Sometimes it’s easy to take the USPS for granted. It’s aggravating when they don’t get a letter delivered properly. But overall, they deliver a lot of mail to a lot of people with relatively few mistakes.

From a marketing perspective, as postage rates increase, so do the costs associated with direct mail campaigns. For those of us in marketing roles with our companies, this affects how we do business. With tightening budgets we have to be even more creative in how we promote our brand.

I’ve been in marketing for more than 20 years. Increasing mail costs don’t surprise me. But what did surprise me was the amount of the decline in mail last year. It was approximately a 9.5 billion piece decline in mail for 2008. According to the USPS, “Declining mail volume was a symptom of the worsening national economy, particularly related to the financial and housing industries and to trends toward the use of electronic mail.”

Business owners are looking for alternative ways to promote their business. This includes social media, email, and of course, promotional products. The promotional products industry still enjoyed a good year in 2008 with more than $18 billion in sales. Why? Because promotional products are a cost effective way to promote your business.

Toys not only inspire young children, but motivate adults who are in the wrong career, as well. A direct mail campaign for Monster.com emphasized the importance of a job that fits by distributing packages of toy soldiers containing one gun-wielding pink ballerina. The bag reads, “Stuck in the wrong job?” Apparently a lot of people felt like the ballerina in the soldier bag because new IP visits and registration increased significantly.

Source:Direct Daily

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.

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

- Event and Conference marketing

- Mobile marketing and Video interactive marketing

Alternative Internet Marketing Strategies:

- Blog marketing

- Email marketing

- Online media buying

- Source http://kaboomadvertising.com

Although new marketing strategies are constantly emerging, traditional strategies do not have to disappear, but evolve.

Consider sending out a street team to spread the word about your new company and send traditional mail fliers to local companies. This strategy allows you to reach the general public with an alternative marketing strategy with the street team and helps you to get local business recognition with a traditional flier.

Alternative advertising is new and exciting, but some traditional methods are still useful. Update your flyers with your Web site address or send out a monthly email with insider news about your company. Using a mix of alternative advertising and traditional advertising is an effective way to get your brand recognized.