 WebProWorld Marketing Forum |
Daisy Duke Needs a Blogger
Today's article brings a few opportunities our way. First, there is an interesting job offer from the folks at CMT concerning a full-time position blogging about the Dukes of Hazzard! Cool stuff.
GM Talks Blogs, Podcasting and RSS
A few hours ago, Shel and I had the pleasure of an 18-minute conversation with Michael Wiley, Director New Media, GM Communications, at General Motors.
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Recent Articles |
Putting Bloggers in a PR Headlock, Good Luck
Tom Foremski at Silicon Valley Watcher shares the first of a two-part series on how blogging throws a wrench in corporate communications.
Qualifying Corporate Elephants
The Indian fable about the blind men and the elephant gives good insights into the difficulties involved with qualifying large multi-location companies.
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03.08.05
Comprehensive Marketing Details Not Found In Beginner Books
 By Joy Gendusa
If this is the first marketing article you are reading, go find some other more basic articles that I have written and then come back. This data is for the intermediate to advanced marketers.
I want to go over a three-step outline for your marketing which are:
1) Surveys
2) Getting Attention
3) Postage
Marketing surveys save you from flying blind in your business marketing strategies and are the best way to find out what you should be offering, to whom and how. When you don't really know what to put in your direct mail marketing it's because you haven't done your research.
In order to get the response you would like on your direct mail marketing campaign, one area you need to look at is whether or not you are using a survey to find out what to say to your public. You may immediately answer "No - I don't survey." But truthfully, it's very possible you do and just don't realize it….read on.
 You know your market quite well because you already sell to them. You're unwittingly surveying all the time. Take this example:
An optometrist has an optical boutique. He knows that the biggest market for his eyewear are women from the ages of 40 to 65 years old. How does he know that? His frame inventory is constantly being restocked fives times more than his men's frame stock or even children's. And the types of women's frames are ones compatible with no-line bifocals. Interesting! Let's look at what else this optometrist knows. He knows that these women pay a higher price point for their eyewear because the products he keeps reordering are from the more upscale designers so these women probably have more discretionary income. That is what I mean by surveying unwittingly.
Now let's take an example where you are sure you have no data:
You are a mortgage broker and you don't know what to say to people to get them to refinance their property, yet this is the area you specialize in. You assume that the best deal will attract more customers. You conduct a marketing survey, or get a marketing survey conducted for you that asks people indirectly for their attitudes and emotions concerning refinancing and what would be the advantages and disadvantages. You find the majority of people would like to refinance but think it is a very complicated procedure and so they never try. From this information you are able to determine what the tone and message of your advertising should take.
So, what should your promotion say? How about "We'll take the hassle out of refinancing for you. Find out how." You will get a response. You could send out thousands of promotional pieces telling your prospects that you can get them the lowest rate, but that isn't their concern. Their concern is that it's too complicated. Do you see how you could miss? A survey is the answer.
It is smart business to design a survey (or have one designed) to send out to your past customers that will keep you in the know, and not in the dark.
Now let's go into the next logical sequence of how to break the first barrier of getting attention, so the "button" you found from your survey hits them before they throw away your promotion before ever even reading it.
Read the Rest of the Article.
About the Author:
Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she’s sharing her marketing secrets to others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at www.postcardmania.com |
