In a world where consumers have almost unlimited options for products and services, leveraging the power of consistent communication with your customer database will strengthen your client relationships and drive revenue. Whether you have 100 or 100,000 past, present and prospective customers, managing their contact information with a database is a valuable tool. Moreover, consistently marketing your company to that database is worth gold and can be a secret weapon in your marketing arsenal at a time when every dollar counts.
These days, another quote for your product or service is just a dot-com visit or 1-800 call away. Now, more than ever, companies must invest in ongoing communication with their database to have a stronger chance of maintaining those relationships and even selling those customers more products.
Create a newsletter to mail or e-mail to your database. Write articles to become your customers' trusted source and expert about your industry. Build loyalty and confidence by writing about staff promotions, continuing education and new certifications. As long as there are no confidentiality issues related to mentioning your existing customers, share compelling testimonials about how your company delivered for them.
One of the best uses of newsletters and other forms of direct mail is the opportunity to cross-sell your products. How often do customers tell you, "I didn't know you sold or did that." When you take the time to educate your customers about all of the products you offer, you are providing a cost-effective method in creating new opportunities for your company.
Cross-selling opportunities
As an example, many business owners use an insurance agent for personal needs and another agent for business coverage. A newsletter to an insurance agent's database will cross-sell products to both segments and create new opportunities with people who are already customers. In fact, this example of the insurance industry illustrates the biggest opportunity of all for companies: the opportunity to sell more products to existing clients. A newsletter is an effective tool to accomplish this cross-selling tactic and its return on investment results will likely tower over revenue brought to you by ads looking to attract people that are not already customers.
Communicating information and offers to your database regularly can make a big difference to your bottom line.
The casino gaming industry shines with some of the most advanced database marketing programs out there. Monticello Gaming & Raceway is one of my clients that brings in measurable revenue from its database marketing program. The raceway mails several specific pieces out to thousands of its best customers each month. Ron Dando, Monticello's director of marketing, an 18-year gambling-industry veteran, says that direct mail allows him to speak to each player on a one-to-one basis.
"Database marketing allows us to build customer loyalty by regularly sending specific offers, such as food discounts and free slot play via direct mail and e-mail," Dando said. "Casino marketers analyze their database and look at many pieces of information about their players, including their level of play at the casino. Individual and tailored offers are then sent to customers at reward levels that recognize their performance as a customer."
Managing and communicating with your database will provide your company with cross-selling opportunities, customer loyalty and results that drive predictive revenues and positive return on investment.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Accounting firm ad relevant for times
When working with clients on message development and creating advertising that cuts through the clutter, I always advise that the message needs to be relevant. This ad for Goldstein, Lieberman and Company, a new client and prominent Mahwah, N.J.-based accounting firm, connects the dots between the decisions a business must make and the sound direction an accountant can provide during these turbulent financial times.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Times Herald-Record column moving to Fridays
Effective next week, look for Focus On Marketing to appear Fridays in the Times Herald-Record. Many thanks to Business Editor George Spohr and the TH-R for the opportunity to promote smart and strategic marketing.
Business Column: Third-party messages build trust, credibility
While marketing each unique industry requires a custom approach, a thoughtful marketing plan combining paid advertising elements and public relations is a powerful combination. While most companies deploy some type of paid advertising campaign, many organizations make the mistake of not working to attain earned media through third-party news media placements.
A solid public relations campaign outshines paid advertisements in a very important area: credibility.
Targeting skeptics
Your business can always take out an ad that touts your products and company strengths, but that is what your business is claiming. However, if a newspaper or trade publication says you are the best in your field or an area of practice, that news story gives your marketing message third-party credibility.
PR can help overcome skeptical consumers.
Remember, the advertisers and slick ad men before us that made exaggerated claims about themselves or their products have created an enormous amount of skeptical consumers.
The biggest contributors in creating a weary public are politicians. Political campaigns have unfortunately made misleading and deceptive ads an art form. While running an effective campaign usually requires clear comparisons of candidate records and qualifications, many campaign consultants take this as a license to run misleading ads and distort with half-truths.
Third-party reviews invaluable
During last year's presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain did his share of leveraging campaign ads that left out critical parts of the story. The ads were designed to raise doubts about Barack Obama. Obama also worked to create skepticism with misleading advertising. Candidate Obama ran an ad which played a clip of John McCain saying "I don't believe we're headed into a recession" and "There's been great progress economically."
