AMiable Solution #216: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Last month, Steve Cody, co-founder and CEO of Peppercomm, a strategic communications firm, examined some critical marketing lessons for Inc.com in his article, “The Top 12 Marketing Wins and Losses of 2016.”  He looked at the good and destructive choices that other organizations made in order to help us learn what to do and what not to do.

Although there’s definitely value in learning from others’ experience (and from Cody’s analysis, available here, http://www.inc.com/steve-cody/the-top-12-marketing-wins-and-losses-of-2016.html, we know that even more can be gained from a bit of self-analysis.  But, instead of just swimming in numbers or getting overwhelmed in a sea of reports and analyses (which are useful but often demoralizing), we suggest supplementing your evaluations with a more graphic approach: a garden drawing.

We know it might sound silly, but try it.  Using images to examine your year-long marketing efforts can help you make sense of the numbers and reports, organizing your data and providing insight in ways that numbers and text alone can’t.

So go ahead: take a blank sheet of paper, turn it sideways, and draw a line through the middle, from left to right. 

Now, without referencing any reports or spreadsheets, think about your organization’s marketing experiences this past year.  For every success or highlight, draw a flower above the line.  For every disappointment or failure, draw a root below the line.  Think about new or revamped campaigns, key customers, new markets you pursued, new talent you hired or new spokespeople you teamed up with, seasoned professionals who celebrated milestones or received recognition, changes you made in your processes or vendors, investments you made in technology, experiences you had with clients or donors, publicity you received, etc.  Think, too, about things that happened within your organization or your department, including events that increased or dampened morale, productivity, growth or reductions in staff, etc.

Now look at your marketing “garden.”  How does it look?  Did you have a better year, overall, than you initially remembered?  Did you struggle more than you’d like to admit?  If you planted your flowers and roots in chronological order, do you notice any patterns?  Did your roots generate periods of inactivity, or did they get turned into something better?

Although you can’t take your garden to your CEO or CFO in place of a traditional report, you can take it to heart: recognize the good that occurred this year.  Celebrate the successes, and examine the setbacks.  Even failures can be nurtured into growth.

AMiable Solution #215: Decembers to Remember

It’s nearly the end of December, a wonderful month filled with fantastic reasons to celebrate.  Whether you believe in things unseen or seen only, you can’t deny the importance of these often-overlooked December occasions:

·        On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights, a collection of 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, became law.  That day, the state of Virginia became the 10^th of 14 states (the number needed for a two-thirds majority) to approve 10 of the proposed 12 amendments sent by the first Congress.  Of the two remaining amendments, one--which concerned the population system of representation--was never ratified.  The other, which prohibited laws varying the payment of congressional members from taking effect until an election intervened, was ratified more than 200 years later, in 1992. (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bill-of-rights-is-finally-ratified)

·        December 20, 1803, France transferred authority of the Louisiana Territory to the United States.  The purchase was a bit of a surprise for the United States.  At the time, the United States was interested only in retaining its rights to store goods in New Orleans, a right that been given in a U.S.-Spanish treaty and then revoked in 1802 by Spanish authorities, acting under French orders.  But in mid-April 1803, Napoleon, most likely driven by France’s failure to put down a slave revolution in Haiti, an impending war with Great Britain, and financial difficulties, offered the Louisiana territory to the United States.  (http://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase)

·        On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, made the first successful flight in history in a gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  The brothers took turns and completed four separate flights, travelling, at the farthest, 852 feet in 59 seconds.  The machine, however, would never fly again.  After the final flight, a gust of wind rolled it over and damaged it beyond easy repair. (https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/thefirstflight.htm)

No matter what you’re celebrating this month, we wish you the best: peace, joy, happiness, time with family and friends, and rest.

AMiable Solution #214: Unopened Gifts

You see two gifts on the table.  Both of them have your name on it.  One looks like Martha Stewart wrapped it: the gift wrap looks seamless, it’s not covered from top to bottom in pieces of tape, the folds are crisp and flat, and the ribbon and adornments make it almost too pretty to open.  The other gift, on the other hand, looks positively plain next to it.

But you open both, right?  That’s because you know that although having an attractive outside is appealing, what really matters is what you find inside.

