Advertising Specialties Galore!

Have you ever thought of the use of promotional items and apparel as a part of your marketing strategy? If you haven't, thousands of vendors have...

A portion of our marketing team has just returned from a huge advertising specialties tradeshow in Downtown Chicago. Our goal: to check out the landscape of all that is offered in the promotional/apparel industry. And let me tell you that if you can think of a product, vendors have already thought of a way to place your logo on it. We saw everything from refridgerators, corporate awards, golf balls, pens, magnets, deck of cards, dog tags, apparell, tatoos, ipod cases, watches, roses, chocolates, nail polish, teddy bears, hats, lenticulars, radio coolers, bags, the list goes on and on. In fact... we had 2 full work days to visit every vendor and we only made it through approximately 75% of them. So...are promotional items and apparel worth your time? YES! However, you have to be strategic in your product selection and use. Here are a few good reasons why your company should use promotional items/apparel: (click link below to read more)

▪Branding your company
▪Providing your sales force with a high touch tool
▪Recognizing top performers within your company
▪Retaining top clients by offering a gift of appreciation
▪Offering as incentive for response


Just remember, be strategic with your purchase whenever you do decide to implement promotional items/apparel. Don't just get a pen simply because every other business has one. Or purchase the cheapest item you can find just because it's cheap... you often get what you pay for and it can reflect poorly on your company. Your marketing dollars are valuable...so choose wisely and execute with diligence.

What has your company used (regarding advertising specialties) that has/hasn't worked? Comment and share with other marketers.

-Ernie DiMalanta

Homearama...Branding Extravaganza!

Have you ever been to the Homearama? If you haven't, you should check it out... it's worth the price of admission. Unless, of course, the thought of being reminded about all your home improvement chores doesn't interest you!

The past couple of weeks the city of Mason, Ohio has been hosting this event. The Homearama is a builders showcase. Essentially, this event gives several homebuilders the opportunity to show what they can do if given limited boundaries... end result: Homes worth over one million dollars that can do everything but pay it's own mortgage.

One facinating aspect about this event is that it is a branding extravaganza...

It's amazing how many companies were vying for mindshare. The One Restaraunt and World of Dinettes slugged it out through the use of corrigated signs placed on the side of the road just before you parked. Over twenty home-related companies like Basement Living Systems and Pella duked it out in the big tent, of which you had to walk through in order to enter or exit the Homearama. BMW cars were parked in almost all driveways and greeted you as you exited each house. As you walked to and from your car, there were golf carts that picked you up...of course, they were sponsored by Union Savings Bank. And if that wasn't enough, all you had to do was look in the air and catch a glimpse of the Remax Hot Air Balloon!

Now granted, most of the companies that were branding at the Homearama were large companies. But did you notice, as mentioned earlier, that The One Restaraunt and the World of Dinettes were attempting to brand through use of yard signs? They aren't corporations... And yet they proactively tried to seize the opportunity to fight for mind share. What are you trying to do to seize the mind share of your target audience? How are you proactively branding your image in your prospects?

-Ernie DiMalanta

Insight from Sailor Jack!

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Cracker Jacks? You think of the yummy-in-your tummy, nutritious, carmelized popcorn morsels and peanuts right? Of course not! You think of the free prize inside... the secret decoder, tattoos, stickers, mini magnifying glass. Sailor Jack and his dog, Bingo knew their audience well. Most of us who grew up in a typical American home can all remember "the prize."

This brings up an important topic...

Soft innovations!

Seth Godin, author of Free Prize Inside, shares how soft innovations provide another way for business growth. "The clever, insightful, useful small ideas that just about anyone in an organization can think up. Soft innovations...can make it remarkable. They do this by solving a problem that's peripheral to what your product is ostensibly about. It's a second reason to buy the thing, and perhaps a first reason to talk about it."

Well there you have it...take time exploring the edge of your product or service and come up with several soft innovations. Who knows, you may stumble on something that works!

