AMiable Solution #15: Keeping the "Spring" in Your Marketing

After a cold (or in our case this year, not-quite-so-cold) winter, we welcome spring as a way to rejuvenate our motivations, our activities, and our overall attitudes. But all too often, the excitement of spring doesn't last.

How can you pump new life into your marketing and keep it there, even after the cool, colorful days of spring turn to the hot, dry days of summer? Use a common location--the lunch room, a meeting room, or a common hallway--to share your department's marketing successes. Doing so not only lets others in your organization know what you're doing to promote the products or services they help support, but it also provides them with a little insight into your customers, members, or donors that they can apply in their own roles.

Sound like more trouble than it's worth? It doesn't have to be. You already have the information you need. You just need to make it public. Try sharing these points of information to keep yourself, your marketing team, and your organization motivated now and in the months ahead:

1. Post successful marketing campaigns. Include a note about how many recipients the piece mailed to, what the current tracked response is, and how that response compares to your "norm."

2. Post positive customer feedback. Too often people hear only about the complaints and not the compliments.

3. Post good press or product reviews.

Everyone likes to feel good about the work their doing. Help make that feeling last.

Do you have a better suggestion to offer or a challenge you'd like help with? Say it here. Your comments are always welcome.

AMiable Solution #14: Cleaning Out Your Inventory

Okay, so we called this an end-of-year task in 2010. But if you didn't do it then, or if you haven't done it since, it's an activity worth revisiting in the spring: cleaning out your overage.

As is the case with a number of things you keep or file--journals you intend to one day read, supporting documentation for mailings from five years ago--it's easy to forget about the extra inventory you have stored in your warehouse or sitting at the mail shop. By ignoring it, however, you not only risk wasting storage space and possibly fees, but you also risk overlooking a quick and relatively inexpensive mailing.

Challenge yourself this week to blow the dust off your overage and take inventory of what you have. If the product or service offered in the piece is old or no longer available, recycle the inventory. If pricing is old or contact information is outdated, recycle. And, if there's language in the text that dates the piece or is no longer relevant, recycle.

However, if you have current information on a current product or service with current pricing and contact information, you may have a quick and relatively inexpensive (the printing is already paid for, after all) mailing on hand. If you have large quantities of pieces that did well, you may want to re-mail them to a portion of your house list or to a tested and proven rental list.

Do you have a better suggestion to offer or a challenge you'd like help with? Say it here. Your comments are always welcome.

AMiable Solution #13: Growing Your Best Customers

Now that you've cut wasted expenses (if you missed last week's blog on identifying unnecessary expenses, click here http://amidirectmarketing.blogspot.com/2012/04/amiable-solution-12-greening-up-your.html), it's time to look at increasing income. What's the most effective way to do that? Grow your best customers.

You know who they are--the customers who order regularly, the clients who order in bulk, the donors who never miss a campaign--but do you know how to make those good relationships better? Try these two simple strategies:

• Make it personal, for both parties. The saying about putting a face to a name is true: you feel more connected to someone you've met in person. The same can be said about a person's voice. If you only ever communicate with your best customers via mail or email, then you're missing an important opportunity to really connect with them. Make it a point to call them periodically to see how things are going for them, what their needs are, what you can do for them. They'll appreciate the effort, and you'll both feel a greater appreciation--and with time, loyalty--for one another.

• Give them the best deals. You've heard of customer loyalty programs. You've probably even received your own share of special offers under that same banner. Offer pre-orders, special discounts, and exclusive deals to customers who spend a good deal of time and money with your organization. But be sure to send "customer loyalty" offers to your best customers only. Nothing makes our eyes roll as much as receiving a "because you're a preferred client" offer from a company we've barely done business with.

Do you have a better suggestion to offer or a challenge you'd like help with? Say it here. Your comments are always welcome.

AMiable Solution #12: Greening Up Your Expenses

It's hard to think "spring" and not think "spring cleaning." But how can you clean up your business and give it new life? Start by cleaning up your expenses.

Everyone focuses on expenses in tough--and even not-so-tough--times. But often we overlook possibilities for cutting costs simply because we assume a "necessary" expense really is necessary. We look at cutting back on promotions instead of the smaller, less visible (and less profitable) expenses. This week, see if you can put more green back in your bottom line by examining these not-so-essential expenses:


· Print Subscriptions. While it's important to monitor industry news and events, take a look at your publication subscriptions. How many different publications does your company subscribe to? Are they all read? Could your in-house readers get the information they need out of the publications from the publications' websites? Talk to the recipients. If you can get away with fewer copies of the same subscription or fewer different subscriptions, do it.

· Online Subscriptions. Many of us subscribe to online services--including databases and research services. But how many people access that service on a regular basis? Poll your employees. Get a realistic idea of how often each service is used. If the answer is infrequently or rarely, cut your losses and the expense.

· Memberships. Staying connected with other members of the industry keeps your employees up-to-date on important issues and changes , but if you're paying membership fees for employees who don't attend meetings, don't take advantage of training or networking opportunities, or don't benefit in any other way from the membership, cross those fees off your expense list.


Making even small changes can have a significant impact on your profitability, especially if the "deadwood" has been accumulating for some time.


Do you have a better suggestion to offer or a challenge you'd like help with? Say it here. Your comments are always welcome.