You could argue that your customers look at your direct mail packages the same way.  A colorful, image-filled outside will surely get their attention, but as long as the content is engaging and relevant to the recipient, a simpler, plainer outside will work just as well.

But you have to make sure that you deliver on the goods.  The can’t resist discounts.  The heartwarming stories.  The timely products.  The picked-just-for-me services.

If you continually send your customers, members, or donors offers that either don’t pertain to them or that simply fail to excite them, they will no longer look at your direct marketing as gifts but as burdens.  Trash.  Something to discredit and discard without ever opening them.

Bells and whistles may catch their eyes, but thoughtful, well-planned offers will catch your market’s loyalty.  Happy gift giving.

AMiable Solution #213: Mass Production

I admit it: during the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I fell for a network’s hype and watched a number of made-for-tv Christmas movies.  And I realized something pretty quickly: they all started to look the same. 

Some of the actors or actresses appeared in more than one of the movies.  The plots were pretty similar and predictable (troubled Christmas town/business looks doomed but is saved in the end by a seemingly unlikely source and love interest).  And three of the movies I watched ended the exact same way: the camera gave a soft-focus shot of a lit Christmas tree and then panned up.

The television network these movies aired on proudly boasted having 19 new Christmas movies this year, but I felt duped.

How often do we see organizations do this: repackage the same product or service or campaign with a slight tweak and hope that we, the consumers, don’t notice the lack of originality or value?  We believe it makes financial and strategic sense to build new things based on proven formulas, but at some point someone has to realize that consumers need more.

Are your “new” products or campaigns reruns or truly unique and beneficial offerings?  Will your market tune you in or out?   If you’re repackaging the same old story, your ending might not be as cheerful.

AMiable Solution #212: Giving Tuesday

With so much hype made over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we think it’s worth our time and yours to give Giving Tuesday the exposure it deserves.  In fact, we know that a number of our cherished clients not only participate in Giving Tuesday, but more importantly, they benefit from it.

How much giving really goes on on Giving Tuesday?  According to the official givingtuesday.org website, this day, which kicks off the charitable, holiday, and end-of-year giving season, raised $116,000,000 online last year.  The impact is significant.  The needs are real.

So what you can do today?

·       Remind your employees, your communities, and your markets of the good they’ve done through your organization this year through any fundraisers or drives you’ve organized or participated in.  Thank them, and encourage them to keep up the good work.

·        Pick one or two or three charitable organizations that you work with or support and give them extra support today.  That might take the form of writing a company check, taking up a collection in the lunch room, or even singing their praises on your website and encouraging your customers to support them.

·        Plan a future event.  Did today sneak up on you and you didn’t organize anything for your company?  Use today to plan a day of giving.  Whether that’s a day of collection for a particular charitable organization or a group field trip to volunteer your time and muscle, your efforts will be just as appreciated next month as they would be today.

Not sure who to give to?  The givingtuesday.org website has a searchable list, by city and state, of organizations, charities, and events in your community. 

AMiable Solution #211: Thanks

It seems only fitting that we take time this week to say thanks.  Thank you for choosing us to produce your materials, large and small.  Thank you for trusting our business to take care of your business.  Thank you for taking the time to get to know us and giving us the opportunity to get to know you.  We know that if it weren’t for you there’d be no us.  And we think you’re pretty great.

Your creativity and drive not only makes our job easier, but it also makes working with you even more enjoyable.  We hope you get to enjoy time with your family time this week, and we look forward to helping you finish the year strong.

Happy Thanksgiving!

AMiable Solution #210: The Right Time

We know we’re supposed to develop relationships with our clients, members, and donors, but sometimes we forget and think of them more as data than as people.  People who have professional and personal responsibilities.  People who have deadlines and goals and roadblocks or distractions that greet them along the way.

That’s why it’s important to remember, as frequently as we can, that the relationships we’re starting, growing, and maintaining require knowledge not only of the individuals’ past actions, needs, and expectations, but also of our timing.

Consider your family.  What would happen if you went home late and didn’t call or if you completely missed a date with your spouse or significant other without so much as a heads-up that you wouldn’t be there?  What if you missed an important milestone in a special someone’s life?  A birthday?  A game or recital?  An anniversary?  You’d pretty much be up the creek, and your family would let you know it.

