistent marketing is the most effective marketing. After several months and many attempts to contact this particular prospect, they finally called me to set an appointment. Sure it was a very long sales cycle, but the fact is that they finally had a need for my service and they knew exactly who to call.

This is because I partake in consistent marketing efforts. My customers receive marketing collateral from me in the form of packages, emails, direct mail, personalized letters, phone calls, and I pop in regularly with sales materials. I continue to keep my brand at the forefront of their minds with a consistent marketing message.

The fact is that your customers and prospects are being bombarded by thousands of marketing messages every day. The questions you must ask yourself are this: Do your prospects know who you are? Do they know what you sell? Do they know how to find you when they have a need for your product or service? Why should they choose you over your competition?

• Effective marketing will generate leads for you.
• Consistent messaging can get your point across.
• Branding will ensure corporate identity and build awareness about your brand.
• Consistent messaging will get your point across.
• Repetition of these key items will ensure that this message is heard!

Keep marketing, stay persistent, have a clear message, brand yourself consistently, and it will eventually pay off.

Amanda Moore

www.piptampa.com

Cut through the clutter and get your customer's attention!

Keeping in touch with your customers regularly is a vital part of growing your business. How meaningful is the contact you typically have with them?

Regularly blasting your customer or prospect with spam emails promoting yourself, your business, or your special this month is not meaningful-in fact, it can be downright annoying. In an over populated marketing environment we must try to cut through the clutter and stand out with constant meaningful contact.
What do I mean by meaningful contact? Content that is meaningful to your customer not just bombarding them with self promotion…but it is possible to do both.

After you put together what you feel is a brilliant marketing campaign there is still the possibility that the phone won’t ring. It is said that it takes anywhere from 7-10 touch points to reel a prospect in, so it is important that you keep your brand in front of your prospect without overloading them with spam and junk mail-this is where constant meaningful contact comes into play.

Hand written notes or letters are a personalized touch that your customers will appreciate. Hand written notes are a lost art that will set you apart from your competition. They can be utilized as a short thank you note or a card to check in on them from time to time.

Hand written notes and letters take up some time, especially if you are trying to reach a large number of customers at a time. This is when variable print is most effective. Imbedding customer variables in the content of your direct mailer, letter, or email will feel less like a mass marketing piece and can give a more meaningful appeal. Variables can include the customer’s name, company name, images, or even a product or service that you think they might be specifically interested in.

If you are looking to really make a long lasting impression, take the time to get to know your customers and send them things they may be interested in. Send them newspaper clippings or email them a link to an online publication that is highlighting their specific industry or hobby. Include a personalized note or email message just to tell them you saw this and thought of them.

I myself send out monthly newsletters to my customers. This newsletter is not filled with self promoting information but rather useful business and marketing tips that could benefit every business or industry. It is another way for us to get face time with our customer but it is also filled with valuable content that they can enjoy and utilize.

Think of ways to promote your business in a way that will appeal to your customers. Your marketing should be useful to your customer and not seem like blind advertising. Think outside the box and personalize the message to suit the needs of your target market. When in doubt think to yourself: “If someone sent this to me, would I care enough to read it?”

Amanda Moore

www.piptampa.com

Cut through the clutter with a creative twist on direct mail

Integrated direct marketing campaigns consist of coordinated promotional efforts that send a consistent message across multiple marketing vehicles to individually target specific consumers more directly. Because consumers gain information from a wide variety of marketing vehicles and media sources, it is important to cut through the clutter and reach your audience through a variety of channels.

Consumers are overwhelmed by marketing communications so you must make sure to create communications that are timely, relevant, creative, interesting, personalized and contain value. It’s important that promotions contain a unique personalized message, multiple touch points (such as email, mail, or website), one-to-one marketing, and interactive components.

Promotional objectives to consider for an integrated direct marketing campaign:
• Create Awareness
• Stimulate Demand
• Identify Prospects
• Retain Loyal Customers
• Combat Competitive Promotional Efforts
• Reduce Sales Fluctuations

The Direct Marketing Association credits Dimensional Mail as the number one most effective and track-able advertising method with a 5.59 response rate compared to telephone (2.53), catalog (2.24), and direct mail (2.15).

