The Feel Good Ripple – Word of Mouth Marketing

I wonder if we were to give our customers a $10 coffee card and told them it was not for them, but it was theirs to give to someone else , whether the act of making them feel good about giving it away would have a stronger impact on how they thought about us? I am going to try it and see what happens and will report back to you in a later post.

Canadian credit union Servus is handing out ten-dollar bills to 20,000 people giving them the opportunity to create a Feel Good Ripple by giving that money to someone else. Servus is asking customers “How will you use ten dollars to make someone’s day?” Suggestions include ‘buy flowers for the grocery store cashier’, ‘buy the coffee for the person behind you in line at the drive-thru’ and ‘give $10 to a homeless shelter to pay for lunch or dinner supplies’. By pledging $ 200,000 to the effort, the company hopes to start a ‘ kindness movement’ that will positively affect at least 20,000 people.

Servus is distributing the bills through its branches throughout Alberta, and asking participants to write up stories of their kindness—monetary or otherwise—on feelgoodripple.ca. By sharing their experience online or at a branch, participants have a chance to win one of ten, $500 donations to a charity of their choice. While the contest will end on December 1st, Servus hopes the Feel Good Ripple will continue long afterwards. As of November 21, 2009 there have been 840 people posting their “feel good ripple”.

This type of sponsored charity—actively seeking customers’ collaboration—is meant to underline the cooperative mindset of credit unions (as opposed to, say, banks).

Halloween Cient Appreciation Idea – Custom Candy Box

You may think you are alone in celebrating Halloween, but nearly two-thirds (64.5%) of Americans were planning to celebrate Halloween in 2008 and spend an average of $66.54, according to the National Retail Federation’s Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch. This compares to actual 2007 results showing $5.07 billion was spent and  58.7% of consumers saying they planned to celebrate Halloween. So don’t miss out this year.

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The best way to celebrate with your clients and prospects and show your appreciation is by handing out treats in a Halloween candy box complete with your branding on it.

These candy boxes are the perfect size
4-3/8″ long by 1-7/8″ wide by 2-5/8″high plus the roof

They come in two styles; Jack-o-Lantern or Trick or Treat

They are food-grade and sturdy, glossy cardboard construction

You can have your logo or a message imprinted in the  2″ x 1-1/4″ oval (See below)

The Cost*
Qty   200 – $0.99 ea
Qty   300 – $0.89 ea
Qty   500 – $0.79 ea
Qty 1000 – $0.59 ea
* Plus $ 19.99 set-up fee. Slightly higher in Canada.

How will people celebrate Halloween? People will celebrate Halloween in a variety of ways

• Handing out candy (73.7%)
• Carving a pumpkin (44.6%)
• Decorating (50.3%)
• Dress in costume (35.3%)
• Throw or attend a party (31.1%)
• Take children trick-or-treating (33.6%)

Consumers will spend an average of $24.17 on Halloween costumes (including costumes for adults, children, and pets) in 2008. They also will be buying candy ($20.39 on average), decorations ($18.25) and greeting cards ($3.73).

Samples of 4 color imprinting of a message and logo. The “Talk to Keehn” imprint is the name of the client.

Imprint for Customer boxes. (Click for larger image. )

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Ask Mike: Do Promotional Items Really Work

A subscriber to this blog recently emailed me with this question:

I came across your site while trying to figure out the best value in marketing dollars.  I own a mortgage company and my loan officers keep asking me to buy promotional items with our logo; i.e. Frisbees, magnets, rulers, pens etc.  I do not understand how these items can increase my business.  Are there any reports to compare ROI for promotional items and why exactly people think these are a good marketing tool?  Your opinion would be appreciated.

There is no easy answer, but I wrote a blog post about this (click here) and the first paragraph has a link to an Advertising Specialties Impressions Study that may shed some light on this question.