Your customers are no different.  They count on you to be there for them when they need you, and when your timing is off or you’re absent altogether, your relationship suffers.  They lose confidence in you.  They no longer trust you as much as they used to.  They find someone else to help them.

It’s not enough to know the historical sales of a promotion or offer.  It’s not enough to know the general buying habits and preferences of your customers.  You also need to know their industry.  The things that affect their calendars, their products and services, and their productivity.  You need to know their schedules and the changes that are taking place in their industry.  Then you can perfect your timing.  You can offer your market--real live people--what they need when they need it most. 

AMiable Solution #209: A Winning Campaign

No matter who you voted for yesterday and how you feel about the final results, you made a decision based on the facts you were given: you made a choice.  Although the results your campaigns generate might not be as long-lasting or impact as many people as a presidential campaign, every marketing campaign your organization engages in builds supporters for you…or your competition.

After they’ve cast their “votes” with your organization, will your clients or donors wake up satisfied or disappointed?  It depends on how you run your campaign and what you do in the days after you win the sale or receive the donation.  Are you clear and honest?  Do your products do what they are supposed to?  Do the funds help the people you say they will?  Do you provide help or further communication afterward?

In March of this year, Daily Beast contributor Mark McKinnon appeared on MSNBC’s “Weekends with Alex Witt” to talk about the 2016 election and keys to a successful political campaign.  We think his points apply to marketing products and services as well, not just presidential hopefuls.

In his segment, McKinnon said a successful campaign needs a great candidate and a great story, and he said that campaign organizers need to be prepared.  We can all say the same things for marketing campaigns.  You need a great product or a great service to gain interest, and you need to have all of your departments prepared and in sync for when response starts coming in.

Whether your campaign ends in success or failure depends on your ability to make a sincere and helpful offer and to follow it up with friendly and supportive customer service, additional beneficial products or services, and a confidence in your ability to help clients.

Those are goals everyone can feel good about. 

AMiable Solution #208: Leftovers

If you gave out Halloween candy this week, you’re probably facing the same dilemma we are: leftover candy.  Whether you bought too much or had fewer kids than usual knock on your door, there it is.  A bowl of sugary goodness just begging to be eaten.

And you will, most likely because, hey, it’s candy, and you don’t want to waste it.  And if you won’t waste a little package of chocolate, you wouldn’t waste that stockpile of direct mail overage you have sitting in storage at work, right?

We accumulate direct mail overage for similar reasons.  The printer overprinted.  We lost more names in the merge/purge process than expected.  A list owner denied rental of a list after we already ordered the print run.  Whatever the reason for it, its very existence begs the same thing that the leftover candy does: use me; don’t let me go to waste. 

What do you have on your shelves?  Take a good look at it and see if you can find a new use for it.  Maybe you have enough on hand to warrant a remail to current clients or customers.  Maybe you have enough to insert into select invoice mailings or even inside boxed shipments.  However you use them, remember: you made them.  You paid for them.  Use them.

Before you start running lists or making plans, however, be sure to review the promotion for anything that may cause problems.  For example, check any dates listed in the piece.  If the copy contains any deadlines or time references that are too close to a potential drop date or already past, cut your losses and recycle the overage.  Mailing an outdated mail piece confuses consumers and makes your organization look incompetent.  Likewise, if the promotion includes old prices or special pricing that will no longer be honored, oust the overage and move on to the next pile.

If you are able to re-use or re-distribute a marketing promotion, check the codes used on the pieces and note the quantity you still have of each one.  Noting this now will help you more accurately track the success of the new distribution.

AMiable Solution #207: Treat Marketing

Last week, I got a personalized pen in the mail.  I didn’t order it, and I’d never heard of the company before, but there it was.  A nice, ball-point pen with my company’s name on it.

You’ve most likely experienced something similar.  A set of free Christmas cards here.  A calendar with your name on it there.  You have to wonder: does it work?  Do free samples really bring in business?

Yes, they do.

Sampling does what no four-color catalog, no exquisitely written email, no multi-piece envelop mailer can do: it lets customers see, feel, and use a product instead of just reading about it.  And it’s a practice you can implement through direct mail, at trade shows, and in retail facilities.

