Marketing Archives - Page 2 of 2

Covid-19 and our changing habits

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Insights from those nearest and dearest to you, often ring home with a certain resonance. The daily chat with my Mum, she was telling me about one of her friends who called her today. They were chatting about the local small shops at the top of the road. Pam (friend) said her son reported the Butcher was saying he hopes to keep some of the business he’s recently gained. My mum went on to tells the mixed stories about the previous service she had from the said butcher.

Of course, customers gained through this experience of lockdown and resorting to local businesses need the experience to exceed their expectations continually. Ask any hardnosed salesperson they will take about under-promising and over-delivering to maintain an edge with a customer.

Of course, knowing your customers is the key here. Building the relationship is absolutely key, however gaining the information can be the challenge. Developing your offering is important to gaining knowledge of your customers. I’ve met many a serious salesperson who kept a card index with key bullet point notes about when and where of their key customers. Knowledge is power, especially about tailoring the sales offer.

So how do we implement tools to help us gain more knowledge about customers.

The classic one for customer knowledge acquisition is the loyalty card, Championed by Tesco’s with Club Card, and the likes of Nectar and to the contemporary likes of Screwfix and their use of customer profiles. They build the knowledge bank on each customer and offer offers and experiences relevant to them. One of the crux behind these are regular communications, whilst yes electronic tools work within this portfolio, use of selective physical mailers as the mix and change of communication methods keeps the response levels fresh.

However, you engage and build a relationship with a customer it’s worth remembering you don’t have a one-track relationship with your friends. Using a mix of methods will provide you with a rich source of nuggets of conversation pieces, which show you care and value them.

A bit about the author…Stuart is Operations Director for HAD-PRINT, passionate about customer service and meaningful marketing, dabbles with various marketing tools and ideas, and likes to integrate them into a meaningful progression for us and our customers.

Challenge brings change…

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The outbreak of Coronavirus certainly has got a lot of people thinking, if not concerned. However, resilience is created through necessity and is born through a desire to succeed.

Understandably a lot of small businesses are seriously concerned about the impact of the lack of customers, whether this is b2b or b2c based. With a substantial amount of transactions requiring either a proper face to face engagement or a customer journey which needs real personal engagement, alternative thinking is needed. If you ask any designer or creative where and how they get their ideas, usual influences of X Y or Z pop into the conversation. In other words, nothing is new but just evolved from existing sources.

A face to face engagement creates a meaningful value exchange through several routes, “being there” where both parties read the verbal communication, including tone and timbre of the voice, but also the non-verbal communication of body language. (For specialists which study this, it’s a wealth of signals.) The tone of communication also reflects the attitude which the individuals show towards each other, which allows for a hook for future connections. All this is seriously curtailed with limited face to face contact.

Any seasoned marketing professional will be the first to remind single-channel minded individuals the marketing tools used on the journey can drive the touchpoints to achieve results which meet the end goal.

Using proven methods which evoke kinaesthetic engagement provides a powerful alternative to the lack of face to face engagement. The power of touch is next most engaging method after face to face communication. Using the senses of touch, coupled with the physical interaction of using hands to interact with an item creates a moment of connection to drive further actions.

The world of print has overcome many communication challenges. Conclusively print materials when used with effective messages, the right design structure of the printed piece, constantly achieve higher levels of engagement compared to just digital communication.

The Coronavirus update from the Royal Mail (13/03/20) “From experience with other coronaviruses, we know that these types of viruses don’t survive long on objects, such as letters or parcels” https://www.royalmail.com/coronavirus

So delivery of professional mail shot communications still has the opportunity of engaging your audience, whether at home or business place. So where you face to face opportunities might be diminished, carefully executed and delivered can provide a lot more leverage to assist your business message.

Remember when crafting your mailshot;

The creativity of the communication gets you remembered
Being engaging, physically with the item, along with a tone of voice
Be timely, create wider opportunities to engage
Create opportunities to engage face to face when safe to do so
Use professional print providers as they can ensure compliance for Royal Mail standards, and help you achieve the “best bang for your buck” through clever print and business-grade postage options.

Marketing basics…

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It’s often underestimated, the knowledge that us printers have of marketing. We’ve been a significant part of the marketing toolbox for many years. Equally, we’re not a dead marketing method, like some would proclaim, just a time-served tool in the chest of marketing concepts.

I’m privileged to meet many business people, whether walking in through the door, or at business networking events. One of the things that does stand out, is how much tunnel vision startups are to their marketing strategies. Siting cost as the driver, it seems even the smallest of tangible tools can be overlooked, stating social or digital works due to it being cheap or free. Which makes for an interesting return on investment, as something for nowt doesn’t always ring true. All businesses rely on the need for growth, growth isn’t an easy win, it takes dedication, inspiration, and investment of all resources.

At the start of my career and even during my vocational education, the basics of marketing were drummed into us. Understanding your customer is key, having a “pen portrait” of who what where is essential, it then drives the following 4 P’s

Product – The first of the Four Ps of marketing is “product”. A product can be either a tangible product or an intangible service that fulfills a need or want of consumers. Whether you sell coffee or provide beauty treatments, you must have a clear grasp of exactly what your product is and what makes it unique before you can successfully market it. The pitch, tone of voice, visual identity should reflect the ideal customer and make it a potential part of their mix.

Price – Once a solid understanding of the product offering is established, making some pricing decisions is the next critical step. Price determinations will impact profit margins, supply, demand, and marketing strategy. Similar (in concept) products and brands need to be positioned differently based on varying price points, while price elasticity considerations may influence our next two Ps. Geographical implications also play critically on this.

Promotion – We’ve got a product and a price now it’s time to promote it. Promotion looks at the many ways to spread the word on the relevant product information to customers and differentiate your particular product or service. Promotion includes advertising, public relations, events and taster sessions, face to face networking, social media marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing, video marketing and more. Methods of engagement are critical here. If you’re looking for a faster conversion, the tools and techniques used will change. The adage people like people, like themselves, always improves the conversion rate, due to if they like or do it, then I should. Face to face engagement should always be supported by relevant collateral to support the engagement. Each touchpoint on a customer journey will build the future potential to buy.

Place – Professional marketers will often say that marketing is about putting the right product, at the right price, at the right place, at the right time. It’s critical then, to evaluate the ideal physical locations are to convert potential clients into actual clients. Today, even in situations where the actual transaction doesn’t happen on the web, the start of a sales journey has many points of contact including web, referrals and many more before potential customers are engaged and converted to a sale.

So how does print engage with this, we are experienced in supporting small businesses, ensure that your products visual identity matches and works with your audience. We’ve got substantive experience in tailoring promotional materials to fit your budget and ultimately your price point. We have more tools on our promotional print chest than you think. From the obvious to the more subtle for brand awareness. Print is a tool that can drive traffic to your other communication channels to improve the customer journey for your potential customers. Along with solutions to help you sign and brand your “place” to ensure maximum visibility.

Whilst as a printer, we’ll happily guide, support and ask questions to ensure your marketing buck, is getting you the best bang, we don’t do marketing strategy or other media. We’re fortunate to know many professionals who can help you. These professionals are the full source professionals who work across different media to maximise the impact and delivery of your marketing messages.