My opinion is that maintaining “Top of the Mind Awareness” is important, but it depends on the frequency that your clients will use your service. I do question whether a novelty item like a frisbee has enough impact to get a Realtor to think about you over the other broker versus an item of value that helps them in their business. I think the money spent on promotional items could be redirected to a blog and providing information to your clients that will help them achieve more sales. A monthly case study about a difficult to finance situation or a newsletter with useful information can have more impact than a promotional item.

A phone call is even better and a personal visit outweighs everything else in my opinion. A

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client of mine who is a Mortgage Broker adds extra value by providing what she calls Affordability Sheets and Community Amenity maps printed in color that Realtors can give out at their open houses. It makes the Realtor look more professional and the 10 color versions of each are free. This gesture keeps her at the top of mind right when it counts; at an open house. She also takes donuts in to the real estate office in a branded donut box (http://themarketingguy.wordpress.com/thanks-a-dozen/) that gets attention too.

Another semi-annual item that this client uses is a memo pad personalized with the recipient’s name with the minimal branding located on a perforated strip at the bottom so

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the Realtor can have a clean Things To Do List of their own. They can just tear off the branding. Who throws that out? (http://themarketingguy.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/give-to-get-marketing-personalized-memo-pads/)

This is strong stuff, but often promotional items are used as a crutch to take the place of a phone call or visit and historically people always look for the easy route. Compared to looking through a catalog and emailing a logo, it takes time to create something that adds value to another person’s business, but over the long term I think it creates a deeper relationship.

So if you plan to use promotional items consider the following:

1. the frequency clients purchase your product or service
2. the season of the year
3. will it be left at the office or taken home
4. is it a novelty item or useful item of value
5. what is the potential return on investment
6. what are your competitors doing
7. what have you received that made an impact on you
8. what will the cost of distribution be
9. how long will it last
10. does it look like you are trying to buy their business

And the most important question for any marketing strategy -

can you measure the effectiveness?

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St. Patrick’s Day Marketing Idea

St.Patrick’s Day is an excellent opportunity to not only spread the luck of the Irish, but also impress your service and company upon the minds of important decision makers.

Deliver donuts, cookies, candy or any other delicious item in a customized Donut, Cookie or Candy box and have your clients and prospects be impressed.

For more information send me an email at marketingguy@shaw.ca. We can add your logo or contact information in the oval imprint area in 4 color.

Cookie, Candy and Donut Box With Oval Imprint Area

Wrapped from end to end with lucky green clover…the Happy St.Patrick’s Day Donut Box holds a dozen tasty ways to say “Thanks!”.

Clients have used these boxes for sales visits, box lunches, golf outings, fund raisers, tradeshows and more.

Donut Box – Dimensions: 10″ x 4 3/8″ x 5 7/8″ plus roof – does include business card slot.

Stock Donut Box Pricing

Cookie Box – Dimensions: 6 3/8″ x 3 3/8″ x 3 7/8″ plus roof – does include business card slot.

Stock Cookie Box Pricing

Candy Box – Dimensions: 4 3/8″ x 1 7/8″ x 2 1/2″ plus roof - does not include business card slot.

Stock Candy Box Pricing

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Denny’s Restaurants Hits One Out of the Ballpark

I enjoyed the Denny’s ad during the Super Bowl although it didn’t grab my attention. The sterotype of the three mobsters was dated, although it started to grow on me when the waitress added the whip cream to the panckaes.  When I saw the Grand Slam Breakfast free giveaway I was intrigued, but it wasn’t enough to get me to take them up on their offer.

Apparently I was the one of the only ones not interested as  2 million people took advantage of the eight-hour

Grand Slam Breakfast

Grand Slam giveaway.  That breaks down to more than 1,000 Slams per restaurant.  John Dillon, VP-marketing at Denny’s. “We thought we were going to have a great day, and we had an awesome day. The response from customers both existing and new guests, as well as our staff and the restaurants, we couldn’t have asked for more.” The company estimates that the entire promotion, from Super Bowl ad buy to food costs, will total about $5 million.

One interesting note is the two million-plus breakfasts easily exceeds the 1% benchmark of giveaway success.  Sunday’s game had about 98 million viewers.

