Ok, I am not mentioning her name in this blog because she has suggested American Express to use a postcard instead of publishing and distributing an expansive booklet. Nope, this is not the reason for this post and I don’t find anything to be too happy.

Look at the main point – she recommended Am Ex to use postcard because it could suffice the need in a better way than an expensive booklet. And note the points where she criticizes the content of the booklet.

Marketing is all about that – it is all about how you present a thing and words play a vital role there.

You may have a great looking and expensive booklet but if the content is not interesting enough, than everything will find their way in a trash can. So what is the need of all these?

We often come across some clients who want more and more images in the postcard or brochures or other sales literatures. They think those images will make the postcard more attractive.

Is it really true?

If you cannot maintain a balance between the two (image and content) and if you are not sure about the thrust area, the project cannot succeed.

I know that images look good but you can never be sure how your target audience would realize that image (a smiling lady can be translated from different perspectives). But, you can cut down the chance factor with your content. They must compliment each other for a better result.

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I am very keen about this subtle changes – something that had been an occasion for candy and kids, is now a big business occasion. Wish, all my clients a great business renewal.

If you haven’t planned your marketing strategy, go ahead and prepare something as soon as you can, time is very expensive and you are running out of it.

This is what I am planning with a client of mine:

The plan: We are organizing a quiz contest for kids. We will print some simple questions in a leaflet and distribute them among different school children in that locality. They will be asked to answer those questions in that leaflet and drop them in a box in the showroom. By the way, that is a kid’s showroom that sells everything a kid will like to have – toys, candy, ice-cream, games, story book. The winner, selected by a lucky draw will be given a big prize (my client is yet to decide on the size) and every participant (those who will come on that day) will be given a surprised gift (it will also be mentioned in the leaflet).

Profit: We expect to get a huge number of target visitors (kids are doorways to parents’ pockets) before and in the occasion. The items in the showroom may allure the kids to buy and on the big day when they will come with their parents, we may expect a good on-spot sale (the ceremony will be organized in an open space inside the showroom).

Lets see what happens.

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And not only their return on investment; they are not even hesitating to walk a few extra yards to win a customer? Do you remember your local ice-cream parlor where they have started adding extra toppings in vibrant colors? Can you remember an ice-cream or a ice-cream parlor of your childhood days so vibrant?

Perhaps the answer is no.

Some people would say that it is because there had not been so much of competition. But if you remember correctly, no product can run without a competitor. Having no competitors in the market means that the business does not have enough potential. Sooner or later, the number of competitors would grow depending on the amount of required investment and expertise.

And as the competition would grow the business houses will try to penetrate the target market as fast and as soon as possible. Take a look at today’s market scenario, the shop owners do not hesitate to take every measure to close a deal as soon s they can locate an opportunity. And when web is taking a stronger grasp into people’s daily life and habit, direct marketers are becoming conscious about grabbing the most out of it.

I am writing this because, one of my customers (I have a long business relationship with him), wanted me to create a brochure to promote his newly launched website. Yes, he has started a so that the local customers do not need to come to his shop to buy daily products. So long he had been providing telephone support, now internet is taking over. He thinks ROI will be big… lets see.

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Sorry for such an unwanted break. I was very ill and doctor prescribed me complete bed rest. And my wife took the laptop away. (Lol. I also needed a break.) Now I am fit and fine and back to blogging with my everyday job.

In my last post (Why do you want to run a postcard campaign?) I was talking about breaking up the reason for running a campaign into three parts, namely to generate new clients, nurture existing clients, maintain client loyalty.

Now, with the first point, the logic is very clear and any sensitive writer knows how to deliver the copy. But for point number 2 and 3 there can be confusing as they sound somewhat similar.

Why I point them as different?

When I say nurture existing clients, it takes into account the whole bunch of your customer - those who regularly come to your shop (regularity depends on your product type). And when I say maintain client loyalty, it mainly focuses on those who are not coming to your shop in regular interval.

If your product demands your client to visit every week, than if there is someone who is not visiting your shop for last two or three months should fall into the third segment. However, I must say that, those who fall into the second category might also be included into the third category depending on the situation.

What should be the content of the brochure for the third segment?

That solely depends on your business – tell them that you are improving and include latest developments; ask for their suggestion for further improvement. DO NOT HIGHLIGHT YOUR FAULTS UNLESS YOU HAVE IMPROVED ON THEM.

And do not give them any special offer – it may harm your relationship with the existing clients.

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“Why are you running this campaign? Do you want to generate new leads (could be clients) or do you want no nurture the existing leads? Or do you want to run the campaign to maintain client loyalty!”

