Friday, December 20, 2013

3 Steps to Data Mining

Data mining. It is the foundation of great personalized marketing, but it strikes fear into the hearts of many marketers. The reality is that this fear is unfounded since data mining is well within the grasp of any sized marketer.

Let’s break it down into three simple steps. 

1. Find out what’s in there.

The first step is to understand the field headings in your database. Most databases have basic information like name, address and purchase history. Are you also capturing information such as age, gender and home ownership? What data do you actually have?

2. Ask questions.

Knowing what data you have tells you the types of queries you can run. Running queries simply means asking questions of the data. If you are a retailer you might ask, “Which customers purchased hardwood flooring last month?” If you know that these customers are also likely to purchase area rugs and floor conditioning products, this gives you a great start.

3. Look for relationships.

The next step is to run data sorts. Is there a relationship between hardwood flooring and gender? How about income? Are customers more likely to purchase hardwood flooring at different times of year than others?

Even basic software like Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access provides sorting capabilities. Or you might want to purchase add-on data mining modules or third-party software. If you need to outsource, there are plenty of companies that specialize in this process for very reasonable costs.

Get Curious!

So get curious. Take a few hours to run a variety of sorts just to see what you can find.

Once you know what’s in your data, you’ve asked questions of your data, and discovered relationships within the data, it’s time to act on what you find. That curiosity could make a big difference to the bottom line.
 
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing & Business Development
 
We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
Walt Disney
 
 

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Case Studies: Consumers Use QR Codes

QR Codes give shoppers and other consumers access marketing or product information from their mobile phones, but do consumers actually prefer them? Will they scan these codes when other ways to access the information are available? For many, the answer is yes!

Let’s look at three real-life examples:

1. One marketer sent a holiday card to its customers with an invitation to login to a personalized URL to select a charity to receive a donation in their name. Of those responding to the campaign, 11% chose to log in by scanning a QR Code rather than typing in the personalized URL.

2. An online educational institution serving the high school market wanted to boost enrollment. It sent a promotional campaign inviting students and their parents to log in to a personalized URL to learn more about online education and enter a sweepstakes to win an iPad2.  More than one-third (37%) of the logins came via QR Code.

3. In order to refresh its retail location, an herbal supplements and vitamin company wanted to find out what products and services its customers were looking for that might be missing from its existing mix. To find out, it sent a survey via personalized URL to nearly 20,000 contacts. QR Code scans accounted for almost 20% of all PURL visitors.

We could give lots more examples, but you get the idea. People love mobile, but they don’t love typing in long web addresses. If you provide them with a way to skip right to the content they are looking for, they’ll very likely to take it, especially when they are responding to a personalized URL campaign. That’s a huge benefit of QR Codes.

This can also lead to an elevated response rate to the overall campaign. Why? Because the easier it is to respond to a marketing message (including multiple ways to respond), the more responses you’re going to get.  

Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing & Business Development

The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas of enthusiasm.Thomas J. Watson

Friday, November 22, 2013

Don’t Overlook Your Employees

When it comes to personalized printing, marketers’ primary focus is on customers . . . as well it should be.  The use of data to increase relevance, drive conversions, and increase audience engagement is one of the primary benefits of this technology. But have you ever thought about using the same benefits of personalized print communications to serve your own internal audience—your employees?

1to1 Magazine recently published an interesting article called “Beyond the Suggestion Box” talking about the importance of employee engagement. While the topic might sound mundane, it is actually a critical issue. Employee engagement and company profitability are closely tied. The more engaged a company’s employees are, the more profitable it tends to be.

Despite this connection . . .

·        Only one-quarter of employees at large companies are highly engaged (The Temkin Group)

·        18% of full-time workers in the U.S. are actively disengaged in their work; and

·        52% are not involved in, enthusiastic about, or committed to their work (Gallup)

These low levels of engagement should be a real concern to U.S. businesses. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to improve the engagement of your employees within your organization. If engagement is already high, these same steps can help it grow even more.

Ask their opinion.  Use printed surveys or for topics on which employees may want credit for their input and ideas, you may want to use personalized URLs.

Send individualized cards and gifts on birthdays, anniversaries (including anniversary of their employment start date), and other special occasions.

