Branding You!

Over the past two years Ward/Kraft has provided information on promotional print to thousands of distributors through our WK On Site seminar program. In nearly every meeting at least one distributor mentions "I should be doing this." It's also been interesting to see how many distributors are now asking for graphics of integrated labels, plastic cards, pressure seal forms, envelopes and other products so they can increases the impact of their own promotional collaterals. If you are going to re-vamp your marketing and advertising we suggest you review the Promotional Print Process we cover in our seminar. Here's a quick review of some points you may want to consider.

First, what have you done in the past? Do you have presentation folders, marketing collaterals, yellow page advertising, newspaper ads, radio spots or billboards? Define everything you're doing and put a dollar value to each point. Determine where your leads are coming from if possible. If not, find a way to track your lead generation by media. If you can't tie revenue to the media you may want to consider something new. The main reason to gather this information is to see where your dollars are going, how many dollars are spent and determine your ROI. Determine your average customer value. This should be broken into one year, three years and lifetime values. For instance, if you land a new customer what will that customer buy within the first year? Review your customer base and see what the average customer purchase is at the three-year mark and finally what is the lifetime customer value. With this information you should be able to determine what you're willing to spend to get a new customer.

This brings up another important issue and the second point. Are you running a promotional program to existing customers or new prospects. What is your true objective of the marketing program? Sure it's more sales, but what kind of sales? Are you particularly effective selling a vertical market or vertical product? Can you profile your best customers and use that information to target market new prospects? Direct marketing experts will say you should spend more on new prospects rather than current accounts. And you should spend more on profiled targets. What are you doing for customer retention and penetration? You will probably find several objectives each requiring a different marketing tactic.

The next step is to determine what marketing media is best suited. Statement stuffers, RPN's on outgoing envelopes, direct mail, newsletters or newspaper inserts. You may consider some type of coop marketing effort with other businesses. Referral programs have been known to be a very effective. Keep in mind that whatever media yo choose to use you need to build in a tracking system. Determine your cost per response, response rate to each media and campaign is critical in calculating your ROI.

The fourth step in the process is actually running the marketing campaign(s). Over a period of time you should gather information on response rate, new order sales and account growth (penetration). Tracking and reporting is the final phase of a good promotional program. Compare the results, sales, costs and check your ROI. For new mailing programs you should test small mailings first. This will let you check for list accuracy, response to offer and response to media used while keeping costs low.

A strong marketing initiative is critical to create a brand and it's all about Branding YOU! If you would like to discuss this topic further, please feel free to contact the sales team in our digital and commercial divisions. We would be happy to visit with you.

Regards,

Roger Buck, CDC
National Sales Manager, Forms Divisions