(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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I recently helped an advisor eliminate the dreaded task of cold prospecting not just for possible prospects but for the right prospects!
So let me give you an example of what we actually did for an advisor.
As you know, managing a sales organization is one of the toughest jobs there is…and XYZ Advisor has a sales staff of several hundred salespeople and representatives across the nation. They’re all different ages, different backgrounds, and with all different skill sets.
One key challenge was that 20% were doing 80% of sales, and the company needed a way to get 100% of them to meet their goals and objectives. First and foremost, that meant we had to generate face time with prospects.
We created an easy-to-follow process that produced near-100% response and a 72% appointment rate!
Moreover, the sales manager’s job became easier because the manager was no longer pestering people to make calls and secure appointments with decision makers, and the whole team started enjoying the process and, as a result, getting more sales.
XYZ Advisor also was able to recruit more salespeople, because the word spread that you don’t have to prospect at XYZ Advisor – you just have to know how to sell.
And here are the steps we followed in our methodology.
All any good advisor wants is a full pipeline of the right people to sell to – and I have to believe that you might enjoy the same.
Can you imagine how easy it would be to talk to people who receive this in the mail before you even call?
How could this kind of program benefit you?
Nye Ohrberg
1 888-778-7135
Specializing in finding the right people for financial advisors to sell to!
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(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...
When a campaign uses retro decoder glasses and a faux detective agency letter to drive prospects to investigate further, it wasn’t a mystery that the target audience was intrigued. How did we know that this campaign was a success? The 30-percent response rate was our first clue. See it for yourself at http://vlgreview.com/vmware/decodethetruth/
Nye
MsM Multi-Stage Marketing
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...I know it’s an old cliché, “When the
going gets tough, the tough get going.”
However, I think it’s really appropriate
for today’s marketplace.
I don’t believe
many people would disagree with the
fact that it is a tough marketplace that
we are selling in today.
I also don’t think
anyone, at least in their right mind, would
call this economy a seller’s market.
I recently wrote about
whether selling was an art or a science. My
conclusion, after over 10 years of hiring,
training and developing sales people, is
that selling is, without question, a science.
The art of selling, I believe, lies in one’s
ability to execute the science of selling.
In the article, I quoted the founder of a
well-known company who stated,
“Selling is a fun game when you’re
doing it well.
It’s the pits when you’re
not.” Selling really is fun when you’re
doing it well.
Unfortunately, most
salespeople don’t do it very well.
I define a sales professional as
someone who “has a commitment to a
calling, has the training, education and
expertise that an amateur does not.”
When
the going gets tough, the amateurs drop
out. The professionals not only survive
but many times excel in a down economy.
The following is an excerpt from
an email I received a few weeks ago:
“The local promotional business market here in Los Angeles has contracted just as it has nationwide.
Personally I am seeing a rather large
influx of program sales and my
personal January production is up 85 percent over
2010.
There are many reasons for this
including the fact that many non career
solution driven distributors are dropping out of the business
selling, especially in a booming
economy, almost anyone can get a sales
job and experience a degree of success.
However, when the boom ends, as it
inevitably does, these individuals are the first
to move on.
When the going gets tough, the
professional works harder and smarter, is
more imaginative and creative and finds
new, innovative ways to develop business.
Let’s again review our definition of a
sales professional.
How many salespeople
do you know who have a commitment
to a calling and pursue education and
training consistent with the old adage that
school is never out for the professional?
In Malcolm Gladwell’s new book “Outliers”
(this is the same author that gave us “The
Tipping Point” and “Blink”), he suggests
that the difference between a professional and
a talented amateur is 10,000 hours of practice.
Even though Gladwell did not use
selling as an example, I think his
reference is just as applicable to selling
as it is to law, computers, music or any
other field of learning.
However, I do
take exception to the general cliché that
practice makes perfect, because if you’re
practicing doing something wrong, all you’re
doing is getting better at getting worse.
Many times I have asked the question,
“What do you think would happen if a
salesperson would just spend 10 percent
of the amount of time learning selling as
they would have to put in to become a
doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, or any
other professional?”
Unfortunately, most
salespeople choose to only learn enough to
get by, whatever “getting by” means to them.
The HR Chally Group, in a sales
benchmarking study, identified
what customers want from sellers.
Interviews with more than 1,000 corporate
customers established three major needs
that customers expected vendors and sellers
to address — even though customers were
not confident that sellers could fill them.
