Budgets have a way of being infinitely smaller than the marketing objectives set. Stretching your marketing rupees is a trick that most marketing folks struggle with. And then the worry of making the direct mail compelling enough… Getting the target audience to read it and remember it.
When was the last time you received a direct mailer from your credit card company?
Or a company educating you about some gizmos, which you must have?
I am sure it was pretty recent! Now the big question is – did you read it? Probably not. It just seems that there is too much direct marketing collateral being sent out.
Now for the last question.
When was the last time you received a gift as a part of direct mailer campaign?
Don’t know! Maybe three months or six months ago?
From a budget point of view, sending gifts in direct mailers sounds like squandering money and more often than not adds to the budgetary woes faced by all of us. You would have to be a financial whiz kid to reach out to more customers, create a big impression; all this from a limited budget. There never seems to be enough moolah to implement your big ticket dream of converting direct mail to leads and finally customers.
Faced with the dilemma of getting customers to open the envelope, and read what you have sent. Right?
Here’s an idea…
For a moment think of a creative way of combining direct emails with promotional items. On one hand, you have a plain vanilla envelope with a pamphlet. On the other side, you receive a different packaging, maybe a little box, with something more than just leaflets.
What will you open first?
The second package has piqued your curiosity, hasn’t it. Curiosity is the key here. That is why you see a number of direct mailing companies do not print anything on the envelope.
Let’s take another example:
You want to buy a car. There are two car dealerships selling the same brand that you are interested in. Both send you a mailer each on some promotion which the company is running. One of them was thoughtful enough and sent you a small car freshener (Rs. 30) or one window shade (Rs.50) or maybe just a small gift to hang inside the car (Rs. 10).
Whom will you give preference assuming price and service point is the same for both?
Promotional products give you that little Emotional Advantage.
Promotional products or gifts puts your business a step ahead, which sometimes can become the winning step.
Let me share with you what happened with me a couple of months ago. I received a direct mailer from an optician’s store inviting me to the inauguration of its showroom. Like we all do with mailers, I too sent it straight to the bin.
A few days ago, I wanted to gift a pair of sunglasses for my husband. I don’t know anyone in the business, so can’t call for good deals. I would like to go to that optician who remembered to send us an invitation. But obviously, since I trashed his mailer I don’t have his name, address or telephone number.
So, where should I go for the dark glasses?
I went to the nearest optician store which I remembered seeing in the market.
If only the company had sent me a mailer that I might have kept. Being in the promotions business, I wished they have sent me a small lens cleaning cloth, with their contact details printed on it along with the invitation. The invitation would have been trashed, but I would have kept the lens cleaner, as its something that I would be able to re-use.
Every time I may use it to clean my glasses I would have remembered who gave it to me. Now instead of walking into any store, I would have called the optician who sent me the lens cleaner.
Gifts can create amazing Brand Recall.
A thoughtful gift can keep your brand alive for a long time, and help convert a potential customer into a real one. Make it easier for your customers to reach you whenever they want to.
You may now consider sending a gift along with your next promotion.
But the question remains: Do we have to spend a huge sum of money per person to make an impression?
The answer is thankfully ‘NO’.
It is not always that a fancy desktop clock (Rs. 450) or a trendy bag (Rs. 300) is what will be put to use and create an impression. Even a small office cutter (Rs.5) or a paper clip (Rs.4) or a bookmark (Rs.15) can do the magic, either you can go for any budget gifts for your customer. We all use it in our office and we do not mind adding one more to our collection.
It’s not really how much you spend which counts in the prospect’s mind, what counts is that your gift is used by a larger number of people from your sample set, building brand recall.
Power of Promotional Gifts
In this, over-communicated society, you have to do something different, something to rise above the noise level and say to your customer “Hey we are here and this is what we can do for you”. And more importantly, keep repeating your statement.
While on the face of it promotional products may seem expensive but in reality, they pay back many times over for they add the REAL POWER to your direct mailing campaign or in other words, add a Zing to your promotion.
This Article was written by me and published in Gifts World Magazine in April 2005.
