501 KILLER MARKETING TACTICS

to Increase Sales, Maximize Profits, and Stomp Your Competition

By TOM FELTENSTEIN

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Tom Feltenstein
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-174063-0

Contents

Preface: Marketing Is a Way of LifeAcknowledgments1 Planning the Battle—The Basics2 How to Choose the Right Tactics3 Ten Steps before Launching Any Promotional Tactic4 Must-Do Business Tactics5 Marketing to Your Internal Customers6 Grand Opening/Reopening Tactics7 Four Walls Promotions8 Zone Merchandising Tactics9 Existing Customers10 New Customers11 Promotions for Charities and Churches12 Civic Tactics13 Direct Mail and Ads14 Staff Incentives15 Miscellaneous Tactics for Retailers16 Cards, Coupons, Tear-Outs17 Community Tactics18 Students and Their Families19 Leisure Time Tie-Ins20 Service and Professional Businesses21 Restaurant, Food-Service, and Beverage Companies—Within Your Four
Walls22 Gift Certificates23 Theme Nights24 Drive-Through Tactics25 Outrageous Ideas26 Nonprofit Tactics27 Opening Anniversaries28 Holiday Tactics29 Thanksgiving and Christmas Tactics30 Quick College-Year Promotions31 E-marketing32 Digital Media Tactics33 Social Networking Tactics34 Marketing Measurement TacticsIndex

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Planning the Battle—The Basics

Without promotion, something terrible happens—nothing!

—P. T. BARNUM, circus impresario

This book is a working manual of promotional ideas and programs for yourbusiness, based on the guiding principle that everything you need in order togrow your business is within your four walls and your neighborhood. This is agold mine of tactics (the building blocks of the marketing plan of anyorganization) that when selected, assembled, and tailored by you, will help youmeet your specific objectives. They work best when they are executedconsistently as part of an overall plan of action that is intended to last fromseveral months to a year. I strongly recommend that you develop a firm marketingplan before you begin your promotional activities.

When I sit down to speak with new clients, they are often surprised when I startoff my marketing discussion by talking about their internal customers, betterknown as their employees. Employees’ lives are enriched when they sensecommitment and caring from those whom they work for and with. When their work isfulfilling, they become your partners in business. Without the support and buy-inof your employees, all the slick advertising and creative promotional ideasin the world will never achieve the results you seek.

Your internal customers should be involved in your total marketing effort, notsimply by doing what you want them to do the way you want them to do it, but bysoliciting their input on the tactics you want to implement. A truly devotedemployee is one who honestly believes in the company and is faithful to itsmission and its products or services. This book includes ideas dedicated tohelping you partner with, motivate, and reward your staff in order to achievemaximum results.

The tactics in this book are based on decades of successful promotion planningexperience. They are targeted to specific audiences made up of the members ofyour community you should be trying to reach: those within your local tradingarea, or roughly a 10-minute drive from your front door. Whether you serve foodor install carpeting, sell cars or fix teeth, run a hospital or run a pet shop;whether you’re big or small, independent or part of a chain; whether you’re inthe suburbs, a shopping mall, a downtown, or a hotel, you’ll find tactics thatyou can either use off the shelf or adapt to fit your own situation and budget.

Avoid trying to shoehorn a tactic into an insufficient budget. For example,suggestions for print or radio advertising are to be used only if your budgetcan sustain an effective media schedule. If a tactic involves four weeks ofadvertising and you can afford only one, it might be better to choose adifferent tactic that costs less.

As you plan your activities, be sure to record all materials needed, the stepsnecessary to undertake the promotion, and the costs involved. Maintain a precisepromotional calendar to help keep you current, properly budgeted, and onschedule.

Promotions should be exciting, enjoyable experiences for your customers, yourstaff, and you. Keep this goal foremost in your mind. Your own enthusiasm andshowmanship will add an air of electricity that will buoy your staff, reenergizeyour existing customers, and attract new customers.

CHAPTER 2

How to Choose the Right Tactics

At the beginning of most of the promotions and tactics in this book is astatement of the objective. This is the short- or long-term effect that thetactic is designed to achieve. Once you have created your marketing plan anddecided upon your objectives, you should then choose from among the appropriatetactics.

In alphabetical order, here are some objectives to consider:

• Awareness. This is the first step in bringing in new customers. Thepotential customer must know or be reminded of your existence, your location,your product or service, your price range, and what makes you different from thecompetition.

• Building a mailing list. This involves collecting the names andaddresses of all customers who walk through your door. You will use this listtime and again to implement many promotional activities. Do everything you canto collect this information, and maintain and update it continually.