– Customers want to narrow their
own focus to the few things they do best
and outsource the rest without the added
overhead cost of supervising their suppliers.
– Customers want sellers to know their
business well enough to create products
and services they wouldn’t have been
able to design or create themselves.
s o t h e r e i s m o r e p i e f o r
everyone.
– Customers want proof, hard evidence that
their supplier has added value in excess of
price.
T h e C h a l l y R e p o r t st a t e s t h a t ,
“Customers expect salespeople to transform
themselves into professionals who are left at
identifying and satisfying their new buying
needs.
Having conducted extensive research
in customer purchasing behaviors we are
able to enumerate new buying needs.
This
list of expectations essentially defines the
role of the new sales professional of the
21st century.”
“In the customer’s own words, needs
included: Be personally accountable for our
desired results; understand our business; be
on our side; design the right applications;
be easily accessible; solve our problems;
and be creative in responding to our needs.
Buyers expect professional salespeople to be
innovators who bring them fresh ideas to
solve their problems.
Creativity is a major
source of value in today’s salesperson.”
The skills, techniques and philosophies
of professional selling will give you a
sustainable advantage over your
competition. You will sell more, earn more
and have more fun in the process.
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Objective: To increase customer base.
Strategy and Execution: Decision-makers at 200 small to medium size businesses were targeted by mail to receive promotional products packaged in brochures. In each piece, product and copy were related, e.g., a money clip with copy pointed out “…after 100 years, we’ve got things rolling at a pretty good clip.” Or, “We’d like to show you the light” about commercial loans with an enclosed pen light.
Results: By as early as one third of the way into the six-month program, “we have achieved 40% of our goal of direct business inquiries,” said the advertiser’s vp of planning and development.
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Objective: To promote awareness in the community of the St. Cloud Times newspaper’s conversion from an afternoon to a morning paper.
Strategy and Execution: The St. Cloud (Minnesota) Times has been an afternoon newspaper for over 120 years. Converting the paper to an a.m. edition could potentially have caused quite a jolt to daily readers and advertisers, not to mention a reorganization of the workday for newspaper employees. Weekly Q&A sessions for employees were energized by the presentation of employee appreciation gifts such as ceramic latte mugs, plastic traveler mugs, embroidered baseball caps and t-shirts. Two weeks before the conversion, the newspaper hosted a VIP reception for city dignitaries, vendors, advertisers and government officials to unveil the new logo for the paper. Finally, during conversion week, the paper hosted a series of PR events such as “Buzz Breakfasts”, the delivery of breakfast and the new morning newspaper to every city official and morning drive-time disc jockey. The Breakfast Buzz bags included imprinted travel mugs, t-shirts, embroidered baseball caps, yo-yos, ceramic latte mugs, static cling window signs and free coffee with newspaper purchase. The comprehensive program also used radio, TV, and billboard advertising to further emphasize the message.
Results: The success of the St. Cloud Times’ conversion to a morning paper was reflected in an impressive year-over-year increase of 2.1% for single-copy sales. In the newspaper industry, this represents a significant increase
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Objective: To increase name awareness as a national / international trucking firm.
Strategy and Execution: This seven month mailing promotion identified problems and offered a specialty solution for 2,500 business accounts who are currently using competing trucking services. The first month, there was a toy horn in a box with the copy,”In the next six months we are going to making a lot of noise.” The second month featured a folding reading Transportation problems are closing in on you… let ATS open them up” and included a letter opener. Each of the following months used the common copy “If transportation problems…” And a corresponding specialty item with name imprinted. For problems that “Have you biting your nails”the mailer included a fingernail file. Problems that”Have you in a swear” provided an encapsulated truck-shaped sponge and the invitation”Let ATS dry them up.” Problems which give headaches needed a packet of aspirin, and problems which”have you all fogged up” allowed the company to”Clear their view” with a lens cleaning towlette. In the last month,”Now that you know the solution to your transportation problems… Give ATS a call, we’ll stick to our word,”featured a magnet bearing the advertiser’s 800-telephone-number.
Results: It was reported the promotions generated 53 customer responses for addition trucking loads which resulted in increased revenue of approximately $1 million
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...
Unless you have a ton of money to throw away at trade shows, you better read this before you do your next event.
