By Stephanie French
January 15th, 2010
Despite theories that direct mail will one day cease to exist, I’m still a firm believer that print – when properly executed – is far better than using digital media alone. I was recently forwarded this article from the Wall Street Journal that echoes the same feelings.
Marketers are discovering the value in coupling print with digital media. While digital media may be less expensive, it lacks the personal touch that can be added to a printed piece. When combining the two, they can compliment each other and prove to be a more effective solution.
We have used this approach for our “Name that Super” campaign currently running for our client Phoenix Environmental Care. We found that combining a website with several e-blasts and direct mail has resulted in a great response we might not achieve by just e-mail or direct mail alone.
What do you think? Is snail mail on the endangered species list or will it always have a place in the marketing mix?
By Tena Hartwig
January 14th, 2010
We might be seeing more up-trending financial charts, but overall, the economy is still in the tank.
And with tough economic times, comes price-sensitive customers. Manufacturers know that raising prices could be a recipe for disaster, so they’re opting to shrink the size of their packaging instead.
For instance, Georgia Pacific, maker of Quilted Northern toilet paper, chose to hack ½” off the length of its standard roll in lieu of increasing the price. This pricing strategy has become more prevalent in recent years, and I can’t help but wonder what impact these sly practices will have on companies’ bottom lines in the long term?
We all know the value of a loyal customer and this frequent downsizing seems to be nothing but a sneaky price increase that will surely upset customers once they catch on to it. While the smaller product might go unnoticed at first, customers may switch brands permanently when they realize these manufacturers are shrinking products behind their backs.
What do you think, should manufacturers “wipe out” these dishonest practices? Would you switch brands because of shrinking products?
By Nancy Landl
January 14th, 2010
Sales slow? Sales people sluggish? Here’s a quick fix to jumpstart sales so you can have a happy 2010.
Try tele-prospecting—pick up the phone and systematically call your prospect database. Your sales team can do it, or for a small investment per call you can outsource a program that will get leads flowing to your sales team—so that all they need to do is close the sale.
Think about it. The average sales rep is able to log maybe four or five calls per day. A professional agent can rack up 10-15 per hour. That’s 80-120 contacts per day, or 400-600 per week that can be made by just one rep. Put a team on it and you’ll speed up the progress.
Even if just a message is left, you’ve imparted knowledge about your company that the prospect previously didn’t have. Better yet, when a person-to-person connection is made and a conversation begins, you’re one step closer to gaining a new customer. There’s very little downside and a whole lot of benefit to reaching out and touching prospects again and again.
One of our clients recently said that “the only customers they didn’t already have, were the ones they hadn’t yet called.”
How many new prospects do your inside/outside sales teams contact per day? Have you ever outsourced tele-prospecting to boost lead generation?
By Shannon Martin
January 13th, 2010
My colleague Emily just wrote a great post about not bashing your competition but what about intentionally bashing yourself or your own brand? This week Domino’s Pizza unveiled a new ad campaign that takes quite a jab at its own product.
These new campaigns focus on the less positive qualities of Domino’s Pizza and boldly state ‘their crust taste like cardboard and their sauce like ketchup.’
My question is: Is it ever a good idea to bash your own brand?
Rebranding can be a challenging project for any company, but the strategy behind a rebrand is often more important than the ‘new and improved’ image. While Domino’s Pizza’s ad agency is known for making bold statements, I wonder what focus group research, if any, was done to determine that customers were unhappy with its pizza. Domino’s Pizza’s ads give the impression that Twitter was an important source of customer feedback. With the rebrand, Domino’s has tried to off-set its own harsh critics with less-obvious tactics designed to show the favorability of its new product.
What do you think of Domino’s Pizza’s marketing direction? Will customers internalize too many former negative qualities that Domino’s is bringing to light or will customers embrace the new product?
By Emily Butler
January 12th, 2010
On SiliconValleyWatcher.com yesterday, Tom Foremski wrote about the “Killer Pitch.” What Foremski sees next is PR pros being able to drive traffic to news stories ourselves. We’d be able to dangle this carrot in front of reporters to make our pitch more enticing.
Foremski says:
“ ‘… and we have the ability to drive a lot of traffic to your story.’ In a world where reporters are increasingly rewarded not on the quality of their work but on how much traffic their stories attract — this becomes the killer pitch.”
Foremski contends that PR pros don’t yet know how to drive traffic to news stories. I agree to some degree.
But, the bigger point goes back to something that we discuss frequently here at B2BFishbowl. Ding, ding, ding – PR is changing.
Today, it’s in PR’s court to drive traffic to our content. It’s no longer enough to hit homeruns with stellar articles. We not only need to place our clients in articles, we need to publish content ourselves, optimize it for online eyes, and promote it directly to our clients’ customers. PR has more jobs to do these days, and content development is making its way higher on the list.
But, one thing remains the same—media bring third-party credibility that we cannot hope to duplicate. So, our pitch strategies must always address what reporters need. If that means helping to increase pageviews for their articles, then that’s an area PR pros will learn to deliver.
Do you think there is an ethical issue with pitching that PR pros can drive traffic to a reporter’s story?