Publicize how their input and the input of others is being acted upon. Use newsletters, posters, and other print communications to spread the word and let them know that their opinions being heard.

Personalized printing is a valuable tool for communicating with your most important audiences. Your employees should be one of them!
 
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing & Business Development
 
Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were. – David Rockefeller
 

Friday, October 18, 2013

Consumers Willing to Give Up Data for Benefits

Retail. Banking. Healthcare. Who do we trust more with our personal data? It all depends on who can give us more benefits.

These are the conclusions of a survey of 5,000 digital consumers in five countries conducted by Infosys. The survey found that, of all global consumers, U.S. consumers are the most comfortable sharing their personal information.

For example:

·        89% of U.S. consumers are willing to share personal information while making a purchase online.

·        83% are willing to share personal information when interacting with their bank online.

·        77% are willing to share personal information when interacting with their regular doctor’s office online.

As more and more companies integrate online and offline (print) data, this willingness to share personal data, regardless of channel, is a huge benefit. This positively impacts every aspect of companies’ multi-channel marketing efforts.

But if you’re selling “across the pond,” don’t look for quite the same openness. British consumers are less willing to share their personal information (especially with their doctors), and if you’re marketing into France, they are even less so. Only 75% of French consumers are willing to share personal information with online retailers, dropping to 62% for banks and 60% with doctors.

But still, even for these more skeptical consumers, these numbers are pretty darn good. Consequently, even these data are good news for marketers. Consumers are simply more and more willing to give up data if they get something in return.

Source: Engaging with Digital Consumers (Infosys, 2013)
 
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing & Business Development
 
Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were. – David Rockefeller
 

Friday, October 4, 2013

Learning the Basics of Great Campaigns

1:1 printing. Personalized URLs. Multi-channel marketing. Today’s marketing strategy is a lot to absorb. Not surprisingly, when clients are transitioning from traditional marketing to personalized, on-demand, or multi-channel strategies, one of the questions we most often get is, "How do I learn all this? How do I get started?”

First, we can help you. That’s part of our job. But if you want to delve into the learning process on your own, there are some simple steps you can take. Start by remembering that any campaign is made up of multiple elements. These elements include (but are not limited to) . . .

·        Business objective

·        List (in-house or purchased, level of demographic refinement)

·        Additional targeting (segmentation, personalization)

·        Marketing offer

·        Creative (graphics and copy)

·        Programming (if necessary)

·        Integration with other marketing channels (email, social, mobile, web, out of home)

·        Results tracking

With these elements in mind, every time you attend a trade show event, read a case study, attend a webinar, or peruse a blog post or magazine article with customer stories, do a quick mental rundown on this list. Pick out each of the elements, identify how each was handled in the campaign (whether well or poorly), and notate how the details of the implementation likely impacted the results.

Go through each case study or customer story strategically and methodically, filling out the mental checklist on each one. Think of it as a self-paced course. Even after the first dozen or so, you will start to see patterns come together and have those “Ah, ha!” moments. You will start to see how the elements synergize, where certain elements are missing, or where poorly implemented (or under-implemented) elements caused the campaign to stumble.

Try it. You might be surprised how quickly this simple exercise can pay off in spades.
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing and Business Development

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.
Henry Ford

Friday, September 27, 2013

5 Reasons Print Still Rocks


 
Is print still relevant in today’s world of ubiquitous electronic media? Yes! Here are a few reasons not to overlook when you are planning your next marketing campaign.

1. Print adds a dimension to the media experience not possible with digital media.

Print is warm and inviting. You can create dazzling special effects that make readers want to touch and feel your message thanks to a new generation of papers, inks, varnishes and coatings. It’s a tangible dimension that electronic media can’t impart.

2. Print is universally accessible.

Printed documents don’t have batteries that run down, they can easily be read even in direct sunlight, and they can be read even in locations where wireless is not available, such as subway stations and airplanes.

3. Certain demographics don’t go online.

Some demographic groups, particularly older consumers, simply prefer print collateral over digital options. In some cases, print may be the only way they research their options. Don’t overlook the disposable income of this demographic group!

