Tom Feltenstein - 501 Killer Marketing Tactics

that reads like a horoscope. Remember to make this a coupon or similar
offer that is good for a limited time.
Decide what products or services you want to feature, then write some
humorous or clever copy linked to each astrological sign. If you aren’t
comfortable writing it yourself, find someone to do it for you, or read some
generic horoscopes and paraphrase them to suit your purpose. You want
to make sure your copy is light, entertaining, and in good taste.
Here are some examples:
To sell more beer: Cancer—A relative’s visit will be longer than
expected. Treat yourself to a cold one. You deserve it.
To sell more clothing: Gemini—A change in your appearance will
put new romance in your life. So will our new fall sweaters.
Materials Direct mail or ad
Timing
Six weeks prior:
Prepare direct mail or ad.
Four weeks prior:
Print direct mail.
One week prior:
Discuss program with staff. Send direct mail or place ad.
One day prior:
Discuss program with staff again.
After:
Evaluate results.
175. Speling Error Ad
Best For Consumer-oriented businesses
Objective Increase awareness, generate traffic, stimulate trial
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Target Existing customers and potential new customers
About 80 percent of newspaper readers look only at the headline on an
ad. You need a headline that compels people to want to read more. Here’s
one that always works: “There’s a spelling error in this ad. If you spot it,
we’ll give you $5.” You might consider a sub-headline that says something
like, “We’re willing to pay you to try us out.”
Place the error deep in the ad copy so that the reader has to receive
the message before he discovers how to claim the reward. Adjust the
reward to an amount that is appropriate for your products or services.
If your offer is $5, you should have a lot of $5 items available. If
your product sells for hundreds, you may want to make your offer $50
or $100.
Make it clear that the reward is good toward a purchase, like a gift
certificate. Don’t make it look like a discount or a coupon!
Materials Newspaper ad
Timing
Four weeks prior:
Prepare newspaper ad.
One week prior:
Discuss program with employees.
Place newspaper ad.
One day prior:
Discuss program with employees.
Start:
Redeem newspaper ads.
Six weeks after:
Evaluate program.
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176. The Gold in Customer
Databases
Best For All businesses
Objective Increase awareness, generate traffic, stimulate trial
Target Existing customers and potential new customers
Building and maintaining your customer database—addresses, e-mails,
birthdays, anniversaries, purchase histories, and so on—is essential to
successful marketing and helps you understand what traits and characteristics
separate your customers from the general population. You can
learn a lot about your market by studying, manipulating, and interpreting
your data.
Your customer database should be kept clean—updated and accurate.
It’s more than just a list of your best customers; it’s a compilation of
their lifestyle traits and purchasing behavior. Once you have created the
database, it provides ongoing marketing opportunities to increase frequency
and gives you valuable insight into where future marketing dollars
should be spent.
After several months of data capture (information on methods appears
in later chapters), you can profile your list to show you the average age
of your customers, their gender, how many children they have, their average
income, their occupation, and even what type of magazines they subscribe
to. All of this information can then be compared to the general
population to see what sets your customers apart.
Once the information has been captured, it is up to you to ensure that
you get the greatest return on your efforts. A recent study showed directmail
offers that are highly personalized and printed in full color increased
the response rate by 37 percent. New digital printing technologies make
color affordable and easy.
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177. Customer Thank-You Program
Best For Most business types
Objective Improve your image, build mailing list
Target All customers
Each time a customer fills out a customer comment card or joins your
loyalty program, you have an opportunity to increase your exposure to
that customer for years to come. Depending on the size and activity of
your business, this can be done by your staff, or you can easily farm
it out to a provider. Data capture companies will handle the painstaking
task of manually entering data and keeping it valid—the rest is
up to you.
Within days of the customer’s visit, you or the data capture company
sends the customer a four-color personalized postcard thanking the customer
and inviting her to come in again soon.
Materials Comment cards and/or registration cards, envelopes to send
the cards to the data capture company
Timing
Four weeks prior:
Prepare photos of staff, location, and merchandise
or menu items.
E-mail photos to service provider for design of piece.
Prepare comment cards or registration cards.
Three weeks prior:
E-mail photos to service provider for design of piece.
Preaddress envelopes to send the filled-out cards to
the service provider.
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One week prior:
Discuss program with staff.
Start:
Collect registration information and mail it to the service provider.
Ongoing:
Continue to send in registration information on a regular basis.
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