Appreciation Marketing

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Everyone likes to feel appreciated. That’s especially true when it comes to your customers. Appreciation marketing can help you develop lasting relationships and make customers think of you the next time they’re ready to purchase. Here are a few ways to show customers your appreciation:

  • Send a hand-written thank you card every time someone does business with you.
  • Reward repeat customers with special deals, exclusive discounts, and coupons.
  • Send holiday, birthday, or anniversary cards. These simple, pressure-free greetings will help increase top-of-mind awareness throughout the year.
  • Offer useful information and helpful tips to educate customers and promote your expertise via blogs, newsletters, social media, and the like.
  • Invite customers to an exclusive appreciation event designed for existing customers.
  • Collaborate with non-competitive local businesses to create a coupon book or discount program across a range of industries.
  • Create a customer loyalty program, such as a loyalty punch card, upgrade offers, or cash rewards after reaching a specific purchase level.
  • Respond quickly to customer questions or requests, and follow-up to be sure all questions were thoroughly answered.
  • Ask for customer feedback in the form of surveys and response cards.
  • Send out a voucher or postcard for a free gift, redeemable at your business.
  • Send discounts and coupons “just because” to thank customers for their business.
  • Include statement stuffer coupons with bills not only as a thank you but also to encourage customers to make additional future purchases.

If you’re interested in any of the above print marketing ideas or need help brainstorming the perfect promo to show customers your appreciation, our creative team is eager to help. Give us a call today!

Your Honor, I Object!

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When you’re in any kind of selling situation, getting objections from your prospect is actually a very positive sign. Many will see the objection as a “no” when that really isn’t the case at all.

When your prospect objects, what they’re really saying is that some issue is causing them to pause and hesitate. The mere fact that they’re giving voice to their objection offers a great opportunity to address those areas of concern. If they were truly not interested, you would receive little or no response at all to your proposal.

Objections are like an open door — an invitation for you to convince the prospect that your solution is the best fit for their need.

One of the most popular objections is the price objection, especially in today’s economic cycle. Most people are willing to spend more, but they must be given valid reasons why your price is higher. You must be able to show them the benefits and advantages of agreeing to your proposal.

In this economic environment, you’ll have to work a little harder to overcome the price objections. You’ll need to prepare your compelling reasons and unique selling proposition ahead of time. Remember that even a price objection is merely an invitation to prove your worth.

Always remember not to take objections personally. The prospect isn’t rejecting you. Just like an attorney in court, they’re merely raising their hand to voice concern about something in your presentation. Answer the objection, and you’ll win the case.

Bounce ‘Em Back to Your Site

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After all your work hard and marketing efforts enticing prospects to visit your website, it can be frustrating to see high bounce rates. Bounce rate is an Internet marketing term that represents the percentage of visitors who enter your website and bounce — or leave the site — rather than continuing to view other pages within your site or complete a desired action.

Here are a few common website mistakes that are often responsible for driving away potential customers:

  • The basics. An unattractive design, spelling errors, broken links, images that take forever to load, and other annoyances will quickly cause visitors to lose trust and confidence in your business.
  • Poor navigation. If visitors can’t tell where they are, where to click next, or how to get back to your homepage, they will likely just exit.
  • Complicated, lengthy web pages. Instead, provide information that is brief and organized with headlines and sub-headings, bulleted lists, and short paragraphs.
  • Too many distractions. Popup ads, flashing information, and similar devices can easily frustrate or lead visitors away from your site.
  • Dated content. How will visitors know if anything is the latest and greatest information if you don’t take the time to update key areas on your website?
  • Music or sound effects. These are not only annoying, but also embarrassing for visitors viewing your site from a public place. Users will likely close out of your site as quickly as possible.
  • No contact information. While a “contact us” form is helpful, your website should also include your telephone number and physical address. The more contact information you include, the more visitors will be reassured you are legit.
  • Asking too many questions. Requiring too much information from visitors may scare some away. Make it easy for visitors to request additional information by simply asking for their name and basic contact information. Also provide quick turnaround in response to show you respect their time.

Our creative team would love to help you develop outstanding marketing materials to supplement your website. Give us a call today!

Marketing with Posters

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Poster marketing has been a popular way to spread the word for more than 200 years, dating back to posters for everything from World’s Fairs, recruitment, and war propaganda to bicycles and bullfights. Today, posters continue as a flexible marketing tool for publicizing upcoming events, promoting ideas, and advertising new products and services. Here are a few benefits of poster marketing:

  • Versatility. Posters can be printed on a variety of surfaces, protected with UV coating or laminating, and mounted or framed. As a result, they can be used either indoors or outdoors in any number of ways.
  • Simplicity. Because posters are created for viewers on the move, some of the best posters don’t say much. Effective posters capture the viewer’s attention immediately — often with large, eye-catching graphics, a catchy headline, and a web address that is easy to remember. You can then provide more detailed information on your website and entice readers to join your mailing list for additional updates.
  • Any size you need. When creating posters, think about where you plan to display them. While the most popular posters are 24″x36,” this large size would be overpowering on corkboard displays (which would be much better suited to an 11″x17″ poster).
  • Fresh factor. Because posters offer a high-quality, low-cost marketing solution with fast turnaround, replacing posters frequently with new content is a great way to prevent your advertising efforts from going stale.

Give us a call if you need help creating posters that will make an exciting addition to your marketing materials. Our creative experts specialize in bringing great ideas to life!

What if?

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Do you ever find yourself playing the “what if” game? What if you had made a different choice with something in your past, whether a life decision or in business?

Sure you have. We all do.

When you’re evaluating these “what if” scenarios in your head, do you ever wonder how close you came to achieving some of the goals you set but for whatever reason never did?

It’s true that we shouldn’t dwell on the past, but it’s also worth mentioning that we all want to live a life that leaves little regret at the end of the day. So learning from our past mistakes (and victories) is an important part of our growth process.

When you want to reach anything worthwhile, you set goals. You put some effort into reaching your target. The higher the target and bigger the goal, the more effort it takes to reach it.

Simple concept, right? 1 + 2 = 3

Then if it’s so simple, why is it that we sometimes don’t reach the goals we set for ourselves?

On the surface, there’s a relatively simple answer. Effort. The amount of effort we needed to put in just wasn’t there. Why? Sometimes the reasons are external and beyond our control, but most often we allow internal issues to block us from reaching our goals.

Even more frustrating is the realization that we were probably much closer to reaching our goal than we ever realized. Water is really hot when it’s heated to 211 degrees. But it’s not until it reaches 212 degrees that water creates steam. Steam is what generates the power to move a locomotive, not warm water.

Whether you’re working on personal goals or business ones, the lesson here is that you’re probably tantalizingly close to reaching the top. Probably one tiny degree away.

Watch this short video to get a little inspiration to start making that one degree difference today.

Information Overload?

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The amount of information (images, videos, blogs, etc.) available to businesspeople is increasing at dizzying speeds. This can be a problem. A big and messy problem.

You see, there’s a lot of junk out there. Yet amid that trash valuable information exists that can help you and your customers achieve exactly what you’re looking for.

As with any problem, there are opportunities to be had.

Can you become the go to source for your top customers to help them find the gold? If you can manage that, you’ll become their trusted ally and vendor of choice.

That in essence is what “content curation” is all about.

You can send your customers and prospects copies of articles and links to important information — basically any resource you think will help them grow in their personal and business life.

Some think that content curation is a brand-new concept, but it’s been around for many years. Where the information comes from has evolved, but the essence has not changed.

Zig Ziglar said it best: “You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

You can’t go wrong with that kind of philosophy.