YA, an engagement marketing and promotions company in Minneapolis, made the following conclusions through its own research:

·        92% of consumers will try a product sample

·        53% bought the product sample they tried

·        42% have switched their brand preference based on trying a product sample

·        56% like product samples because they are looking for alternatives

·        77% say that receiving product sample would motivate them to try another from that brand

If you choose to send free samples, however, make sure they’re just that: free samples. 

According to U.S. Title 39, your company can mail unsolicited merchandise to someone if it’s clearly identified as a free sample or if you’re a charitable organization soliciting contributions.  It is not legal to send something to someone with the intention of collecting payment later.  Your recipients may contact you for more.  They may not.  They may throw your samples away.  In any case, that’s the risk you take.

Did I order more pens?  No, but I did put it in my drawer.  You just never know when you’ll need one.

AMiable Solution #206: Return to Sender

Sometimes the problem with a mailing address isn’t yours: it’s your customer’s.

You might not think that a customer, donor, or member would have trouble addressing mail to you.  After all, you have your mailing address plastered all over your website, your marketing collateral, and your social media sites.  But it happens.

For starters, if you have multiple locations or segregated offices (a corporate headquarters location, a fulfillment location, a customer service location, etc.) your customers might not know which address to use and send their inquiries, donations, or orders to the wrong address, delaying the process.

In addition, if you don’t provide pre-addressed envelopes, labels, or reply cards and rely on your audience handwriting your address, you risk that handwriting being illegible.  Although the Postal Service has advanced scanning technology that allows its machines to “read” nearly 160 billion pieces of mail every year, the system isn’t completely foolproof.  In 2015, the USPS’s Salt Lake City Remote Encoding Center--the last of what once was a 55-building strong “fleet” of facilities--processed more than 2 billion pieces of mail that post offices around the country identified as indecipherable.  While the “keyers” at the center are able to fill in the gaps and complete or identify the illegible addresses on the mail, the process takes time and delays your receipt.

So how can you make sure you get your mail on time?  First of all, make your mailing address large and clear on every order form and every page of every promotion.  Leave no doubt about where your customers’ responses should go.  Then, if your department can afford it, include a mailing label, reply card, or envelope with all of your campaigns.  If that’s not practical or possible, include a mailing label that customers can print or cut out and mail.

Your offers should inspire your market to respond.  Make sure your campaigns make it easy to do so.

AMiable Solution #205: KO the UAA

The United State Postal Service identifies mail as undeliverable for one of seven reasons:

• ·        no postage
• ·        incomplete, illegible, or incorrect address
• ·        addressee not at address
• ·        mail unclaimed
• ·        mail refused by the addressee at the time of delivery
• ·        mail refused by addressee after delivery when permitted
• ·        minimum criteria for mailability not met.

You can eliminate or at least greatly reduce the occurrence of two of those reasons-- incomplete, illegible, or incorrect address; addressee not at address--by keeping your mailing list clean.

Clean lists start with careful input.  No matter who’s entering the information, whether customer service, marketing, or sales, that information has to be accurate from the get-go.  That sometimes means taking longer than usual to enter a name and address into the system, and it sometimes takes a phone call or other follow-up to verify the information with the client or member. 

But that’s time well spent.  Horizontech Inc., a global information technology services organization, reported in its May 2011 “HTI Base Statistics on UAA Mail” report that the USPS receives 6.9 billion pieces of Undeliverable-As-Addressed (UAA) mail every year at a cost of approximately $1.4 billion annually. 

Why waste money developing, printing, and mailing something that’s never going to get anywhere?

Once a contact is in your database, keeping it current is key.  Out-of-date or inaccurate addresses accounted for more than 68% of UAA mail in July 2016, according to the USPS’s online report of nixie volume by mailing industry. 

Keep your addresses deliverable by running a merge purge on your house list, and any big mailings with multiple rentals, at least once a year.  You can buy your own software, but your best bet is to let a data processing company run the merge purge for you.  Your data processing company may be your mailhouse or an independent provider, but it should have the resources and tools (NCOA, LACS, and CASS) you need to clean up your list and take advantage of postage discounts.

As the saying goes, you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip, and you can’t deliver sales from an undeliverable mailpiece.  A clean database is a happy place.

AMiable Solution #204: Falling for It?

