National Clothesline
The power of print promotion
“Did you get the message I left on your voice mail yesterday about white water
rafting in Colorado?” my friend, Tim, asked as we stood together in the foyer after church last
Sunday.
I was just about to reply that I had, but couldn’t remember much of what he had said when he saved me the embarrassment by
handing me a brochure. It explained everything in detail… full and half-day trips, weekly schedules, cabin rentals and cost options.
Seeing the information in front of me with photos and testimonials made it much
easier to plan our upcoming trip.
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There’s no doubt that our world now is defined by information. Whether it’s news, opinions, interviews or advertising, it’s information that provides the direction and structure to our lives. Print
media, television, on-line, mobile and social media are all now vital
components of any campaign you might choose to engage in.
With such a range of technology and channels at your disposal, how can you be
sure you’re getting maximum reach, exposure and return for the hard-earned marketing
dollars you spend? To put it another way, what’s the most effective medium a drycleaner can use to promote business?
While many of today’s advertisers are moving to the web to reach their markets, print advertising
still holds many benefits and can play an important role in marketing.
The big talk these days is how to get the most from online marketing efforts.
And while I fully agree that online advertising is a good component of any ad
campaign, I nonetheless strongly maintain that the best marketing efforts take
a multi-media approach by combining online techniques with conventional print
ads.
After all, a small retail business in a fixed market area with a maximum
effective drawing radius of one-mile, for example, should not forget small run,
highly targeted print promotions as an affordable and effective business
generator. But when compared with low-cost e-mail, many cleaners have long
since abandoned the idea of a printed piece delivered by the postal service.
They’re completely digital.
Again, when it comes to remembering, seeing is better than hearing but not being
seen at all is far worse. My problem with the electronic media is that most of
it is never seen at all. It may be relatively inexpensive and in some cases
even free, but if it is not viewed it’s ineffective. There is a misconception in the business world that the buying
population is technically savvy. In fact, only a small percentage is. On the
other hand, almost everyone can read and understand a postcard.
Print still has power
Print has had and still continues to possess all the properties of the ideal
medium. It’s available in both large and small numbers, can be accessed easily, and is
engaging, versatile and creative. Besides, research proves that advertising in
print is twice as effective as on television for retailers.
The key to successful print marketing is to engage a prospect and draw them in
with attention-grabbing content and then reward them with a worthwhile offer or
special service.
Print media works because it understands the needs of the customer. By picking
up a printed piece, your prospect has decided to invest a certain amount of
time and attention and is seeking information or a benefit in return. If the
advertising succeeds in delivering on this expectation, a prospect may be
enticed to take the next step and become a customer.
People are creatures of habit and as such will return to their established
reading rituals whether it is a magazine, newspaper or direct mail from a
company with whom they have developed a relationship.
Customer magazines and catalogs are giants in the land of print marketing. But
it’s direct mail that is the most personal medium, ideally placed to maintain the
consumer-brand relationship. Many large and small drycleaning companies use
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to build and maintain this relationship.
What we see we remember.
It keeps coming back to me over and over again that nothing happens in business
until someone knows who you are, what you have to offer and how you can be
reached.
John opened a service business in my hometown a little over a year ago. He paid
over $1,500 for a very attractive website. It’s properly meta-tagged for effective SEO. He has an on-line newsletter and
communicates regularly by e-mail to his small but loyal customer base. In spite
of these and other on-line marketing efforts, he was having difficulty and was
hanging on by his fingernails.
Recently, he asked what I would do in his situation?
My response was that I would do some very basic print promotions to a small,
targeted area around town. I would start small and if the response was
favorable, I would expand the effort, as my budget would allow. He decided to
embark on a very conservative plan.
That was just over two months ago. Since then, we have designed vehicle magnets
for his car and his wife’s. We have put up a colorful banner with posters at his store. We printed some
inexpensive but provocative counter handouts. We wrote a press release for his
service, which was featured in two local newspapers. And we have just expanded
his direct mail to 5,000 pieces a month.
After a full year, his business has finally launched. All of his print ads and
handouts feature his website and he is now beginning to get Internet traffic.
The problem John suffered from was a simple one… nobody could see him.