According to an article in the Financial Times, Denny’s, which has more than 1,500 sit-down, full service restaurants, has faced a steady decline in sales and customer traffic over the past two years as a result of the slowing economy, changing eating habits, and new competition from McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants for its core breakfast business.

In researching other promotions like this all I could find was a 2006  Starbucks promotion of an annual “free coffee break” in mid-March, giving away around half a million cups of coffee between 10am and noon. Its stores also gave out free coffee on election day, and recently offered free coffee to customers who volunteered to do at least four hours of community service.

Caribou Coffee, Starbucks’ smaller rival, also launched a free decaffeinated coffee promotion recently in response to a move by Starbucks to stop brewing decaffeinated drip coffee in batches after noon. During that time, Starbucks will now brew it only on request.  All Caribou Coffee locations offered free 12-ounce cups of decaffeinated coffee during the promotion.

Since 2006, International House of Pancakes, one of Denny’s chief breakfast rivals, has started marking Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, by giving away  pancakes, and suggesting customers make donations to a children’s charity.

And I cannot confirm this, but someone blogged about 7-11 giving out free slurpees on july 11th in Canada.

Probably the most interesting thing I learned was in the $ 5.99 Grand Slam price. If a restaurant raises all prices ending in $ .95 ($10.95 raised to $10.99) that four cents can easily add up to $5,000 to $15,000 a year for a chain restaurant.

Holiday Marketing

It is never too early to plan your holiday marketing as we have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah coming up to name a few.

I was recently interviewed for a golf driving range holiday marketing article by Golf Range Times which was remarkable

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for two reasons; one is I was contacted through this marketing blog based on previous articles I have posted and secondly, that I knew anything about holiday marketing for Golf Driving Ranges.

As it turns out, marketing is marketing and the ideas I proposed for a Golf Driving Range are useful for many other businesses.  The most important thing is whether you have started your planning yet.

The key points for driving ranges were:

1. During holiday times, people are looking for things to do as a family. Families are looking for family activities. Holiday marketing has to be around family activities – and extended family activities, too.
2. Save the big special events for Christmas, when kids have winter break for a week or more. During this holiday season, when families enjoy more time to spend together, go all-out, possibly even with a Santa Claus on the range, and perhaps free presents for the kids.
3. Set up an on-site day care in your pro shop, complete with a TV and cookie to keep the kids occupied while their parents practice their swing. This is a sure way to establish goodwill among your parent customers.
4. Typically, ranges are in higher ¬traffic areas and you don’t drive past one to get to another. So to advertise your hottest holiday promotion use a banner, right on your range.
5. Use postcards. Get a few hundred printed, at 50 cents per card, and pass them out at your range – or bring them to local sporting goods stores – to advertise your facility’s upcoming holiday events.

The sidebar of being contacted through this blog is an interesting one as I am always being asked if blogging works.  Without a blog I never would have been interviewed for this article and my revenues would be lower as I receive inquiries every week, many of which I convert to orders or new business.  Yes, blogging works.

How did it help me.  The article starts out with the following:

“ Family” is the operative word in holiday marketing, says Mike Blaney, a Vancouver, B.C., Canada-based marketing expert who operates an online marketing blog for small businesses at www.themarketingguy.wordpress.com.

This ensures people know who I am , what I do, where I do it and how to find out more. Want to build credibility?  Start a blog.

And call or contact me about your holiday marketing plan.

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.

Halloween Marketing – Pumpkin Hangers

Have you ever thought of giving away pumpkins to your clients?

I am not sure how widespread the practice of pumpkin carving is at Halloween, but in our neck of the woods a carved pumpkin means you should knock on the door.

One of my clients hand delivered pumpkins to her client’s and used a doorhanger as a pumpkin hanger. It had tips on carving and an amusing message on the other side. I deleted the client’s name, but you get the idea. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

If you don’t want to hand deliver why not set up a display at a local gas station or mall and give away the pumpkins there. An even better idea is to accept donations for the pumpkins on behalf of a charity.

