FunMarketer Lesson of the Week
Craig what is Brand Drift? Is it something to worry about?

The FunMarketer Answer:

Both multinational corporations and small family businesses fall victim to Brand Drift. The word “drift” implies slow, rudderless change in marketing position. It also implies a lack of power. Two types of brand drift can poison a business; each is equally lethal:

1. Customer base moves away from the company due to:
- shifts in technology
- demographic or behavioral changes in customer base
- other external causes

2. Company moves away from original mission – this is typically caused by forces internal to the company.

An example of #1 – currently individual consumers and a trickle of businesses are migrating away from desktop-based software installed on the local computer, and heading toward ‘cloud computing’, where the processing is done on a remote server. If you are Microsoft, you must be vitally aware of this shift, and react quickly.

An example of #2 - right now somewhere a small family-owned bakery under third-generation ownership is changing its focus from customer-service to cost-control. The current ownership believes the way to greater profits is to squeeze costs and reduce the product quality. Within five years they’ll lose half their customer base and be a ghost of the company grandma founded.

How do we avoid Brand Drift? How do we deal with it?

For #1, External Forces causing the drift, we keep our finger on the pulse of the industry. We:

- Read industry publications and watch for trends
- Watch our competitors; their moves can signal to us changes they see
- Run periodic checks of our customer base - surveys or database analysis

For #2, we need to have other people in the company challenge us. If we are in senior management, we must allow opposing opinions into our meetings and listen to them. If we are in marketing, then we need to be aware of our company’s position in the past, and, if we are changing our position, then our marketing will need to change with it.

Brand Drift is survivable and to some extent inevitable. However, managing it successfully is often the difference between success and failure.

Call me for more ideas at 402-423-2444 or email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s an idea for a mutual fund company, insurance agency, small bank - any business that needs to generate consumer interest in a financial product.

Photo: Istock #6781428

Headline: Just think, Billy - We Don’t Have to Worry About Insurance For Another Ten Years
Subhead: Yeah, Now If We Can Just Figure Out Where Rex Buried the Mustard.
Lead Sentence: “Don’t you wish you could go back to a simpler time with your insurance decisions? Unfortunately they’re counting on you for their security.”

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

As a marketer you know how emotions are completely tied into the purchasing decision, and therefore to your brand. For a great look at why emotions reinforce the brand, check out Gordon Hotchiss’ Search Insider Post Aug 21.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

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FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, what do you mean by “pulling inspiration from the past?

Ever experience a running-on-empty day when you are writing copy for an ad or looking for that ‘just-right’ marketing graphic? Maybe you’ve finished your brand check-up, but find your inspiration fuel tank is a couple gallons low.

Hello, YouTube.

Old commercials that haven’t ran in years - or even decades - are now available on YouTube. Just a few searches for terms like “old tv commercials youtube” and you’ll find dozens of great ads–some classics and some lame-o’s.

Once you’re done enjoying a few moments of nostalgia - if you are old enough - or have stopped laughing - if you’re young enough - it’s time to see how these old spots can inspire a few new ideas for your current marketing mission.

Yes, it’s tempting to pick apart everything the ad creators (many of whom are gone to that great agency in the sky) did wrong. Ditto on commenting on how fashion was atrocious way back when. Instead, see how they used elements of the ad to:

* Pull your eye toward the product
* Tug your emotions
* Make you want the product
* Cause you to take some action

Note - I don’t advocate that you clone anybody’s ads from the past, but with the advent of YouTube there’s suddenly a deeper well of inspiration to draw from.

Call me for more ideas at 402-423-2444 or email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com

FunMarketer Free Marketing Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s an idea for a pain med targeted at older males. Especially for guys who want to still act 25…even if they’re 50.

Photo: Istock #6691673
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/people/6691673-senior-man-giving-woman-piggyback-ride.php?id=6691673

Headline: Acme Aspirin - We Won’t Tell Her If You Don’t

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Every salesperson learns this early in their career. It’s still a really useful refresher acronym for marketers.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Hope Springs Eternal”. Speaking of old ads, check out this Irish Spring ad from the 1980s. See how many emotion-loaded elements the ad creators inserted to pull you closer to the brand - dogs (two, including a puppy), kids, good-looking people and even some bare skin.