And when it comes to getting the most out of trade shows, Susan Friedmann is one of the best. Known throughout the industry as the “Trade Show Coach” she has plenty of shortcuts, secrets and simple strategies to help you make the most out of your time spent on the trade show floor. And a little preparation up-front goes a long way once you hit the show floor.
She has plenty of terrific advice I know you’ll find valuable so be sure to take a moment to check it out and feel free to share it with your team.
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” says Friedmann. It’s cliché, but it’s a phrase that should become your booth staff’s mantra. She says a trade show is like a non-stop series of beginnings. Every moment, from the second the doors open until they blink the lights signaling the end of the day, is a moment where you could be meeting customers for the very first time.
Key Secret #1: People have to ‘buy’ YOU before they can buy FROM you
If all goes well, your crucial first moments can launch a mutually profitable relationship that will last for years. Conversely, if the impression you create is less than positive, you’ve probably just kissed a lifetime of business goodbye.
“The first step is establishing a rapport with your client, and once that positive foundation has been laid, the hard work of negotiating a deal and closing a sale becomes so much easier. But you have to realize that the actual product or service you’re trying to sell doesn’t really matter. When you’re at a trade show, what you’re selling is YOU.”
Susan Friedmann understands and extensively promotes the value of customer loyalty. Friedmann, who bills herself as “the trade show coach” and who consults for exhibitors and organizers shares these simple, inexpensive strategies for making your customers feel valued by you.
1. Send them articles that may be of interest, along with a hand-written note that says “thinking of you.” If they are quoted in an article, or their company is mentioned (in a positive way), send them a note of congratulations.
2. Come up with a list of 25 customers who could buy more from you because they are splitting their loyalties. Set up a Google alert to notify you when one of these targeted customers is mentioned on the Internet. Then send them a note and the link.
3. Offer special customer bonuses, such as free downloads of white papers and special reports, which your people could write in-house. Put together a buyer’s guide or a checklist. These can be amazingly popular and useful.
4. When you are on the trade show floor, have a special giveaway or demonstration just for existing customers. Alternatively, take them to a special meeting room for privacy while you talk.
Key Secret #2: People won’t come in if your body language says, “Go away!”
Body language plays a huge role in creating first impressions.
Show attendees are constantly watching you. If your body language says, “I don’t really want to be at this show,” or if you look like you’re just going through the motions, they’ll pick up on that and go elsewhere, she says.
Get off your $#!… Standing back in the corner of your exhibit with your arms folded tells show goers, “Stay away! I’m on guard.”
Sitting down, flipping through a magazine, or chatting with your colleagues says, “I’ve got better things to do than talk to you.” Get up! Introduce yourself. Drop the world’s best pick-up line (see p. 13), keep quiet and listen!
This may sound simple — and it may even sound overused — but these 5 words work like magic!
Here they are:
“Tell me about your company.”
It really is the greatest pick-up line in the world. It works so well because it’s an open-ended question that gets your prospects talking and begins a dialogue. Try it and see how more people communicate with you.
Key Secret #3: Focus on the attendee for maximum results.
Welcome them into your booth. This doesn’t mean you do all the talking. Listening is more important. “Shift the focus from your own sales spiel to actually listening to the customer and you’ll find your results immediately improve,” she says. “ Ask attendees questions, and listen to their answers. Give them your full attention. Hear what they’re saying and offer appropriate responses.
“The fact that you’re focused on the attendee, wholly engaged with them, and committed, however briefly, to solving their problems, is one of the easiest, most effective ways to create a positive first impression. It sets a good precedent, establishing how you will do business with this client further down the road. You’re laying the foundation for that positive, profitable relationship.”
Always taking you from where you are to where you want to go,
Nye O
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...
Hi Everyone
We have reached a defining moment where companies will be rewarded handsomely if they partner with their sales teams to leverage the current appetite for change.
But this new maxim begs two big questions that necessarily should dominate your strategic thinking and strategic focus:
What to do?
How to do it effectively?
A cohesive sales strategy that the entire team can rally around – and one that produces perceptible, profitable, repeatable results – is the key to sales success in this evolving new economy
Yet again…
What kind of strategy?
How to do build it and implement it?
Well…
· What if you could increase sales force effectiveness to the point that your team was getting an 80% to 90% call-back rate from voicemails alone?
· What if your sales team could not only get passed the gatekeepers but bypass them entirely, reaching key decision makers as much as 92% of the time?
· What if your salespeople could establish credibility early – or even immediately – in the sales process in the minds of prospective customers?
