Using Customized and Creative Messaging

August 10, 2010 Leave a Comment

Throughout our series, we have mentioned the importance of gaining information from key demographics. Today, as we offer our final tip on marketing during a recession, we will discuss how to utilize that information through messaging in two segments: Creative and Customized.

Creative

Generating creative ideas isn’t easy. If it were, companies like us wouldn’t exist to provide this blog and other business-building services to you. However, when you take out the word “creative”, you are left with the concept of “generating ideas” which is something that is basic human nature.

Everyday, all of us have thoughts, notions and insights stemming from the environment around us. As a part of any business, by simply observing your surroundings on a day-to-day basis, you have nearly unparalleled primary knowledge that provides you with a level of expertise that allows you to generate ideas. Are all of them good, or even logical? Of course not. However, any idea can potentially be a trigger to something bigger and better.

The question becomes how to focus your abilities to consistently generate ideas that do lead to something creative and influential. Different methods work for different people, but something that can never hurt is to put effort into research. As we have mentioned before, by using data and analysis of your target demographic, whether it be charts, graphs, dedicated landing pages or case studies, you will at least be provided with information to develop the start of something that, with some guidance from creative experts, could lead to an effective messaging strategy.

Customized

Think about your circle of friends. Are there any two that you have exactly the same relationship with? Some relationships may be similar, but most people tweak conversations based on similar interests, common acquaintances, current events, etc. In essence what you do when you talk to your friends is you customize your responses and actions to fit the relationship you have with them.

This is the same philosophy you should have when crafting messages for clients.

A huge mistake of B2B or B2C companies is that they often times treat similar customers – or customers in similar industries – the same. They give them the same marketing spiel and customer service treatment. A perfect example of this is those companies that market to seniors as if everyone over 55 have the exact same thoughts, when in truth, seniors can be divided in to several categories. That kind of marketing isn’t smart at peak times, but can be particularly damaging in a recession.

Your customers want to know that you are serious and dedicated about helping them improve their business. They want to know that they you aren’t planning on implementing a cookie-cutter approach (even if in the end, that is what they want). One of the best ways to demonstrate this is by employing as much customer specific data as possible. When your clients and potential clients realize that you have dedicated research on their target markets, your ability to convince them that your messaging ideas are on point will be greatly advanced.

However, this is not all there is. Once you develop a customized strategy for a prospective, you have to keep in mind that once they become a client, their situation will shift in relation to you. Similarly, when a client undergoes a significant change in their business (i.e. merges with another company, goes global, enters a new market, etc.), you need to shift how you treat them and tailor your customer service and indeed all your interactions with them to fit.

What it all comes down to is that using research and analytics can help you craft creative and customized plans for your clients. The idea of tracking and catering to customers like that can be a bit overwhelming.  Fortunately there are industry leaders who can help you make sense of all the data. Just remember, like any personal acquaintance, your customers are all different and need to be treated differently and with a specific customized purpose.  If you can do that you will see your business survive and even thrive no matter the economic times.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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Improving and Tracking Customer Traffic

August 4, 2010 Leave a Comment

Earlier this week, we at Direct Choice Inc. discussed why sales and marketing need to be on the same page internally. Today, in our series on marketing during a recession, we will talk about why they need to be on the same page externally:  The Customers.

Efficiency is among the most important attributes for any business to have during tough times, and is an inherent theme in many of our posts throughout this series. A perfect example of this exists in the world of customer service, specifically in tracking how customers use your services to get a better idea of their needs while also laying the groundwork for new customers.

While there are a number of ways to accomplish this involving analytic tools, here are two relatively simple methods for turning prospects into clients utilizing the basic tools used for customer service: The phone and the internet

