Sell services to grown-ups-

If you sell accounting, legal or computer services you are probably very concerned about your brand.  You want to look appropriately serious in your marketing materials so that your clients take you seriously.  Your clients are making serious, numbers-based decisions.  You’ve got to prove your professional caliber in front of your clients.

Here-here!  Just remember: every one of the decision-makers and influences in your clients’ organizations was a little kid before they grew into business consumers.  Even your gruffest and toughest customers were trained as humans first and in their vocations, second.  As such, they still have emotions and it is critical in your marketing to factor in their emotions. Read the rest…

To read the first part of this article click here, increase sales. It is titled, “Does Marketing Support Your Sales Team, Or Your Sales Team Support Your Marketing?”

In the first article I addressed the crucial business question many small businesses don’t stop to ask:  “Are we a marketing-driven company supported by our sales force; or does our sales team take the lead and our marketing plays a support role?”

Today I want to post the question, “What to do if you are a marketing-driven company that is supported by sales?”  OK, if you are selling the less-expensive items (under $300), or if it is easy to compare items across different websites or among catalogs, then marketing has often closed the sale before ’sales’ ever speaks to the customer.  However, sales occupies an important supportive role. Read the rest…

Here’s a crucial business question many small businesses don’t stop to ask:  “Are we a marketing-driven company supported by our sales force; or does our sales team take the lead and our marketing plays a support role?”

Does the answer matter?  Absolutely.  The answer influences the caliber of salespeople you hire as well as marketing plans and budget.  In this first of two posts we’ll examine the case of the Sales Force that is supported by its marketing.

Marketing Plan To Increase Sales Leads

If you are a “sales-oriented” company, then salespeople are your front-line in actually closing the sale.  Typically, your $$ value is $300 or more (and yes, if you are a hotel or an airline this dollar value may not apply).  Typically, the higher the dollar-value of the product or service you are selling, the more important the sales person’s skill set is to increase sales.

Typically you are going to be hiring salespeople who are hungry to close and very much money-oriented.  Whether your sales cycle is long or short, a conservative approach or an “overcome the objection at all costs” approach, you usually are looking to hire hunters who want to go for the kill, not farmers who are interesting in tilling the soil. However, a seasoned hunter is appreciative of the gunsmith that puts a fine rifle in his hands, or the maker of the scope that allows him to see his quarry.  Just so, the wise salesperson is aware of the value of the marketer who gives him the opportunity to take many shots at the prey he seeks. Read the rest…

In an previous Funmarketer post I wrote on how to use three of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to launch a bank’s marketing campaign. In that example, the bank targeted parents with children. The goal of the campaign was to build savings accounts, for which I used three needs:

1. Safety Needs (concern for child’s future money well-being)
2. Love – (parent loves the child, wants to ensure child’s future)
3. Esteem – (inner-directed esteem, not “pat-on-the-back’ esteem)

How To Write A Headline

As a small business, don’t worry about writing the ad that will sound the cutest or grab an award. Instead, write an ad that stops the prospect long enough to cause them to take an action. Read the rest…

As discussed in our last post, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is one tool you can use in your marketing toolkit as you develop advertising campaigns. This post discusses how to promote your business using the Hierarchy of Needs. Specifically, I will create one specific hypothetical advertising campaign for a financial institution; in this case, a bank.

Example Of An Advertising Campaign

As I mentioned above, in this hypothetical example our client is a bank. On the surface a bank offers services such as: checking accounts, loans, safety deposit boxes, brokerage accounts …and a whole host of other services. However, in this advertising campaign exercise I want to focus on using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to develop a marketing campaign that is designed to attract new customers looking to open a saving account. Read the rest…

Marketing Tip

I may appear a bit archaic in discussing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. After all, it’s more than 65 years since he wrote the original article, and it’s been commented on many times by marketers and the psychology community. However, the Hierarchy of Needs can be a valuable tool in a sophisticated marketer’s toolbox. Quickly, the basic needs are:

• physiological
• safety
• love
• esteem
• self-actualization

Human Motivation and Marketing

Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

An understanding of Maslow is more complex than what one gathers from a quick glance at any chart of the basic needs. Unfortunately, that is about all of us receive in most marketing books — if they mention him at all; which in my opinion is a shame. Why? Because in studying the Hierarchy of Needs you will find new perspectives when creating your ad campaigns. You will gain insight and understanding on motivation, leading to better conversions on direct mail, pay per click and other marketing campaigns. In the end the investment in studying Maslow’s hierarchy will help increase your campaign’s return on investment (ROI). However, what you will not find is a theory that answers all questions about human motivation. It is not an “end-all, be-all” answer to what motivates us.

Marketing Tool

There is no magic wand in marketing, there are only tools. I found Maslow is most useful Read the rest…

Marketing Tip of the Week

OK, previously we’ve discussed the price vs. timing issue of the postcard vs. self-mailer or oversized postcard. Now, let’s go to the inevitable question — does size matter?

The answer, once again, is…it depends on your goals!

Self-Mailer

If you have an audience-specific offer that needs explanation in any detail, I would spend the extra money on the larger format. A postcard is 4 1/4 by 6, but a self-mailer (letter rate) can go clear up to 6 1/8 by 11 1/2. That is more than twice the surface area of the postcard.

Post Card

A postcard can suffice if you are mailing to a multi-faceted audience and want to quickly get across a ‘brand-building’ message. A photo/headline combination on the non-address side of the postcard can be very powerful Read the rest…

Funmarketer Tip of the Week

Years ago when I was new in direct mail I toured Metromail’s old lettershop. The place held some of the most amazing inserting and affixing equipment on the planet. The mechanics at this cavernous mail center had jury-rigged several machines that could affix nearly any small object to paper. Pennies, stamps, cards; these folks could stick it on a piece of paper and get it in the mail to you.

