Prepare your marketing for the holidays

Now could not be a better time to do your research and figure out what your customers are looking for this holiday season.  If you want it to be a successful season for your business, you’ll want to plan your marketing prior to the holidays.  It’s great to take advantage of this down time before the storm hits.  You’ll want to define your goals for this holiday season.  Is it to make more money?  Get past customers to spend more?  Obtain new customers?  That will also help you determine what kind of marketing you want to do.  Here are some tips from this article to use your e-mail marketing to your advantage this season.

1. Get a fresh lead on your market.  Go to your customers directly to find out what their plans are this holiday season.  If you’re a social networker, great.  Post questions on Facebook or Twitter for your customers to respond to.  Ask them what they’re planning on spending.  Ask them if they’re looking for specific gift ideas.  This will help you stock your items and know what a good price point is.  This is a great reason to get on Twitter and Facebook, too.  If you’re not, make sure to send out an e-mail to some past customers to find out these answers.  Send it via a survey for them to fill out.

2. Re-engage your current customers.  This is just a great way to get back in the minds of current/past customers.  You want them to make sure they remember you this season for their holiday shopping.  Ask customers what they use your products/services for or the best way they incorporated it into their business.  Publish the best ones in your next newsletter and award the “winner” with a free gift.  Ask them what they’re doing in their business, given the current economy.  Maybe you can work out a joint venture between your two businesses to be more profitable during the holidays. 

3. Refresh and expand your mailing list.  If you do have some down time, you might want to remove those addresses that are no longer valid.  Make sure that you’re still doing everything to gather new e-mails, whether it be from a Web site sign-up button or handing out your business card at networking events.  Have fans/friends sign up on your Facebook page.  That’s another way to drive business back to your Web site. 

With these tips, you’ll be sure to have a successful holiday season.  And always remember to reward referrals with handwritten thank you notes to the sender along with a small gift. 

If you’re ready to get your holiday marketing out, we can help!  Visit us online at http://www.completeresourceschicago.com

New marketing experiment by UPS

Starting today, the United Parcel Service (UPS) will begin a test program to determine whether they want to get involved in direct marketing campaigns.  Running all this week through Friday, in 5 test markets (including Chicago!) UPS will try out a new service called Direct to Door.  This will give advertisers, retailers, small business owners, and others a chance to market directly to UPS customers.  The test will come in addition to products already ordered by consumers and can include offers and free samples. 

The test is going to be used to determine whether UPS offers an alternative to marketing efforts done by the USPS or even coupon companies like Valpak.  The test is also going to be used to see if customers would welcome these packages that they didn’t order or expect or if they would dismiss them as if they were a new form of junk mail.

Lisa Lynn, the marketing  director for new product research at UPS in Atlanta says that given the current state of the economy, many customers are very open to receiving offers right now.  We know plenty of people who scrounge the Web weekly or even daily for free samples, reduced prices, and free shipping on products ordered over the Internet.  UPS is trying to get customers to see that if it’s delivered from them, a huge package delivery company, customers won’t consider it junk.

The packages going out this week will not have addresses of the customer.  They will have phrases such as “Inside are premium offers from some of America’s best-known brands.”  They’ll also say “Delivered to you by U.P.S.”  While Chicago is one of the test markets, you’re likely to receive this new package if you are a frequent receiver of packages delivered by UPS.  They want to test it with people familiar with their local drivers and drivers familiar with these customers and addresses.

More information on this experiment can be found in this NY Times article.

If this new program works, it could be a new and very interesting way to advertise offers to customers in a way that hasn’t been done before. Small business owners can reach out to a sector of customers that they would never get the chance to otherwise. It just shows how important it is to have a Web site for your business that people can order from.

What are your thoughts on this experiment? Will it work or won’t it? We’d love to hear your comments below. Or visit us online at Complete REsources.

Take advantage of every holiday to boost sales

If you’re sitting back with your heels up thinking that because it’s August, there’s no reason to promote your business with a holiday, think again.  In every business, you can’t consider Thanksgiving through New Year’s the only holidays to be running a promotion or a sale.  There’s so many more options out there.  Here’s a helpful list for your upcoming promotions.