  • If a customer or prospect is taking the time to contact your organization by phone, it is clear that they have done some degree of homework and have a general sense of what they need, so it is essential that you portray a level of professionalism from the moment their call is answered. One fundamental way to accomplish this is by improving your customer service phone lines. Something as simple as dedicating more phone lines for customer service concerns or ensuring that automated phone menus provide the best access to services possible could significantly boost your customer’s satisfaction. As a supplement to this, if your company is running any specific advertising or incentive campaigns, utilizing response channels that are specific to that campaign can mean the difference between catching the attention of a new customer, or losing them completely. By dedicating a phone line to the traffic generated by a specific campaign, you can more appropriately cater to your customers and prospects.
  • For customers that are still in the research phase of determining what they need, they will generally utilize the internet, and the best way to educate customers or prospects through this channel is through landing pages, or a directed link connected on an organization’s website tied to a specific campaign. At present, 44% of clicks for B2B companies direct the consumer straight to the home page, however, this is generally a poor way to capture data about your sales and marketing drives. By instead pointing people towards a specific page which is information heavy with details of the campaign, product, or service, this will help determine how many customers have shown interest in that specific campaign, as well as get very detailed feedback from customers as to how informative and useful that landing page was. Ideally a separate landing page should be set up for each unique offer or campaign, with the data generated helping you get an idea on how productive your campaign is while also helping you make more efficient use of your marketing dollars. Additionally, by including form data inputs on these landing pages, you can  allow customers and prospects to contact you easily and efficiently without even directing them to another page.  Potential customers may not be interested enough to follow a link but may be willing to simply type in the forms easily accessible.  Something as simple as that could be the difference between a sale and another disinterested prospect.

The morale of the story is don’t simply market-market-market, rather, try to use simple and effective tools to ensure that your marketing dollars are being used efficiently, because you can’t afford to waste money.  Dedicated phone lines and landing pages are easy to maintain and effective in turning calls and clicks from random people to prospects to customers.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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Aligning Sales and Marketing Approaches

July 30, 2010 Leave a Comment

So far in our list of  ways to survive in a recession, we have covered mostly approaches that can be used to affect how you do business with your customers and how that relationship works.  Today we are going to talk about something a bit more internal.

It has happened many times before. Companies have the capital and business model to make it through economic slumps, but still have problems due to management squabbles or budget fights that weaken or destroy a perfectly viable company. This is like an affluent family feuding over which yacht to buy.

The key to eliminating this sometimes unhealthy competition, while at the same time securing leads and making sales, is to make sure all your departments are on the same page and working towards the same goal.

For people who aren’t in business, sales and marketing are perceived as being close to the same because they both have a role in generating revenue. On the opposite end of the spectrum, people heavily inundated in the business world tend to separate sales and marketing too much, going to the opposite extreme. This disconnect can be seen in many companies, specifically those with “functional” corporate structures. In cases like this, marketing and sales are completely independent of one another and often times at odds with each other.  Marketers are in charge of finding out what the customer wants and needs, then designing advertising or special offers to draw them in and acquaint them with your company.  It’s the job of the sales people to take those prospects that are drawn in and go into detail about the products, services, etc. until a sale can be made.

From that standpoint it is easy to see how marketing and sales are regarded as separate or independent of one another.

In business, sales has a clearly defined role, which can be gauged by dollars and cents information.  On the other hand, marketing is sometimes seen as a money pit where the company puts money to obtain some uncertain and uncountable amount of gain.  Marketers are often responsible for this misconception themselves when they use terms such as cost per lead, which reinforce the idea that marketing is simply a place where you spend money and may not get any back whereas sales stands out as the money maker of the business.  These impressions and ways of doing things have to change when tough times hit.

In a recession, sales and marketing cannot afford to be independent. Lack of communication and the presence of silos in your business must be demolished. The basic philosophy is to view marketers are like “lead off” sales people and sales people are like follow-up marketers.  Marketers can give sales people valuable information about prospects and sales people can give marketers feedback on how customers responded to different marketing strategies.

The pivotal thing for marketers themselves to do is to justify the money that was invested in them. Rather than marketing seeming like a pit that the company throws money into, they need to show that they are accountable, and much like sales people, can show some result for the money invested in them.  This can be done by demonstrating the effectiveness of each marketing strategy and tracing that strategy all the way through to generation of revenue.  If you as a marketer can prove that the approaches you are taking and money you are spending leads directly to revenue, your significance will be boosted. So, take time to trace the effects of your marketing has, for example by partnering with pros in direct marketing who can help you generate impact reports and prove that, during a time of cutbacks, you and your strategies are worth keeping and even expanding.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Filed under Recession Marketing Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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