Tag Archives: Prospects

Dec6

Unaccountable Marketing?

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Lois Geller

The other day, driving along I-95, I noticed a jewelry billboard. Young couple, nice ring, some hearts. It had a headline that said, “Love is in the air”. Nice enough, but I wondered who the advertiser was. I didn’t see a store name, a website, an address, nothing.

The next time I drove by, I looked for a store name. Lo and behold, there it was in dropout white type (on a gray background), small and off in a corner.

Why would anyone spend a ton of money on a billboard people can’t read?

And what ROI did they expect?

The ad looked okay, attractive even, but what good does that do when nobody knows who the advertiser is?

Lately, I’ve been paying more and more attention to this kind of thing- unaccountable marketing is a good way to describe it. Glamour magazine, has a lot of ads with no website, no phone number, no offer, and certainly no way to track results. Exposure is great, but how does anyone know if the investment was worthwhile? If you pulled the ad and saved the money, would it make a difference in sales?

Marketing should be about tracking results.

Unless the advertiser is extremely well known and has a gigantic budget, unaccountable marketing should not even exist. If you can’t track the results of your ad, then you should think twice before launching it.

Clients come to our agency, because they know that we are able to deliver results. It may take several tests of a marketing program before it becomes profitable, but in the end the client knows where their dollars have gone and their ROI.

Just like you keep your employees accountable; be sure to keep your marketing accountable, too.

Here are two things to remember about keeping your marketing “accountable”:

Try to track results. This can be so simple: It starts by engaging prospects then moving them to a landing page (or micro site). A specific phone number, email address, or QR code. That way you at least get some idea where your customers come from.

Creative is not everything. Yes, it’s great to have a cool looking ad, but it’s not the most important thing. If your customer can’t read it, it’s a wasted effort. Remember the 40-40-20 rule, a direct marketing principle that certainly applies here. Success is 40% offer, 40% list (or medium), and 20% is due to the creative. Our creative director tells me the real formula is 100-100-100. Everything has to be 100%.

If you have any thoughts on the subject, please comment below. I would be happy to hear what others have to say. Thanks!

Contests and Sweepstakes Work!

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Lois Geller

Contests and Sweepstakes Work!

Marla Altberg, President of Ventura Associates in New York City, dropped by our office the other day. It was a pleasure to see her and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pick her brain about the current state of Contests and Sweepstakes.

First of all, old fashioned as they are, contests and sweepstakes still work. In fact, they work better than ever. People pay attention to them because of the opportunity to win something for nothing. And marketers love them because they’re such great involvement devices.

She told me about some of her clients who had doubled or even tripled their Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers just by adding an inexpensive contest.

Inexpensive? Yes, indeed. I am amazed at how few marketers know they can launch an impressive contest or sweepstakes for not a lot of money. Best of all, it’s very little work because Marla’s people at Ventura Associates handle everything: hosting, creative development, social media platform, state bonds, winner selection, administration, and prizes. They’re especially good at getting all the rules and regulations right.

Results, results, results.

An apparel company, Bare Necessities, doubled their fan base with a top prize of $1,000 a month! Marla says that’s not at all unusual. You can make a significant impact with a budget as low as $10,000.

Just about any company can sponsor a contest. As a practical matter, it makes no difference that people can enter without buying anything. For instance, one of Marla’s bank clients recently had a sweepstakes you could enter by opening an account or just mailing in a free entry form. A lot of accounts got opened anyway.

Utility companies are getting into sweepstakes in order to promote conservation.

If you like, Marla’s people can come up with the core idea based on a client’s objectives, or work with an agency.

I asked her what companies want to achieve with sweepstakes promotions: more prospects, engage customers? She said “Sweepstakes can address all kinds of objectives: awareness, reinforcing product benefits, sell a product directly, generate store traffic, generate online traffic, build an email database.”

We talked for a couple of hours and I’d love to give you a transcript here, because we wrote it all down. But the details don’t really belong in a blog like this. Who has time? Best to talk to Marla directly. She’s very pleasant to work with.

I did ask her, in closing, what was the funniest contest she’d ever handled.

It involved an elderly man from Maysville, Ohio, who’d won over a million dollars. But he refused to sign the release because he didn’t want to give out his Social Security number. He’d seen the local sheriff on TV warning against that.

Marla had to call the sheriff and ask him to drive over to the man’s home and tell him it was ok to do it. Then the old man turned down a fabulous trip to New York City: limo, dinner, fancy hotel, Broadway show, etc. He preferred a simple party in Maysville, at the Ramada with macaroni, potato salad and ham sandwiches.

You can call Marla Altberg at (212) 302-8277 or email her at maltberg@sweepspros.com

Direct Marketing: Why Not?

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Lois Geller

Direct Marketing: Why Not?

The other day I was window-shopping in my neighborhood and dropped into King Jewelers in Aventura. I happen to have been born with a “Jewelry Gene”. All of the sparkle and glitter of the jewelry, shining through the glass cases, made my eyes light up!

As I walked around the store, I picked up a couple of brochures. They were beautifully made, with a glossy finish and cardstock. I couldn’t help but wonder…why were they sitting on a counter? Why don’t they mail them to their top customers?

