Your attention to customer relationships always pays off – either for you or your competitors.
In my last post we met the creative director for a large communications company who was discomfited with her existing printer and looking for a better match. I discussed the all-too-common causes of customer relationship issues that I see almost every day.
Today, I’ll dig more into the ways you can manage your relationships with your customers to keep them from being lured away by some opportunist, like me.
Be thoughtful, attentive and creative about your communications. Some automated communication – postcards, email, letters, for example – is practical in getting the word out about your new store, special offer or that you’re still here, better than ever. However, while they might trigger a stampede to your sale, they won’t make your audience feel like you were reaching out to shake hands with just them.
Personalizing your communications is really fairly easy, even on a large scale. Capture the easy milestones. Know their birthdays? Or, the date they became your customers? Hi Julie or Hello Bob on postcards gets Julie’s and Bob’s attention, and suggests your making an effort at a personal overture.
When customers reach the preferred ranks, your gestures need to reflect their status. They’re more than acquaintances now. These individuals are no longer customers. They buy products like yours only from you and never look at the price tag. You should welcome them by their first names and shake their hands with both of yours as a somewhat poorer local printer can attest. Handwritten notes on personal stationary should replace email. (No. Email marketing using the Zaphino font is not the same thing.) When gifts are appropriate, monogram them.
Or, how about this for a crazy idea – call them on the telephone. Seriously, many smartphones now come with this app.
Continue growing all of these relationships by being genuinely helpful. Assist with useful guidance, especially if there’s nothing in it for you. Don’t be a stranger. Drop by to ensure all is going well. Send them case studies, white papers, newsletters and articles that will have value to them. Refer prospects.
Yes, and sales promotions, which will be much more warmly received. Remind them you appreciate their business and your relationship with them.
Having said all this, I have to admit, my new communications company client came really cheap and easy. I want to extend my personal appreciation. I’m just not sure to whom.
We’ve all made mistakes in managing customer relationships. What are your biggest ones and how could you have avoided them? Don’t be afraid. Be honest and candid. Feel free to use a pseudonym if you really blew it. Our mistakes are how we learn, right?
What other topics are of interest? Let us know and we’ll try hard to cover them, or get an expert to do it. Want to share your experience? Let us know. We’re eager to share this space.
In Part 1 of this series I admitted to my big-time gambling habit on high-stakes marketing games. I also shared some of the rules I stack the odds to make the contest not just favorable, but profitable.
In today’s post I’ll share three more. With these seven rules your well prepared to assess marketing strategies and decide if the odds will return you sufficient profit. Breaking even or walking away with chump change isn’t my goal. The payoff needs to be worth the trip to the bank to deposit.
Here are the remainder of Pello’s seven rules for winning big at high-stakes marketing:
5. Irrelevant communications or being “salesy” contribute to customer defections and alienation. Great content is king. Anything else is just marketing noise that prospects and customers tune out. Be smart with any bets on content.
6. In-bound or out-bound? Out-bound or in-bound? If you’re feeling lucky and not afraid of losing the mortgage payment, put your whole marketing budget into just one. If you want to still be in business when Christmas arrives, cover the spread. Bet on outbound marketing with investments in direct mail, telemarketing and e-mail. Do the same with inbound marketing. Lay it across e-commerce sites, promotional landing pages and social media (LinkedIn and Facebook).
7. It is my experience that a large number of companies & businesses purchase cheap mailing lists. Not me. Databases go bad at a rate of 2.5 percent per month, according to the Direct Marketing Association. So, can you score on a mailing list that was last updated in 2008? Sure you can! And put little Suzy’s college fund on the Cubbies while you’re at it.
So, what are you touting? Let us know where you’ve made some coin.
Want to bet on a sure thing? Become a guest blogger. The exposure is great and you’ll help a community full of great folks. We wouldn’t steer you wrong. Just contact Scott or me.
Smart marketing wagers that stack the deck in your favor.
I’m a gambler. No, you won’t find me at a Las Vegas poker table. I don’t care what anyone says, horses are big, aggressive and bite. So, laying a wager at the Golden Gate Fields is out. I don’t even enter the office Super Bowl pool. When I gamble, I want the odds stacked in my favor and I never want to be bitten.
So, what do I wager on? Marketing strategies. Yeah, I think ‘em up. Plan ‘em. Then bet hundreds and thousands of dollars. The bigger the return the better. Publicity campaigns. High-stakes advertising. Door hangers. Facebook promotions. Direct mail postcards. E-commerce sites. Postcards promising free whatever.
