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.