-Ernie DiMalanta

June: Free Book Contest!

This month's free book contest features, "Good to Great-Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't" by, Jim Collins.

Each month clueless marketing & the folks at Quest Marketing Solutions will be giving away one book for free... We do this in the spirit of continuing education. We feel that everyone should be lifetime learners, especially if you are engaging in the marketing arena.

Click on the link below, and submit your entry by June 30th. All entries must register their:
▪Name
▪Company name
▪Email address
▪Phone number
▪Current website
▪Also type, "Book contest," along with your mailing address in the comment section.

Each entry will be placed in a magical shoebox for random drawing. (Our book contest begins the first week of every month, and the winner is always picked the last week of the month.) Feel free to comment on the book if you have already read it!

Free Book Contest

"To: Potential Customer"

To: Potential Customer... buy from me!

It's rather obvious that direct mail will be around for a long while, but would you please make them a little more personalized! People want connection, they want to be valued, cuddled, loved.... OK. Enough warm and fuzzy talk. If you are planning on sneaking into people's homes via their mailbox, at least you can try to know their names. You have to slice through all the junk mail that they get.

Have you ever heard of using variable data for direct mail marketing? Also known as one-to-one direct mail marketing. This is the process of personalizing all marketing pieces to specific individuals and their needs.

Compare these stats: (click link below to read more)
With traditional direct mail marketing your company may reap a 1-2% response rate. By simply using variable data in your direct mail campaign you can reap 5% to 10% to then even 15%+ depending on certain circumstances! Staggering thought isn't it?!

Still don't understand what it means to use variable data?

Let's say you produce a direct mail piece... Now let's say that you establish changeable fields on your marketing piece that adapts to the varying segments of your target market. Your clients receiving the piece may read, "Thank you for choosing us! We value your business." A prospect may read, "We're here to help! Call us today!" A lapse client may read, "We miss you! Come back and we will give you 50% off your next purchase." On top of this, the pictures change accordingly, as well as personalizing each piece by using the contact person's name on each card... "Dear John, thank you for choosing our company over the rest. We are committed to showing just how much we value you. Please bring this card in for $100 off your next purchase."

Now do you get it? Let's personalize our marketing efforts and reap the rewards after doing so. Don't waste your money involving yourself with advertising schemes that don't provide this personalization. Unless, of course, you enjoy being a clueless marketer!

Free Book Contest

This month's free book contest features, "The Likeability Factor" by, Tim Sanders. "If you raise your L-factor, you will harness one of life's most powerful forces."-Sanders

Each month clueless marketing & the folks at Quest Marketing Solutions will be giving away one book for free... We do this in the spirit of continuing education. We feel that everyone should be lifetime learners, especially if you are engaging in the marketing arena.

Click on the link below, and submit your entry by May 29th. All entries must register their:
▪Name
▪Company name
▪Email address
▪Phone number
▪Current website
▪Also type, "Book contest," along with your mailing address in the comment section.

Each entry will be placed in a magical shoebox for random drawing. (Our book contest begins the first week of every month, and the winner is always picked the last week of the month.) Feel free to comment on the book if you have already read it!

Free Book Contest

Super Dell is No More!

For those of you who don't know, Dell Schanze was the owner of Totally Awesome Computers located in Utah. He grew his computer retail business largely through BUZZ marketing and good computers. He was known for his, "over-the-top personal style and t.v. commercials."(-kutv.com) Whether they liked his style or not, he definitely made a name for himself in Utah area. People not only talked about him but they bought his computers. But now he is no more! He was entangled with legal issues relating to driving too fast, a gun, and a whole lot of attitude. You can hear more about his downfall by clicking on the video link below.

Enough about Dell...Do you use Buzz Marketing Tactics for your small business? (To read more click the button below)
Buzz Marketing is the art of "getting people to talk about your stuff"- Mark Hughes. Often times we think that buzz marketing is a technique used only by the big boys... Well, Dell Schanze used it and was successfull at it... (Just be careful, the media may pounce on you if you make any stupid mistakes.)