There’s not a marketing game that doesn’t give me goose bumps. I study ‘em day in and day out until I find the sure winners. So, what’s my secret? The odds. Always the odds.
I have a system that I’m going to share with you – Péllo’s seven rules for winning big at high-stakes marketing.
1. The average American is capable retaining three, maybe four, brands tops. If I’ve got a product to throw into the ring, how do I leverage my money? Repetition. I keep repeating my message until my brand sticks in the grey matter and number four grabs a bus to try his luck in Reno.
2. We all know that poorly performing employees, customers or stocks hurt our odds. So, we make changes. We fix what isn’t working, right? So, why do so many people ride a poorly performing website?
3. I always cover my bets. Add some extra as insurance. Whether or not I am marketing to my customers, I know that my competitors surely are.
4. Buck for buck, investments in client retention are five times more profitable than new client acquisition. Sure, you need to put some skin into attracting new customers. When the pot is five times bigger and keeping customers has better odds than replacing them, that’s where I put the biggest chunk of my marketing budget.
In Part 2, I’ll show you three more ways to roll winners high-stakes marketing. Meanwhile, evaluate your system for marketing. Let us know if any of these methods can improve your odds, or if you have systems of your own.
Want to bet on a sure thing? Become a guest blogger. The exposure is great and you’ll help a community full of great folks. We wouldn’t steer you wrong. Just contact Scott or me.
Still trying to wrap your head around Variable Data Printing? Péllo provides some answers.
Last time, I began responding to questions that came in response to our three-part series on personalized digital printing (aka variable data printing or VDP). The frustration expressed by several was a seeming lack of personal facts to populate the database (It’s really just a simple spreadsheet) used to fill in the blanks in personalized direct mail pieces. I demonstrated that with a little deductive reasoning a database can be significantly expanded.
Today, let’s look at a couple of other questions that perplex many who are thinking about adding personalized direct and online tactics to their marketing mix.
How do I decide what information to collect and how do I collect it?
The first rule is collect only what you need. Customers have little tolerance for providing information that goes beyond what’s needed for the immediate transaction. Never require a customer to spend 20 minutes answering questions to get a simple price quote because you want to warehouse information for the future.
So, decide what information would help craft personalized materials that provide value to your customers. Customers will readily exchange relevant information for something of value – white papers, free trials, samples, coupons, poll results or demonstrations, just to name a few of the items commonly swapped for relevant information.
How do a Personal URL and a personal microsite interact?
A “PURL” and a personal microsite working in tandem take personalization into the amazing new territory. You begin by personalizing your direct mailer or email as usual. In addition, you also add a PURL, which would look something like http://firstname.lastname.yourdomain.com.
When the customer clicks the PURL she arrives at a microsite that’s – Holy Kreskin! – all about her and the content she’s been dreaming about. Tailoring both ends of the promotion has proven to skyrocket sales and speed prospects down the sales funnel faster – once they recover from the shock and accept that your microsite must be magic, of course.
We plan to have more on PURLs in the near future from one of experts in the field. If you have questions now, don’t wait, ask them below.
Your homework assignment for today was to create a simple spreadsheet with the hard facts you know about your customers (name, address, phone number, previous purchases, etc.) and then deduce other information to expand your database (gender, distance from your business, neighborhood, etc.).
Surprised at how much additional data you derived? Sherlock Holmes would be filled with envy.
The final step is to quit marveling at your ingenuity (It is considerable though, right?) and apply it to your next promotion. As I mentioned, don’t just pepper your content with data, but apply them to support your Action Message and call to action. Then stand back so you aren’t trampled in the rush of new business.
As a reminder, we’re always looking for guest bloggers to share their marketing and communications experience. If you’d like to share your experience and gain more exposure for your business, contact either of us.
Still trying to wrap your head around Variable Data Printing? Péllo provides some answers for direct marketers.
There has been a lot of interest to our three-part series on personalized digital printing, or variable data printing or just VDP as it’s commonly called. As a result, the series generated a number of questions. I thought you might have the same questions, so here are my responses for all of you.
What types of information can I personalize on, say, a postcard, calendar or other direct marketing piece?