While in the end McCain was wrong, these clips were pulled from longer responses and took the comments out of context as McCain admitted the economy is struggling.
Politics and its campaign culture is a glaring example of why the public is skeptical of advertising — and why people actively seek credible, third-party sources and reviews.
Launching a proactive public relations program that seeks third-party credentialing will make a bigger impact with a potential new customer — and will create a brand for your business with added credibility. Energize your public relations effort by writing press releases and building relationships with local journalists and those at trade journals.
While paid ads should likely remain part of your overall strategy, a third-party telling your story gives your message trustworthiness and is a strong complement to your other marketing touch points.
Josh Sommers is president and CEO of Focus Media, a marketing and public relations firm serving the Hudson Valley. He can be reached at josh@advertisingandpr.com or 796-3342, ext. 303. Read his blog at focusonmarketing.blogspot.com or visit www.advertisingandpr.com.
A solid public relations campaign outshines paid advertisements in a very important area: credibility.
Targeting skeptics
Your business can always take out an ad that touts your products and company strengths, but that is what your business is claiming. However, if a newspaper or trade publication says you are the best in your field or an area of practice, that news story gives your marketing message third-party credibility.
PR can help overcome skeptical consumers.
Remember, the advertisers and slick ad men before us that made exaggerated claims about themselves or their products have created an enormous amount of skeptical consumers.
The biggest contributors in creating a weary public are politicians. Political campaigns have unfortunately made misleading and deceptive ads an art form. While running an effective campaign usually requires clear comparisons of candidate records and qualifications, many campaign consultants take this as a license to run misleading ads and distort with half-truths.
Third-party reviews invaluable
During last year's presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain did his share of leveraging campaign ads that left out critical parts of the story. The ads were designed to raise doubts about Barack Obama. Obama also worked to create skepticism with misleading advertising. Candidate Obama ran an ad which played a clip of John McCain saying "I don't believe we're headed into a recession" and "There's been great progress economically."
While in the end McCain was wrong, these clips were pulled from longer responses and took the comments out of context as McCain admitted the economy is struggling.
Politics and its campaign culture is a glaring example of why the public is skeptical of advertising — and why people actively seek credible, third-party sources and reviews.
Launching a proactive public relations program that seeks third-party credentialing will make a bigger impact with a potential new customer — and will create a brand for your business with added credibility. Energize your public relations effort by writing press releases and building relationships with local journalists and those at trade journals.
While paid ads should likely remain part of your overall strategy, a third-party telling your story gives your message trustworthiness and is a strong complement to your other marketing touch points.
Josh Sommers is president and CEO of Focus Media, a marketing and public relations firm serving the Hudson Valley. He can be reached at josh@advertisingandpr.com or 796-3342, ext. 303. Read his blog at focusonmarketing.blogspot.com or visit www.advertisingandpr.com.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Business Column: Make your media buys by the numbers, not gut
As this recession brings big impacts to most sectors of the economy, business owners continue to hear the steady drum beat of marketers and salespeople telling them “this is the worst time to cut back on advertising.” While this advice is sound, businesses in today’s environment need to significantly sharpen their media buying process in order to make every dollar count.
A good lesson in making your advertising dollars go the distance: don’t buy media from gut and personal habits. Rather, use numbers and science when making decisions to fully leverage your advertising resources.
As an example, don’t simply buy ads on a radio station because you like the programming and listen to it. Ask a radio station representative for an unfiltered, third-party ranking of its listenership like reports from Arbitron Ratings, the gold standard for radio station rankings and demographic characteristics. If that station performs well with your target customer in key demographics like age, gender, income level and geographic area, those numbers are powerful pieces of information to guide your media buying process.
I recently worked with a client who has a product with broad appeal and spends significant advertising dollars in heavy circulation, daily newspapers in cities like New York and Boston. The business owner felt that smaller, weekly newspapers would provide more value than the larger dailies. The numbers told a different story. In order to equal the number of readers the one large daily paper offered, six smaller newspapers were needed to match the reach. Should this business choose to utilize the six smaller newspapers, it would spend three times more to reach the same size audience. While the smaller newspapers have many positive aspects, the larger daily newspaper provided a significantly lower cost per thousand readers.
