Brand Rezonance

I am not going to use the now-commonplace “R” word, but talk about its lesser known cousin, returns. More than anytime else, the benefits which you get out of every rupee spent is taking up centre-stage and has moved from being relegated to corporate boardrooms to being talked about on the streets by all business-owners. It has become the dire necessity of every business to differentiate.

So where do we start?

Before beginning on deciding a print promotion strategy, you may want to sit back and decide the whos, whys and hows. Who will receive the material you’ll lovingly fabricate, why should they keep it with them and how will it help you get more business? Here are 10 tips.

1: Start with your personal announcement tool: In case you are wondering what this is, it is just what your business card is supposed to do. Would you like people to remember your card when you dole it out generously at networking events? Then it is imperative that there is a conversation around it. Get an innovative title, get bold graphic design, experiment. For example, if you are a CFO, you could change it to Minister of Finance. Of course, being cheeky also means that you need to develop the ability of being able to carry it off.

2: Include a memory hook: A good tagline can do wonders in helping people remember you. Add this in all your material. I once knew of a printer who “could print everything except currency.”

3: Size does matter: Walk into any print shop and you will instantly be greeted by various sizes of print material. A4, A3, Letter. Fuddled? If you are not able to decide which size is right for your brochure, do some research. Several times, brochures have worked just because they were of a different size than average. The same goes for all your print material.

4: Guerilla print campaigns: If you are planning a direct mailer campaign, better make sure it is more than just a piece of paper. If you can customize it to a target segment, then it could be the icing on your cake. For example, a campaign targeted at architects could have the messaging printed on blueprints.

5: Culture works: In certain cases, aligning a direct mailer campaign to a cultural artifact could help convey the message creatively. For instance, kites have been used by several companies to communicate messages that relate to it. And then, our country has no dearth of cultural pointers; one has to just make sure they are used sensibly.

6: Give them something useful: Since you will invest time and effort to design and produce promotion material, it may be worthwhile to make it useful. Common ideas that work are calendars, year books, diaries, scribble pads and post-its. Invest in a design agency that can help build the theme of your products and services into these articles.

7: Customize if you can: Remember, if you are looking to generate new sales leads through the print promotion campaign, not everyone likes to receive the same communication. Personalise or customize if you can, add a bit of flavour by a handwritten note of greeting or thanks.

8: Include a newsletter series: Newsletters are simple, effective methods of print communication and have unusually long shelf life. If you can bundle a whole lot of useful information along with a bit of your product or service related material, newsletters often end up being retained by most recipients as compared to brochures. As an example, an IT systems provider could include useful tips in each issue as a cover story, say about open source applications that reduce costs.

9: Occasion-based marketing: Annual occasions, festivals or events provide a special avenue to help build recall for your product or service. Say, you send an intelligent prank along with your material so that it reaches your prospect on the 1^st of April. Needless to say, one needs to heed tastes and sensibilities while running such a campaign.

10: Plan your execution: The entire print marketing schedule for the year should preferably be planned in advance with tracking mechanisms in place. It is also important to follow-up through digital methods. Also, in keeping with environment issues, one should plan well to avoid any waste.

How does one go about getting an email strategy in place that does not include stinkers from people who did not cherish receiving the email one so lovingly fabricated? After all, your labor of love needs to be presented and sent, to quote an oft repeated cliché, at the right time to the right place. What does one do to make your time and investment in email marketing worth the while? A few handy tips:

1: Ask the all-important question: You may have a great email marketing deal your partner came up with, but the question is, are your customers regular readers and recipients of email? It will not help your cause, if most of your customers turn out to be people who check their email once in a while, probably to post the latest family development on their favorite Yahoo groups. If, on the other hand, your product is the toast of always online, always connected users who believe that life without a Blackberry is not worth living, give email marketing a shot. For example, email marketing would work great for a seller of Blackberry phones.

2: Where small is big: Now, we all love to tell everyone everything about our business, so much so that with just a few sittings you have given a crash course in your business, but have you realized how much your recipient wants to see? Keeping it short and sweet as a concept works great not only for mini-skirts, but also for emails. They should be simple enough to be read on all devices.

3: Is it useful? A typical business email user gets close to 200 mails per day. You don’t want your email to be the proud 201^st delivery into his mailbox, that clamors for attention. What if your email were actually useful to him. For example, the Blackberry seller would probably like to send a “Tip of the week” for using the phone and then tantalize the viewer with some cool accessory pics.