· What if your sales team could escalate their points of contact to more strategic levels within the account, dealing directly with decision makers who have the budget, authority, and strategic vision to pull the trigger on a purchase?
· What if your sales representatives could effectively position your solution against the offerings of your competitors, recognize and overcome potential obstacles, and handle objections almost before they are raised?
· What if you could communicate, emphasize, and support a genuine value proposition to stimulate a sense of urgency that would motivate prospects to wrap up business now, not later?
· What if your salespeople could get more opportunities to present and close to qualified, interested prospects?
· What if all these things could happen at the same time?!?
They can…
Let me show you how I just did it for the commercial janitorial sector and figured out all the challenges… Then solved them 1 by .1.
Challenge 1: Create a voice mail that made the decision maker curious enough to want to call janitorial sales person back.
Result: Done we get any janitorial company a call back on voice mail at 83%. Much better than 0 right?
Challenge 2: They were tired of hearing their sales people saying: Hi My name is john I was wondering If i could offer you a free estimate on your janitoral service and save you money? No thanks we are happy with our current cleaning company! Blah Blah…
Result: What if your sales team could not only get passed the gatekeepers but bypass them entirely, reaching key decision makers as much as 92% of the time?
Imagine using an e-mail first that doesn’t try to sell anything but simple raised thier curriosity in you! Before someone becomes curious nothing can happen…
E-mail that states a special gift is on its way be on the look out it should be arriving in the mail soon?
Then a direct mail box arrives a few days later- Take a look
Result:Imagine getting 100% of your messages opened by decsion makers then 100% read then 100% remembered WOW and now imagine your sales team calling and saying is …. their whats this in reguards to? Tell him that its the guy who mailed him the white glove in the trash can last week! WOW now at almost 92% you get to talk to decision makers live…calling new accounts and number 1 getting to talk to the actual person who makes the decision!
Did you know that janitoral companies who are using this program right now are experiencing atleast 7-10 new $1000-$50,000 a month commercial janitoral cleaning accounts and its all done for them…. They are getting and ROI of like 1000% and conversions are anywhere from 26-62% response… Even better we fixed the next problem which was once they get the appointment we thought they could handle it from their but after working with alot of them we found out different so we created the next step which was once the go on intial walk through.
We created an urgency to move forward rather than just offering a cheaper price… So we created a walk through process that everyone gets 82% response at moving client forward with out having to lower the price!
If interested in what that was call me!
Nye
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Ever wondered or struggled with how to get these questions answered for your sales team?
Frustrated with cold calling, post cards or flat mailers?
Imagine we create a package that gets 100% opened 100% read 100% Remembered and your sales people 20% + Close rates!
What would happen if you got one of these in the mail right now?
Would you Get it from mail room 100%?
Would YOU open it?
Would YOU read It?
YES, YES and YES again…
Imagine your UPS guy hand deliver this to you! Full Size…
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Selling a corporate software product that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars is a tough project. You can’t just broadly advertise and expect results. Instead, you need to reach directly into the offices of executive buyers.
There’s no shortage of gatekeepers and roadblocks between you and your quarry, and executive buyers are often deeply jaded to traditional advertising messages. What’s your route to success?
The Campaign
Client was introducing intelligent eMerchandising software that increased the per-cart sales average of large online stores. We rolled out a wide-ranging campaign (involving offline and online elements like print ads, online advertising, e-newsletter sponsorship, email blasts, etc), and the basic campaign concept played out in the visual for our print ad:
The first run of the print ad offered a white paper, and the ad generated far more leads than expected. Time to breathe a sigh of relief.
After all the other elements hit the market, we confronted the problem of getting our sales reps into the offices of 80 highly qualified targets. How could we do that?
Birth of a Lumpy Mailer
I’m a fan of lumpy mailers — three dimensional objects (often with a humorous slant) shipped to small, carefully targeted lists. Because they’re clearly not junk mail and carry an aura of value, lumpy mailers blow right through barriers and onto desks.
The ready-to-ship cart shorn of some of the accompanying elements.
In this case, I located a source for footlong miniature shopping carts costing less than $7 each. Our software allowed us to ship them in large white boxes, and each cart carried a foamcore-mounted piece promising the executive they’d never see another empty online shopping cart.
Also included was a handwritten note from a sales rep promising to get in touch. This was critical — lumpy mailers can be tailored to generate response, but when you send them to high-value targets, the mailer often paves the way for a near-term contact.