One of the brochures I picked up was for Chanel; it featured their J12 Chromatic watches. The cost to make a brochure of this caliber is not cheap. The high gloss, heavy paperweight, with folds inside AND a sleeve… not a cheap project at all.

Another one I picked up was for King Jewelers. It was a book really, with 70 pages of Harry Winston, Chopard, Judtih Ripka, and Jaeger-LeCoultre gracing the pages.

Printing brochures and catalogs like this is expensive. The way I see it, they’re missing an opportunity to send them to their best customers. Read the rest of this entry →

The Johnson & Wales Univ. Challenge 2

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Lois Geller

The Johnson & Wales Univ. Challenge 2

While JWU Challenge Part 1 works on a jewelry campaign, another group of students will be working on a program for one of our clients, a Retirement Seminar company that helps people prepare to transition their lives from busy and white-collar driven to an ideal retirement lifestyle.

The company will run their first seminar in February, in Miami.

Before then, the students’ challenge is to create a marketing plan involving social media and mobile marketing to generate reservations. Out of state people are part of the target audience; fortunately convincing people up north to visit Miami in February isn’t all that hard.

The general idea is that students will begin building relationships with prospects while guiding them to the client’s free downloadable book, then through a series of intermediary products, and, finally, to the seminar.

By the end of 10 weeks the students will be judged on their final presentations. They will have to share the results of their efforts and the progress they have made with their programs. This will be fun: college students marketing to geezers.

It’s almost MMX, a time to look ahead!

Posted on December 18, 2009 by Lois Geller

It’s almost MMX, a time to look ahead!

(The year is so much easier to type than it was 12 years ago in good old MDCCCCLXXXXVIII – or is it IIMM?) I’m using Roman numerals her to subtly hint that there’s an old school idea in today’s blog.
The end of the year is always a great time to look back to the good old days, say back to MMVIII, aka 2008.

Remember planning? A lot of our clients (and even some not-yet clients) ask us for new creative ideas for their next year’s Grand Plan.

It’s nice that they think we’re so creative we can come up with brilliant ideas on the spot – sometimes we do – but often they turn a deaf ear to our best idea: look back. “You’ve had major successes in the past and what worked then will work now.”

We have to prod them a bit sometimes but eventually they remember programs that were gangbusters in, say, MDCCCCLXXXXVI, but they dropped them because the programs were “tired”. I doubt that prospects got tired of them but I know our clients did.

So maybe in 2010 you might:

• Revive a few older creative approaches that worked well. Maybe update the graphics, try a new offer. I’ve seen this work wonderfully well many times. It’s inexpensive, quick and, more often than not, very profitable.

• Make one program fantastic. One of our clients asked us to work on website, email program and newsletter all at once. We’re still hanging on to all of them waiting for photographs of staff, final product mix and a decision on a name for the their new social community. Had they asked us to focus on, say, the website, we’d have it done by now and could flow in all the missing details in a few hours. That’s what we did for our friends at the National Cleaners Association. Take a look here: NCA Website

• Take one area that your really enjoy in social media land, and focus on it. I’ve been very involved in Twitter for the last year: Check me out here: LoisGeller”s Twitter
I even have a Twitter Philosophy on following people: (twitterwatchdog) At first I tried to be on LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, Ecademy, Hi5 and Twitter every day. Then Attention Deficit Disorder set in. I couldn’t learn about any of the communities until I actually spent time on them. Pick one, and focus.

• In 2010, consider going to quieter places. Everyone is running to Google. It’s competitive there, and very complicated these days. Maybe you might want to focus your efforts on another search engine where you can end up higher on the list. I know people who use Ask.com all the time.

• Consider unique, even weird, offers and use your own brand personality to articulate them in a human way. If everyone else is giving 10% off on first purchase, try a gift with purchase instead. Maybe that gift can become your trademark, like the lucky trolls I use here at the Lois Geller Marketing Group. For some reason, people love them.

• And consider under-promising and over-delivering on any of the services or products you offer. Nationally, 1-800-CONTACTS does that and I just can’t imagine ordering lenses anywhere else. Locally, Coit Cleaners does it nicely, too – surprise and delight! I always remember buying a Ford Explorer years ago. Two weeks later, they sent beautiful director’s chairs in a canvas bag.

Bought another Ford just a few months ago.

Happy 2010. Make it great.

40 Creative Ideas That Work – Part 2

Posted on November 17, 2008 by Lois Geller

40 Creative Ideas That Work – Part 2

Continued…

20. Your best list is your current customer file. Your second best list is probably past customers. They’re your greatest direct marketing assets. Use them! But make sure the files are clean and up-to-date.

21. Direct response lists are always your best bet for outside lists. Someone who’s bought something through the mail is more likely to buy from you … especially if they’re recent buyers.

22. Have you ever tried a compiled list? Of course. Have you ever tried slanting the creative to the compiled list? Probably not. Names on most compiled lists have one thing in common (lawyers, accountants, soccer Moms, etc.). Whatever that one thing is, try reflecting it in your creative.

23. Use a great list broker. Ask for references, and describe your goals, package and target market. These are bright, dedicated people who want to do a great job so you’ll use them again and again.

24. Try to make your direct mail look and sound like it was touched by a human being. Customers and prospects tend to respond better when they feel like they are interacting with a real person.

25. Make sure all of your communications have the same brand personality. Read the rest of this entry →

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