This a sample layout of a postcard that hangs over the stem of the pumpkin:

Click for a larger image.

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Marketing Idea for Halloween

Halloween is one of the bigger holiday events of the year and a great time to take treats to clients and prospects. If you want to make a great, lasting impression you need to deliver treats in a customized donut, candy or cookie box. (Click here for more information or to place your order.)

Talk about a great Halloween marketing tool…this Jack O Lantern branding tool has everything you’d expect for

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Halloween. There is also a Trick Or Treat and Dancing Skeleton design. More than enough room for your logo, location information and slogan. The are three different sizes to choose from; Donut Box, Cookie Box or Candy Box. (see dimensions below)

Best of all you can add your contact information and marketing message to the white oval and on the donut and cookie box attach a card to the roof.

Donut Box Size
“Oval” imprint area is 3 3/4″ by 2 1/4″

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Dimensions:10″ x 4 3/8″ x 5 7/8″ plus roof – does include business card slot.
Cookie Box Size
“Oval” imprint area is 3″ by 1 3/4″
Dimensions: 6 3/8″ x 3 3/8″ x 3 7/8″ plus roof – does include business card slot.

Candy Box Size
“Oval” imprint area is 2″ by 1 1/4″
Dimensions: 4 3/8″ x 1 7/8″ x 2 1/2″ plus roof – does not include business card slot.

Imprinting
You can have a 4 color imprint in the white oval area. We can design this for you at no charge. (See samples below)

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Imprint for Customer boxes. (Click for larger image. )

Prospect imprint. (Click for larger image)

Pricing
There is a $ 19.99 set-up fee in addition to the printing cost.
No proofs are available and you must allow 10 days for delivery.
Payment by credit card is required with each order.
Shipping is extra.

(Click for larger image)

Orders must be placed by October 1st to ensure delivery. Call for pricing larger quantities. Click here to place your order, email me at marketingguy@shaw.ca or call Mike Blaney at 800-568-8338 for more information.

Customer Gift Giving Tips

To gift or not to gift that is the question. My opinion is that when it comes to giving gifts in a business environment it is the thought that counts more than the gift. Why? Unlike giving gifts to family to celebrate an event, a gift can be misconstrued by the recipient and there always seems to be strings attached.

Geoffrey James, an accomplished business writer and author of “The Tao of Programming” interviewed Jerry Acuff author of “The Relationship Edge in Business” about gift giving and here are their thoughts:

Gifts are for friends not contacts
You use a gift to deepen a relationship not to develop one. Giving a gift too early in a relationship seems phony and desperate.

Gifts are for customers not prospects
In most cases, you won’t have enough of a relationship with a prospect to justify the giving of a gift. So don’t even think about gifting until you’ve got an ongoing business relationship.

Gifts must be inexpensive or free
If a gift is too big, it’s going to be perceived as a bribe. You want to show that you care, not make the customer feel obligated to buy.

Gifts should be highly personalized
Think about their interests and try to find something that shows you know them and that you have a sincere connection.

Promotional items are not gifts
If a “gift” has your logo on it, you are asking the recipient to provide you with free advertising, so it is not really a gift.

Some of the best ways to show your appreciation is a simple thank card, a lunch, a round of golf, taking your client to an event or dropping off lunch for the office.

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.

10 Ways To Build Relationships

Do you ever find a point where your business has tapered off and you are not sure where the next order, listing, client or deal is coming from?

Most of the time this can be attributed to not having a marketing plan with the ability to measure the success or failure of the various strategies you deploy. You don’t know how you got your business in the first place so you don’t know what to do to get back on track.

One way to “recession proof” your business is to incorporate Relationship Building Strategies into your business that you can deploy on a regular basis. After all, business is based on relationships so if you are not paying attention to this aspect of your business you are missing the “low hanging fruit”.