Fall is here, and with it comes cooler evenings and brisk mornings, back-to-school, and football.  It’s brought longer pants, shorter attention spans, and thoughts of the end of the year.

Fall has also brought the opportunity to create season-specific campaigns and promotions.

Did you send out fall-themed marketing last week?  Do you have others currently in production?  According to Brielle Jaekel, you may want to review them closely before you let them drop.

In her September 25, 2015, Mobile Marketer article, “Marketers Largely Fail With First-Day-of-Fall Social Campaigns,” Brielle says that brands are constantly incorporating national events and holidays into their social feeds.  The result?  Seasonal overkill.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  You can “fall” into your marketing, but you have to use it wisely. 

How?  Highlight only the events--seasonal and otherwise--that are relevant to your organization.  For example, if you release a signature product every fall, incorporating the fall season into your marketing makes sense.  Slapping a few leaves on a promotion with no tie to the season or the content of your offer does not.

How else can you make sensational seasonal marketing?  If your organization doesn’t have a natural tie to this time of year, create one:

• ·        Plan an open house/career fair for local students.  Invite them to come in and ask questions, talk to your experts, and learn about the important contributions your industry makes to the community and how they can get involved.  Make it an annual event.
• ·        Organize a donation drive that compliments your company’s mission.  The holidays are coming.  If you’re in the restaurant business, collect canned goods for the local food bank.  If you’re a retailer, collect sweaters for a local homeless shelter.  If you’re a service business, organize a company-wide volunteer opportunity.  You get the idea.
• ·        Host a pumpkin decorating contest.  Ask customers to decorate a pumpkin based on one of your organization’s key missions or on a particular product line or service.  Offer a coffee-and-doughnuts celebration for the winning entry’s office.  Be sure to post all photo submissions online to share the fun and recognize participating customers.

Making your fall promotions relevant to the needs and interests of your market not only makes them more effective, but it also makes them more memorable, something your customers will look forward to year after year.

AMiable Solution #203: Setting Up for Success

Everything about a play affects your experience and your reaction to it.  The lighting in the lobby.  The comfortableness of the seats.  The accompanying music.  The projection of sound.  The costumes on the actors.

The sets on the stage.

When done well, set design enhances the story being told.  Its presence is appreciated but almost unnoticed.  Nothing seems out of place.  You feel like those props are supposed to be there.

Overdone, however, and audience members not only notice the ridiculously large lamp in the corner, but they are also distracted by it.  Instead of focusing on the actors and the story they’re conveying, the audience is staring at the lamp, wondering what it’s doing there, what it has to do with the story, and how the theater got it to glow so brightly.  The lamp detracts from the experience.

Like theater sets, graphic elements in marketing create a mood and an atmosphere.  They should maintain the style and tone of the marketing piece and your organization.  They should support the “location” of your story with images of the “characters” affected by your products or services.  They should visually tell the story you’ve written--not serve as a glaring, irrelevant, “look at me” gimmick.

Whether you choose a marketing design that’s minimalistic or full, it should be natural to the content.  It should move the story--your pitch and offer--along.  When they do, that’s when you create the desired reaction.  That’s when you get your encore.

AMiable Solution #202: Vision

Have you ever put down a book because reading it became unbearable?  You just couldn’t put yourself through the agony of the page anymore?

Sometimes you can chalk it up to bad writing.  But sometimes, the fault lies with the plot: the essence of the book.  The driving force of the story.  Maybe it wanders.  Maybe it doesn’t make sense.  Maybe events that happen early in the book don’t line up with events that happen later.  You distrust the story and the storyteller.

If you don’t have a solid annual marketing plan to guide you, your customers may feel the same way.  If your marketing wanders, never surprises them (in a good way, of course), fails to support your mission or their needs, or leaves your customers confused or unhappy, then they’re not going to stick around long enough to see the end.

To keep your market engaged and intrigued, your annual marketing plan, like a good book plot, should include four important elements:

• ·        Specific activities you plan to undertake to move your audience forward.  You want to create promotions and incentives that draw your members and customers deeper into your story and theirs.
• ·        The right audience.  Every marketing activity, like every book, will appeal to a particular audience.  Make sure you know exactly who each activity is targeted to.
• ·        A way to measure success.  For an author, success is measured in book sales and publicity.  For marketers, success comes with inquiries, subscriptions, renewals, memberships, donations, and purchases.
• ·        Engaging characters.  Identify who on your team is responsible for each activity.  Like the characters in a story, every member of your marketing team plays a role in developing your relationship with your market.  Make sure each person understands what he/she contributes to your tale.