4. Consumers are multi-channel.

When looking to make a purchase, today’s media-savvy consumers seek multiple sources of information. Rarely will they use online only or print only. They seek out multiple media and compare and contrast responses. Print is a critical part of that mix.

5. Print is more trusted for high-dollar purchases.

Consumers love electronic media for its immediacy, but research shows that they seek print when it’s time to buy. Web technologies provide quick answers, but the responses are often contradictory. Print shows that you found your message to be important enough to commit it to paper and you stand behind what you’re saying.

Overlooking the role of print can prove fatal to a marketing campaign. If your objective is to inform, teach, persuade or entertain, print marketing is a must.
 
 
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing and Business Development
 
Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes.  It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.
Steve Jobs

 

Friday, September 6, 2013

Want to be a Best-in-Class Marketer?

Do you want to be a best-in-class marketer? In survey after survey, we find that it is well worth the effort. Regardless of how best-in-class marketers are defined, these companies consistently stand out in profitability and customer retention. 

According to one research study (“Analytics for the CMO: How Best-in-Class Marketers Use Customer Insights to Drive Revenue,” the Aberdeen Group), best-in-class marketers were found to receive 9.9% average YOY improvement in incremental sales lift resulting from marketing campaigns. This compares to 1.1% for “average” marketers and a 3.6% decline among marketing laggards. Best-in-class marketers were also found to receive 9.5% average YOY increase in customer retention rate vs. 2.1% among average firms and a 3.2% decline for laggards.

How do they do it? According to the study, they have intentional, strategic processes in place to track, measure, and report on all marketing campaign results, both print and online. These efforts include:

  • Website visitor tracking (86% utilizing)
  • Tracking, measuring, and reporting on all marketing campaign results (82% utilizing)
  • Establishing processes to test effectiveness of campaign content (64% utilizing)

Best-in-class marketers also make a 60% average marketing contribution to the sales pipeline versus 10% for industry average firms and 3% for laggards.

What’s clear from this data is that best-in-class marketers understand the value of making planned, strategic investments in monitoring their campaigns and their results, then the importance of wrapping those results around to their next campaign to reap the benefits of what they have learned. The good news is, these are strategies that any marketer can put into place.

Need help setting up intentional processes for your marketing campaigns? Give us a call!
 
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing and Business Development
 
“When you compete with a person, you only have to be as good or better than the
person to win. If you compete with yourself, there is no limitation to how good
you can be.”
Chu Chin-Ning
 
 

Friday, August 23, 2013

Study: Consumers Still Love Physical Mail


What happens when you create a marketing promotion from a fictitious travel agency to test the effectiveness of standard envelopes, printed envelopes, self-mailers, wrappers, and email? RAPP Germany, a multichannel marketing agency, hired Neilsen to find out.

With all other factors equal, RAPP wanted to know, which techniques would be most successful? It found that envelopes have a tremendous impact on the effectiveness of the direct marketing piece, especially if they are personalized.

According to the study, while custom-manufactured envelopes had the highest open rate of all of the marketing techniques tested (85%), personalization was key to success. Recipients who received non-personalized mailings were three times more likely to throw the mail in the trash or delete it than recipients who received a personalized mailing.

Even when recipients were predisposed to the marketing message, recipients of personalized messaging were more likely to indicate that they intended to investigate the travel offer further online. Forty-four percent said they would investigate the travel offer further online compared to 37% of those who received static mailings.

Mailings received via personalized, printed envelope were also more likely to be passed along to friends and family. According to the survey, marketing messages mailed via personalized envelope were twice as likely to be passed along (14% vs. 8%) than personalized emails.

Want to increase your response rates? Personalize your message inside and out!

 

Source: “Consumers Value Physical Mail, Even In This Digital Era,” Print in the Mix (www.printinthemix.com)

Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing and Business Development

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Using Google Analytics to Track Your Progress

If it was your New Year’s resolution to improve the effectiveness of your marketing, how do you determine if it’s working? Since one of the benefits of 1:1 print marketing is the ability to drive traffic to your website, one of the ways to determine success is to use Google Analytics and similar tools to monitor your Web activity.

Online analytics tools are about more than the number of visitors to your site. They can tell you where these visitors are coming from, how long they stay, which sites or search engines are driving the most traffic, and more.

