In addition to business hours that cater to me being a night owl, in my perfect world, companies would plan events, promotions and marketing campaigns at least one year in advance, budgets would not be an issue and yes…holiday gifts and calendars would be ordered in July *gasp*!

Well, now that we have that out of the way, I also understand that marketing is fluid. What’s hot this quarter might not be in the next, events change, budgets get revised and campaigns that made perfect sense at inception need to be constantly evaluated for overall success.

What does all this have to do with returning emails at 2am? Our business is not about selling products. It’s about building mutually beneficial relationships and understanding that as your needs change we will be there to support you… even at 2am!

]]> http://www.letsbrandtogether.com/2009/07/yes-i-will-answer-your-email-at-2am/feed/ 0 http://www.letsbrandtogether.com/2009/06/part-4-do-you-qualify/ http://www.letsbrandtogether.com/2009/06/part-4-do-you-qualify/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:27:17 +0000 andrea http://www.letsbrandtogether.com/?p=349 Consider this….do you want to qualify what you give away?  I briefly talked about a Tier Program in Part One but there are several ways to go about it so I decided to expand on the idea – Here’s what I’ve got for a start

·        Do you want to use your Promo Items as a Thank-You?  The qualifier here is that the recipient has done business with you –

·        Do you want to use them as a reward for people coming to see you or requesting information about your product or service?

·        Do you want to use your item as a way to reward your customers/potential customers for participating in some way?  Maybe in a demonstration, testing or a contest scenario?

·        Do you want to use it as an incentive for sales?  You can do this by including an “offer” or “coupon” with a redemption qualifier?

All of these are a great way to use your Promotional Products to “Qualify” your customers!

No more suspense – here are the 4^th and 5^th things to consider for your advertising –

·        Budget – What kind of quality are you looking for?  How many do you need? Do you need a custom product?  Can you do more of several items to tie in throughout the year?  The greater the quantity…the lower the per piece price!

·        Message – Many times we can tie your message to an item that is a perfect compliment!  Share the message with us and we’ll barrage you with ideas!

All of this (with a few more to come) is our way of helping you to effectively incorporate Promotional Items into your Marketing and Advertising – it really is the number one way for people to keep on remembering you and your company…and keep on….and keep on….!

 Here are some “Rule of Thumb” guidelines for narrowing it down –

·        Again with the objective business…What is your objective?

·        Do you need to tie your item to a theme?

·        Are you trying to convey a specific message?

·        Are you trying to educate your target audience?

·        Do you have a purpose?  If not, let’s get one!

Remember….this is your company’s brand and image and we want to help you make it the absolute best that it can be!  Theme of the week – USE your Promotional Products Specialist!

……..Part 3…….Tomorrow!

How can we help you “Get Some Groove to Your Giveaways”?

• Help You to Define Your Audience – A focused objective is crucial to your success and we can help you break that down.  Are these giveaways for key customers, prospects, employees or everyone that passes by?  Do you need something for all of the above?  We can help you to establish a Tier program for giveaways that meets your budget and creates the desired impact.
• Goal Setting – All promotional item purchases should be made with this in mind…”What do you want to achieve?”  Are you trying to launch a new product or idea,  are you trying to incite action or are you trying to increase your recognition with a particular audience?  We can help you make an impact with your message and with your promotional product by bringing the two together.

Look for my next posts for more ideas to help you get your……

This is another one of those hmmmmm……moments for me.  The same practice has recently happened to me several times and I am wondering if this is the start of a trend?  A few months ago we had a wonderful person that we hired for a very important project at home – we loved her and the people that worked for her!  Problem….whenever I tried to schedule follow-up visits they would e-mail me dates and times.  I would e-mail them back and those times would now be unavailable.  We would try and again – yadda, yadda…down the road and still no appointment.  It was becoming too much work for me to spend my money with this company – why can’t we take care of this in one five minute phone conversation????  Since this happened I don’t even bother with companies that I have encountered that want me to e-mail them.  I do the same thing my friend did and keep going down the line – Let’s face it….there are very few industries that have only one person that does what you need! 

Why don’t I mind leaving a message, but I do mind e-mailing?  If I leave a message I have placed the ball in the court and anticipate a phone call where we will wrap up the business in less than 5 minutes.  It gives me the feeling of being really close to checking that task off of my MILE long to-do list.  Maybe it is a case of “Voice Mail Compassion”, – since I also work for a small company and while we have tried a million and one things to prevent calls from having to go to voice mail – The closest we get to the Magic Solution is that we immediately return phone calls!

So, my questions is….what is the logic behind this method?  Right now, it  feels like “They’re Just Not That Into Me” !