How do you build relationships? There are dozens of ways, but the top 10 in my opinion are:

1. Handwritten Thank You Notes
2. Remember birthdays
3. Educate Your Clients
4. Inspire & Motivate Them
5. Share Your Talents & Resources
6. Help Them By Referring Them to Others
7. Invite Them To an Event
8. Apologize and Clear Things Up
9. Make a List Of People Important To Your Current And Future Success
10. Identify Relationships That Are The Most Valuable To You

Following is a workshop you can go through for your own business to help you implement your new relationship building strategies.

1) Handwritten Thank You Notes
Send handwritten thank you cards to show people that you appreciate them. Handwriting them is a time‐tested method that creates a positive response when it’s sincere & genuine.

Workshop:
Write down the names of 5 people you’d like to thank today.
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

2) Remember birthdays
Remember birthdays ‐ because most people don’t. Birthdays are special to people. And if you care enough to remember their birthday… and give them a call or send a quick note, you go from being a business contact to being a personal friend.

Workshop:
Do you have your top client’s birthdays?
Call or email each one and ask them for their birthday. Add these dates into your calendar.
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

Do you have your employees birthdays? Ask each one for their birthday. Add these
dates into your calendar.
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

3) Educate Clients
The world is constantly changing … and it’s changing quickly. Give them useful information… and if you give them an insight that they end up using, they will remember you… and you’ll soon find yourself to be a trusted partner in their decision making.

Workshop
What do I know that others would love to know?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

What do my contacts want to know? Can I go learn it and then share that info?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

4) Inspire & Motivate Them
If you can find a way to inspire & motivate them, they will feel warm & fuzzy feelings for you. This tactic is one of the hardest ones to pull‐off because you have to have good timing & something interesting.

Workshop
How can I inspire & motivate my contacts?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

5) Lend Your Talents & Resources
Offer your talents and resources to people who need it…without asking for anything in return. Sometimes helping someone move over 1 weekend from Point A to Point B can build a relationship that creates 10 or 20 sales over a few years. Be a friend and you’ll find more friends.

Workshop
Which talents or resources of mine could I put to work for my contacts?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

6) Help Them By Referring Them to Others
One of the best ways to do this is to recommend them to people who need them. Another way is to help them look good in front of their boss by show how successful a project is. Help them look good in front of others.

Workshop
How can you help you clients look good to whoever they report to?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

How can you help the key influencers in your market look good?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

7) Invite Them To an Event
Whether it’s a baseball game, workshop, networking event or a business mixer these types of invites show that you are thinking of them…the time spent together invariably leads to strengthening the bond.

Workshop
What kinds of events both personal & business can you invite people to?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

Apologize and Clear Things Up
Sometimes we mess up… we drop the ball… Often, it’s not as bad as you think it is. And if you messed up a while back, they probably don’t even remember why they were mad at you. This is a great way to win back lost clients.

Workshop
List down the names of people where you dropped the ball and messed up? Schedule
a time to call or visit that person and apologize… simply for the purpose of making them feel good.

Name Date To Call/Visit
1. _____________________________ _____________________
2. _____________________________ _____________________
3. _____________________________ _____________________
4. _____________________________ _____________________
5. _____________________________ _____________________

9) Make a List Of People Important To Your Current And Future Success
This helps you bring focus to developing the right network of friends before you need them… so if & when the time comes that you do need them, they’ll be more than happy to help you.

Workshop
Who is important to your current success? Name general categories such as ‘my employees’ or ‘local real estate agents’ or ‘CEOs of top 100 companies’ And then research those categories and write the names of the real people.

Category Name
1. _____________________________ _____________________
2. _____________________________ _____________________
3. _____________________________ _____________________
4. _____________________________ _____________________
5. _____________________________ _____________________

10) Identify Relationships That Are The Most Valuable To You
Allocate resources accordingly. The 80/20 rule definitely applies to your relationships… 80% of your success will be the result of 20% of your relationships. Indentify this 20% and treat them extremely well.

Workshop
Who are my best & most profitable customers? Who are people who refer me the most?
1. _____________________________ 1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________ 2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________ 3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________ 4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________ 5. _____________________________

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.