Branding on a Small Business Budget

So many business people today place “branding” at or near the top of their marketing priority list. (I'm not one of them, by the way.)

But if branding is important to you, you should know it requires a major investment.

Branding takes time – not months but years – and money. Lots of money.

In its simplest form, branding involves creating an image and cementing that image in the minds of your audience. Branding also involves positioning – establishing a unique position for your business in the minds of your target audience.

So how do you build a brand when you don’t have a lot of money?

Here’s what I tell clients:

You have to start with the acknowledgement that above all else, branding requires repetitive messaging. Yes, you need to be positioned properly with the right message and your messaging needs to be consistent. But the big factor is repetition.

The largest brand advertisers use television to reach their audience. And we’re not talking about a few ads here and there. The large advertisers run their ads constantly … on all the major stations … in prime time. We are talking about big bucks.

If you’re a small business – or even a large business on a moderate budget – you can still achieve that repetition but you need to be more selective in whom you target and how you reach them.

And it makes no difference what medium you are using. You could be using television, radio, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, online advertising, Google pay per click, coupon packs, card decks or free publicity. How you reach your larger audience isn’t the issue here.

What’s important is the strategy. When you make your initial contact, you need to do whatever you can to generate a response – a lot of response. With small budgets, there is no room for waste … and no luxury for pure awareness advertising.

With your initial advertising, you need to squeeze out every response and capture every name, mailing address and email address you can.

The reason should be obvious. Once you have a list of people who have responded to your earlier marketing efforts, you have the foundation for your future marketing efforts. The difference is that your follow-up marketing efforts are going to be significantly less expensive.

With targeted direct mail and especially email, you can begin a marketing program that reaches this self-selected audience a regular basis – monthly, weekly, even daily.

You can build your brand and cement your image through repeat messaging and wide range of engagements – like video, white papers, surveys - on your website.

Granted you’re not reaching everyone in your marketplace, but you are reaching the people most interested in what you sell … people who have responded to your earlier promotions.

So if branding is important to you, go with it … but use direct response first.

What I Loved About Mr. Whipple

On November 19th, actor Dick Wilson, who portrayed Mr. Whipple in the long-running Charmin TV commercials, died at the age of 91.

Wilson appeared in more than 500 commercials as Mr. Whipple from 1964 to 1985.

For those of you who never saw these commercials, Mr. Whipple was an annoying little store manager who would sneak around to catch his female customers fondling the toilet paper and then chastise them with the phrase, "Please don't squeeze the Charmin."

The Charmin commercials are classic TV commercials to be sure, although I am guessing this status is more for their longevity than their creativity.

There was simply nothing creative, clever or even enjoyable about these commercials. They were silly and annoying.

Even back then, I suspect creative people throughout the ad industry would cringe at the mere mention of Mr. Whipple.

But I think those ads worked.

Although I can't prove it (because nothing is measureable in branding), I think this campaign was very effective for two reasons.

The perfect tag line

The first reason is the tag line. Charmin has the perfect tag line.

"Please don't squeeze the Charmin" is effective because in one simple, memorable line, it conveyed both the product name (Charmin) and the benefit of the product (softness).

Most taglines don't do that.

"Ring around the collar" conveys a benefit, but which product does it represent? Answer: Wisk.

"I could have had a V-8" conveys the product name, but what is the benefit?

In branding, name recognition is critical but it's most effective when you can link the product name to a specific (and hopefully, the most important) benefit.

Consistency is the key

The second reason - and one that is completely ignored these days - is consistency.

In advertising today, consistency is nowhere to be found. It is all about change - new ideas, new campaigns, new tag lines, new packaging.

You see it most often, of course, when there is a change in the marketing director or marketing team.

But even when there is no change in leadership, advertisers can quickly tire of their own commercials, ads, direct mail and websites - understandably, because they see them every day.

They forget that their audience isn't paying as close attention as they are. Unfortunately, I suspect that many campaigns are cancelled just about the time their audience is starting to notice them.

Brand marketing is a long-term commitment. It takes time (not months, but years) for your messages to sink in. And it takes a great deal of patience - something that is in short order in the advertising industry today.

Don't expect to see too many ad campaigns that run as long as the Charmin commercials.

The need to change is irresistable.

So unless there is some measureable way to show marketers how their ads are working (direct response), "trying something new" is likely to remain a very popular strategy.

What’s wrong with tweaking?

I don’t know – maybe I shouldn’t be complaining – but I’ve never understood why businesses spend so much time and money creating brand new marketing campaigns instead of just tweaking their existing campaigns.

I know we all love spanking new creative. It’s fun. It’s fresh. It’s a nice break from the day to day stuff. And it certainly helps to ring your agency’s cash register.