Every marketer wants their department to emerge as heroes.  Carefully planning your marketing endeavors--and sticking with them--will help make that happen.

AMiable Solution #201: Teamwork

Football season is back!  Predictions are already being made about which team will make it to the big game in February and which player will be responsible for getting them there. 

The odds-on favorites?  Quarterbacks.  Five out of seven CBSSports.com staff members are already predicting a quarterback MVP for the 2017 game.  And not a single regular-season game has been played!

Why is it that quarterbacks tend to get all the glory?  Why has a quarterback been given the MVP title 27 times in the last 50 championship games (the next most-honored positions, by the way, are wide receiver and running back, with only six players receiving the prestigious award each)?  Is it because the quarterback really is the key to a winning team, or does he just get the glory because he’s the one most people see?

We’re not discounting the importance of the quarterback’s role, but we think he gets all the glory because he makes the most noise.  He’s the one you hear calling the plays, even though it’s his offensive team that helps get the job done.  He couldn’t do it without them.

Marketing and customer service are kind of like the quarterback and the offensive line.  One does all the planning and makes all the noise, but it’s the customer service department that helps complete the plays.  They need to know the plans just as intimately as the quarterback if they want to anticipate needs and provide the necessary follow-through.

 A quarterback can’t just spontaneously throw the ball toward the end zone and hope someone is there to catch it.  He has to communicate with the guards and the tackles and the wide receivers to make sure that he is ready to set up a big play and that someone is waiting on the other end to make it.

Do your marketing and customer service teams work together or individually in parallel?  If you want your customers or members and your organization to win, you have to make sure everyone is working from the same play book.

AMiable Solution #200: The Right Tool

You have a highly creative marketing team.  Reliable products or services.  Modern marketing and customer service tools at your fingertips.  That’s all you need to create a strong brand and responsive marketing, right?

You’ll probably do well, yes, but unless you also have a strong unique selling proposition (USP), you could do even better.

Unfortunately, if you have competition, you can’t just count on being the best.  Best is relative.  Best is the same as all your other worthy competitors.  To stand out in your industry and to be remembered by consumers, you need to be different.  You need to highlight what it is that you do that no one else does. 

If you’re not doing that now, get started.

How?  First, identify what makes your company unique.  This can be tough.  After all, you likely offer the same things as just about every other company or organization in your market.  Think about your four “Ps”: your product characteristics, price structure, placement strategy (location and distribution), and promotional strategy. 

Still stuck?  Joy Gendusa, founder & CEO of PostcardMania, suggests in her article, “The One Marketing Tool You Can’t Afford to Ignore,” DMNews.com, June 2, 2014, asking yourself these questions:

• What void in the marketplace can you fulfill?
• What can you guarantee about your product or service?
• What do people hate about your industry that you can fix?
• What niche do you or can you service that will differentiate you from others in your industry?

Consider also what you do--or could do--that your competitors don’t.  It may have more to do with an experience than a product itself.  Consider the company Man Crates.  It sells gifts for men and ships them in wooden box crates that need to be opened by a crowbar! 

Whatever it is that makes your company different from your competitors, embrace it and share it with the world.  Reference that uniqueness on every marketing effort.  Live it and enforce it with enough frequency that people--customers and prospects alike--automatically associate your company with that particular benefit. 

Don’t just be good.  Be different. 

AMiable Solution #199: Making the Grade

When you were in school, your teachers’ expectations were clear.  You knew what you needed to do to get a good grade.  But what does it take to make the grade in marketing?