Check out the signature demo of the knife cutting through the bar of soap - it almost feels like an apple being sliced in the Garden of Eden.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

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FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, where do you weigh-in on the debate between long and short copy?

The FunMarketer answer:

Our ongoing discussion on Brevity in Marketingleads to a good question: how many words is “just right” for good advertising copy?

OK, part of finding your marketing voice is making each word count. For most of us, this means slicing the number of words we use. Think Gettysburg address. But after we hone each phrase and sentence, then what? How many words do we need? Is the briefest copy always best?

No, of course not. Copy length depends on:

* the medium you are using - TV? Radio? Direct Mail?
* the product/audience combination - Tech-savvy B-B niche audience? or retail signage?
* placement in the overall advertising package.

For example, a Direct Mail Package aimed at a consumer might contain a 1,500 word letter, a 600 word brochure, and a 45 word lift-letter.

And the five most important words might be the teaser copy on the envelope. Think those aren’t critical? We’ll, the prospect will never see your brilliant 1,500 word letter if your five word teaser copy doesn’t tug them inside the package.

There is no ‘magic’ number.

Good Luck as you develop your own voice and sense of timing.

Call me for more ideas at 402-423-2444 or email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Anybody looking to put the word “excitement” into any ad campaign need look no further.

Photo: Istock #6543160

Headline: Mom, How Soon Can We Go Back to Acme Supply?

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

If you don’t have a copy of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, please pick one up.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Rock Solid”. Remember our value and trust themes during the economic slowdown. Weaving this phrase into your ads will reinforce trust and traditional values with your audience.

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FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, You sometimes mention surrounding the customer with your brand. Is this possible? Can you overdo it?

The FunMarketer answer: How many ways do you tell your kid you love him or her? Sure, you say it. But more important, you show it. You show it with every sandwich you packed away in her lunchbox and every time you waited in the car outside school so she didn’t have to walk home in the rain.

Think that kid didn’t notice? She noticed.

Same with the customer. You must absolutely encase her with positive marketing messages that reflect your brand and your brand’s promise. When I review a client’s shop the first place I go to is the wash room to see what it’s like. Is it clean? That’s prerequisite number one. If you want to get an F on a Marketing Hawks review just have a dirty loo.

But OK, so you’ve hired folks that can pickup the trash. Yea! Now, how about a few flowers in that rest room, or maybe just a hint of something that makes it fresh. How about some lotion?

There, that wasn’t too hard. What, no push for a big old poster announcing CD rates or what’s on clearance this week? Maybe…it depends on if that promotional style reflects the personality of your store. Perhaps just a couple of nice prints hanging on the wall can bond you closer to the customer.

See, it’s the little things in marketing that your customers pick up on. Ever listen to a great story teller? Does she scream? Does she speak loudly? No, she knows the value of a pause, of just gracing her audience with a few seconds of silence. We require relief from the communications assault.

Sometimes the mind appreciates a breather from the overt marketing we are all exposed to. That’s the idea behind a Customer Respite.

Call me for more ideas at 402-423-2444 or email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

It’s back to school, which means that many people are joining clubs and groups. These two young ladies look happy together - you can almost feel their arms around each other in a warm, friendship hug.

Photo: istock #4537186

Headline: Make a Friend for Life at Acme Girls Club
Alternate Headline: Find that Friend You Can Always Count On - Visit Acme Girls Club Today

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Last week I discussed brevity in our marketing efforts. One way to keep your writing brief is to not worry about the number of words in the first draft. The first draft should cull out the ideas from your mind. Some of the perfect phrases we search for will start pecking their way out of this rough copy.

But, if you are like me, the first draft will contain many extra words and long phrases. Rather than trying to make the perfect first draft, just accept that it will be a bit wordy. Then, go back and slash out phrases and words that you can make simpler in subsequent drafts.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Silence is Golden”. In keeping with the brevity in marketing theme, here’s a phrase that we can certainly stick in the back of our mind as we construct our copy and our layout. Silence in a spoken ad is analogous to white space in a print ad. Like the ear needs the unspoken pause, the eye needs the unseen. Sometimes the presence of the blank space in an ad allows the emphasis on your headline or photo combination.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

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FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, What is the right relationship between Story, Benefits and Features?