August: It’s back to school time!  Just look at all the ads in the Sunday paper.  They’re heavily advertising and running promotions on new clothes for kids as well as school supplies.  If you’re a Realtor, advertise that by buying now, you can get into your new school district before school starts.  August is also a great time to prepare for any Labor Day sales since Labor Day is usually the first Monday in September.

October: Halloween is the obvious holiday.  But try to get creative with your marketing.  Have people come in costume and give prizes or discounts to the best one.  Ask for “treats” from clients to donate to a charity of your choosing. 

November: Help local families out by sponsoring Thanksgiving dinners to those in need.  Local newspapers love to write articles on these types of events, so it’s very likely that your business will get some free advertising to boot.  If you can’t sponsor entire families, see if customers will donate an extra $1 to a local food bank.  Or have $1 or $2 of every sale go toward purchasing meals for those in need.

February: Is not just about Valentine’s Day.  Consider doing something creative with Groundhog Day.  Will we be stuck with six more weeks of winter?  Offer something to beat the winter chills.  Is spring coming early?  Promote your products for the warm weather.  You can also do something with President’s Day.  Hand out American flags to customers or give discounts if they’re wearing red, white, or blue.

April: Consider an Easter egg hunt.  Hide eggs with discounts throughout your store and have the customer bring one they find to the register.  Open it at the checkout and see what the discount is.  You can also run promotions for April Fool’s Day and Earth Day.  Have money donated to the rain forest or for every $100 a customer spends, purchase a tree in their name.

The possibilities are endless.  Try to think outside the box and come up with some new ideas for those holidays that aren’t as popular.  You can look here for more tips. Leave us a comment with the best holiday promotions you’ve seen. We’d love to share them with our other readers. And visit us online for help getting your holiday sales advertised!

Make sure you schedule marketing time

We’ve talked the past few weeks about making sure your marketing messages were going to the right target, how to improve direct mail campaigns, certain mistakes not to make with your marketing.  While those are all important topics, it’s equally important to make sure you have time in your schedule to get your marketing done.  And we don’t just mean a few minutes on Tuesday and an hour on Friday afternoon if you get a chance.  You need to plan a schedule.  Just like anything else (an appointment with a client, a teleseminar on the housing market, etc.), you need to schedule time in your daily or weekly schedule to get your marketing done.

There’s two easy ways you can set this up.  The first is to break the activities up by working on a theme for each day of the week.  For example, Monday would be a day for communications.  This can be posting blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc., catching up on e-mails for the past week, or creating a new telephone script.  Tuesday could be client day.  Meet with clients, schedule time to meet with clients, handle paperwork related to clients.  Other themes can be writing (blogs, newsletters, articles, ad copy), research (test new marketing, collect new e-mails for e-newsletter, develop new ideas, find articles for newsletters), administrative (paperwork, pay bills, create to-do list), Web site (new pages, collect new e-mails, respond to leads, add photos), etc.  You should have no problem breaking down your week into five days so everything can get done.  Then set time in your daily schedule to accomplish everything.  Try not to answer phone calls and e-mails throughout the entire day.  Block off two one hour periods (once in the morning and once in the afternoon).  It will help you to accomplish a lot more.

The other way to set up your schedule is to devote a day of the week to a particular marketing activity, rather than a theme.  For example, Mondays could be about sales.  You could spend that day working on e-mailing your lists about a new promotion, writing copy for your next direct mail piece about your monthly sale, or make every Monday a sale for your business.  One day could be about adding to your client database by collecting new e-mail addressesand contacting past clients for referrals.

However you choose to set up your schedule, the most important fact is that you have a schedule.  Don’t just say I’ll work on it in the hour you have free time.  Schedule it in there.  You’ve heard the saying, “It’s as important to work on your business as it is in your business.”  Make working ON your  business a priority.  Promise not to go home for the day until you’ve touched base with 5 past clients.  Jody Gabourie, the Marketing Plan Queen, offers more tips here. For help with your marketing pieces, please visit us online.

Get them to open your mail!

If you’re going to start a mailing campaign, you want a good response rate.  It won’t  be worth it to you with postal rates increasing to send out letters without any of them being opened.  Here are some tips to help your mail stand out among the rest of the junk and get your customers opening it quickly!

1. Use a unique envelope.  Most business letters come in the same legal-sized, white envelopes.  How boring!  Make yours stand out.  Choose a bright color, a different size (how’s square?), or even an airmail option.  We’ve seen many creative options including sending a letter in a tube.  Go to Action Envelope to see all of the different options available.  You can even design your own!