In addition to basic site traffic, let’s look at some of the metrics Google Analytics offers.

  • Absolute unique visits. Number of individual visitors (as contrasted with people who might be visiting the site more than once).
  • Page views / average page views. When people come to your site, how many pages do they click on before they leave?
  • Time on site. Once people hit your site, how long do they stay? Are they taking the time to read the content? Or clicking out right away?
  • Traffic sources. Where are your visitors coming from? Are they typing in your URL directly? Coming from referring sites? Search engines? If the latter, which ones? What keywords are they using?
  • Page navigation. Did people land on each page directly? Or did they click through another page to get there? After viewing the content, did they click through to more pages? Or leave the site?

What can you learn from this type of information?

If you’re running a specific 1:1 printing campaign, for example, you can watch how effective it is for driving website traffic—how quickly traffic peaks and how high.

Once people land on your main URL, if they leave without clicking through to other pages, it might tell you that you need to improve the relevance of your index page or make the content more compelling.

If you know the keywords being used to drive the most traffic from search engines, you can use this information in your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts.

If you track which pages people are landing on or clicking through most often, you can add content or links to those pages to maximize your message.

You make a significant investment in 1:1 print marketing, so maximize every dollar you spend. Once you’ve driven people to your website, free metrics tools can help you sharpen your message and improve site relevance, navigation, and functionality. You will capture more site visitors, hold them, and ultimately drive more conversion to sales.
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing & Business Development
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." ("The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs," 2001)

Friday, July 12, 2013


Personalized Marketing: It’s Mainstream
Just look around you. Personalized marketing is everywhere. From personalized coupons at the checkout counter to personalized recommendations at Amazon.com. Now there is research to show just how prevalent personalized marketing has become.

In a study of 466 marketers (“Capturing the Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity,” 2010), InfoTrends found that only 40% of marketers’ campaigns fit into the category of “one to many.” Forty percent fit into the category of segmented marketing (“one to few”). More than one in five (21.0%) fit into the category of full personalization (one to one), whether print or electronic media.

Think about that for a moment. One in five campaigns is fully personalized. What does that mean for you? It means that if you are sending static mail pieces, you’re competing with marketers who are speaking (potentially to the same customers and prospects) on a personalized level.

If your competitors are personalizing and you are not, who do you think is going to get the most mind share? Even if your competitors aren’t personalizing today, they might be tomorrow. You want to get there and establish a relationship with those customers or prospects before they do.
Personalization doesn’t have to be difficult. Even with a simple basic customer list, there are steps you can take:

1. Personalize by name.
Don’t just personalize the message. Use the recipient’s name creatively. Integrate it into the design in an interesting, eye-catching way.

2. Target by a single, simple variable.
Will it help to target the mailing by gender? How about by ZIP code? Would it help to add a map? (This works great for new businesses or new branches or locations.) These are data you already have. Use them!

3. Append the database.
Still think you don’t have any variables you can use? Do what’s called a database “append” in which you purchase simple variables like home ownership or household income for the names you already have. Appends are not expensive and can boost your marketing effectiveness exponentially.

Talk to us about how you can put it to use to create a more personal relationship with your customers. You probably already have more information than you think!
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing and Business Development
 
There is only one boss.  The customer.  And he can fire everybody in the company from the
chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
Sam Walton

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Good QR Code, Bad QR Code


 
QR Codes have been called the marketing tool that marketers love to hate. Why? Because so many seem to provide absolutely no value.

Perhaps you scan a QR Code and it doesn’t go anywhere at all. Perhaps you get an error or the page to which the code points doesn’t exist. Perhaps you see a QR Code on a product you are interested in, so you scan the code and end up at a manufacturer’s non-mobile website where you get lost in a maze of links so dense that you forget why you went there in the first place.

Does this mean that QR Codes are a waste of time? No. It means not enough thought was put into creating them.

When you are thinking about creating a QR Code, the first thing you should do is ask yourself, “What purpose do I want this code to serve? What do I want the person scanning it to get out of it?” If you don’t have a good answer, wait until you do.