Have any of you marketers used buzz marketing for your business? If so, please share your comments for all to learn from...

In the upcoming weeks we will share more about buzz marketing, and how you can use it effectively to hit your target.

video

Tell-Tale Signs of Clueless Marketing

A marketer can always tell when a small business isn't doing all that well. There is this 8-9 month old children's play center tucked away in the business district of a growing suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio (where the average house is being sold at around $280K.) This business houses a huge inflatable playground area for birthday parties, and sells gigantic wooden playsets to wide-eyed children whose parents have deep pockets for such monstrosities. My son loves the place, but unfortunately, they're showing the tell-tale signs of clueless marketing...
▪First, it started with placing one of their playsets outside of their warehouse facility. All in all not a bad idea. How else are people going to know what's inside the facility?
▪Second, they began placing a sandwich board sign a couple of miles away from their location on a busy road hoping to attract a loving mother or father who is just wondering what to do for the evening to entertain their bored children.
▪Third, they decided to wrap their service vehicle with their advertisement and parked it in their parking lot for all to see.
▪Fourth, after realizing the burden of setting up and tearing down their sandwich board sign (Mason has a zero tolerance for any signage too close the road,) they have now placed a 12"x20" full-color sticker of their logo on the traffic light control box. What an ingenious idea! ;)

Dusty Database, Part: 2

Still haven't blown the dust off your database?

Hurry up! Get to it! You should be ready at any moment to pull up your lapse clients and tell them of your new special offer, or print out mailing labels to send your company event flyers. What? You don't even have a database system established?

A contact management system of some sort should be implemented as early as possible. What's the best contact management software that's out on the market?

Simple... "The one that's being used habitually." There are a few key words in this statement:
▪One- You should only be using one vehicle for collecting your contact information. It should be easy to use and versatile.
▪Used- Everyone sees the value of having a database, but few actually use it. So... Blow the dust off of it and use it.
▪Habitually- The use of your contact management system has to become habitual. If you can't habitually maintain it, or you don't have the patience to do so, then habitually remind another staff person to do it. If you're running solo, then SORRY you have no choice.

Still want to know what kind of specific software you should use? You'll have to check out our software evaluation in a later blog entry!

Don't waste your money...

It is amazing how many small businesses waste their money on all sorts of advertising schemes and call it marketing. Take this bird feeder retail business for example. They have advertisements in a local newspaper, Val Pak, Money Mailer, local magazines, and a couple of yard signs. When asked about their marketing, this was the owners response, "I am done with marketing...none of it works." There's so many things wrong about this statement... First, advertising and marketing are two separate things. Second, if you are done with marketing, you are DONE...period!
Most business who rely on these forms of advertizing often forget that they are shotgun in nature. They may produce a few responses, but they don't know who is looking at it, how people are responding to it at first glance, and they can't follow up in order to increase response. If this is ALL you're doing in terms of "marketing," then rethink how you're spending your money.

Dusty Database, Part: 1

What's your database consist of?

A bunch of piled unsorted business cards, an excel spreadsheet of outdated contact information, including a mix of few numbers in your palm pilot... Small businesses are often too busy making the widget, putting out the office fires, cutting checks etc. that they find themselves moving forward only after having taken two steps back.

Why is a current database important?

There are a number of reasons why:
1| If one of your staff needs to find info on a client or prospect, they should be able to easily access that info from a central location. Thus better serving your clients, because your staff is in the know.
2| If you want to send out a mailer specified for a particular segment of your database, then you should be able to easily locate the addresses for use.
3| You should be able to indicate which client is active, lapsed, or canceled.
4| You should keep in regular contact with all those in your database on a monthly basis...this constant personal touch helps generate more business.
5| Use it for storing up-to-date information on a client. Use it for gathering email addresses so that you can send out an e-newsletter each month. The uses for your database can go on and on.