Your most important customers are the ones you already have. Businesses often spend thousands of dollars per year marketing and advertising to attract new customers while ignoring, or taking for granted their current customers.
Existing customers have already chosen to do business with you, the chances they will do again is high if you look after them.
Sending your current customers something as simple as a thank you card could be the best value marketing you could do. Of course you could also give them a small gift or make them a VIP offer to encourage them back to see you.
I know one business that sends one handwritten thank you card to a different customer everyday. It is a habit that pays dividends.
To employ this idea, you need to know who your customers are. Do you have a list of customer contacts? If you don’t, you should – start building one today!
by Karen on June 23, 2009
Khan Photography is a successful Christchurch based business run by talented husband and wife team Nazeef and Rachael Khan.
I had the privilege of being introduced to them as they were on the hunt for a Graphic Designer to improve on their previous wedding photography brochure.
This couple blew me away with their work. Still a young company, Khan Photography are steadily gaining a good reputation that is well deserved. Nazeef and Rachael carefully refine each image to achieve the best possible results for their clients. Their attention to detail in this way is what I think makes them so good at what they do.
Nazeef and Rachael were keen to see the size of the existing brochure and it’s content reduced, so to create an attractive DLE card to replace it, became the brief.
Khan Photography - Brochure design
What we came up with was a clean and simple design, which showcased their stunning work. The change in direction was subtle enough to support their current branding but offered a smart, fresh and contemporary result.
If you or anyone you know is getting married soon, we would defineately recomend checking out more of Khan Photography’s beautiful images. You won’t be disappointed!
How do you stand out from all these wine labels
Here in Marlborough it is hard to escape the wine industry, it is a huge part of our regional economy.
I was in the supermarket the other day and run into a friend of mine who has a reasonably young wine label, and it got me thinking…
With supermarket shelves lined with hundreds of brands, how do you make your bottle of wine stand out and reach your customers?
One simple marketing strategy used for years by wineries, big and small, is offering free tastings of their product. How often have you been asked if you would you like to try a glass of wine in the supermarket?
Here’s why this is a great way to market your brand of wine:
- They go to where the customers are – customers are already in the supermarket. If they are going to buy a bottle of wine, who do they see? If they like the wine, they can grab a bottle and buy it immediately.
- The customer is being offered something for free, no obligation. Lets be honest, we all like free stuff.
- People are creatures of habit – A free tasting is an easy way to try something new.
- It takes away the customers fear of buying a bottle of wine and hating it. They already know what it tastes like before parting with their hard earned cash.
I think it works even better for smaller players in the market. It gives them a chance to put a face to the brand and start a conversation with the customers. They can tell a story about their wine and relate it to the customer easier than a sales rep from a large company.
How can you use this idea in your business?
- What can you offer potential customers for free? Remember, wineries only give away a small taste, not whole bottles of wine. Can you offer a taste of your product or service?
- Is there a place your products or services are frequently purchased or used? Can you have a presence there to meet them?
- What fears do customers have about purchasing your products or services? Can you offer a try before you buy deal or a satisfaction guarantee?
photo credit: rick
Somewhere between my last post, and getting my photo taken, I got thinking about Hair salons.
The trouble I have always had with getting my hair cut, is explaining what I want to the hair dresser. I can never express how I want it, or even how I have had it before. A few times I have resorted to cutting a picture from a magazine and handing it over – “I want my hair to look like this, as long as it won’t make me look stupid”.
So why don’t Salons take pictures of their clients? Before and after shots every time they come in, would make it easy to discuss with the client what they liked and what they didn’t. It would build a tangible history with their clients. Do you think this would build loyalty from the client when the hairdresser puts that much effort into knowing what they like?
Could be very interesting looking back after a year or two.
How could this idea be used in other businesses?
As I have posted before, Measuring the response and income from your advertising campaigns is critical, in order for you to know which ads are working and which are not.
Here are 9 ways to easily track the response to your advertisements:
- Coupons – Coupon offers are a great way to measure the response to your ads. Keep the coupons when they are cashed in and count them up. Remember to put an expiry date on the coupon.
- Ask for Sally – Using a pseudonym is an effective way of measuring phone responses to an ad. At the bottom of the ad put “call now and ask for Sally or Bob or any name who doesn’t work at your business (so you know it is a response to an ad). I once worked for a company who ran 3 or 4 different ads in the newspaper, and they always knew which ads were the most effective.
- Mention this ad and receive a discount – Another nice simple method that works on the phone or face to face. Can be used to test media as well (mention this radio station, newspaper, magazine… etc).
- Loyalty Cards encourage repeat custom and give your customers a reason to shop with you rather than your competition. They also provide an opportunity to measure the frequency of repeat business.
- Run a Competition – Create a bit of buzz about your business and run a competition. Tie it in with a business milestone or a local event. Ensure the entry form asks for any information that you require.
- Make a Special offer in your ad – For example offer a free information booklet to compliment the product or service advertised. Have the audience phone or email to receive the special offer.
Comparing the effectiveness of different ads (or headlines, offers etc). If you run more than one campaign at once, these strategies can be used to measure the response to each.
- Competing offers – Measure and compare the response to different publications or advertisements by offering different packages in each publication or ad.
- Measure by area – If you advertise with flyers or mail drops, distribute different flyers (with a call now) into different suburbs and ask all responders where which suburb they live in.