A great example of QR Code use is Best Buy. When you enter a Best Buy store, all of the products have QR Codes. When scanned, the codes take you to products specs, customer reviews, and other information not available on the shelf talkers or product packaging that will help them make a purchase decision. The QR Code puts the information in the customer’s hands at the very time that they need it — as they are making the decision. That’s a QR Code used well.

Contrast that with a QR Code placed on a lawnmower that takes you to the manufacturer’s corporate site. Or a QR Code on a “house for sale” sign that takes you to the realtor’s entire inventory. Those are QR Codes used poorly. It’s not the QR Code that’s the problem. It’s the lack of thought behind it.

When creating QR Codes, think about the end use!
 
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing and Business Development
 
“If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know & start charging for it.”
Kim Garst

Friday, May 31, 2013


Reactivating Inactive Customers

Want more customers? Try reactivating customers who haven’t purchased from you in a while. These are people who have already shown an interest in your company and your products by purchasing from you in the past.  When looking to boost sales, they are a natural place to start.

There are two ways you can approach these customers.

First is to simply attempt to re-engage them with discounts, special offers, and surveys to find out whether they are still engaged with your brand at any level. If they are no longer purchasing from you, you want to find out why. You can use static re-engagement mailings, personalized re-engagement mailings, or personalized URLs for feedback and surveys.

Second is to use outside data resources to gain insight into inactive customer behavior and thereby increase your chances of re-engaging with them.

Let’s say you know that your inactive customer purchased from you 90 days ago, but before that, it was 240 days ago. You might also know the size, color, and item purchased. A list agency like Epsilon can often give you significant additional information on these customers. For example, it might tell you that this same customer purchased 35 days ago from a competitor, has purchased seven times in the past year with your competitors, spends an average of $150 with each order, and that his or her last purchase was 15 days ago.

That is tremendous insight that can help you understand how to re-engage with that customer again. In fact, Epsilon found that while response rates to rental lists averages 1.2%, response rates from house files averages 2.68%. It might take a little more work, but the return is far better.

So before looking outside for new customers, consider rekindling relationships with inactive customers. Use your existing data and additional third-party data to guide your messaging to re-engage those customers and get them purchasing from you over and over again.
 
Jeff Lampert

Director of Marketing and Business Development

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou

Friday, May 17, 2013

Good QR Code, Bad QR Code

QR Codes have been called the marketing tool that marketers love to hate. Why? Because so many seem to provide absolutely no value.

Perhaps you scan a QR Code and it doesn’t go anywhere at all. Perhaps you get an error or the page to which the code points doesn’t exist. Perhaps you see a QR Code on a product you are interested in, so you scan the code and end up at a manufacturer’s non-mobile website where you get lost in a maze of links so dense that you forget why you went there in the first place.

Does this mean that QR Codes are a waste of time? No. It means not enough thought was put into creating them.

When you are thinking about creating a QR Code, the first thing you should do is ask yourself, “What purpose do I want this code to serve? What do I want the person scanning it to get out of it?” If you don’t have a good answer, wait until you do.

A great example of QR Code use is Best Buy. When you enter a Best Buy store, all of the products have QR Codes. When scanned, the codes take you to products specs, customer reviews, and other information not available on the shelf talkers or product packaging that will help them make a purchase decision. The QR Code puts the information in the customer’s hands at the very time that they need it — as they are making the decision. That’s a QR Code used well.

Contrast that with a QR Code placed on a lawnmower that takes you to the manufacturer’s corporate site. Or a QR Code on a “house for sale” sign that takes you to the realtor’s entire inventory. Those are QR Codes used poorly. It’s not the QR Code that’s the problem. It’s the lack of thought behind it.

When creating QR Codes, think about the end use!
 
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing & Business Development
 
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” 
Warren Buffett
 

Monday, February 25, 2013


Old Trail Printing wins 19 awards for Print Excellence

February 25, 2013

Old Trail Printing is proud to announce it was recently awarded nineteen 2013 Print Excellence Awards from the Printing Industries of Ohio / N. Kentucky.

The print contest judges this year were Ken Eberhart, The Merrick Printing Company; Paul Schmitz, Schmitz Printing Co. and Glenn Petry.  These experienced judges and printing experts stated that the quality of print among the 458 entries continue to get better every year.