The thinking is simple; cold calling a VP’s office earns you a one-way trip to voice mail. But calling an office that just received a fun, three-dimensional goodie (neatly aligned with your product benefits) lands your sales rep a spot on the VP’s appointment calendar.
Results?
Well if you have sales people that can close once in front of decision make always 20% + Close!
The Question?
Are your sales people getting past gatekeepers? If not do you think sales would change if they were at 20% +?
Lets talk!
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Is Your Marketing Missing a P?
-or-
Why Properly Executed Specialty
Advertising Works!
by Nye Ohrberg
If you’ve been in the marketing game for any length of time, you’ve seen all manner of professional nomenclature come and go. Positioning, share of mind, top-of-mind awareness, guerilla marketing…it’s a long list. And when something new does emerge, the tendency is to dispense the old to the archives of yesteryear.
Well, sometimes that’s a good thing (I am sooooooooooooooooo sick of hearing marketing mavens and advertising gurus trumpet “positioning” as if it were the Holy Grail of promotion!). Sometimes, however, it’s not, and one of the old saws that got tossed out quite a while ago but deserves to be resurrected is the “4 P’s of Marketing.”
You remember that, don’t you? It’s “Product · Place · Price · Promotion.” Or do you remember the 4 P’s at all (and if you’re young enough, chances are you’ve never even heard of it)? Whatever the case, let’s first do a recap of those P’s.
Product: The right product for the application. It doesn’t have to be the best product in its class, because this isn’t strictly about quality. It’s about applicability and practicability. It’s also about knowing what your product can and cannot do and who is most likely to be interested in this product. [NOTE: I’m using “product” here to mean both product and service. Call it literary shorthand.]
Place: Where customers can find your product. In real estate, it’s “location location location.” Same here. But more importantly, your product needs to be offered and available at a logical place. That is, it needs to be placed where potential customers are most likely to look for it or where it is most likely to attract buyer attention, either via product affinity or shopper surprise and consequent impulse.
Price: The right price for the product and the market (and, of course, your profitability). Notice that word “right.” It doesn’t mean the lowest price – it means the price that fits the personality and perception of the product. Indeed, the marketing annals are rife with examples of products that were priced so comparatively low that buyers perceived those products as being of inferior quality and, as a result, eschewed them.
Promotion: The communication of a product’s features and benefits. How that communication is delivered depends on myriad factors including target audience, product application, competition, time constraints, budget constraints, and lots more. But your communication must be delivered effectively, consistently, and repeatedly, or your product with simply gather dust in its place – regardless of the price you charge.
Those comprise the four wheels of your marketing vehicle. If one wheel goes flat – or just plain falls off…or isn’t even installed – your business will careen off the sales road and into a no-sales abyss.
That’s the longstanding principle of the 4 P’s, and it’s a principle that makes sense, all of the marketing profession’s pseudoscientific modern monikers notwithstanding. However, there’s a P missing – and it’s been missing right from the start. That P is “Presence.”
Presence – the Missing P
Presence is where your product exists in the eyes, hearts, and minds of your future, current, and former customers. Or, to be more precise about it, where your product’s messages and/or reminders exist.
Do not confuse presence with share of mind or top-of-mind awareness. The concepts are similar, but only just so. Share of mind and top-of-mind awareness are internal functions. They are at the mercy of the whims and fancies of memory and the synaptic detours to which our brains are subject. No matter how often a marketing message is transmitted, a potential buyer’s unaided recall of that message is easily and all too often diverted by any of an array of life’s little distractions – including the at-the-decision-moment arrival of a competitor’s message.
Thus, share of mind and top-of-mind awareness have no true presence, other than what might carom around in a prospect’s head. Real, genuine, enduring presence requires physicality – an existence that is external and not dependent on what a potential buyer might cull from memory.
Enter specialty advertising products. Of all the marketing and advertising investments available, a specialty advertising product (e.g., promo product, premium, et al) is the only one that has and can demand presence.
It’s basic human nature. You have no compunction about throwing out a brochure or flyer or other flat printed marketing communication. But an actual product? Even the chintziest geegaw stays around longer than a sales letter, sitting on a desk or stuck to a refrigerator or holding your morning coffee or whatever…and “broadcasting” a message 24/7. THAT is presence!
Promo Items Don’t Work…or Do They?