Integrated direct marketing campaigns can consist of any of the following services: personalized direct mail, list acquisition, email, program analysis reports, dimensional mail, promotional items, customized flyers, envelope websites, personalized URLs, generic URLs, web page, online survey, and variable data.

I recently designed an integrated direct marketing campaign that consisted of a dimensional mailer, variable data, promotional item, website initiatives, and customized flyers. My campaign was themed so that it was relevant to my prospects and timely in terms of our economic recession. The package had a label on the box with a variable and posed a marketing uestion to my decision maker.

It wasn’t until they opened the box and saw the contents inside that they knew who had sent the package; and by then I had them hooked. They were already cooing over the goodies inside, personal touch, creative presentation, and information included about how to increase their business with my products and services. The informational piece discussed our differentials, directed them to our website for more information, and included a call to action that offered a gift card to a popular dining establishment if they set up an appointment. The package stood out from the typical direct mail clutter and caught my customers’ attention right away.

The most important part of an integrated direct marketing campaign is to analyze performance, follow up, and get feedback. Did prospects respond to your call to action (i.e. call for an appointment)? If not, consider sending a follow-up mailer, email, or make a phone call to be sure they received it. How successful a promotion is depends widely on the quantity and quality of the feedback you receive.

My campaign has had a 36% response rate so far and was a tremendous return on my investment! Ask yourself, what was the response rate for your last direct marketing campaign? Do you know what your ROI was?

Amanda Moore

PIP Printing and Marketing Services

Watch your marketing grow your business!

I thought to get this blog rolling I would share our marketing strategies for 2009. These ideas have been compiled from our corporate headquarters, other colleagues, and trial and error from 18 years in the business that we have customized to fit our specific marketing objectives.

PIP Printing and Marketing Services is part of a large franchise that boasts hundreds of locations throughout the United States and we are lucky to have many extended resources. Corporately we have repositioned our brand, marketing strategies, and advertising efforts. With an updated new look, tagline, and message we are rolling out many new marketing and branding tools such as new brochures, business cards, stationary, and branded materials.

We are participating in a monthly direct mail campaign. Direct mail is important to our business as it allows us to reach out to current customers and prospects. Direct mail keeps our brand in front of our customers and regularly keeps them aware of our products and services. Our direct mail efforts are successful due to our cultivated mail list and consistent follow up efforts.

Our customer service representative is always trying to cross sell or up sell our current customers to inform them about our extended products and services that they may not be aware of. At the point of sale she will mention a complimentary product or perhaps a service they may not know we offer. We make sure to plant the seed with every customer, send them back to the office with a brochure, and follow up to offer more information.

For the first time ever, our particular location has created an integrated direct marketing campaign. This campaign combines several of our products and services into a unique marketing strategy specifically aimed at acquiring new customers. The campaign incorporates promotional items, graphic design, digital services, variable print, database management, mailing services, website, and fresh baked cookies! The program targeted specific prospects and required aggressive follow up efforts and has brought in a 30% response rate so far.

PIP Printing will unveil our long anticipated new website in the second quarter. The new site will have an updated look, interactive feel, and personalized touches. The new site will have a reverse approach to the typical marketing efforts and will tie all of our new and improved branded materials together.

An aggressive and outside sales force pounds the pavement the old fashioned way. New prospects are targeted with cold calls, phone calls, and knocking on doors.

We spent the first few weeks of the New Year combing through our current mail list to verify and update our contacts. This guarantees that our marketing efforts are reaching the right people and we are not wasting precious marketing dollars.

Networking and participating in community activities allows our company to spread brand recognition, meet new colleagues, and give back to our community. We actively support and participate in groups such as the Kiwanis Club of Tampa, Tampa Bay and Company, and The Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

Most importantly, we try to analyze the success of our marketing efforts. This can be as simple as asking every new customer how they heard about us. Or as elaborate as creating a personalized URL or special landing page to measure response to integrated direct marketing campaigns. It all comes down to ROI and no matter how simple or elaborate, it is important to know which of your marketing efforts are successful and which are not worth the money spent.

None of these efforts are guaranteed to be successful but with the combined approach, proactive marketing, and consistent follow up efforts we are seeing results.

Amanda Moore

www.piptampa.com