Absorbent, Ink.-Promotional Products and Marketing Blog

Building customer relationships

thanh — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:21:57 +0000

With top companies spending billions of dollars advertising to prospective clients, customer acquisition appears to be the most important objective at these businesses. However, a business’ most valuable consumers are often its current customers.

Here are five tools that businesses can use to follow up with customers:

1. Start simple with a Thank You card. Businesses that don’t send Thank You cards are usually facing time constraints. Thank You cards send a positive message, especially if they are hand-written. Although this does take time, a thoughtful Thank You card can separate your business from the competition (especially if they’re too busy to send one!)

2. Similar to Thank You cards, postcards are another way to follow up with your customers through the mail. An added benefit of using postcards is that they can deliver a variety of messages. Postcards can serve as reminders, congratulatory messages, holiday greetings or marketing fodder. Keep the message informative and fun, but not overly promotional. Imprinting a brand logo on the postcard is a sufficient reminder to the customer.

3. “Leave Behinds” are simply promotional products given to customers after a client meeting or sales transaction to show a business’ appreciation and leave a lasting impression. The product essentially follows the customer to their home or workplace and serves as a reminder tool.

4. Use corporate gifts to build customer loyalty while increasing your brand’s value. Corporate gifts are a popular use of high-end promotional products. Start by gathering a list of your top clients. It could be a large or small group depending on your budget. Keep in mind that the goal of corporate gifts is to add value to a brand and its relationship with the consumer, so choosing a high quality gift in lower quantities is more effective than a high quantity of products with lower value. Corporate gifts are a great way to keep your business at the top of clients’ minds.

5. A strategy to communicate with customers after a sale is to collect feedback. Follow-up a sale with a phone call or e-mail that surveys the customer’s experience and satisfaction with the product or service. This is a strategy that has two-way benefits. Not only will customers feel empowered with the opportunity to voice their opinion, but businesses can greatly benefit from the information gathered. Just remember to keep the survey short and simple.

When implementing these CRM strategies, it is important for businesses to keep two key ideas in mind. First, personalization helps cut through the clutter. A direct mail piece addressed to “Our Valued Customer” defeats the purpose of CRM. Imprinting a brand logo or message onto a promotional product makes the gift more personal. Personalization reduces the generic feel that plagues most marketing campaigns. Secondly, a loyal customer is a business’ best salesperson. Customers who are satisfied with their relationship with a business are a doorway to new sales leads. In other words, investing in customer retention also leads to customer acquisition.

Credibility marketing: Advertising at low cost

thanh — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:31:45 +0000

Businesses and marketers often face a common obstacle: How to advertise a brand, its products and services under budget constraints. With the many costs involved in running a business, advertising budgets are one of the first to shrink when funds are tight. Therein lies another challenge. With less advertising, how can businesses garner enough attention to attract consumers and generate sales?

The solution is a concept called Credibility Marketing. It’s the idea that support by third-party consumers has higher credibility than messages created by marketers.

Here are three ways to generate third-party endorsements:
Testimonials- Offering prospective customers testimonials or blurbs about another client’s positive experience is a big credibility booster.

Case Studies- Consumers like product demonstrations. It gives them a chance to see how the product works, what it can be used for and how effective it is. Case studies are demonstrations on paper.

Press Releases- If your business is looking for a large audience, media publicity is the way to go. Dabbling in the publicity arena may seem scary because businesses feel as though they have no control over what is being said.

Using testimonials, case studies and press releases is a cost effective way to advertise a brand, product or service. These third-party endorsements are great credibility boosters that give consumers more confidence in a business.

How to optimize brand exposure during March Madness™: A lesson in “Marketology”

thanh — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:56:41 +0000

[If they can make up the word ‘Bracketology’ we can get creative too!]

College basketball teams are deep into their conference schedule and March Madness™ is just around the corner. Bars and restaurants can benefit from the excitement of March Madness™ by implementing marketing strategies that optimize their brand exposure and increase sales traffic. Traditional marketing strategies such as newspaper ads or radio spots can be effective, but including a sales promotion or premium product in a marketing plan has been proven to be even more successful. These ideas can be customized to fit your business and customers’ expectations to create a fun and exciting atmosphere for March Madness™.

Tournament Brackets: Spice up bracket contests by awarding participants who correctly complete a region or round of games on the bracket. Discounts on a product or service or imprinted products can be given away as prizes. Breaking down the bracket and prize pool increases the number of winners, which boosts traffic at the business. Display the grand prize at the business location to increase word-of-mouth or “buzz” marketing for the prize and brand.

Prize Drawings: Create a prize drawing for a March Madness™ watch party sponsored by your business. The winner can invite friends to watch a basketball game and enjoy snacks, refreshments and other special treatments provided by the business. Other prizes can be given away such as imprinted bottle coolers or tee shirts. Not only are drawings a great way to attract customers, they can also be used to survey participants. It gives your business an opportunity to ask customers about your product or service and how it can improve.