Yes, I can hear you now. You’ve used trinkets and fuzzballs before, and they simply don’t work, right? Well, the sad fact is that too many advertisers – and, for that matter, promo item sellers – don’t know how to make those specialty items work.
Years ago, I convinced a client to purchase a considerable quantity of pens, coffee mugs, tile coasters, and assorted other promo goodies, and I showed them a promotional program for sending or otherwise giving these items to current customers, new prospects, and employees.
After a few months, I followed up to see how the program was working. The client told me that it wasn’t working at all. And why wasn’t it working? The client was reluctant to give away the merchandise because it was so “valuable.” That was tantamount to the client saying they don’t give out brochures because they cost so much to print! Yikes!!
Unfortunately, scenarios like this are far too common. Even more common, though, is the penchant for promo product buyers to choose products based solely on price and then distribute these products willy-nilly without any kind of promotional program behind them – as if just handing a prospect a pearl-handle pickle picker is going to pry open their checkbook!
Promo items don’t work that way. Sure, even without a program or romanced message or enticement to respond, that pickle picker may stay around. But its presence – especially immediate but also long term – is minimal, to say the least.
The 3 R’s of Effective Direct Mail Promo
Specialty advertising works only when it is properly executed, and far and away the most effective use of promo items is in a direct mail campaign. Yet proper execution of such a campaign entails multiple stages, not just a one-hit-hopeful thrown on the wall to see what sticks. It involves various and ongoing communications steps that engage the target, repeatedly deliver the sales messages, and motivate the recipient to take action. And most importantly, it must involve “dimension” – mailers that are not as flat as the results those ubiquitous envelope mailings typically generate.
To truly work, a direct mail promo employing specialty advertising items should adhere to the “3 R’s of Effective Direct Mail Promo”: Relevance · Repetition · Reward.
Relevance: Make each item relevant to the message you’re trying to convey – NOT necessarily your product – and complement that “borrowed interest” item with creative copy that crystallizes the allusion to your message.
Repetition: Follow up, follow up, follow up. Hit your targets again and again and again with different promo items but a reiteration of your message, your product’s features and benefits, and your offer. Statistics for flat mail alone show that a follow-up mailing averages twice the response of the initial mailing. Dimensional follow-up mailings almost always do even better.
Reward: In direct marketing parlance, this is your offer. Every direct marketing professional will tell that the offer is king. They’re right. It is. But people being people, an offer of a discount or some dollar or percent savings isn’t nearly as powerful as when it’s coupled with an offer for another free gift (remember, you’ve already sent them one gift in that first dimensional mailer). People simply like to get free stuff…and that stuff creates presence.
Now don’t think that I’m just shilling for the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, or FedEx. Those 3 R’s apply to the entirety of a campaign, and they need to be followed equally among all of a campaign’s marketing communications – especially including emails and the advertiser’s website.
You see, the “multiple stages” I mentioned earlier aren’t limited solely to direct mailers. A correctly developed and implemented promotional campaign should take advantage of all appropriate and affordable direct marketing media – that is, media that can follow the 3 R’s and fully exploit the potential of presence-building promo products.
What’s Old Is New…and Newly Powerful!
Since the advent of the Internet, an ever increasing share of an advertiser’s marketing mix has gone “e.” It makes sense, at least to a point, because e-communications are cheap, quick, immediate, and instantly generated. The trouble is, though, e-communications can be just as easily ignored, deleted, or automatically blocked. Wastage is exceedingly high in e-only marketing.
Nevertheless, the fixation on “e” shows no signs of abating. But a funny thing has happened on the way to today’s cyberspace: Direct mail is moving from quaint to unique and exciting – direct mail, that is, that’s dimensional…that doesn’t just sit their flat amidst other promo envelopes and relentless bills.
That means specialty advertising items. And again, promo items stand alone in their ability to generate and sustain presence among a business’s prospective and current customers.
Of course, there’s nothing new about the notion of promo gadgets. They’ve been around for millennia. What is new is the immense burgeoning potential of promo items to cut through media noise, gets sales messages received and remembered, and produce viable measurable results.
The paradigm has shifted. Product, place, price, and promotion – the traditional four wheels of the marketing vehicle – now have a fifth wheel: presence.
Presence – cultivated through a carefully planned, developed, and executed multi-stage promo-item campaign — is the steering wheel of this vehicle, one that has the power to guide and maneuver targets from contact through curiosity to concrete buying interest.
Nye Ohrberg
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