But my biggest problem is you don’t learn very much from it.

Even if it produces double-digit response rates, what was it that produced those results? Can you isolate any one factor that was the major contributor to this success?

Probably not. In fact, there might have been many factors.

With each new campaign, it seems like you are starting from scratch.

But if instead you decide to tweak an existing campaign, you are working from a known quantity. You know what the response rate was – so now your job is to find ways to improve on that response rate.

A new list perhaps … a new offer … a new headline or teaser copy … a new reply card … new positioning in the copy … the addition of a photo … a different size envelope … increased personalization …

I could go on – because there are many, many ways to tweak your marketing campaigns.

When working with clients, I often help identify (and prioritize) those tweaking opportunities.

One of the goals is to determine which tweak is likely to produce the greatest impact – the biggest jump in response.

In most cases, this involves a change in the mailing list or the offer. By testing a new list or a new offer – without any other changes in your program – you could very likely see a dramatic change in results.

I understand the temptation to make major changes – especially if everything you’ve done so far has been unsuccessful.

But the best strategy isn’t to keep starting over; it’s to work with what you have and build upon what you know.

What happens AFTER the lead comes in?

It’s where most lead generation programs fail.

It seems so odd in a way. You spend all this money generating a sales lead – some leads can cost upwards of $50-$100 apiece – and then you just turn it over to the sales force.

Problem is there’s generally very little follow-up by marketing and very little accountability from sales.

I can only guess how many sales were never made – and how much lead generation money was lost – simply because marketing and sales didn’t stay in touch.

So what can be done?

You still want to turn the lead over to sales, but you might want to think about your timing. Would it make more sense to insert a qualifying telephone call before it goes to sales? Sales people are human too - and if too many of your sales leads are unqualified, they will begin to pre-judge the leads without even a phone call.

And the reality is that many of your leads will not be sales-ready on the first follow-up call. That doesn’t mean they are not good prospects down the road. But you don’t want to leave those prospects with sales. You want to cultivate those leads through marketing and then turn them over when they are sales-ready.

Ideally, marketing and sales should work together. But experience tells that doesn’t happen very often.

At the very least, marketing should have a follow-up contact plan in place – using email and direct mail – and should keep sales informed of the schedule and any additional qualifying responses that might come in as a result of that effort.

Email is the medium of choice these days for follow-up. It’s fast, easy and inexpensive. (Just be sure the prospect voluntarily gives you his/her email address as part of the response.)

I still recommend direct mail as a follow-up medium, but less so now that email has become an acceptable form of marketing communications.

Content (for both email and direct mail) will vary depending upon the product or service.

A series of short articles focusing on different product features or benefits is one option.

Another is a series of case studies or customer testimonials.

If your product or service needs explanation, you might want to try a series of Q&A emails or application stories (how your product works in various applications).

Periodically, you might try a quick survey or questionnaire to assess where the prospect is in the buying/selling process.

Frequency is key. An email once a week (after the prospect has initiated an inquiry) is not too intrusive. (When you compare that with the daily emails you get from some marketers, your once-a-week email will barely be noticed.)

After a couple of months, you might want to spread out your emails for those prospects who are still unwilling to move to the next step. On the other hand, if your prospects are able to tell you when they might be making a buying decision, you could hold off on the intense email schedule until that time period.

Whatever method of contact you use – email, direct mail or the telephone – the goal is to get the prospect to say “Yes, I’m ready to talk to a sales person.”

But everyone’s schedule is different – so stay in touch.

5 reasons why we use "numbers" to communicate

It has been a winning formula for decades – one of the most effective ways to communicate. It's called the "numbered ways" approach to writing advertising, direct mail, booklets, brochures, even articles.

You've seen it many times before. Headlines that read:

27 ways to save on postage costs
9 pitfalls of direct mail and how to avoid them
13 reasons why our health insurance will save you money

So what makes this approach so effective and so popular? Here are five reasons why:

1. They’re easy to write.
The "numbered ways" approach provides the writer with a built-in outline. You jot down every point you want to make – categorize, prioritize and presto, your writing assignment is half way there.

2. They’re easy to read.
Few people actually read the vast majority of the material we write. If we're lucky, they scan it. And the "numbered ways" approach makes scanning very easy. Your audience will read the numbered subheads and perhaps some of the body text. And that's pretty good.

3. They’re easy to remember.
Because everything is numbered, your message is more structured and easier for the reader to remember. When using the "number ways" approach, the reader is more able to visualize the key points in the order you present them.

