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
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
Retaining Your Customers Does Not Need To Be This Difficult...
Need to grow your business in the upcoming year? Hoping to increase sales or profits? Worried about where you are going to find the customers to make that happen?
Your most lucrative customers are in your own database! Your current customers are your biggest untapped resource. These are customers that already know, like, and trust you and your business. They are already familiar with your brand and obviously see the value of your products and services because they keep coming back to buy from you.
Chances are that your customers are not aware of all the products or services that your business provides and they need to be enlightened. They may already subscribe to one or two of your services and don’t realize that you can help them in other ways as well. Take advantage of the opportunity to sell more by cross-selling or up-selling to your existing customers.
It is less expensive to market to current customers than to acquire new customers. You marketing and sales efforts will likely be better received by someone who already does business with you. You already know this customer, who to contact, how to reach them and what they buy. The decision maker is more likely to take your call or respond to your marketing efforts. You don’t have to go through the hassle of prospecting and doing detective work to qualify your list.
Marketing to current customers is vital to growing and sustaining your business. You may not be marketing to your current customers but I guarantee your competition is and you don’t want them to have the upper hand. Your best customers are you competitor’s best prospects and you don’t want to lose them.
Customer retention campaigns are essential in today’s competitive marketplace and your customer loyalty is a vital part of your business. An effective customer retention program can be the right solution to secure those valuable relationships.
Neglect is the most common reason why many customers leave. Think about yourself in comparison to your competition. You probably offer a similar product or service at a similar price so you need to be consistently reminding your customers of what differentiates you from your competition and give them a reason to keep coming back.
It is very important that you continue to acquire new customers but make sure that your marketing budget and sales efforts allow for a customer retention program that will keep them coming back for more.
Amanda Moore
www.piptampa.com
