YUCK!

My young designer proudly handed me an ad layout. 

“Yuck.” I responded. 

“You don’t like it?” he said sheepishly. “I can try again...” 

“I hate it,” I replied. “But who cares what I think.” 

He looked into each of my eyes to see if I was angry or joking. He
furrowed his brow and bit his lip as he pondered my response.
Then, he brightened.  “I get it. It doesn’t matter what you think,”
he said. “It’s the client’s opinion that counts.” 

“Nope,” I said. 

“I’m stumped,’ he replied.
 
“It’s the client’s customers that matter,” I explained. “It has to
connect with them.” 

A giant light bulb went on in the designer’s head. 

“The target audience in this case is females age 50 to 65,” I
explained. “I probably don’t like what they like. They wouldn’t
like what I do. Like a good salesperson, your ad has to connect
with the customer. This connects -- just not with me. That’s fine.
I’m not your market..” 

“So you don’t like it -- but you like it?” he said confused. 

“I don’t like it, but I LOVE it,” I said. “I think it works. It will
connect with the audience. That’s really all that matters. If others
like it, too -- great. But connecting with customers is not our key
concern.” 

He left my office smiling at a job well done. Or laughing at how
confusing I was. Either way, he left thinking. And that’s all that
really matters. I think. 

Who likes your marketing materials better? You or your customers?

- Phil Sasso

Sorry....

My in-laws unexpectedly dropped in from out-of-town one day. I took them to our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner. When our orders came, my father-in-law’s meal was missing. I flagged our waitress, Veronica, and told her.

"It’s probably coming up," she said and walked away.

Then, I noticed I hadn’t gotten my side order. So I flagged Veronica again. She still wasn’t apologetic but she was confused.

"Hmm. I’ll check on that," she said turning.

"Oh, can you check on our bread, too?" my wife chimed in.

Veronica turned on her heals and sighed

"Didn’t you get bread with your salads?" she inquired.

"No," Beth replied. "That’s why I’m asking."

The kitchen’s mistakes weren’t Veronica’s fault. But her response impacted her tip -- and our loyalty to the restaurant. The same is true for how you and your company handle mistakes.

Mistakes happen. Having a good system in place can turn comebacks into happy repeat customers. A system teaches all your employees a uniform method of dealing with mistakes and avoids "seat-of-your pants" solutions that could come back to bite you in the "seat-of-your-pants".

I don't think Veronica ever said "sorry". Some people think the word "sorry" is a sign of weakness or an admission of guilt. It's neither. It's a sign that you care about your customer. That one word can make all the difference in diffusing a customer's reaction -- or overreaction as the case may be. Start with "I’m sorry."

But don’t stop with "sorry." One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to just give your customer lip service. Work to do more than make good on the problem -- make up for it.

-- Phil Sasso

In the mail...

Recently, I was following up with a client on a direct mail project...

"How did the auto dealer mailing turn out for you?" I asked.

"The first week we got about a quarter percent response," He said. "This week, we hit 1%."

"That's great," I said delighted that we had done such a great job.

"Yeah, but we'll still get calls for a while," he responded.

"It could take up to 2 months to see your full response," I reminded him.

"Two months? I once got a customer who called me after two years," he chuckled. "And he was a pretty big deal!"

Direct mail produces quick results. As a rule of thumb, you’ll get 25% of your total responses to a mailing after the first week, 50% within two weeks, and 75% by the end of the first month, according studies by the U.S. Postal Service. The final responses trickle in over the next month.

In our experience, a multiple postcard mailing can be a cost-effective marketing program. Each piece in the series should build on the next, telling your prospects more reasons to buy from you. I suggest a four-piece weekly mailing. It's more cost-effective since you can print all four oversized cards at once on one sheet of 11x17 stock. Because, even at bulk rate, postage is expensive this technique is best used to promote big ticket items or service relationships with a long lifetime value.

One client that I ran a mailing like this for got a response rate of 15%. Of course, his mailing list was prospects who had responded to his print ads and were aware of his company and product.

If you'll excuse me, I have a year-old postcard offer I need respond to.

- Phil Sasso

Miss Me?.....

I was too busy this week to write a marketing tip for yesterday.

Chances are you didn't notice. In the same way, customers won't be concerned if you stopped advertising tomorrow; prospects won't call you to complain because they missed your ads. But eventually, if you advertise too infrequently, you'll see your sales plummet.

Doubt it? You have two options: try it or take an expert's word for it.

I don't recommend you stop advertising to see how it affects your sales health anymore than I suggest you stop eating and drinking to see how it affects your physical health.

So let's look at an expert: Jack Scissors from Northwestern University. I have Dr. Scissors' "Advertising Media Planning" on my bookshelf -- it was my college text years ago. He's still one of the media planning leaders today. He says ad continuity is the most cost-effective way to impacts sales. Here's how he defines continuity: "A method of scheduling advertising so that audiences have an opportunity to see ads at regular intervals. There are many patterns that could be used, from advertising once each day to once a month"

The flip side, in my words, is: infrequent ads result in infrequent sales. Breaking continuity breaks the branding messages effectiveness.

You may have heard me give this analogy before. Think of advertising as a boiling pot: It takes time for the pot to boil. Once boiling, it you turn off the heat it may continue to boil for a few seconds -- and it will come to a boil again if you light the flame quickly. But if you let it cool off too much, it will take a long time to bring back to a boil again. You need to keep a fire under your prospects to keep that pot boiling, too.

How long does it take advertising to warm-up or cool-off if you stop advertising? I wish there was a magic number. It depends on your product, your market, your competition and the media you choose.

But rather than guess, I suggest you keep the pot boiling.


- Phil Sasso