Posts Tagged ‘marketing strategy’

How many of you have a sticker like this in the upper left corner of the windshield in your car?

How many of you aren’t sure and have to go look now that I’ve asked you? (feel free, it’s okay, I won’t judge you )

For those who don’t have one or have zero idea what this is, it is a sticker (easily removable) that was placed on the inside of my windshield, on the drivers side, last time I took my car in to get service done at a Ford dealership. I get a new one every time I take my car in, always placed in the same location, with some of the details updated.

From living with an automotive technician (Hubby works for Volkswagen) I know that a good service department is one of the biggest money makers for a dealership – and some of the bigger service departments bring in more money to the dealerships than the car sales. With that in mind, it is no surprise that car dealerships do a lot of advertising for their service departments – mailers for specials, mailers for reminders about warranties, etc. But, out of all the marketing tools they have, I honestly believe that this simple sticker is probably their most inexpensively effective.

Let’s take a look at the reasons that this marketing piece is so successful:

1. These stickers probably cost the dealership 5¢, which means that if I were to just throw it away, it wouldn’t be a huge loss. And, if I were to come back in, the cost to get me there was very minimal.
2. It is placed in the upper left corner of my windshield, always there for me to see, a constant reminder left there without being too obtrusive.
3. At the very top, in big bold letters is Genuine Parts & Service Next Appt. – It clearly states what it is for and constantly reminds me that it is high quality (genuine), which is reassuring. There is no looking at it and wondering what it is or why I have it.
4. It says the name of the dealership that I went to, their address and phone number, which makes it super easy to contact them, and makes sure that if I do need them for any reason, it is accesible. Imagine if I were to be out driving and have an issue with e car? This sticker does double duty by also being a resource should I need a service department quickly.
5. Rather than just including a hint to come back, they give me the exact miles and date that  appointment should be. And, this is not just a generic mileage and date, it is specifically put there based on my driving habits based on length of ownership, number of miles and condition of my vehicle.

Of course, no matter how clever or inexpensive a marketing tool is, if you don’t have the customer service to back it up, the marketing will just go to waste.

What inexpensive but effective ways can you market your business?

Magicians have amazing tricks – from slight of hand and floating objects to impressive visualization and dangerous tricks. No matter what they are doing, they always know how to capture an audience.

But how can their style and tricks help your marketing?

When a magician comes on stage, he doesn’t just walk…he appears, comes in a cloud of smoke, or flies through the air. From the first moment that you see a magician, he starts to blow you away with something new, something unique, something WOW that will keep you entertained. You need to do the same thing with your marketing. The minute that your client first lays eyes on your website, your marketing piece, your office, or you, they need to be blown away. You need to deliver that WOW factor from the first moment that you have their attention.

Once a magician starts his show, he doesn’t slow down. His tricks keep getting better and more magical. He shows you the reason you paid to come see him, and the tricks that are only his. He involves the audience, captures the imagination and makes you feel like anything can happen. A good marketing strategy will do the same thing for your clients. Once you have gotten them past the first meeting, you have to keep the interest there. This is done through showing off everything that you do best, and why they should spend their money with you. You must provide proof that you are who you say you are, just as a magician continues to do tricks until you are convinced of his magic!

When a magician wraps up his show, he always leaves you with one final trick. One trick that will leave you walking out of the audience in awe and shock. One move that will make you remember him forever. When you work with your clients, you should be doing the same. The best clients are repeat clients, and if you leave them beyond happy, they will definitely want to come back again! If you don’t get someone as a client, you can still leave a good impression, by making sure to follow up, and give them every reason to call you in the future.

What other tricks can you learn from a magician?

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

Some of us need positive reinforcement, others only understand punishment. I only understand positive reinforcement. Luckily I learned this when I was just 3 ½. I started kindergarten in the middle of 1988. From the very beginning,  I was a handful. I liked to talk, and had a very active imagination. The rest of the story from today is as told to me by my father since it is one of his favorite stories…“Every day Kirsten’s teacher, Mrs. Gitlin, had a pond of water drawn on the board. In that pond were fishing poles for each student, and fish in the water with each students name on it. Above the fishing poles was a table and then a frying pan. Every time you did something wrong, you moved up the ranking, from the water, to the pole, to the table and to the frying pan…and by gum, you were in the fishing pan every day! Well, the problem was, you thought it was a prize…(apparently I thought I was winning every day??). So, we [my parents] came in and talked with the teacher and explained that you [Kirsten] needed positive, not negative reinforcement. Once she changed how she rewarded you – giving you stars when you did things right instead of punishing if you did them wrong – you became a stellar student and she never had problems with you again”. This lesson has stuck with me forever and I believe is one of the most important things I remember when working with clients. Some people need positive reinforcement, some negative (reminder emails for getting their things done vs congratulatory notes when they are done). Some people learn by listening, some by doing (sitting in workshops or hands on training). The overall point is that not everyone operates in the same manner, and the sooner we learn that, the more effectively we will work with each other.