In our zeal to create unique, memorable, eye-catching campaigns we can forget to address the most basic components:

• ·        Provide a clear message.  If a campaign is so busy being flashy, the text can become an afterthought and not get the attention it needs, or the text can send a message that conflicts with the graphics and design.  Either way, the buyer isn’t sure what he/she is supposed to know or do and does nothing.
• ·        Present your message in a logical sequence and layout.    If you make your buyers work to understand your product, your service, or your offer, or if your campaign leaves them scratching their heads in confusion, your campaign fails.  Your message--and your design--should guide your buyers step-by-step through your offer, addressing key information including what exactly your product or service is, how it can solve your buyers’ problems, and how to order.
• ·        Keep it free of errors.  If you wanted Mom to hang your spelling quiz on the refrigerator, you had to spell all of the words right.  Likewise, if you want to earn the attention and respect of your market, you need to present your best work, error-free.  Take your time to check and re-check everything, even if you’re using text that has been used and proofed before.

Of course, the ultimate test of any campaign is whether or not it creates the desired response.  The issues addressed above won’t always be the reason a campaign falls short of expectations (other factors, including list, timing, format, etc., matter, too), but creating clean, clear copy will always give you your best start

AMiable Solution #198: International Celebrations

When we “calendar market,” we tend to focus on our own seasons and events: Labor Day in September; Columbus Day and Halloween in October; Veterans Day and Thanksgiving in November; and Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa in December.

But your international customers operate on a different calendar. 

Some of them celebrate the same things Americans do, just on different dates.  For example, Canada celebrates its independence on December 11, India on August 15, Ghana on March 6, Kosovo on February 17, Philippines on June 2, and Australia on January 26.

Others celebrate holidays not observed in the United States.  Mexico celebrates Children’s Day on April 30.  France celebrates Bastille Day on July 14.  Brazil celebrates Carnival in February.

Our point?  Get to know your international customers.  Find out which holidays or observances are the most important to them and which ones influence their buying behavior the most.  Doing so will not only help you understand your customers better, but it will also give you another opportunity and another strategy for marketing to them.

AMiable Solution #197: Re-Schooling

With summer nearly over and thoughts turning to a new school year, you may be wishing for a little education yourself.  But if there’s just no time or budget for a marketing course or seminar, check out your colleagues’ bookshelves or your local bookstore for a little inspiration.

Not sure where to start?  Here are three marketing books to look into this fall:

1.      Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D..  An amazon.com bestseller in the “Marketing & Consumer Behavior” category, this book explains why people say “yes” and examines six principles that you can use to become a skilled persuader.  Geoffrey James, a contributing editor for Inc.com, calls this 2006 revised edition “as useful to salespeople as it is to marketers” and “essential stuff” (“Top 10 Marketing Books of All Time,” June 25, 2013).

2.      Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers by Seth Godin.  Despite its age (it was originally published in 1999), this book continues to offer marketers insight into building long-term relationships and creating trust with customers who have indicated an interest in learning more about a company’s product or service.

3.      The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer.  If you just need a little motivation to get you going and don’t want to spend much time processing heavy material, Mitch Joel, President of Mirum, a global digital marketing agency, suggests this book.  In fact, Joel re-reads this book every year.  In his twistimage.com blog article, “20 Best Marketing Books of All Time," he calls Gitomer’s book “simple, fun and short” and “full of how to better position, market and sell both yourself and the products and services that you represent.” 

AMiable Solution #196: Three Tips for Juicier Marketing

Creative block happens for many reasons.  We’re stressed.  We’re crunched for time.  We don’t know enough about the product or service we’re marketing.  We know too much about the product or service we’re marketing.  We’ve been marketing the same thing the same way for a long time.

Whatever the reason, you can break out of the marketing blahs and find new inspiration in three, easily accessible ways:

1. Revisit old promotions.  We mean really old promotions.  Look at campaigns that weren’t yours.  See what your predecessors used to say about your organization or the services you still offer.  You may find descriptions and language or case studies and examples that you can incorporate into your current marketing.
2. Look beyond your world.  You know what your competitors are doing.  Now see what companies and organizations in other industries are doing.
3. Remember your audience.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the creation that we forget who we’re creating for.  Talk to the folks who interact directly with your clients on a daily basis: your customer service agents, sales reps, and technical folks.  Find out what questions they ask, what concerns they have.  Review your social media sites for this information, too.  They’ll give you insight into your clients’ fears and goals and help you focus your marketing.

A fresh perspective can do wonders for your creativity.  Get shifting, and get flowing!