- Use different phone numbers on your ads - The best method is to have one or two numbers dedicated to advertising that can be redirected to your main sales number. Your phone company should be able to track how many calls you get on this number(s).
Note: People often mis-remember the facts of where or when they see an advertisement. This is a fact that is best kept in mind while testing your campaigns. The most accurate statistics will come when you can design a measurement that doesn’t rely on your customer’s memory.
Bonus point:
- Internet advertising – Once you start advertising on the web it is even easier to measure your success rates using online tools. This makes the Internet a great medium for testing your ad campaigns cheaply before rolling out to more expensive media.
Lemonade stand
When I was a kid, I used to make a little stall in front of our house during the holidays. We used to make Lemonade to or go up the back of a farm nearby and pick blackberries or passion fruit to sell.
I always remember getting excited about how much money we would make while picking the berries or lemons. Followed by the boredom and frustration after hours of sitting waiting for people to buy our produce. Sometimes we would knock on doors to try and sell some faster.
One holiday when I was a bit older, I spent a whole day writing a leaflet offering my services to do odd jobs washing cars and the like. When it was finished I had to talk my mum into going to town to make lots of copies on her work photocopier, and then spent a few more hours posting them in letter boxes around the neighbourhood. I got a few jobs washing cars and cleaning swimming pools for my efforts, giving me a tidy sum of pocket money. The thing I remember is the making and distributing the leaflets took twice as long as the actual jobs, which only took a few hours to do.
I always think of these experiences when I hear people mentioning celebrities getting paid huge sums of money to front brands. Back in the early 2000′s Nike reported paid Tiger Woods more to market their products than they paid their workforce in china to make their shoes. Many people considered that unjust, but I can’t help thinking, that you make money from selling products, not just making them.
photo credit: EvinDC
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You have heard the phrase “love is blind”… Often a flippant remark when we notice a seemingly mismatched couple. But often this cliché runs true. When we are in love, we are more forgiving of the little problems and imperfections. In fact we can come to value these imperfections and personality quirks and become some of the reason we love so much.
When people love a brand, they will forgive that a product is a little more expensive, or that they have to go out of their way to find it. They will refuse to admit another brand can be as good, let alone better. They’ll purchase the product(s) over and over again, and they’ll rave about it to friends and colleagues. A great example is Karen recently professing her love for her new Apple Mac.
On a recent blog post, Seth Godin writes about Love and what he considers its opposite… Annoying. Check out Seth’s full post here: Love (and Annoying). He gives some great examples of companies and products that aim to be loved by their customers and others that aim to be less annoying.
The ultimate goal in branding or designing a product is to be loved by our customers. While we would all love to have a brand that is universally loved by everyone, it is not always possible. Seth suggests, “If you can’t do that [be loved], perhaps you can make your product or service less annoying”.
The problem with love is that not everyone loves alike, and those who don’t love your brand will likely find you annoying. If your business model will work with fewer, but more loyal customers, then love maybe you should try to create a brand for people to love. But if you need more customers, then spend your effort making sure you are less annoying.
There are two camps in viewing advertising. Some people consider it an expense while others regard their advertising campaigns as an investment. The raw truth is that it can be either. To know which, you need to know how many customers your advertising campaign brings you and how much they spend.
If an advertising campaign brings in more profit than you spend on it, then it is an investment
If an advertising campaign brings in less profit than it costs, then it is purely an expense.
Of course, a loss making advertising campaign is still getting your name and brand out in front of an audience, and there is some long-term benefit in this. BUT wouldn’t you rather get paid while keeping your brand in the public eye?
The secret to successful advertising is to find out what does work and what doesn’t. Measure, measure and re-measure!!! Double the advertising that does work and quit that which doesn’t.
by Karen on April 27, 2009
I cleaned the car yesterday. Ok, not the most exciting news to be sharing BUT…
We had been doing a lot of traveling and it was looking pretty rough. Then the front tyres were replaced. All of a sudden, just with having nice black tyres, I felt motivated to complete the transformation and voila! Just like new.
Amazing what a difference cleaning the car has made to its appearance and the way I feel about it.
The same can apply to the way your brand looks. Sometimes just giving your logo a spruce-up can work wonders (providing this is carried through your whole branding of course).
Maybe your brand as a whole just needs tightening up so that across all areas it remains cohesive and strong. For example, you might have a logo but your business card still looks different to your letterhead, and your letterhead bears no relationship to your invoice. Tying these all together helps increase the professionalism in your brand and the way your business is seen by your customers (as well as those you want to gain).
Sometimes small things can make all the difference.
by Karen on April 27, 2009
Design in print is one thing. But the design OF YOUR PRINT is another thing altogether. AND well worth taking a look at exploring.
Within the realms of paper finishes and print finishes there is a whole new element to design and the influence it can have over the completed job.
A designer can and should consider the end product when developing a concept. This means more than taking into account the most appropriate paper stock. It means thinking about how a myriad of other tricks and techniques (within the budget) can be used in tandem with the graphics to meet the brief.
Our son was given an organic cotton toy that was packaged in a special brown shoe box, printed in natural ink colours and die-cut at the side to expose the logo. Everything about the packaging screamed “natural!” to me and even though it had a matt finish and was predominately brown (think paper bag), the overall impression was one of absolute quality and that the product was worth treasuring.
A simple business card doesn’t have to be on clean white stock like everyone elses’ UNLESS this supports how your business is positioned. Sometimes a different finish, such as an emboss or metallic for example, can set your business apart from others as well as saying more about your brand.