• Community goodwill. This is the creation of a positive image of yourbusiness or organization in your community. No matter how large or small yourbusiness or organization may be, you put out an image that reflects on youpositively or negatively. Promotions aimed at community involvement show yourgenuine caring and sharing.

• Excitement. These are promotions that make you stand out from thecrowd. Exciting promotions will create a loyal customer base.

• Frequency. These are promotions geared toward establishing yourbusiness as the place to go in your category. Bringing in new customers andkeeping the old ones is important, but once you have gained customers’ loyalty,the goal is to keep them coming back as often as possible.

• Generating PR. Public relations, also called publicity, is aneffective and inexpensive way to get your message out by getting the media(radio, television, newspapers, magazines, Web sites) interested enough in whatyou are doing to tell their audiences about it. Once you’ve been noticed thefirst time, it becomes easier to get press attention for future promotions.

• Generating traffic. These promotions are designed to attract peopleinto your operation. People may be coming in simply to pick up an entry blankfor a contest, but it’s likely that they will make some purchase as a result,either then or later.

• Image. This involves the perception the public has of your business.Is it a fun place to take the kids, a special occasion destination, a place thecommunity can count on for special events, a business that makes customers feellike family? The image you have established in the community should drive thepromotions you choose. If you want to change your image, choosing the properpromotions can make it easy.

• Increasing sales. These are promotions that are designed specificallyto build a higher check (and a higher profit) per customer through thesuggestive selling of add-ons or selling up to higher-priced products orservices. Many of the staff incentives you will find in this book are alsodesigned to increase sales.

• Keeping staff busy. These are promotions that are designed to help youface slow periods. They keep your staff busy and build business during downtimes. Most important, they prevent you from having to lay off employees. Theknowledge that you are working to help your staff keep their jobs will createstaff loyalty and goodwill.

• Promoting activity during slow periods. These promotions are differentfrom those described under “Keeping staff busy” in that they aim to build yournormal and usual business during off times rather than to expand your activitiesand services. They can also keep your staff busy!

• Staff incentives. The attitudes and actions of your employees will bethe first (and possibly last) impression that customers get. A harmonious,exciting, and pleasant working environment, in which individuals’ needs areparamount, will keep your business running smoothly and leave you and yourmanagement with time to implement other promotional activities.

• Stimulating trial. These promotions are designed to get people to tryyou out. Customers who already know about you may not have been motivated to tryyou. Promotions that are designed to stimulate trial offer something that isspecial enough to give potential customers the push they need.

CHAPTER 3

Ten Steps before Launching Any Promotional Tactic

You could open this book to any page, pick a tactic, and give it a try. However,that’s not making marketing a way of life, and it won’t get you to use thesepromotional tactics in the most effective manner.

There are a number of steps you should go through, even if you think you alreadyknow what you’re doing, to ensure success each and every time. In doing so, youmay be surprised by what you will learn about your business, the people you’vehired to work for you, and your role and perception in the community.

• Determine objectives. Is your goal to stimulate trial purchases by newcustomers or to stimulate more frequent purchases by current customers? Are youaiming to increase your average transaction, enhance your image, boost employeeproductivity or morale, stimulate community awareness, or a combination ofthese? These are all important goals, but you need to determine which ones youwant to achieve first, second, and so on, and which are most easily andeffectively executed.

• Be specific. If your objective is to get new customers to try you out,what is a reasonable goal—an increase in new customers of 5 percent, 10percent, or 15 percent? Would it be reasonable to shoot for an increase incustomer frequency from three purchases a month to four? If your objective is toincrease your average sale, what is a reasonable increase based on your currentpricing? If your objective is employee morale, how much can you reduce employeeturnover by running this promotion?

• Be realistic in your goals. Success is rarely achieved in one fellswoop. Remember, this is a way of life. Each incremental improvement builds onthe last. If you get too ambitious, you and your staff will quickly becomefrustrated and disappointed, and you will be less enthusiastic next time. Setyour goals high enough to make a difference and low enough to have the bestchance of success.

• Set your strategy. Once you’ve established your objectives andselected some tactics, you must decide how to make those tactics successful.What can you afford, and how can you maximize your results?

• Consider various aspects. Consider such aspects as timing; frequency;capitalizing on local events; seasonal population variations; competitivechallenges that call for extra effort; variable costs of materials, labor, andreal estate; and other factors that are unique to your situation.

• Create a plan. Create a carefully thought-out plan for each promotion,and make sure that each promotion is slotted into its proper place in your long-termobjectives.

• Zero in on your target. What type of customer does your businessattract—upscale, blue-collar, families, singles, ethnic groups? Ideally,the group or groups that are predominant in your neighborhood (within a 10-minutedrive of your front door) should be most attracted to your concept. