5 Tips to Hitting the Mark in Marketing

When I drove an ice cream truck in college, I used signs on the side of the truck to promote any specials I was running. It was amazing how selling smaller items, such as lollipops, added substantially to my bottom line. I sold a lot of lollipops, but I also increased my ice cream sales at the same time. Now that I own a payroll company, it’s only natural that I offer additional but related services to my clients.

The challenge, however, has been how to get the word out about these services in a cost effective way. The solution has been that I take a multi-faceted approach to the problem and the results have been rewarding.

Stay in Touch

The first step is communication; stay in touch with your clients. Be sure to keep the company name at the forefront of their thoughts at all times. Early on at Advantage, I launched a monthly newsletter and used the bottom to highlight new products and services.  More importantly, I included my own personal and relevant newsworthy content to help businesses become more effective and efficient.    

It is important to remember that businesses should never use newsletters as hard sales vehicles; they need to give information that will assist clients, prospects and referral sources run their businesses better, faster and, most importantly, more profitably.

Today we send out a quarterly e-mail to clients with a list of products and services we offer outside of payroll, links are included to services on our website. I highlight a different product in each communication, ensuring clients never get bored or receive redundant information. Cost effective e-mail marketing programs, such as Constant Contact or Open Moves, are a better alternative than sending e-mails through a personal account (using a personal account could lead to having your e-mail blacklisted by internet services providers). E-mail marketing services allow the user to add graphics, customize the look and, most importantly, track open rates. This information is key when examining marketing ROI.

Do the research; pricing works differently for each service, some charge per e-mail address stored in their database while others charge a fee based on the number of e-mails sent. If sending monthly e-mails to 10,000 contacts, it may be cheaper to go with a service that charges per e-mail sent. On the other hand, if weekly e-mails to 10,000 contacts is the tactic, it might be less expensive to go with a service that charges based on total on e-mails in the database.

Don't Forget Snail Mail

No, direct mail is not dead, however today direct mail needs to be used carefully to complement your overall communications and marketing campaign. Create monthly or periodic mailings and develop a yearly schedule that rotates the promotion of ancillary products and services.

Keep postcards vibrant and don’t be afraid to be different; my most successful direct mail postcard campaign focused around a slightly irreverent cartoon image of a groundhog being frightened of his own shadow; it said, “Don’t be afraid to ask for more.” This postcard was so successful a widely-read regional daily newspaper reprinted the postcard as an example of effective marketing.

Over 800,000 readers of this publication had the potential of seeing it instead of just the original 10,000 we mailed it to.  Another idea we use is a colorful “buck slip,” which can be designed in Word and printed three to a page. The color makes this stand out from the other papers in the envelope. We use this approach to promote new products and we create the design of the piece around it.  Insert these into invoices to clients, mailings, etc at very low cost but very high impact.

Use the Sales Team

Don’t forget to involve your sales team, even if it’s a team of one. When a new product is launched, have the sales representatives call all of their accounts to alert them of the new service and answer any questions. Taking the time to have sales representatives call their accounts shows clients that the company and staff are thinking of them and are eager to service any of their additional needs.

Put in a Tagline

Two completely cost free ways to advertise new services are simple yet effective; using a tagline in all of your e-mails and closing voice-mails with a teaser.  When I roll out a new product, everyone in the company changes the bottom line in their e-mail signature to read, “Ask me about…” When a client receives an e-mail, they’ll see the soft advertisement and they’ll ask. Or they close their voice-mail message with, “Please ask me about our…..” When the client leaves a voice-mail, they’ll hear it and ask their Customer Service Representative or Sales Representative about the promotion. Repetition matters when attempting to get someone to buy.

Remember the Client

The key to effective but cost efficient marketing is to think about your client’s needs and wants. Don’t be afraid to be different or a little irreverent when marketing a new product or reminding clients about the assortment of products and services offered. Remember that consistency is important; sending one e-mail a year or one postcard a year is not going to stand out in clients’ minds when they are searching for someone who offers related services. Choose images that will make an impact and ask leading questions in which the company holds the answers.

Marketing is a direct representation of the company, so make sure to put time and effort into creating each distinguishing marketing piece.