Be committed to repetition.
If you are going to make your advertising dollars count, spreading your advertising dollars around too thin is a costly mistake. How many times do you need to see an ad before you notice it? Typically, several times more than one time. Advertising works with repetition, and if you have your eggs in too many baskets when making media buys, you won’t achieve the critical frequency needed per media outlet to have an impact with their audience.
It was the January 30, 2000 Super Bowl when 17 dot-com companies came up with at least $2 million each to run ads during the big game. Do you recall some of these companies like KForce.com, Epidemic.com, LifeMinders.com, or how about OurBeginning.com, a company that spent $5 million on Super Bowl ads and was worth less than half of that amount. Even then, in the year 2000, these companies bought Super Bowl ads out of gut and ego rather than making effective use of their media budgets to create memorable brands. Clear advertising strategy failures, but a powerful lesson that advertising works with repetition.
Businesses that research and implement their advertising media buys effectively need to be committed to an on-going program that utilizes repetition to achieve measureable success.
About the Columnist
Josh Sommers, president and CEO of Focus Media, serves as marketing and public relations guru for some of the Hudson Valley’s most prominent companies. He can be reached at (845)796-3342 X303 or josh@advertisingandpr.com. Read his blog at focusonmarketing.blogspot.com or visit advertisingandpr.com. Josh’s column appears Mondays.
A good lesson in making your advertising dollars go the distance: don’t buy media from gut and personal habits. Rather, use numbers and science when making decisions to fully leverage your advertising resources.
As an example, don’t simply buy ads on a radio station because you like the programming and listen to it. Ask a radio station representative for an unfiltered, third-party ranking of its listenership like reports from Arbitron Ratings, the gold standard for radio station rankings and demographic characteristics. If that station performs well with your target customer in key demographics like age, gender, income level and geographic area, those numbers are powerful pieces of information to guide your media buying process.
I recently worked with a client who has a product with broad appeal and spends significant advertising dollars in heavy circulation, daily newspapers in cities like New York and Boston. The business owner felt that smaller, weekly newspapers would provide more value than the larger dailies. The numbers told a different story. In order to equal the number of readers the one large daily paper offered, six smaller newspapers were needed to match the reach. Should this business choose to utilize the six smaller newspapers, it would spend three times more to reach the same size audience. While the smaller newspapers have many positive aspects, the larger daily newspaper provided a significantly lower cost per thousand readers.
Be committed to repetition.
If you are going to make your advertising dollars count, spreading your advertising dollars around too thin is a costly mistake. How many times do you need to see an ad before you notice it? Typically, several times more than one time. Advertising works with repetition, and if you have your eggs in too many baskets when making media buys, you won’t achieve the critical frequency needed per media outlet to have an impact with their audience.
It was the January 30, 2000 Super Bowl when 17 dot-com companies came up with at least $2 million each to run ads during the big game. Do you recall some of these companies like KForce.com, Epidemic.com, LifeMinders.com, or how about OurBeginning.com, a company that spent $5 million on Super Bowl ads and was worth less than half of that amount. Even then, in the year 2000, these companies bought Super Bowl ads out of gut and ego rather than making effective use of their media budgets to create memorable brands. Clear advertising strategy failures, but a powerful lesson that advertising works with repetition.
Businesses that research and implement their advertising media buys effectively need to be committed to an on-going program that utilizes repetition to achieve measureable success.
About the Columnist
Josh Sommers, president and CEO of Focus Media, serves as marketing and public relations guru for some of the Hudson Valley’s most prominent companies. He can be reached at (845)796-3342 X303 or josh@advertisingandpr.com. Read his blog at focusonmarketing.blogspot.com or visit advertisingandpr.com. Josh’s column appears Mondays.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
New Times Herald-Record column starts Monday!
I'm proud to announce starting Monday, March 9, my new weekly column "Focus On Marketing" will start in the Times Herald-Record (www.th-record.com), a top 10 newspaper in New York State serving the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskills.
Columns will also be published on this blog. I plan to share my ideas with businesses looking to market strategically in this challenging economy.
Columns will also be published on this blog. I plan to share my ideas with businesses looking to market strategically in this challenging economy.
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