Anything. Seriously, text, graphics, video, audio – whatever you want. Let’s start with the basics for the moment, the data you like have already. Let’s say your objective is to move existing customers up to higher quality socks. Using information you likely have, your pitch might look something like:
Hi <<First Name>>,
In <<Month>>, you purchased <<Number Purchased>> dozen of our <<Type of Sock>>. By now, they probably have gaping holes in the heels. We know a <<Job Title>> at <<Company Name>> must dress impeccably right down to his hosiery. We can help. If you order <<Number Proposed>> dozen our longwearing <<Next Higher Model of Sock>>, we’ll slash <<Determined by Product>>% off. You’ll love the admiring looks you get walking down <<Street Name>>.
I constructively worked in a lot of information that’s readily at hand in most businesses. One important thing to notice, I didn’t drop in data willy-nilly. The entire sentence is aimed at getting the customer to envision the benefits of better socks. So, before you start contriving content that conforms to your data, establish a clear objective. What is it you want the customer to do? Then, as with any messaging, make every word support that objective.
It will take me quite some time to gather information beyond name and address. Should I wait to personalize my direct mail campaigns?
No, begin with what you have. Actually, most people find that they have more usable information than they realize. In the previous example, I used data that I know I can easily compile. Except for customers’ names, which are flags to grab customers’ attention, use everything else to further your objective.
Be creative. Addresses can become maps. A previous purchase can be a photo. Several purchases can suggest a package deal just for that customer.
In part 2, I’ll answer two more popular questions on how to collect data and, the area that sparked the most interest by far: personalized URLs and microsites.
Until then, take out a piece of paper and write your Action Message across the top. Underneath, make a list of the pieces of information you know about each of your customers – name, address, purchases, etc.
After you’ve listed all of the hard data, slip on your deerstalker and Inverness capecoat, and . . . really? I thought everyone did. Well, you’re going to do some deductive reasoning, so dress accordingly.
Continue your list with whatever categories of information you can infer. Gender should be easy in most cases. Industry or type of business? Don’t have addresses? Use phone number prefixes to determine proximity to your business or nearest outlet.
If you think that you’ve been exceptionally perceptive, let us know what you deduced and how. Let’s see how far we can go.
As a reminder, we’re always looking for guest bloggers to share their marketing and communications expertise. If you’d like to share your experience and gain more exposure for your business, contact either of us.
Guest blogger Bruce Campbell has been a technology evangelist in the evolution business computing and the Internet his entire career. When he’s not promoting the benefits of the newest technologies at Clare Computing Solutions in San Ramon or blogging about basic topics to help businesses with their computer systems, he’s likely performing or teaching bluegrass music.
In my previous post, I discussed how to achieve a more prominent perception of your business in your customers’ eyes. As an example of how easy this is, we looked at the steps for make-overs on two disparate communications vehicles – the website and the business card. Today, I come full circle with advice on designing a website that looks professional.
3. Build a website that communicates professionalism.
Creating the perfect website is important, but the costs of a truly professional site can be daunting for a startup or small business. However, having no website is worse. If money is limited, services like Go Daddy can provide templates for creating decent websites to tide you over until you can work with a professional company to build the perfect website.
Yes, a template website might not have the looks and functionality you might like, but you can dress it up with some photos, more information about your company, its mission and its value proposition.
There’s an underlying theme to the tips above. If the message on two of your most important communications vehicles says that you refuse to spend your own money to make your business look sturdy, trustworthy and professional, then why should customers want to give you any of their money? After all, if you’re in business, you want to convince people to spend their hard-earned money with you. Make it an easy choice for them.
Modern technology provides inexpensive, easy tools to hit the ground running – don’t skimp on these essentials.
Variable Data Printing is so easy, yet so underused, it’s driving Péllo crazy.
In my previous post, I made the point that while variable data printing, or more commonly VDP, is commonly used to personalize direct mail material of all kinds, marketing professionals seldom, if ever, used anywhere near its full potential.
Today, I’ll discuss how to milk the money from VDP.
So frustrated is Péllo when he sees materials that left 90 percent of their advantage in copywriters’ pens, that seeing a direct mail card that only addresses him personally in the salutation, can trigger a tirade.
Personalized VDP printing is to direct mail marketing what social media is to the Internet. It’s virtually speaking one-to-one with every target.
Sure, you can fill in blanks: Hi, <<Mr/rs/s>>. <<Last Name>>, This week only, we’ll slash half off our dealer prep charges on any of the hundreds of Suzuki Equators rusting in our back lot . . .
