Use Unexpected Seasonal or Personal Marketing

Forget the December holidays and surprise your customers by recognizing *other* events in their lives.

(Shel Horowitz's Frugal Marketing Tip, November, 2000)

We're getting into the time of year when everyone's mailbox is deluged with holiday greetings and holiday offers. In the clutter, it's entirely too easy for small voices to get lost. Too, it's hard to strike an effective balance between ignoring holidays of other cultures (for instance, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Solstice) and trivializing them as yet another excuse to participate in the orgy of materialism around Christmas.

Perhaps I should mention that a non-Christian and as an expert on Frugal Fun, I do what I can to help *consumers* have a minimal impact holiday season, that still leaves not only their but wallets their souls largely intact.

Yet the principle is sound: recognize special events in your customers' lives. But instead of sending out a shallow December greeting card along with dozens or hundreds others in your customers' mailboxes, look for times when you won't be drowned in the flood. Birthdays and wedding anniversaries are obvious times to commemorate. So are milestones such as children's sports achievements, graduations, and of course—if you have the right product—ties to holidays like Halloween, Valentine's, Independence Day, the day of the All-Star game...

Still, even on these lesser days, you'll have plenty of competition for your customer's attention—and you may not want to get involved in requesting and tracking this sometimes-sensitive information.

So think outside the box. How thrilled, for instance, will your customer be when you send a letter marking the 100th day since he or she started doing business with you—especially if it includes, say, flowers, or a 10% off coupon? Do you think this might increase your "share of mind?" Do you think the customer might have some positive things to say about you to family and friends?

Some other ways to build that share of mind (and all of them involve keeping a good database of your customers and prospects:

* Identify the top 20% of your customers who probably account for 60-80% of your revenue. Send them a series of special mailings, maybe even a newsletter. Offer them special deals or extra services. Provide incentives for them to refer their friends.

* Identify five serious prospect who've expressed significant interest but haven't bought. Ask for five minutes of their time, by phone, to find out exactly what they need form you in order to buy. Provide an incentive for answering the survey such as a free gift with their first order. (Obviously, this strategy is time-intensive and may be best for high-ticket items.)

Thank you reading this back issue of Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips, published every month since May, 1997; please click here to view the complete archives, grouped by subject. Shel is an internationally known copywriter and marketing consultant, author of Grassroots Marketing Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and several other books, and creator of the Frugal Marketing web site. Please click here to contact Shel.


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