4: Don’t give the viewer yet another decision to take: Most of us despise taking decisions, especially those that have no immediate bearing on one’s life. Such as an unsolicited mail which forces the viewer into another decision. “How soon to send this mail to the trashbox”, wasn’t exactly your original plan of email nirvana. Instead, help them with tips to take other decisions.

5: Package it well: Once you decide that email is the way to go, it is better to get professional help. Get hold of a creative writer who can help fabricate your email. Get hold of a designer who can make it look presentable. It is your brand which is at stake out there.

6: Opt-in lists: If you pinned your marketing hopes on the “1 million guaranteed contacts” CD which you recently purchased from your friendly neighborhood software vendor, the only thing that is likely to come your way is a barrage of spam-angry responses. Do not get a generic database; procure an opt-in list instead. Opt-in customers are those who have chosen to receive mails on selected topics.

7: Organize your campaigns: Any email campaign has to be sustained in order to be successful. Use professional emailing programs to get your campaigns organized.

8: Build mechanisms for tracking: You need to know how your emails are doing. Are they opened, viewed or trashed? Important insight that will help you refine your campaigns further. Get a good emailing software or use an on-demand online model to give you reports.

9: Plan in advance: You should have clarity for at least 6 months with respect to your email campaign. It is not good enough to run just one or two campaigns and wait for results. A consistent brand is a good brand. For example, a mobile phone user may not have an immediate requirement for a Blackberry, but he may need one after 6 months and if your email is not there in his inbox at that time, your competitors will be more than happy to engage him.

10: Prepare a response mechanism: And wonder of wonders, if your email marketing does hit bull’s eye and customers revert back, plan your response. If you are left in the lurch without a proper response mechanism, the whole email investment may go down the drain.

Good luck and happy emailing.

MP Hariharan

Smart Marketing
Part 1: Making Social Network Portals work

Nothing grabs more attention at any business meet these days than two things. One, the never ending tale of how the plunging economy is devastating business, and two, how does one cut costs. Firms are slowly ( and painfully ) realizing that every dollar now counts and ingenuity in using it will decide who weathers these times, and who will not.

So how can marketers get more bang for their buck in trying times? Beginning this issue, we shall look at one technique each month that adds to the marketing muscle but is easy on the pocket. We start with Social Marketing.

Leveraging Social Network Portals

Almost each of us has a presence on one or more social networks – LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy etc. What is interesting is that most marketers don’t use these networks due to pre-conceived notions. What if they shoved aside perceptions and gave these networks a try? The trick is to use them the right way. Here are 10 steps.

1: Dedicate time: It is important to make social marketing a part of your business day. Allocate at least 30 minutes. Anything less and you may fail to spot opportunities.

2: Exclude, not include: If you want your network to throw up great leads, the first critical step of is to build a good member list. 500+ connections may look impressive, but can you manage them? Quality matters here, so research your contacts thoroughly before adding them.

3: Map your power groups: It is time to do some research. Go back into history and make a map of how you landed most of your deals. There will surely be a pattern and you will find that certain types of individuals give you the maximum business. Make a list. And make them your friends.

4: Background research: Once you get your list right, make sure the people on that list are likely to get you leads. Do research using private message tools available on most network. Ask your friends about them. Trim the list.

5: Fish them out: Get your existing friends or connections to provide you an introduction.

6: Follow-up: Once you get introduced and begin a dialogue with your prospects, invite them to join your network. Categorize them as new leads in your Facebook or Linkedin contact list. These people are valuable when it comes to introducing new prospects.

7: Give your profile a make-over: Remember, when you seek an introduction, your profile is going to be visited first. Make it look good. Add pictures of your products, get recommendations, link-it to your blog, anything that makes them stay and get interested in you.

8: Use technology: Facebook and LinkedIn now have several third-party applications that help you be more effective. You can add a presentation, a video or any other application that makes your profile better.

9: Review and track: Strategy for social network is unique for each individual. Once you identify a successful pattern, build upon it. Documenting your successes on freeware CRM tools helps you get reports on how your network is working or not working for you.

10: Believe in your network: Don’t give up, even if results take time to show.

 MP Hariharan