Each year, Printing Industries of Ohio / N. Kentucky holds its Print Excellence Awards Competition to reward Ohio and northern Kentucky printers that demonstrate excellence in 34 categories.  Each of the gold winners in the regional competition are entered in an association-wide competition for Best of Category and Best of Show prizes what will be awarded in August 2013 at the Grand Ceremony, being held in Columbus, Ohio.

Old Trail Printing won the following awards:

                7 Gold Awards

                11 Silver Awards

                1 Bronze Award

Jeff Lampert, Director of Marketing and Business Development commented, “We are especially proud of the fact that The Limited 2012 Holiday Conference Brand Book won a Best of Central Region award and will go on to state competition.”  You can view the award and brand book in the Gallery section of Old Trail Printing website.  www.oldtrailprinting.com

 Founded in 1928 and one of the largest woman owned printers in the Midwest, Old Trail Printing has a rich history of servicing clients across the country. Our combination of offset and digital presses means we have the right equipment to handle a variety of projects. In addition to being recognized as an award winning printer, we have invested in technology tools that enable our customers to streamline their procurement processes, increase efficiencies, reduce waste and gain a higher return on investment with their printed communications. With our comprehensive list of services our customers benefit from using Old Trail as their single source for creative, printing, mailing, fulfillment and more.

Printing Industries of Ohio / N.Kentucky serves nearly 400 commercial printing companies and suppliers to the industry in its service area. The Association provides a broad range of products and services to its membership, including workers’ compensation and product discounts. Printing Industries of Ohio / N.Kentucky is an affiliate of the national Printing Industries of America, the largest graphic arts association in the world. For complete information on Printing Industries of Ohio / N.Kentucky and Printing Industries of America, please visit www.pianko.org.  
 
Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing and Business Development
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success
Henry Ford
                          
                                                                                                                                                         

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Creating Customer Loyalty. Step by Step


What does it take to create customer loyalty, the kind of loyalty that makes customers stick with you, even when their favorite sales representative, hair stylist or financial advisor moves on? Even when your prices change? Or when the extra 10 miles between your store and someone else’s means they spend an extra half-gallon of gas to reach you?

 

Here are some tips from the experts.

 

1. Know your customer base. Do you know who your customers are? Customer bases are not homogenous. They are made up of different demographics, with different needs and with different motivators for shopping with you. Profiling your customers can tell you a lot about how to keep them.

 

Then take it a step further. Find out not just who your customers are, but what they think. When was the last time you did a customer survey or conducted a focus group?

 

The more you get to know the unique demographic and psychographic makeup of your customer base, the more you are able to adjust products and services to respond to their unique needs and the more likely you are to hang onto their loyalty.

 

2. Make it personal. Shift from mass mailings and generic communications to 1:1 print communications as much as possible. This should go beyond “Dear <<name>>” and include content driven by demographics, demonstrated preferences or past purchase history. The goal here is not just to let your customers know that you know their names, but to increase the relevance of your communications to their lives. Large online retailers like Amazon.com use this strategy to great success—shouldn’t you?

 

3. Spread the communication around. Some companies assign each customer a specific customer service representative or sales consultant. This creates a special relationship between customer and sales rep that can be invaluable. The downside is that this relationship can become so valuable that, should the sales rep leave the company, your customer might be willing to leave with them. For this reason, encourage your customers to have multiple contact points within your company. Try to avoid relationships being through a single individual.

 

4. Increase the frequency. Stay in communication with your customers on a regular basis, not just when there is a special promotion or event. This is the idea behind monthly newsletters and “tips and tricks” postcards, especially those personalized to each recipient’s individual needs. This develops a relationship that creates a value beyond price and convenience and keeps your company top of mind.

 

5. Reinforce and reward loyalty. When customers are loyal, let them know that you appreciate it. Send them a thank-you once in awhile. Then reward them for that loyalty. Send them special “loyal customer” discounts, personalized to their unique habits and preferences whenever possible.

 

Retaining customers takes effort. It requires a customer retention plan and an intentional, focused effort to keep those customers you’ve worked so hard to have. What’s your plan?


Jeff Lampert
Director of Marketing and Business Development

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other"
-Abraham Lincoln