It’s true that while people understand that a computer, not the sender, adds their names, even just inserting just prospects names in the salutation increases the likelihood that they’ll look at the mailer.
But, come on, use your imagination! This is where businesses miss the big almost free opportunity to address each prospect’s personal needs, interests, longed-for desires.
Péllo, please, sit back down. I don’t want to tie you up, again. That’s the way.
I’ve talked about the importance of Action Messaging that communicates your offerings as if you’re channeling your customers. VDP takes your Action Messages to a one-to-one level in a mass mailing.
All you need is some information that you already know about your customers or prospects and add it to your contact list. Once gathered, the 1:2:1 VDP printing system looks at each recipient’s name and drops the personal message tailored just for them into the mailer.
Instead of just personalizing the salutation and causing Péllo to begin pounding his head on the wall, again, consider the opportunities that VDP can introduce into your direct mail program. Here are a few thoughts to kick-start your imagination:
Use previous purchases and their prices from your records to suggest a newer, better model or related product in the customer’s price range with a personalized deal just for them.
Reference part of a personal conversation that you had with a customer in a seasonal thanks-for-the-business letter.
Change the photo in every direct-mail postcard, flyer or brochure based on each customer’s hobbies or information that would be just about their specific business.
Turn customers’ addresses into maps from their driveways to your store. Take it one step further and direct them to the outlet that’s the closest to their homes or businesses.
Make it easy to say yes. That same data enables you to complete in advance much of the response card for the customer. All that’s needed is the credit card number.
Combine products you know your customer is interested into package deals: Buy the lawnmower and the refrigerator you were looking at last month and we’ll take 25 percent off the total price.
I know, you’re thinking, where do I get all of this data? Some you likely already have: customers’ addresses, for example. From that you can create maps or cite drive times on each mailer. That will be the topic for part 3.
Last time, I asked you to create a simple spreadsheet that lists the first names of 10 prospects in the first column followed by columns with the dates you last met and the specific problem you discussed in just three to five words.
For next time, draft brief copy for a fill-in-the-blank postcard with an enticing offer aimed at new business – same offer for each prospect. The postcard should have at least two spots for the first name, and spots for the offer and problem.
You may struggle a bit at first wording the entries in the specific-problem column. However, once you’ve done a couple you’ll have developed a template that makes the rest go quickly.
As a reminder, we’re currently drafting our 2013 blog schedule and we’re encouraging contributors with marketing and communications perspectives their experience to sign up. If you’d like to share your experience and gain more exposure for your business, contact either of us.
Variable Data Printing is so easy, yet so underused, it’s driving Péllo crazy.
This should be Péllo’s blog to write. He’s the master of “variable data printing,” which is also called VDP, 1:1 and personalized data printing. Regardless of the terminology, it refers to the same thing – any piece of paper on which the text or images were driven by a database.
Your telephone bill is an example of a variable data printing. So are your credit card statement and the bill from your dentist. Each was custom printed according to information supplied by a database.
By the way, a database isn’t necessarily anything complicated. If you keep your customers’ names and addresses on a spreadsheet or the contact app on your mobile phone, you are maintaining a database.
Billing statements and digital address books are functional, but not very compelling.
VDP is putting a spreadsheet (like your customer list, for example) in charge of a digital printer and making the output speak one on one.
However, spice up your customer list or address book a bit by adding birthdays, restaurant names from business lunches or products your customers recently purchased, and now you have a database for a winning direct mail campaign.
What makes direct mail promotions that take advantage of today’s variable data printing techniques so much more successful than usual Hi, XXX . . . strain of postcards and letters? It’s because they take strategic advantage of this information to make their mailings relevant. Relevance means delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time.
The ability of savvy marketers enables them to use what they know about prospects to create compelling marketing messages. A full-color direct mail piece with just a few variable elements can have a completely different impact than a telephone bill with hundreds of variable elements, even though both have the same roots: a digital printing press coupled with a database spiked with relevant factoid.
What does that have to do with me rather than Péllo writing this blog? Because he’d just rant. That so few even good marketing professionals take even a smidgen of the advantages that VDP offers, causes Péllo to rant to the point that I half expect him to bite the head off a . . . well, it ticks him off a bit.
VDP spells the end of impersonal junk mail. Every direct mail piece personalized using VDP becomes a private chat with the recipient and an opportunity to further your relationship.