With that said, one of my biggest pet peeves is outrageous shipping charges. Last night I purchased a paperback book from a well know online retailer and when I checked out the s/h charge was $12.  I know from experience that I can ship a 48” x 8” tube of umbrellas that weights approx. 10 lbs. from Texas to New Jersey for $13.42. Something seems a little off, right?

I am obviously a pro-business person and don’t begrudge anybody running a profitable business. However unless you’re UPS, your profit model should not revolve around gouging customers on shipping charges. I can promise you that is not something we practice nor will we ever. In fact, I give clients the option to use there own shipper number.

360 Promotions specializes in helping companies gain brand recognition and shipping is just a means to an end. Don’t get sidetracked and loose focus of your true specialty – work hard to be the best in your field and the business success and profitability will follow. 

I’m not joking when I tell you that since the first of April I have eaten this, for lunch, at least four times per week.  3 minutes and 30 seconds in the microwave and viola – lunch is served! However, today the thought of eating another pizza makes me cringe; I am officially “totally burned out” from eating the same thing over and over.

 You’re probably wondering what my eating habits have to do with marketing? Companies tend to start a marketing campaign and when the results are successful, the tendency is to continue with the same campaign. Eventually your target audience will get “totally burned out” just like I did with lunch. In order to keep your marketing fresh you have to mix it up! 

A few simple ways to mix it up: 1.) Try adding a new color scheme 2.) Plan a year long campaign and have all of your collateral tie together but have slightly different items each quarter 3.) Consider packaging options. 

If you need help or just have a question, send me an email at jennifer@360promos.com!

Which brings me to my point… I got the 1st article today and let me tell you it was shocking (especially for somebody like me who will gladly volunteer to be the 1st human to have a Blackberry permanently implanted in my ear)! In 1984 the only way to view a catalog was via microfiche *gasp*, art had to be hand drawn on transparent film and imagine having no email or fax so everything was done via USPS- WOW! I am feeling a little unconnected just thinking about it!

Well, the good news is… 25 years later art is created in eps format with computer software, catalogs are available online and the post office has a $2.8 billion dollar deficit in 08′. You get the point! 

The era of 15-20 day production lead time is fading fast as manufacturing becomes much more streamlined. Even better news is that we have 1,000’s of products that can be ordered on Monday and ship on Tuesday at NO ADDITIONAL COST to you! I’m talking all kinds of products to choose from with multiple imprint methods available in every budget range possible. 

Need it now…Now, that is not a problem!

If you need ideas, you can search here or email me at jennifer@360promos.com and I will be happy to help you!

 So the question becomes how do you set yourself apart from your competitors? The answer is by building brand loyalty and one effective way to do that is through the use of promotional products. Studies show that 84% of people who receive promotional products can recall what company they came from and 62% of people have done business with that company after receiving the product. Those are powerful numbers!!

 When I meet with clients most people ask me “what’s new?” but the real question you want to know is “what works?” 81% of people keep a promotional product because it’s useful, so if you purchase 1,000 imprinted widgets that nobody knows how to use or what to do with and they end up getting sold in a garage sale…well, you get the picture! On the other hand if you pick an item that people like and use (i.e. tote bags, tee-shirts, hats and flash drives…just to name a few) your brand will get a lot of mileage from that one item. 

 Right now what’s working is quality over quantity. In a good promotional campaign you know what results you want to net, before you start and that sets the tone. A great example is a tennis club that was struggling to get new members. Previously they had been mailing postcards monthly to thousands of homes within a 200+ mile radius and there conversion rate was almost negative. They were very unhappy and about to give up when a new campaign was launched. Instead of mailing to 1,000+ homes monthly the criteria was redefined and the list was culled down to 300 people that lived within a 50 mile radius and had an income of at least $100,000. (Side note- you can buy these types of list from marketing companies) They decided to stop the postcard mailings all together and built a custom promotional product which consisted of a small box that has the tennis club imprint on the outside, when you opened the box on the top flap it listed the features of the tennis club and why you should become a member –w/contact information- and then sitting down in the box was a set a imprinted tennis balls, that said “The balls in your court!” The results were amazing…3 weeks after the mailing when out they had 11 new members. Bottom line: promotional product campaigns build brands, increase revenue and inspire loyalty in customers!

 Right now you’re probably considering how to leverage your marketing dollars effectively. I can tell you, based on experience, to keep marketing – it takes 12-18 months, of consistent marketing, for a potential customer to instantly recognize you and only one month of doing nothing for them to forget you.

If you need more ideas, you can search here or email us atPromoteYourself@360promos.com and we will be happy to search for you.