Marketing Smart on
a Tight Budget

Sure, when it’s time to market our products and services, we’d all like to send out those glossy, high-end, multicolored, die-cut mailers. But in tough times, the budget just isn’t there. And yet, you still need to stay in front of your customers.

In fact, some marketers see a slow economy as a great opportunity, because their competitors, worrying about money, are pulling back. Smart marketers know that it isn’t only about how much you spend -- it’s also about how strategic you are when you speak to your customers. Even a simple e-mail, nothing but text on a page, can be effective if it gets customers’ attention, speaks to their needs, shows that you offer them something of value, and stimulates them to take further action.

Consider the following ideas for getting filet mignon results on a spaghetti budget.

Postcards

Yes, postcards. Even plain old black and white ones can drive customers to the telephone or e-mail, asking for more. Come up with a clever headline for the front. Set it in an eye-catching typeface. Offer something interesting and attractive on the back -- a specific product, a special offer. People love to learn things; bundle in an interesting fact or figure about the industry. (An impressive fact or figure about your company doesn’t hurt either!) Your contact information is part of the sell. And remind them to visit your web site.

Press Releases

Got a hot new product? Just won an industry award? A well-written press release can get you in front of customers without buying ad space. Remember to target not just the publications that you read but those that your customers read. And remember to make it news. The story should have a good lead, or ‘hook’. It should be substantial, factual and newsworthy, while getting the attention of your customers, and showing them the benefits of working with you. Advertising puffery about your company won’t even get picked up by the trade press. At some publications, an accompanying 5 X 7 black and white photo may help get you published.

e-Mail

If you observe the right precautions, e-mail can be a cost-effective way of generating customer response. (See Volume 1, Number 2, Taking E-mail Personalization to the Next Step.) Remember that e-mail is a working tool, and nobody wants it cluttered up with marketing. That’s why personalization is so important, and why you should mail to an ‘opt-in’ list if you can. Make it quick and make it catchy. Give them links to click on. Calvin Klein marketed a new fragrance using confessional e-mails from a ‘soap opera’ cast of characters. The confessions never mentioned the product, but product sales went up.

Your Web Site

Your web site is up there 24/7, like a billboard in virtual space. Never underestimate its potential as a marketing medium. What your business is, and what benefits you offer to customers, should be apparent in a click or two, if not immediately. Post your news releases. If you can afford to, update some parts of the site on a regular basis, to encourage return visits. Drive customers to the site with postcards, press releases and e-mail. Once they’ve arrived, make it easy for them to contact you.

In our next issue, learn how to conduct a successful focus group!

For information on how Sullivan Creative can help you with your next marketing program, contact us at team @ sullivancr.com.

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Getting on the
Same Page

Your advertising, public relations and sales teams should all have consistent messaging. This seems pretty obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many times it doesn’t happen.

To begin with, advertising, P.R. and sales are three different disciplines. Advertising spends as much money as it can afford to place highly produced messages in important media. PR takes advantage of the inherent interest of stories about a company, through vehicles such as press releases. And of course sales is all about going from a prospect to closing a sale.

It’s very easy to drift from getting the message out in different ways, to getting different messages out. That’s why it’s so essential to get everybody on the same page. How is the product or service defined? What specifically are the customer benefits we want to identify -- is it a hard R.O.I. pitch, or are we going for something ‘fuzzier’ this time? What exactly is the spin, the sizzle, the sexiness?

It’s an occupational hazard for a marketer to have too many good things to say about your company. It’s a great product, a terrific service -- right? If you actually sat and wrote down all those great things, you’d find they were all over the map, from the brilliant underlying technology to the really sharp packaging.

Your customers, on the other hand, are very focused, usually around specific benefits that can be delivered and cost-justified. This means you have to do some hard work getting right down to what your customers want, what they’re willing to pay for, what would excite or impress them.

The result of this work should be a clear marketing message, with only a few key points. Remember to be as concrete as possible. "We guarantee faster e-mail delivery" is a far more powerful message than "We’re the broadband leader for today’s e-business."

team @ sullivancr.com
www.sullivancreative.com

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