A Thrill - Bungee Jumping Small Business Style!

I have never wanted to jump off a bridge head first tethered by a rubber band tied around my ankles.  But that is exactly how I feel trying to purchase group health insurance for our employees.  A long way down - slowing to a stop within inches of touching the goal - only to be jerked back to even higher rates than I thought possible - then starting all over again.

At AlphaGraphics our digital printing rates have not raised since we started 14 years ago!  I am not complaining - just pleased that we can be a trusted business partner to our customers.  We will not put your stomach in your throat.  But our solid bridge of communications solutions may leave enough cash in your pocket to seek your thrills elsewhere!

Steve Selcho

19 Tips - Direct Marketing Summary

Here's a summary of what to take away from Lester Wunderman's 19 direct marketing tips we've been blogging about.

• Start with clear objectives and strategies.  Then decide which tactics will best deliver the results you desire.
• Make sure your copy is written about benefits--not features.
• Finding ways to have relevant and meaningful conversations or engagement with your audience will make you more successful.
• Not all prospects are created equal.
• Always measure ROI, not just response.

AlphaGraphics has all the resources you need for effective marketing.  For help with strategy, implementation, measurement, or any of your marketing questions, give call or click today.

801-652-6942     agmac@alphagraphics.com

Tip#19: You Are What You Know

The future of direct marketing will be dependent on knowledge.  "Data is an expense, knowledge is a bargain."  The more you know about your audience, the more relevant your marketing will be.  But knowledge comes at the expense of data.  Data is either purchased from a data source company or is collected during the course of direct marketing for a price (or both).  Only collect data that will give you knowledge you can use in future communications by segmenting audiences.  Then use that knowledge to constantly build towards more relevant conversations.

Tip#18: Profits are Created by Your Share of Loyal Customers, Not Your Share of the Market

Most companies have a business plan that benefits from repeat customers, but a lot of companies forget that current customers are always the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to direct marketing.  Spend more money on your good customers, and they'll spend more money on you.  Cross-sell them on products they will be likely to purchase.  Model their behavior and adjust yourself to fit that behavior.  Tell them your collective story to build a more emotional tie to your brand.

Tip#17: Loyalty is a Continuity Program

"Totally satisfied" customers are the least likely to fall away.  Those who are merely "satisfied" may fall away without warning.  They key is to keep the communication channels open with constant and consistent marketing, which allows you to learn what it takes to keep your customers totally satisfied and to keep your customers aware of what you are doing to keep them totally satisfied.

It costs 8 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing customer.  Treat your best customers well.  Effective loyalty programs are those that reward your best customers on tenure--on previous purchases, usage behavior, and length of relationship.  This can help prevent competitors from conquesting your best customers and will likely lead to improved ROI.

Tip#16: Focus on Creating Loyal Customers

Direct marketing is often focused on promotions which sell product trials.  The right customers must be targeted so they can be acquired and then converted into loyal customers.  Additional constant and consistent marketing should continue to build the relationship and loyalty to keep customers loyal to you and your brand.

The right customers will be attracted mostly by what the product does and not what the promotion offers.  If you only attract bad customers, they won't be loyal, and your return on investment will suffer.

Tip #15 Educate While you Communicate

The typical consumer requires 7 to 10 'touches' to initiate a buying decision . Strategically develop your communications to educate your consumer base one piece at a time, instead of struggling to convey your entire value proposition all at once. Each advertising message can build on the learning of the previous one; creating brand loyalists gradually and subtly.

Tip # 14 Learn the Missing 'When'

The answer “not now” is as much a pitfall to marketers as “not this.” Only consumers know when they are ready to buy, and they will tell you if you ask them in the right way.” Timing is as critical a component to direct marketing as message is. If your customers tell you “not now”, then ask them “when?"

Tip # 13 Encourage Interactive Dialogues

Listen to consumers rather than talk to them; they’ll be grateful for your responsiveness. Convert one-way advertising to two-way information sharing.
Utilize the interactive tools that are available to listen to your customer, and
don’t forget the power of the personal touch. Technology is great - Personal interaction is even better.

Tip #12 Be Accessible to Customers

Be there for your customers; be their database and source of information and service through as many channels of communication as possible. They can’t tell you what they need unless they can reach you. Remember, trusted advisers are reliable. They return phone calls. They are there when they say they will be, so if you ask customers or prospects to CALL NOW in your communication, be sure someone is there to answer the phone

Tip#11: Media is a Contact Strategy

Direct marketing should focus on measurable results that are directly related to your marketing program or campaign.  These measurements can be phone calls, emails, text messages, reply mail, or visits to specific campaign landing pages as well as conversions and return on investment.  Terms such as exposure, reach, and frequency are typically associated with traditional media and are usually just estimates of results that are difficult to measure.