In the marketing world, 1988 marked a turning point for U.S. advertising overseas. Prior to 1988, Soviet TV had never allowed any American advertisements, but on May 21st, 1988, Pepsi debut it’s commercial to over 150 million Soviet TV viewers. What was even more important was that Pepsi translated their logo into the Cyrillic alphabet so that the Russians would be able to understand the commercial and the logo. This was a turning point because after the opening of the Soviet Union to American commercials, many companies began researching changing their logos into more multi-cultural forms, and planned on how they would release their products into new markets (remember the disaster of the Chevy Nova in Hispanic cultures?). It is important now, more than ever, to remember that with channels like youtube, your commercials have basically no limit to the people (and the countries) that will view them.

Or better named: Why I avoided joining Facebook in the beginning.

When I started my social media strategy (blogging, twitter, linkedin, etc) almost a year and a half ago, I avoided adding facebook into the mix. It wasn’t until about 8 months ago that I finally became part of it.

Why?

Because none of my real friends were on twitter or linkedin, and definitely none of them read my blog. It was mine, my business tools, my networking tools, it was my little world. And I liked it that way. I could write about business, connect with like minded individuals and there was no preconceived notions because they knew me already. I didn’t have to worry about it getting to personal – I could control what the business people knew about me. Basically, I avoided adding facebook because I didn’t want my real friends combined with my business connections, nor did I want my real friends to be getting my blog posts or business promotion. I wanted to know that at the end of the day, I could sign off of the “business” and just talk normal life with my friends. Actually, most of my friends didn’t even know I had a blog or what I did for work other than I was in “marketing or something”.

But then a funny thing happened…some of my social media connections became real life friends. I started getting coffee with them and learning about their lives. We had 3 hour lunches talking about everything from business to husbands and family. I attended tweetups and had a lot of fun. I joined a blog crush group, and seriously, those bloggers rock! I’ve recently joined the OCGood group, which should be another great connection to incredible people. I figured out that I really liked these people and wanted to be able to learn more about there personal lives, and of course, almost all of them were on Facebook and wanted to connect.

So I finally gave in and created a Facebook account.

Like I suspected, pretty quickly all my real friends found me and were excited to be able to send me messages/tag photos etc. Which was a slight problem. See, I enjoy going out. I enjoy a glass (or 4) of wine on the weekends. And sometimes, I don’t really want those pictures to be shared. But then I realized something, the more I did share those photos, of me just being me, the stronger that my blog readers and my social media connections became. People want to connect with real people. And because the service that I offer is so individual, people want to know who I am, what I am about and who they will be working with before they contact me.

What I learned was that by connecting my business life and my real life, my friends understand me better and my clients trust me more.

Do you combine business and real life? What have you discovered about it? Or if you don’t…why not?

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Jon Buscall, one of the bloggers I read on a daily basis, posed the question: What’s the most important social media site for your business?

My answer was Twitter. I can use it to promote my blog posts, ask questions, send short messages, invite people to events, and it keeps me at the forefront of a lot of peoples thoughts.

But then I got to thinking: What if  I had to choose only one social media tool that I could use?

I wouldn’t choose twitter, I would choose my blog.

But why? Why wouldn’t I pick the tool that I think is most important for my business?

Because without my blog, twitter wouldn’t be the most important tool for my business. My blog is where I get the content to share. My blog is where I send people who ask about my business. My blog is the start of it all. Without a blog, I wouldn’t have a business to promote. But, that is just me. Everyone has different thoughts on social media tools so I want your answers:

If you had to pick only one social media to use, which would it be? I expect that there will be strong arguments for each one, so please share the reasoning behind your choice in the comments.

Ever wonder how great small businesses become great?

They get talked about, shared and discussed by everyone. But, they talk about everyone else instead of themselves.

For example, I have talked about my experience with Portola Coffee, which in turn, led others to find them and test them out. They didn’t pay me. They didn’t ask me to write about them. I did it because I loved their service, their company ideals and now, their product.

I also do it because I know what it is like to be a small business, and know how hard it is to get noticed without a big budget. If money were no object, we could all advertise like big business. But money is an object, and one that small businesses can’t throw around lightly. So, I like to do my part to help small businesses grow – without having to spend their precious resources.

How do I do that?

By asking you to answer a simple question:

Which small business do you swear by? If you had to recommend one business to my readers, which would it be and why?

If you live in Orange County and haven’t attended the OC Fair…what are you waiting for? Definitely a great night whether you have kids or not (my hubby and I love it and never miss a year). This year, we went with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend as well. My sister-in-law who absolutely loves, loves, loves pigs. Which is why this year, we couldn’t miss the pig races. (I really tried to get a picture, but I didn’t want to stand in front of the kids…)

I had never been before, so I don’t know who their sponsors has been in the past, but this year, the Pig races were sponsored by…. Ralph’s. The Grocery store. The place you can buy all sorts of pig products.

The tagline for the event? “Bring Home the Bacon”

And they were giving away coupons to all race attendees:

(yes, that really does say Free Bacon.)

Always being in marketing, I thought it was clever.

My sister-in-law, however, after posing with the winning pig, told me it wasn’t.

What do you think: Excellent marketing strategy or perpetuating the childhood nightmare of cute little pigs becoming bacon?