The FunMarketer answer: Story reinforces you as you market your Company Brand, Benefits (and Features) reinforce the Product.

This might seem academic, but it’s not. Think about it - when you shop at a retail store, you expect that store to treat you a certain way regardless of what you buy. If you are at Wal-Mart, you expect cheap prices, clean stores, smooth checkout and not much else from the staff. If you are at JC Penney, you anticipate that somebody in the sales department will assist you.

It doesn’t matter what product you are buying at Wal-Mart or at JC Penney, you walk in expecting the company’s brand to be stable and aligned with what you’ve previously experienced. Story should always reinforce the brand. That’s why the combination of photos and headlines or imagery surrounding the customer in retail is so important. It is also why it is beyond Herculean for a retailer to occupy both the Upscale and the Discount position. It is nearly impossible for the imagery in the store to shoulder these two loads at the same time.

But when you are buying a product, you need to immediately convey what that product will do for the customer. Quick - parade your benefits out there: fast, front and center. Don’t assume listing the features will be sufficient. Computer and tech products are especially guilty of this. Processor speed, ram, etc - just listing all that in a long litany of features won’t convince anybody. If that new Model 500 processor is 50% faster than the old Model 400, announce that fact after you scream: “Get your work done in 1/2 the time!”

Hint - The photo/headline combinations Marketing Hawks dreams up each week for FunMarketer are intended to jumpstart your creative mind for either story or benefits. You can use these suggestions as a launchpad for ideas to enhance and reflect your brand, or that latest product you are pushing.

Call me for more ideas at 402-423-2444 or email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s one that will work well for just about anything you are selling to families - from food to fashion.

Photo: Istock #4669594

Headline: Swing into Fall with Savings from Acme! This week only, 10% off…

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Sometimes a bit of creative help is as close as your kitchen’s pantry. Need marketing ideas for an ad or campaign? Go grab some inspiration from some of the best packaging around - the cans. Just look at how little space these marketers have to work with - and how much they pack in. Pull down three or four cans - and drink in some inspiration. Hey, don’t forget the generic ’store-brands’. Plus, your writing might even become more honed by learning the importance of brevity. Why?

People who create graphics and words for the cans often must condense benefits into just one or two words. Look at the phrase: “Packed Fresh”. If you were writing copy for the internet or a print ad - maybe even a coupon - you would write: “Packed fresh so you enjoy the good health you deserve.”

Brevity works. Try it.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Heavenly”. Wow, talk about a phrase that is malleable. You can run with cloud images, food images, happy close-ups with eyes shut and smiles and faces uplifted in anticipation or enjoyment.

It’s one of the best one-word sentences you can end an ad with. And, if you’re clever enough, you can create a little mini-story around it.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

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FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, what else should we measure besides After-Click behavior on Google AdWords?

Impressions.

Frequent readers know I’m huge on After-Click (AC) behavior. Why? Because this indicates what people do after they click on your Google ad. Measuring clicks as your benchmark of success is like measuring how many people walk through the front door of a retail store; valuable info, but hey it’s the cash register that measures success.

Remember, if you are fortunate enough to be able to measure a Conversion, using Google AdWords, that metric must be your primary indicator of success. If you drive traffic to the phone, you can’t always measure a conversion, but at least you can compare the success of different ad campaigns using Google Analytics measures like Page Views Per Visit or Average Time on Page.

But, what if you are trying to measure trends? What if you want to uncover how much interest is in your product during the month? Maybe you are two weeks into the month and you want to see how well you are doing. Are people still shopping, or are they starting to slow down compared to last month?

Try Impressions. If your daily budget is the same during both time periods, you’ll get a very good indication of how much interest there is in your product.

A couple of caveats:

1. You must segregate your keyword search and your content network campaigns. If you don’t, then start - immediately. Content impressions are not as reliable of an indicator of interest in your product or product category. Keyword Impressions are what matter.

(Note, I’m not anti-Content ads, I make money with them, but I do not use them as an indicator of consumer interest.)

2. Make sure your daily budget setting as well as any time of day settings are the same. You need an apples-to-apples comparison.