AMiable Solution #195: Oops…

Some mistakes can’t be avoided.  Others, however, are entirely avoidable, and odds are, you’ve found yourself looking at a distributed flyer, brochure, letter, catalog, or postcard at one point or another and thought, “Oh, nuts.  This didn’t have to happen.”

A previous mentor of mine once told me, after I confessed to discovering a stupid mistake I’d made in a brochure after it was printed, “In the big scheme of things, this isn’t a big deal.” 

That was a pretty kind response.  Your superiors may not be so accepting of mistakes: make too many, and you’re out.  

More importantly, your market may not respond so forgivingly.  Your mistakes may discredit your reputation.  Create financial ramifications for your company.  Make you look like bumbling fools.

We can avoid making embarrassing and detrimental mistakes if we understand three of the most common reasons we make them:

1.      Rushing.  Whether we hurry through each campaign because we just don’t have much notice or because we’re too busy trying to juggle too many projects at once, we often find ourselves rushing through a campaign.  And it often creates mistakes.  We overlook or fail to confirm details, we miscommunicate key information, we make errors, and we shorten the review process or skip it altogether.  When this happens, we make or miss mistakes that could be caught and corrected

2.      Poor planning.  Each and every one of your campaigns has a purpose, a goal.  If you’re not sure what it is, you can’t write and design your campaign clearly, and it won’t generate the response or results you’re looking for.  Dan McDade, in his November 20, 2012, DM News article, “The Top 10 Mistakes Marketers Make,” says that most marketers start with faulty assumptions and waste a lot of money.  You need to know if your goal is to generate leads, build your brand, etc., before you craft your campaign

3.      Asking for too much.  This one ties back to “poor planning.”  You need to know your goal for each campaign, and then you need to clearly communicate that goal to your audience.  If you want members to renew, focus on the benefits of membership.  If you want to invite clients to register for a course, focus on the course.  Don't overwhelm your audience with unrelated information and ask your prospects to do too much.  They may get confused, lost in the sea of offers you’re floating by them, and not do anything at all

Are mistakes 100% avoidable?  Unfortunately not.  We are humans, after all.  But if we take our time, focus on one goal at a time, and make it clear to our markets what we’re offering them, we can improve our marketing products and our results.

AMiable Solution #194: Will Your Clients Sink or Swim?

A friend of mine with young kids wanted her children to learn how to swim.  She found a swim school that operates indoors year-round and offers a very flexible schedule.  Liking the convenience, she signed her kids up.  After four sessions of lessons, her kids still hadn’t been taught anything that resembled swimming or any lifesaving skills. 

My friend wasn’t looking to train an Olympic athlete: she simply wanted to know that her kids could hold their own in the water and had the skills to protect themselves, if they ever got in over their heads.  She came to the conclusion that the swim school was more interested in making money than in teaching kids to swim, and she left.

Are you equipping your customers with the services, knowledge, or community support that they’re looking for when they need it, or are you drawing out the process in the name of customer retention and profit?   Your short-term benefits may draw clients, customers, donors, and members in, but if you don’t meet your market’s long-term needs or expectations, you’ll be looking for new customers--instead of helping loyal or repeat ones--in no time.

How can you be sure you’re providing your customers with the right amount of help in the right amount of time?  That can be tricky.  We live in a demanding time.  People have or see problems and they want solutions immediately.  Sometimes we can solve their problems instantly.  Other times, a fast fix isn’t feasible or reasonable.  You wouldn’t want to be operated on by a surgeon who finished an express version of college, would you? 

Your customers can feel confident in you and the help you’re providing as long as you do three things:

·        Be realistic.  How many days should it really take to complete a job, train employees, execute a process, etc.?  Consider how much time it actually takes to quickly and efficiently assist your customer without sacrificing quality and without dragging out the process unnecessarily.

·        Be clear.  Manage expectations from the beginning.  Let clients and customers know how long it typically takes to achieve a desired result.  If possible, offer alternative options for faster, yet modified, results.  My friend would have been happy to stay with the swim school if they had offered a “summer survival” course.

·        Be honest.  Is your program designed to help customers or your company?  We’re all looking for ways to retain customers, but deceiving them or knowingly exasperating a process will only hurt you in the long run.

Have you properly equipped your clients with the information or services they need?  When put to the test, will they sink, or will they swim?   Will you?