As hard as it is to believe, tomorrow is March 20th – the first day of Spring. As our thoughts turn to warmer weather and vacations, I wanted to take some time tonight to discuss marketing over the summer months. Some of the clients I work with have asked about this and even mentioned going dark over the summer months. My response to this is simple – your brand never takes a vacation and while traditionally the response rates from June to August tend to be lower, there are cost effective ways to market over the summer months.
Optimize the direct mail channel and mail smarter: If you have been doing direct mail for the past few months or years, you have results. Instead of shutting down direct mail, optimize your mailings. Target your best responding segments and only mail those lists. This allows you to reduce the cost to run your mail program – while focusing in on response rate and maintaining your ROI.
Focus in on your best customers: While acquiring new clients over the summer months may be a challenge, use this time to engage and re-energize your best customers. As I’ve said before, they are your best brand ambassadors. Offer a special deal for long time customers or take this time to thank them for their support and use of your product or services. Maintaining the relationship with your customers is key to making sure that your business keeps moving forward.
Digitize your marketing efforts: As we all know, the postage cost is sometimes prohibitive from doing direct mail efforts. However, you can still use premium targeted lists for other marketing channels. Take your best customer file or a prospect file and upload the file to Facebook or other social media channels. Use these targeted universes and serve up digital ads on sites they frequently visit. It’s the best of both worlds – targeted prospects and lower delivery costs.
Work with a marketing consultant: I cannot stress enough the importance of working with a veteran marketing consultant to help you find the best ways to navigate the summer months. As a business owner you have enough on your plate, so find a marketing expert who can help you put one of the three ideas mentioned above in place or some combination of them.
Visit us online at http://www.bedfordstmarketing.com or drop us a line at info@bedfordstmarketing.com, if you have any questions or want to see how we can help!!!
Bedford Street Marketing Insights 