There are dozens of other reports to run, but impression share is a good snapshot. Call me for more ideas at 402-423-2444 or email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

It’s Back-To-School Time. Doesn’t this little girl just look like somebody you’d like to buy something from or help out? What a great smile!

Photo: Istock #5793448

Headline: Get Her Ready to Win This Fall - Our Back-To-School Sale is On Now!

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Need some creativity? Force yourself to pull up one or two creative ideas a week - when you are tired. Yes, it sounds crazy, but when you are tired is just when your defenses are down. Let the crazy ideas roll in, whether it’s a headline or an idea for a new campaign.

Sure, many will be sub-par, but you’ll unearth a couple of gems buried inside your creative side that otherwise would never see the light of day.

It works. Try it.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Rock On”. This phrase can still resonate for people over forty. If you are looking to inspire your customers, or bond with them in a common mission, or possibly salute them, then this is an excellent phrase to keep in your quiver.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

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FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, Why is it important for a service company to have a Brand Banner?

The FunMarketer answer is: Because Word-Of-Mouth propels a service company. And your employees need to absolutely know what your company stands for. The Brand Banner accomplishes both.

The Brand Banner is an easily-remembered phrase or concept that your customers and employees can repeat effortlessly to other people. It’s much more than a tag-line or headline for a specific campaign; it must reflect the promise you are delivering to your customers, day in and day out.

One of the best is Hy-Vee’s “Where There’s a Helpful Smile in Every Aisle”. I am not a frequent Hy-Vee shopper, but last year I was in a Hy-Vee , bogged down with too many items in my hands because I had just ducked in to pick up one item and ended up snagging five. As the Hy-Vee employee walked by she literally lifted a twelve-pack of soda pop from my hands and shepherded me to checkout. All this was unsolicited, but definitely appreciated. (Hey, I’m a guy, and you know how we hate to ask for help).

Now that’s going the distance for a customer. That employee was 100% aligned with the company’s primary brand message - helpfulness.

Your brand has a position in the market. Notice, Hy-Vee isn’t positioned as the low-price leader. Although they have sales promote their prices as competitive, their brand stands for service and convenience, not price. It’s extremely difficult for your brand to occupy two places in the customer’s head - better to just have one that is clear in the mind of the employee and the customer. Keep your company loyal to one Brand Banner and you’ll win.

So, make sure your service business has a Brand Banner that customers and employees can remember. It’s not an easy task to build one - call me if you want some tips. Or else check out the tips in my Marketing Workouts

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s a photo that screams: “We appreciate our customer!”

Photo: Istock #4625200

Headline: To All You Who Help Make Us Great - Take a Bow!

Got any great ideas of your own? Just reply to the Funmarketer blog with your istock number and your headline and subhead (Clean Only, Please).

Oh, if you do use the campaign, make sure you give credit where due.

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Use Google Alerts for your competition. If you are trying to find out when your competition is mentioned on the web, one way to do just that is using Google Alerts. Of course, it’s a good idea to sign up for alerts for your own company, too.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“We’ve Got Your Back”. Remember, Trust and Value is our theme this summer. This phrase falls into the “trust” camp. It implies that you, as a company, will take care of the client. But just think of all the ways you can use this phrase:

Suntan lotion
Recliner chair (or a lawnchair, since it is still summer)
Chiropractor
Winter Overcoats (coupled with a strong, cold wind icon blowing)

More generally, the phrase is great for Customer Service. Some of you that are clever can probably even incorporate it into a tag-line for your Customer Service guarantee.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

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FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, Why the Stress On the Headline/Photo combination? Is it really that vital?

Yes. Every marketer should read a recent Wall Street Journal article on cognition. Basically, the article related new research that shows a human brain actually makes a decision before its owner is even aware the decision has been made. Of course, the article brings up weighty questions concerning free will and self-awareness. These are way beyond the scope of FunMarketer (although I’ll chat with you about them over a cup of coffee sometime).

As usual, I immediately thought: “How can I write a better ad from this?”

This research reinforces the idea that you’ve got just a couple of seconds to grab that customer/prospect. See, if the customer isn’t even aware her brain is processing information relative to making a decision, it’s all the more important for you to instantly push as much relevant information in front of her as quickly as possible. The headline/photo combination is a crucial first step in this process.