2. Handwrite the address.  It may take a lot longer, but this way looks so much more personal.  Try a different ink color instead of black.  Don’t make it too formal, though.  You want your prospects to be able to read it.  Don’t have the time?  Visit us online for a quote and we’ll do the hand addressing for you!  If you really don’t have the time, choose a font that is made to look like handwriting instead of the traditional Arial or Times New Roman.

3. Either handwrite the return address or use mailing labels.  Don’t you have a ton of free stickers with your address on them lying around?  Use those instead of a bulk stamp.  It also makes the envelope look more personal.

4. Do away with bulk rates and use postage stamps.  The larger the stamp and the more you use, the better.  So if you still have plenty of 42 cent stamps lying around, use those with a 2 cent stamp.  It may seem silly, but it looks a lot less “professional” and has a higher chance of being opened.  This will cost you more in the long run, but can make a big difference.

5.  Add something to the letter to make it appear stuffed or lumpy.  This can be a coupon that is folded so it creates the appearance of a bulky letter.  People will want to open it to know what that is. 

Once you’ve gotten them to open it up, make sure that your marketing piece stands out.  Give them a call to action.  Give them something worth calling you about. Make the message timely and urgent.  “If you call within the next 48 hours…”, for example.  Also, make sure your mail is going to the right target audience.  We blogged about this last week.  Otherwise, you’ll be wasting the money you just spent on those colorful envelopes! 

We’d be more than happy to help you with your marketing campaign.  We’re just an email away at susan.kraut@sbcglobal.com.

Make sure your marketing messages hit the right target

Have you ever been in a situation where you just moved into a new apartment complex and you received a postcard for someone offering discounted exterior painting or snow shoveling service?  Obviously, as a renter, you don’t need these services.  So the person that is sending you this mail is completely wasting their money and they’re completely wasting your time.  If you are a small business owner or real estate agent, you want to make sure your marketing pieces get to the right audience.  Otherwise, you’re wasting everyone’s time and money.  Here are some simple ways to get to the right target.

1. Identify your potential customer.  You want to aim your marketing pieces at those people who are likely to be your customer – not to everyone.  Pay attention to those who are your customers already, since future customers will most likely resemble them.  You’ll want to identify where they’re from, their demographics (age, gender, income level, household makeup, etc.), and their behaviors and beliefs.

2. Pinpoint your actual market.  How often do you check out at a store nowadays and the sales clerk first asks you for your phone number or zip code?  They’re collecting this information so they know who is shopping with them so they can market to that target area in the future.  Start asking your customers for a zip code and/or phone number (for the area code).  If you have customers that are shopping online, it’s still important to collect this information.  You never know – you could be in Chicago and have a huge group of customers on the East Coast!  Find out that information so you could potentially market to them in the future.

3. Observe your customers.  Gather important information such as: age range, gender, job titles, owners vs. renters.  You may gather some of this information by observing them.  However, it’s important to ask questions, too.  Try to strike up a conversation as they’re checking out.  Not only will that make you seem more friendly, but you can learn a lot about them.  Maybe they’re purchasing something for their son’s graduation from high school.  Now you have an idea of their age range, that they have children, and money could be tight in the next few years if they’re going to help him with his education. 

4. Find out what interests them and their purchasing habits.  Are they online shoppers?  Do they get product recommendations from friends or family?  Do they make most of the purchases for the household or does their spouse or partner?  Do they choose quality or price first?  These important questions will help you learn what they value in making purchase decisions.

All of these bits of information will help you stay informed of your current customers to help you generate marketing messages that are getting to the right target audience.  Not only will it save you time and money, but hopefully it will help you learn more about your customers to generate referrals for years to come.

More information can be found in this article. Now that you know who to market to, let us help you get that done! Visit us online to get started.

Learning about your customers will drive up sales

Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in determining what next promotion to offer?  You realize that you haven’t put items from your fall collection, for instance, on sale yet, so maybe you should give that a try?  You should recognize that by learning about your customers and their past purchasing habits, you can earn more money by appealing to them.  Marketing Professional Ray Boucher has written an article on five important things you should know about your customers.  You’ll want to go through your database and make note of these, as it will greatly improve your marketing effort and sales in the future.