If you want to run a successful campaign, it is important to answer these questions. It is not necessary to discuss these points with your printer (he or she may not be interested.. lol) but the designer and the content writer must understand the reasons.

I get a lot of clients who just want to print a postcard – that’s it – that’s all they know. If you ask them why they want to publish those postcards they would say ‘obviously for businesses’ or some would say ‘to advertise’. Sometimes I ask them, why you are going for postcards and not brochures! Can you guess their reply?

If you are not sure about what you want to achieve, you cannot measure the effect of postcard marketing. And if the result is not measurable, there is a high chance that your efforts will go to a waste paper box.

I generally break up a campaign in three major segments:

1. To generate new clients
2. Nurture existing clients
3. Maintain client loyalty

The point no.2 and 3 may seem almost similar to you. But think twice – are they similar?

They may stay close to each other but they are not similar. In my next post I will tell you the reason why you need to treat them differently and compose different materials for them. So long…

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However I was worried about a few things – why would hotels agree to distribute those brochures? Why would they agree to promote somebody else?

I found some answers to them too. Hotels will not feel bad to distribute those brochures among boarders if we could make it worthy to distribute. If they wanted we could also put the hotel’s name in the brochure which will give us another opportunity of co-branding. If they do not agree even after that, we would post some people beside targeted hotels who would distribute those brochures among new visitors.

Why would the boarders or new visitors collect them?

The boarders (who are yet to visit her shop) will collect them as a helpful guide to the city. Our chances to win new visitors will increase. They may also keep it for further use (may be for friends) which may give us opportunity to win more clients.

She agreed to the whole project and has already talked to some of the local hotels. The hotel owners have given her green signal to go ahead.

What else? We are doing our research on creating a great map of the city. When the map will be ready – we will integrate some of her worthy collections into the design.

And the message would be that of simply a public service. Let’s see what turns out.

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Her primary idea was to make a gorgeous brochure with some product details – just like an average brochure. Her target audience was mainly the outsiders - the visitors.

I asked her “how are you going to distribute them”? She said that she will keep them in her shop and when some new visitors will come in, she will give one copy.

I asked myself – Would I keep that piece if I had been a visitor?

The answer was obviously a big “No”. Another most important thing was that, if she gave me a brochure that meant, I was already a customer there or at least I had already visited that shop. What else would you prove to me about your shop when I have visited it myself! That means the whole exercise will not bring me new clients.

I started thinking about the whole process.  

And my suggestion was simple –

I asked her to create a detailed road map of that place along with important location to visit rather than creating a product catalog (in brochure format). And I suggested her to talk to some hotels if they could distribute it among new boarders. The brochure would obviously have her shop name along with product details and address printed in it.

Why did I do this? Wait for the next post

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Are you a bit shocked? Don’t worry, even if they are true (don’t take these words on name/face value), they are actually making such statement on email marketing (an overused online direct mailing strategy). 

What do you need? Money to support the project – isn’t it?

People offer help for different reasons – if you can understand that reason you can raise money. The only necessary thing is that you reach the right person at the right time with the right cause or message. You must understand that no two people may get motivated in the same degree for the same reason.

I would suggest one thing.

Say for example, Mark, Godin and Klein are friends and you (say you know Klein) want to raise some money. Rather than mailing them separately, why don’t you attach all the names together? You may try to convince Klein to talk to Godin or Mark. Or you may write to mark and Godin that Klein has donated $—–.

However, everyone in your mailing list is not as big as Godin or Mark. And you can afford to put some extra care to convince people like them. These small changes may mark big difference.

I would say one thing here – direct mail never raised money for anyone – it was never meant for that. It is a tool that conveys your message – that’s it. If your message has the power or thrust, it will raise money. A postcard or a mail is just a tool.

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In that post I wrote “Is postcard advertising the sole medium for your marketing campaign or is it complimentary to other advertisements?” to evaluate different status or situations of direct mail marketing.

This is really an important issue that you need to consider. Sometimes (in real field) postcards and other direct mailing materials work as a complimentary element to other modes of advertisement like TV commercials or newspaper advertisements. And sometimes postcards are the only mode of advertisement.

As both the situations are different, so should be the treatment of content and visual. In some cases, where postcards and brochures played a complimentary role, I used the content of main advertisement as reference point. In those cases, we had more space and scope to play with content – we could spread the message with minimum content or even without saying anything.

In such cases the basic purpose of postcard is different – it works as a reminder as the proposition is already established by the main advertisement.

In other cases, when postcards and brochures are the only mode of advertisement, we need to be extra cautious. Within the limited space we need to establish the whole point. Every pixel is as precious as the product.

Do you understand my point?

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