Promote Game Day or Night: Create a calendar and label featured games that will be broadcasted at your business. Place the calendar on dining tables or at a bar where customers can view the schedule. A great way to attract customers to game nights is to create a trivia game. Trivia questions can be general or customized for different themes. Get creative with prizes and include your brand name. Glassware imprinted with the brand logo or message is a great giveaway.

To be or not to be…traditional, that is.

abbie — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:35:14 +0000

Marketing is constantly evolving and adopting new strategies to reach people. Traditional media, such as television, radio, newspaper, magazine and mail flyer advertising, are not as popular as they once were. Some consumers even find traditional advertising annoying.

A recent survey by IBM titled “The End of Advertising as We Know It,” found that “Traditional advertising players risk major revenue declines as budgets shift rapidly to new, interactive formats, which are expected to grow at nearly five times that of traditional advertising.”

Alternative advertising refers to marketing that uses unconventional methods, such as text messaging via cell phones, viral advertising on the Internet or social networking through Web sites like MySpace and Facebook.

Here is a list of more alternative advertising ideas from Kaboom Advertising:

- Street teams

- Street Stunts

- Pop-up lounge

- Guerilla Signage

- Promotional Materials

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Podcast: Maximizing Your Corporate Holiday Gifts Impact

Abby Ink — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:57:44 +0000

A couple of days ago the president of Absorbent, Ink. talked to Small Business Trends Radio about how to get the most out of giving gifts to clients. They were nice enough to post the interview on their website.

Click here to listen to the interview

White Note: Use LinkedIn to Market Your Business

jacinta — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:03:21 +0000

Since it’s not quite a “white paper” we’re calling it a “white note”…

We’ve provided some ways to market your business and position yourself as an expert in your industry by using LinkedIn. Feel free to download the pdf below and distribute to friends. As always, comments are welcomed!

Are you LinkedIn?

Also, Seth Godin has a quick list on things you need to have a successful small business.

Gifts that keep on giving

Abby Ink — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:42:27 +0000

Hi there! I own a small business and would like to give my employees a holiday gift to show them how much I appreciate their work. Do you have any unique ideas? Thanks – Bobby

Hello Bobby,

Thanks for the question! It is difficult to think of unique gifts to give all your employees. Luckily, I have some ideas that will help initiate the gift giving thought process.

I want to first ask you what kind of business you own. If it is an internet company, you could give employees a new optical mouse for their computer with a personalized mouse pad. If you own a small restaurant, you could give employees imprinted cookware or glassware to use at home or at work. You do not have to give employees gifts that are themed around your business, but gifts like this are guaranteed to be used.

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OOOMS Wooden Memory Sticks

jacinta — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:39:37 +0000

It looks like folks in the Netherlands are recycling their wood! I doubt you’ll be able to get these usb drives with a custom imprint, but you could always buy one and carve your company name in it. Er, something like that. It seems kind of awkward-looking have a branch stick out of your computer.

Simple ideas for promotional product shopping

abbie — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:10:02 +0000

With so many promotional products and corporate gifts to choose from, how does one make a decision? The labyrinth of promotional possibilities can be figured out through these easy steps.

First, one should recollect what particular industry they are working for. No, I am not insulting your intelligence by asking you to remember what building you go to from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday; I am asking you, however, to really focus and think about who the people you serve and work for are. Do they sell products from a phone or travel around a community? Do they provide a service or a product? Do they teach or are they taught? These simple details can help you provide the appropriate gifts for these people.

Second, make your gift something memorable. Give a nice wine set or food basket to the president of a company or present office workers with a bag of office supplies, a stress ball and a bag tag. Make sure the promotional items or gifts are things the gift receivers will actually use. Unique gifts and products are something that everyone at the very least can appreciate.

Last, remember you are trying to make an impact with the items you are giving. Something that you just randomly pick out from a Web site will not go over well. Talking over ideas with a company’s client service department can help you pick and create the perfect item for your employees or clients.

These three simple steps should help at least get you started in the promotional products and gift giving game. So go out there, look around, and call us if you need any help!

The Need for Static Cling

jacinta — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:28:40 +0000

When video post-production house HDMG needed invitation reminders for their upcoming Help Do More Good party and silent auction for a Twin Cities’ non-profit, they chose Absorbent, Ink. for the job. They wanted a product that would not only remind guests of the party but also be used to advertise Help Do More Good. They found the perfect product in our 4” square Static Clings. “We rubber stamped the party info on the paper side of the cling, and sent them in funky recycled kraft envelopes,” said HDMG’s art director, Angella Kassube. “They were well received.” What a great idea!