1. What is the most popular purchased product or service?  Let’s use real estate agents, for example.  If you’ve mostly sold condos in the past year to first time buyers, you’ll want to start marketing move-up opportunities for them.  Try to send them information about 3 bedroom single family homes, or the benefits of selling in their particular complex.  For a small business that sells handmade jewelry, what is your most popular product?  Let’s say it’s a bracelet with add-on charms.  Consider advertising to past clients about the new birthstone charms you have available.  If you buy 1, get 1 free.  Try to think outside the box with what products are the most popular.  It should drum up the most new sales if it’s tied to that.

2. What are your customers spending on each purchase?  Let’s say that an average purchase goes for about $50.  Find out what your competitors are charging.  If they have similar products and price, if you offer a product for $44.99, you should get more sales since you’re selling at a discount. 

3. Find out how many of your customers are repeat customers.  First of all, here’s hoping that most of your customers are repeats.  You want to keep them in your database and contact them at least twice a year so they don’t go to your competitor.  If you have their birthday, make sure you send them a card.  Always send them information when you’re offering a new promotion. 

4. When are you getting most of your sales?  Is it typically in a certain month?  Is it generally on a Friday during the week?  By figuring this out you’ll be able to offer marketing that has promotions during the slower periods to help generate more business.  But don’t forget to still market during the busy times so that those times stay busy.

5.  Where do your customers come from?  Are you getting referred from a certain Web site?  That’s where you’ll want to put a lot of advertising.  Do you have a local shop where customers from a certain neighborhood come from?  Sponsor one of their little league teams. 

This information will be extremely helpful when planning your marketing.  Do you have this information and now need to design the perfect marketing campaign?  Visit us online for more information and a free quote.

Make their jaw drop with these marketing tactics

It’s not enough these days to simply mail out a postcard or a letter to a group of people and hope for the best.  It’s even harder if it’s a new group of people that you haven’t yet marketed yourself to.  You need to stand out in a crowd and get them to be impressed by what you’re sending out.  Even if it’s a group of past clients, you need some new tactics to get them to want to buy from you or use your services.

So what’s going to work?  We came across a great article that offers some tips.  You want marketing material that’s not only entertaining, but something that includes a call to action.  This means that you want to give your target audience enough information to do something about it, whether that means calling you to place an order, calling you to get more information, or asking to become a regular subscriber of your newsletter.

The first step is to get your audience to drop their jaws.  You want them to be extremely impressed by what you’re sending out.  Make them want to read your postcards or mailing, rather than having it go straight into the garbage.  This might include a funny photo, or text that jumps off the page.  Maybe the way you send it to them is what does the trick.  Consider something unique, like a letter in a tube rather than an envelope.  Create text that will make them believe they’re crazy for not purchasing your product or using your service.

The next step is to include testimonials on what you send out.  If you have a Web site (you should!), make sure you also post testimonials from past customers there, as well.  It makes your product or service more believable because they can actually see customers that have benefited from your services.  Make sure these are true testimonials and not made up.  Have past customers available as references so that new customers can contact them if they like.  Get their permission first. 

The last step is to put a limited time offer in your marketing piece.  This creates a sense of urgency and get them to want to contact you immediately, or before the offer expires.  Show them the benefits and get them to contact you for your product before the time runs out.  How often have you seen a coupon for a buy 1 get 1 free that expires in only 3 days!  Doesn’t it make you want to run to the store before it expires?  That’s the urgency you want to create with your customers.

Do you need help designing this marketing piece?  We’re here to put our skills to use!  Visit us online to see product examples and call for a quote!

How to close a sale

So after you’ve found your list, gotten your marketing materials together, written your eye-catching headline, now is the time to close that sale with your customer.  These 7 tips will help you close your sale on a marketing piece that’s printed out and used as an e-mail or direct mail campaign.

1. Dimensionalize value.  Remind the customer of everything they will be receiving when they make their purchase.  Discuss the benefits they get from the product and then move on to the freebies or extras they’ll get if they buy now. 

2. Present your price.  You can do this in one of two ways.  Either lead with a discount, like “Save half if you order in the next 48 hours – that’s a $70 value!”  Or, lead with the nominal price: “Normally, XYZ costs you $140 and is truly a bargain, however, during the next 48 hours, you can save half – an amazing $70!”