And it is a process. A simple shock photo and headline may attract interest, but if there is no correlation to strong Benefits or a Quick Story that pulls the prospect along the road to a purchase decision, then you’ve merely wasted your prospect’s time. And, in that moment, probably damaged your brand in the mind of the prospect. People accept that they’ll be advertised to, but they hate to be lied to.

For those of you familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, I urge you to refresh you acquaintance with his theory of “thin-slicing”.

Remember, your customer is thin-slicing your ad campaign, from initial contact right through the moment they choose to act on your Call-To-Action — or not.

That’s why we always include a quick sample in our “FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea Of the Week”. If you save these you can quickly run through them and snag some ideas that you can use as the basis for some great campaigns of your own.

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s a great one for financial services or any type of educational/higher learning school deal.

Photo: Istock #5417006

Headline: You Still Must Run the Race - But We’ll Level the Track for You

Alternate Headline: Acme Financial: Leveling the Race Track Before Your Competition Does

Got any great ideas of your own? Just reply to the FunMarketer blog with your istock number and your headline and subhead (Clean Only, Please).

Oh, if you do use the campaign, make sure you give credit where due.

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

The last FunMarketer post mentioned value and trust and their importance in your marketing. Let’s look at three quick ways you can incorporate these into your marketing:

1. Length of time you’ve been in business. This adds the Trust element.

2. Testimonials. The fact that somebody supplies a testimonial adds a bit of a trust element. The testimonial itself should reflect value - either that the price was a world-beater, or that the product was stellar. Many of you are not the low-cost provider, you are the best-value provider. Make sure your testimonials reflect this.

3. Tone. If you want to scream low-price, then use lots of starbursts and other graphic treatments. Low-price ads usually must shout the fact; the text and graphics and message should be fast and in their face. Sure, if you’re Wal-Mart and you’ve pumped millions into an ad campaign like ‘Always’ you can afford to be a bit more subtle. For most of your low-price ads, say it loud and proud.

Again, it may sound really basic, but trust and value are big themes for the rest of this year.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Ripped at the seams”. Speaking of phrases, you can almost hear the Grease soundtrack in your head if you’re over 35 (maybe even if you’re younger, if your parents took you to the 20th year Grease mania ten years back). OK, so here’s a phrase you can leverage for some last summer hurrahs — I don’t recommend you actually use the entire phrase from Grease, “Summer Dreams, Ripped at the Seams” because it’s copyrighted and there’s no use ripping off somebody else’s art. The key idea here is to plug into a popular phrase, “ripped at the seams”, and let your audience make their own associations in their mind(s).

It’s not exactly archetypal, but it’s along the same line. Sorry, Carl J.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

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FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, What is “Piggybacking” a campaign on Yahoo or Google? Can it really give me an extra 5% or 10% in sales?

Everybody who has read Positioning knows the classic story of how Avis positioned themselves against Hertz. Avis “tried harder” from its Number Two Position. Trouble was, Avis had to spend money on TV and in print to get that message out there.

Today the internet supplies us a way to piggyback a succesful alternative position to a market leader - and use that market leader’s ad budget to our advantage.

Note - this is one time where your Yahoo PPC results may surprise you. Many of you probably get discouraged if you start your Pay Per Click campaigns on Google and then try to achieve anywhere near the same success on Yahoo. I know I certainly have. But, I have found that in some cases I can successfully piggyback my Yahoo paid search campaigns off of a competitor’s banner-ad in addition to their TV ads. Since Yahoo runs banner ads all over its network, if the market leader you target is running banner ads on Yahoo, they are all the juicier target for a piggyback campaign. And I’ve had success doing this with both keyword-based and content-based campaigns.

You will be most successful if your ad asks a question or pulls the audience in with a challenge. You need to get the prospect to think: “This looks interesting; I’d better click and check out what this outfit has to say.” The idea is to get the individual to first click through to the landing page. Then on the landing page you present quick, compelling information to them that causes them to take some action - call a sales rep, fill out a request for more information, etc.