Tip#10: "Suspects" Are Not "Prospects"

Prospects are consumers who are able, ready, and willing to buy; suspects are merely eligible to do so.  Direct marketing should focus on targeted prospects, which keeps costs down and ROI up.  Spend time on your lists.  Begin with a good list.  Clean it and add to it with each phase of the campaign and in future campaigns.  The more you track and measure, the more you will be able to zero in on your ideal prospects.

Tip#9: Know and Invest in Each Customer's Lifetime Value

"One automobile dealer calculates that a lifetime of cars sold to one customer would be worth $332,000.  How much should a marketer spend to create such a loyal lifetime customer for a given product or service?"  Some customers are better than others.  If you can determine an average lifetime value for your customers, you can use this to calculate how much time, money, and energy to spend on acquiring and retaining them.  You might also consider how much to allocate to them at different stages of their life cycle with you.

Tip#8: Create Relationships

"Relationships continue to grow - encounters do not.  The better the buyer-seller relationship, the greater the profit."  People are more likely to purchase from those they know and trust.  Direct marketing communications should always seek to create a new relationship or enhance an existing one.  Your communications should be relevant and as personal as possible with a focus on making the relationship stronger.

Tip#7: Build Your Brand

You must understand your brand and communicate your brand consistently and effectively throughout the process of direct marketing, packaging, point of purchase, repurchase, and after the sale.  Everything that is communicated and experienced in that process is your brand, which is ultimately what people are buying when they buy from you.

Tip#6: The Next Step - Profitable Advertising

“The results of advertising are increasingly measurable; they must now become accountable...”  Direct marketing is about generating results and measuring return on investment (ROI).  When you measure for profitability, you give yourself the opportunity to improve and optimize your marketing for peak performance and you are easily able to decide the most effective use of marketing dollars instead of simply guessing.

Tip#5: Advertising Must Change Behavior, Not Just Attitudes

“Favorable consumer attitudes go only part of the way to creating sales.  It’s also the consumer’s accountable actions such as inquiries, product trials, purchases, and repurchases that create profits.”  Direct marketing is about getting viable leads that will eventually convert to customers.  Always include a compelling call to action and make it easy for them to respond.  If you’re not asking them to do something, then it’s not direct marketing--it’s awareness advertising.

Tip#4: Answer the Question "Why Should I?"

"The most dangerous question a prospect or customer asks is "Why Should I?"  And he may ask it more than once - but never of you.  The product and communication stream must continue to provide him with both rational and emotional answers."  Never leave any doubt in your audience's mind of how your product or service will benefit them.

Tip#3: Communicate with Each Customer or Prospect as an Audience of One

You must have a deep understanding of customer needs, characteristics, and behaviors.  Use that knowledge and understanding to compose targeted messages (content and graphics) that speak directly to your audience.  With variable data technology, you can communicate specific targeted messages to different demographic segments of your market with a single campaign.  This is commonly referred to as "1:1 Marketing" or "Personalized Communications."

Tip#2: The Consumer Must be the Hero

The product or service must create value for each of its consumers.  It must satisfy consumers' unique differences, not their commonalities.  The consumer is asking for unique solutions to satisfy unique needs.

You must focus your message on customer benefits.  Know what your customer's needs, and communicate the benefits of your product or service as they relate to fulfilling those needs.  For example: 

Less effective - "This phone has an HD video camera."

More effective - "This phone lets you record and edit stunning HD video.  So it's the only phone - and the only camera - you need to carry with you."

19 Tips for Direct Marketing Success

Direct Marketing is major part a lot of marketing plans.  Everybody loves the ability, with direct marketing, to measure dollars spent vs dollars generated and the variety of strategies and tactics that can be used to accomplish concrete objectives.

This post is the first of 19 tips for success as described by Lester Wunderman in his book, Being Direct:  making advertising pay.  (Lester is credited with creating the term "Direct Marketing" during a 1967 speech at MIT and was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 1998)

Tip #1:  Direct Marketing is a Strategy, Not a Tactic
Direct marketing is not a postcard; it's not an e-blast; it's not a website; it's not a mailing.  It's a strategy based on the foundation of intelligent thoughts and ideas to accomplish a desired objective.  Tactics are the tools used to carry out the strategy.  A direct marketing campaign should always include an objective, strategy, and tactics.  For example:

Objective:  Retain current customers
Strategy:  Initiate a loyalty program
Tactics:  Distribute loyalty cards.  Send targeted emails, direct mail, and social media posts encouraging repeat purchases for points towards a reward.