4. They add credibility.
Putting actual numbers into your headline adds specificity to the message – which always builds credibility. Compare these headlines
How to save on postage costs
OR
13 ways to save on postage cost

5. They heighten curiosity.
"Numbered ways" headlines are very effective in drawing your readers into the text if only because they are curious to see what follows. Even people who are familiar with your product or service will check your list to see if it matches theirs.


A few notes of caution:

1. If you are using the "numbered ways" approach over a period of time in a series of ads or direct mail pieces, remember the reader may not see (in fact, is unlikely to see) the entire series. If you cannot provide the entire list in a single communication, consider producing the full list in a brochure, booklet or flyer – then offering it to respondents.

2. Keep your numbers reasonable. If you are writing an ad that says "Reason No. 59," you have pretty much max'd out your credibility. One can only imagine how trivial or watered down the reasons are if there are at least 59 of them.

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As copywriters, we are always looking for ways to get the attention of our readers, to get them to read at least some of our key points and get them to believe what we're saying.

Using the "numbered ways" approach is a proven way to accomplish this.

Mailing to job titles instead of names

We would all prefer to mail to individuals by name, if possible. But sometimes that option is not available to us.

This is most often the case when you are targeting job titles lower than senior executives and/or when your geographic market is relatively small.

Here’s why:

Most corporate databases like infoUSA, Duns and Hoovers – even specialized industry-specific databases – only gather the names of senior executives such CEO, president and CFO. Other lower-ranked titles might be available but only for a small percentage of the companies in the database.

Generally when targeting lower-ranked titles, it is better to look at job-related magazines (trade journals) or membership associations as possible list sources. We call these response lists because the people on these lists actually took action to subscribe or join. Response lists are usually better lists (meaning more responsive) than corporate databases.

So if you were targeting Human Resource directors, for example, you might consider the subscription list of HR Magazine or Employee Relations.

These and other lists would help you reach Human Resources directors and no one else.

The only problem is these are usually national lists. And although you can target specific zip codes or states, your quantities typically come in very low – far below the minimums.

Remember that subscribing to a trade journal or joining an association is a voluntary activity that may involve small percentage of your overall target market – so again, if targeting Human Resource directors, you might be reaching only 10, 20 or 30% of all the Human Resource directors in your market.

So what to do?

I always recommend using whatever names we can get – especially those from the response lists because they have already demonstrated a willingness to respond.

But then I would go back to the corporate databases and find the companies that fit my customer profile – specific SIC codes, company size by sales volume or number of employees, and, of course, my geographical area.

When you merge these lists together, you will have one master list of companies – some with names but most without names.

I then attach at job title (Attn: Human Resource Director) to those companies that do not have names.

Intuitively, using a job title only seems like a very impersonal way to communicate with a prospect – and it is – but at least it gets there. And don't believe for a minute that people who are interested in what we have to offer wouldn't respond because we didn't use their name.
That would be silly.

A personalized mail piece may be the preferred way to go, but title addressing can work too.

The one advantage with title addressing is that you don’t have to worry about people changing jobs. If you’re using names, and that person moves on, your mail piece might go to the replacement or it might get tossed.

How long should a letter be?

I write a lot of letters for clients – sales letters, lead letters, fund-raising letters, thank you letters, fulfillment letters, follow-up letters, renewal letters, lapsed customer letters ... I could go on.

And I am often asked what the right length should be.

Many people – actually the vast majority of people – believe that we should never send anything but a one-page letter ... that no one will ever read those 2-page, 4-page, 8-page and longer letters.

That, my friends, is intuition talking. The numbers – the actual response rates – tell us something else.

Do you believe for a moment that these serious mail-order companies would mail a 4-page letter over and over again – at additional cost, I might add – if it were not working for them? Of course not.

The serious direct marketing companies measure everything and would never let their gut feelings or intuition get in the way.

So back to the question - How long should a letter be? The simple answer is this: “It depends.”

Let me give you a simple rule of thumb:

The letter should be as a long as it needs to be to accomplish your goal.

* If your goal is to generate a lead – meaning a request for more information – it should be a relatively short letter, maybe one or two pages. A higher commitment lead would require a longer letter.

* If your goal is to generate an order – meaning an actual sale – it should be longer, at least two pages. A higher priced product would require a longer letter.

Common sense would tell you that the more you ask of someone – sale vs. lead, higher price vs. lower price – the more you need to say to convince them to act.

As buyers, we want a lot of information before we commit anything. In fact, we won’t make that commitment – especially if the price is high – if we are missing even one important piece of information.

The fact is that when your readers are interested in buying from you, they are looking for information and they will read every word you write to satisfy themselves before they open their wallet.

So keep it short if you need a lead, but if you’re looking for an order, write away.