But why go to the hassle? Why increase in-the-mail production costs by creating a more complex mail piece? The answer was simple — the longer you could keep the mail respondent involved with the direct mail piece, the greater your response rate.

The lesson for any marketer is simple: Get the hands involved. How often do you walk into your grocery store on a weekend and are offered a free sample of juice or sausage? Does your favorite local coffee shop offer to give you a free taste of the flavor of the day to help you decide what to drink? You know car dealers nearly wet their pants in anticipation of getting you in the car so you can take a test drive.

There is no substitute for putting a person’s hands in touch with an object; not only does touching get them involved plus it opens their minds to the possibilities. There is a feedback from the brain to the touch mechanisms in our fingers. We are tool users, and the hands are the manipulators of the tools…the hands are the brain’s number one tool, actually. It is just so incredibly vital to get the person’s hands involved.

But what about engaging the intellect…overcoming objections with logical sales presentations and expressions of the facts?

Sure, that’s great and necessary. People don’t buy on either emotions or reason alone. Go ahead and answer the objection in your marketing…but at the same time get their hands involved and engage their brains on another level. While their hands explore their imaginations kick in. They imagine how good that coffee will taste; they imagine how good they will look driving that car around….they imagine what they can do with your product.

Now, how do you do that on the web? You have to get their hands involved with the keyboard… give them a chance to interact with your product as much as possible. Allow them to comment on your blog or rate your product or customer service. The more you can entice people to become involved with your site and hold their interest, the more you will sell them. Try and integrate involvement in your next promotional marketing.

Funmarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

This photo is great for anything related to a business-education seminar, training or higher-education. The model suggests a nice balance of professionalism and friendliness.

Headline: When You’re Ready to Take Your Life to the Next Level, Acme School of Business is There For You
iStock 2221205

Funmarketer Tip of the Week

A small business owner friend and I had an interesting conversation the other day: Which was the best marketing tool for his business, a postcard mailing first class rate or an oversize card (self-mailer) mailing at the standard class rate?

Like so many other choices in marketing, the correct answer is: It depends on your goals.

For example, if you mail to consumers (B to C) and timing is an issue, then you can saturate an area quite effectively using a good lettershop, pre-sort, and trucking facilities. If you have enough mail going out, you can control the delivery of your piece to the customer’s door nearly as effectively using Standard Class mail, properly sorted, as you could with First Class mail.

And, of course, your Standard Class mail will be at a fraction of the cost.

But what if you are mailing to businesses (B to B), and you need to control your timing of the delivery of the message? Here you will probably want to mail out a First-Class postcard or, if you have enough pieces, a First-Class presorted mailpiece. The advantage of First-Class in this case is again in the timing. You are going to pay the post office to make sure your mailpiece arrives as quickly as possible.

If timing is not an issue in your B to B mailing, and you have enough pieces to qualify, then I recommend you use Standard Class. The money you’ll save will drop straight to your bottom line.

But what about tests that show First-Class vs. Standard Class improves response rate? Feel free to do your own head-to-head tests, but most consumers aren’t sophisticated enough to pay attention to the difference. If you really think it’s that big of a deal, use a precancelled stamp on your Standard Class mailing.

Funmarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Sometimes basic and blunt and bold can be very effective — especially if you have limited space on your ad. This would work well for a postcard:

Headline: Low on Cash? Stop by Acme Payday for an Advance on Your Check!

iStock photo 7198393

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

Funmarketer Tip of the Week

We marketers understand that integrated marketing is rapidly evolving. Twenty years ago integrated marketing meant tv, print, and radio, with perhaps a dash of billboard advertising or a direct mail campaign tossed in. While the concept of enveloping the prospect with multiple media channels continues to be vital, the mix has changed. Today we are more more likely to engage paid search coupled with strong search engine optimization techniques on our websites, and couple these with direct-response mail, radio or TV. Social media such as Facebook or MySpace or LinkedIn campaigns are what is likely to be layered on just to see what happens.

But the basics remain the same. So many times I see marketers using the latest internet tools to run campaigns that include the most basic elements — like an offer! Including a strong offer in a marketing campaign should be a “must-do-item” on anybody’s checklist. But obviously, it’s not. The first time my wife and I refinanced our home (many years ago) we received a horrible, one page photocopy letter in a plain envelope. It was the most pathetic piece of direct mail creative I have seen in my life.

It worked. We called the company, set up an appointment, and refinanced our home.

Why did it work? Right offer and right audience at the right time.

Would that lowly piece have won out if there had been three other dynamite mail pieces arriving that day in my mailbox at the same time? Probably not. Yes, good creative and good copy writing is important — hey, I make a living that way. But the most valuable service I ever perform for a client is making 100% sure they include a compelling offer in their marketing. If I haven’t done that, then I am letting them down.

Yes, sometimes clients don’t take my suggestions, or bury the offer under the ‘brand’, but I can sleep in clear conscious if I’ve told them they need to have a offer.

Speaking of the basics, if any of you need a refresher, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style is always a classic. I bought my first copy back in 1979, and have now just purchased my 2nd.

Funmarketer Campaign Idea of the Week

This photo would work good with any product for stress relief, health, or skin revitalization. Here’s a possible headline:

Headline: Need a Break? Try a 30 Minute Soothing Eye Treatment at Acme Spa and
Facials
iStock photo #492773

If you have any other comments or ideas, feel free to respond or give me a call at 402-423-2444.

Thanks and Be Well.
Craig.