3. Trivialize your price.  Suggestions for this would be to compare your product to the competition.  For example, “ABC Company normally charges $160 for the same product.  And you can get ours for just $7o.  That’s a $90 savings!!”  You could break down the price into smaller numbers, and say that the customer is only paying 19 cents a week to own this product for a year.  Who can’t afford 2.7 cents a day??  Or, advertise it by saying that 19 cents a week is 1/10 of the price of a gallon of gas.  Be creative.

4. Erase all risk.  Make sure you guarantee your product, or offer to give them their money back, or to send them the competitor’s product if they don’t like yours. 

5.  Offer instant gratification.  Maybe in addition to saving half price by ordering in the next 48 hours, you can guarantee either free shipping, or that product to your customer within 5 business days.  Tell them some way they can get your product quickly.

6. Ask for the sale.  It may seem silly, but it’s the easiest way to close the deal.  Explain to them step-by-step how to get your product.  “Just fill out the form and mail it in the postage paid envelope to enjoy your $70 savings!”  Or, “Send an e-mail to buymenow@xxx.com to start enjoying your new product!” 

7. Load up on your P.S.s.  Studies have shown that many people read then headline, and then scan down to find out who the letter is from.  So any written copy around your signature is extremely important.  And it’s okay to have a P.S., P.P.S., and P.P.P.S. if necessary.  You might want to reiterate your guarantee of satisfaction, add another bonus to get them to act quickly, or offer a testimonial for a previously satisfied customer.

All of these tips should help get you started to closing your sale.  For more, please read this article.

For help with drafting your direct marketing piece, please visit us online.

Read me! Read me!

If you’re going to be providing any type of services, you know the importance of marketing.  What’s very important, within that large category, is the headline you put on any material.  This could be an article in a newsletter, a section on a Web site, or a tag line on an envelope.  All headlines should be compelling enough to get your customers to want to open it, read it, buy it, and more!  Here are some general rules for writing compelling headlines to help sell your services and products.

1. Purpose.  The headline is hoping to achieve a goal here, whether it be to get the reader’s attention on a postcard in a thick stack of mail or to get the customer to call a toll-free number for more information on a letter.  Make sure you’re clear in asking for something.  If you’re hoping to get people in your store, make sure you mention where the store is and what they’ll get when they come in.

2. Positioning.  Customers respond better to “you” and “yours” than “me” or “I.”  And they respond exceptionally well to the words “you” and “free.”  You should also focus on the positive, rather than the negative.  For example, in selling a new appliance line, rather than say “Need a new appliance because your old one has broken down?”  You want to say, “3 months of no payments on this energy-efficient refrigerator!” 

3. Voice.  Make it easy to read, and make sure that it makes sense without additional copy prompting someone to understand it.  You don’t want to tell a joke where it gets explained in the text 3 paragraphs down because most people won’t get that far.  That’s why they tell newspaper journalists to put all the major information in the headline and first paragraph, and only background information in the rest of the story.  You should be able to get the entire story by reading just the first paragraph.

4. Typography and layout.  Most people don’t realize that a headline in all caps or with the first initial up in each word makes people less likely to read it.  And don’t choose a font that’s harder to read, like those in cursive.  You want to make it as easy on the reader as possible.  Also, the headline belongs at the very top of the page.  People will read the headline and then work their way down.  Anything written above the headline most likely will not get read.

Once you have those basics covered, you’ll want to find the best headline for the specific marketing you’re doing.  In direct mail pieces, there are often several headlines (on the outside of the envelope, at the top of the letter inside, maybe a call to action on the order form, etc.)  No matter how many you have, each headline should serve the purpose of getting the customer to call or visit you.  And absolutely every headline should have a call to action. 

On postcards, you need to get the reader to avoid the garbage can and even flip the postcard over if necessary.  State your primary offer in an easy to read message.  The postcard is not the place for a long, drawn out headline.

On an e-mail, the shorter the subject line, the better.  Six words or less is probably all you need.  And try to get your offer placed within that subject line to get the reader to open your e-mail.  Once opened, you can place another headline in your e-mail to prompt them to continue reading.  It should state your offer again at the top.

More tips can be found in this article.

For help in writing effective headlines or with any of your marketing pieces, please visit us online.