In part 2, I’ll share more of Péllo’s secrets on VDP. Before then, make a list of the first names 10 prospects in the first column of a spreadsheet. In the next column, jot down the date you last met. In the third column, write the specific problem that specific problem that each prospect needs your help to solve. That’s it.
We’re currently drafting our 2013 blog schedule and we’re encouraging contributors with marketing and communications perspectives their experience to sign up. If you’d like to share your experience and gain more exposure for your business, contact either of us.
These Holiday card guidelines will cement closer relationships with your customers.
In my last post, you learned some of the important considerations for effectively integrating your brand into direct-mail holiday cards and personalizing your best wishes to customers and others important to your business. Today, I’ll address some frequently asked questions that people just as frequently get the wrong answer.
Who should I mail them to? Will it hurt just this once to skip sending them because I’m too busy? Why can’t I just send emails? I’ll answer these questions in Part 2 of this series.
Consider who’s on your list. Holiday cards aren’t the right vehicles for drumming up new business, but for taking advantage of one of the few opportunities most of us have to relate in a purely personal way with customers. Send cards to only those people you know. If it’s a customer and you’re sales representative has the relationship, the sales manager should send the card.
Once you’ve begun sending holiday cards, don’t stop and don’t neglect the personal message. While I know the sender was undoubtedly busy, it’s always a letdown when I’m expecting a card and it doesn’t arrive or the usual note is missing.
And one last thing, the holidays are no time for email, regardless of how entertaining the animated Santa dancing to Jingle Bells Rock is. There’s nothing genuine or personal about an email blast. Recipients will perceive it as an effort to cut costs and labor. Is it anything more?
You’ll be surprised at the affect these few guidelines will have on your relationships. The personalization may seem like a major commitment. It takes me less than a football game to complete mine.
By coincidence, if you’re a football fan, this Saturday is your chance. Toledo will play Utah State in the Holiday Card Writing Bowl (aka Famous Idaho Potato Bowl), the traditional game scheduled specifically for scribing your cards.
As a reminder, we’re currently drafting our 2013 blog schedule and we’re encouraging contributors with marketing and communications perspectives their experience to sign up. If you’d like to share your experience and gain more exposure for your business, contact either of us.
These Holiday card guidelines will cement closer relationships with your customers.
Like most of you, I’m sure, every year I receive holiday cards from many of those I do business with. I really appreciate them. They recall the relationships and the good experiences of our business together. I enjoy them so much, I’ll read the ones with notes several times. The cards that each member of the staff has taken time to sign are particularly meaningful.
That simple consideration often profoundly shapes my perspective of those with whom I conduct business. Our interactions are normally conducted in a very business-like manner because that’s all the pace of commerce allows. When I’m reading the card the sender is no longer my banker or paper supplier, but a friend.
From my experience sending and receiving hundreds of holiday cards over the years, I’ve discovered a few of the practices that make them – and the senders – special. The most important ones maintain the primary quality every holiday card should have: it must be personal and, most important, genuine. Here are some guidelines for cards that work.
Your holiday wish of good will should reflect your brand, but not promote your products. This might be a wish of security and prosperity if you’re a financial firm. Arbitrarily appealing for world peace will be perceived as gratuitous if it doesn’t reflect the real aspirations of your company. If your business practices environmentally friendly practices, your card might picture a blue stream cutting through a green forest with your logo subtly positioned, and extend a wish a long healthy life.
Making your holiday greetings personal is essential. Get out a pen and write a short personal message to each recipient. Don’t write the same message over and over; make each original. Also, don’t send the same message year after year. You’re cementing personal relationships, so write original messages. People notice and appreciate this kind of sincerity.
With your Holiday cards appropriately branded and personalized, your customers will enjoy Holiday cards from you as much as I do the ones I receive. There are still some other questions to consider before you drop them in the mail. Who should I mail them to? Will it hurt just this once to skip sending them because I’m too busy? Why can’t I just send emails? I’ll answer these questions in Part 2 of this series.
Meanwhile, get started on your cards. First, determine the brand image you want to reflect and look for designs that communicate it. Then decide how to integrate your so your card doesn’t end up looking like an advertisement. Your printer can help you. However, don’t place an order until after I’ve discussed who to send them to in Part 2.
We’re currently drafting our 2013 blog schedule and we’re encouraging contributors with marketing and communications perspectives their experience to sign up. If you’d like to share your experience and gain more exposure for your business, contact either of us.