Communication is changing channels... join the conversation.

People are buying differently today than they have in the past.  A recent conversation with a business partner, Mitch, revealed an important fact about how today's changing communication channels are beginning to influence people's purchasing processes. 

He spoke of his recent purchase of a weed wacker.  He doesn't buy weed wackers often, and he doesn't read weed wacker publications or browse weed wackers at the local home improvement store.  He also couldn't recall ever discussing the features and benefits of certain types or brands of weed wackers with friends or neighbors as part of every-day discussions. 

A year or two ago Mitch would have researched weed wackers online, searching different manufacturers' web pages.  He might have asked a neighbor or a friend, and then he would have gone into the store for a final look and to buy the weed wacker.

A month ago, when Mitch began his purchasing process for his weed wacker, he simply posted a question to his Facebook friends.  Within a few hours, he had about 40 recommendations from people he knows, loves, and trusts.  He was quickly able to determine which weed wacker he wanted to buy, and his information came from his friends and peers--not from traditional corporate communication.

As we look to the future, we can only expect this type of buying process to become the norm.   People will look more and more to their friends and family for information about the products and services they consume.  We can expect people to consume most of this information through their mobile phones via social networking channels, text messaging, emailing, and mobile interactive websites.

As businesses, we must make sure we are part of that conversation.  Because our voice is a smaller part of the conversation, we must make sure our message is clear.  The position and value of our brand must be clearly communicated to our customers in the way they want to receive that information.  When our customers understand and experience that value, they will naturally share their experiences with friends and neighbors. 

If you are feeling a little puzzled or overwhelmed, you are not alone.  This new world of mobile and social communication can seem mysterious and complex.  Where do you start?  AlphaGraphics.  If you haven't noticed, we're doing a lot more than putting ink and toner on paper these days.  We are helping businesses communicate.  From brand positioning and messaging to marketing plans and implementation, we've got you covered.  Schedule your FREE consultation today.  801-652-6942

Paper is alive and well... FSC

Rest assured, while you are working with us to grow your business, you are also directly helping to reduce your impact on the planet.

We have never been tagged as "environmentalists" or "tree huggers," but we have always believed in the responsible use of our Earth's resources.  Over a year ago, we received our chain of custody certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).  In order to receive this internationally recognized designation, our papers and inks have to go through a rigorous review to verify that they came from eco-responsible sources that comply with the highest standards in the market.  Like a lot of certifications, it is a bit daunting to meet all the necessary requirements, but it is an important part of who we are. 

FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests.  Established in 1993 as a response to concerns over global deforestation, FSC is widely regarded as one of the most important initiatives of the last decade to promote responsible forest management worldwide.  For more information, go to fsc.org.

You may have seen the FSC logo on printed or wood-manufactured materials.  Because we have received certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, we can produce materials on FSC certified paper and can print your projects with the FSC logo on them.

FSC or not, virtually all the materials we use today come from sustainable forests and/or recycled materials.  Now that's good news that benefits us all!

A little more background about AlphaGraphics

Wow

There's one word we hear from AlphaGraphics customers time and time again--Wow.  Whether it's from a long-term client or someone checking out our services for the first time, people are continually surprised by just how much AlphaGraphics can do.

It's not simply about the number of products and services we offer, though that's impressive in itself.  It's about being a one-source partner who can help people plan, produce, and manage virtually every aspect of their organization's marketing and communications needs.  It's also about helping our clients grow their business with many of their customers are saying "Wow!" about them.

Allow us a brief word of introduction

Gifted at the art of poetic blogging we are not.  Experienced at providing custom marketing and communications solutions we are.

We work with people to plan, produce, and manage their visual communications, enabling them to achieve their goals more effectively and confidently.

We hope this blog becomes a source of interesting and valuable information about effective marketing and communications for you and your business in today's complex world.  Our international network of business centers combined with our everyday experience and corporate research and development provide extensive resources and information to help you and your business succeed.  The partnership of our professional tools and resources, coupled with your industry knowledge and experience is unbeatable.

Come back often as we share experiences, successes, thoughts, and ideas.  If you ever have questions or would like to discuss anything in more detail with our marketing consultants, we are always eager to help.  Call or email today:

801-733-9320
agmac@alphagraphics.com
http://us431.alphagraphics.com