What I have found:

1) these ads must be different than your regular keyword or content ads
2) You must use a different landing page than your usual landing page - Critical for Success
3) Don’t try to be in the top 4 positions - it’ll kill your cost per conversion
4) Build your traditional search campaigns first, benchmark them, then integrate this piggybacking tactic

Remember AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. You really need to capture Attention and some Interest in your ad. The person is already aware of the market leader, now you have to pull them away from the market leader and towards you. A pure benefits statement usually isn’t sufficient, here. Try seeding some doubt in their mind. Doubt works well and it is fast, because so many consumers on the internet are in comparison-shopping mode, anyway.

Alternatively, if you can position your product as healthier, or faster, or somehow superior to the competition in your ad, then that’s even better. But, I have found this can sometimes be accomplished more easily on the landing page than in the ad. That’s why I like to use doubt in the ad - it is quick and effective.

Note - although I have not extensively tested price, you can use price as a bit of an urgency factor to push the person over the edge. Sometimes a simple: “Sale this weekend” at the very end of the ad can help.

Again, this “piggybacking” tactic can’t be the foundation of your campaign - it won’t be a grand slam. But you might just might get a few singles from it. Let me know.

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s a great one for anything travel related - hotels, airlines, city desinations.

Photo: Istock #6328435
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/sports-and-leisure/6328435-little-girl-at-a-camp.php?id=6328435

Headline: Mom and Dad Said They Wanted Some Alone Time In Our Tent.

SubHead: When Your Ready to Step Up Your Next Vacation, Give Us a Call.

Got any great ideas of your own? Just reply to the Funmarketer blog with your istock number and your headline and subhead (Clean Only, Please).

Oh, if you do use the campaign, make sure you give credit where due.

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Keep the focus on value and trust right now in your marketing messages. There is a ton of distrust out there - people are scared. Couple this with the fears of the recession and the prices in the supermarket and at the pump creeping up and up - plus all the bad news coming from ordinarily stable companies like banks - and the need for trust is evident.

It may sound really basic, but trust and value are big themes for the rest of this year.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Cash It In”. Here’s a phrase that is recession-ready! Just do a search (with quotation marks) on the types of businesses that use this phrase. People are money-constrained right now and it is only going to get worse as we head toward the Fall and Christmas. You can play off both greed and fear with this phrase, if you use it right.

Remember: Brand (who you are) + Package (your Face to the Customer) + People (customers and employees) = Marketing Success.

Craig Lutz-Priefert

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FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, Can you recommend an easy-to-maintain retention program?

The FunMarketer answer is: Go where others don’t. If you:

a) Depend on Repeat Customers and
b) Have your customer’s address

then a low-maintenance method to bond your customers to you is send them cards in the mail when nobody else is. High-value times could include:

1. Birthday Card
2. July 4th Card
3. “Preferred Customer Event” special invite

You say: “Oh no, Craig, we can’t send out cards to customers. It costs too much.”

Really? Acquiring a customer costs between 10 and 50 times what a Card-based retention program does. And if you are like most businesses, it is your repeat customers that support your company. It just make sense to bond them to you with a very basic retention program.

Also, my experience strongly suggests you should OUTSOURCE this function. Send your database to a good service provider and let them take care of this vital marketing function.

Can’t afford to send everybody a card? Then just choose the cream of the crop. If your business follows a classic 80/20 Pareto rule, then you can just peel off the top 20% of the customer list and mail them.

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Summer is here and the beach is a great place for inspiration!

Photo: Istock #1693130

Headline: Acme Remodeling - No Job’s Too Small

Alternate Headline: Acme Architects - Practicing Great Design Since 1975

Got any great ideas of your own? Just reply to the Funmarketer blog with your istock number and your headline and subhead (Clean Only, Please).

Oh, if you do use the campaign, make sure you give credit where due.

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Use Google Suggest. For those of you who haven’t tried this tool, Google Suggest is a powerful way to explore which phrases people are using on the web. Google will actually tell you what’s popular, PLUS supply you with ideas. Think that coold search phrase you want to use in your copy or headline is the latest and greatest? Maybe, but by using Google Suggest you can find out how many people are actually searching for it.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Supplies Are Limited, so Call Now”. This phrase is one of the more powerful calls to action you can use in your copy. Yes, it may seem a bit timeworn, but remember that this phrase is battle-tested through thousands of campaigns. Remember, a good Call To Action leverages fear to push people into an action - which is often greed-based.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

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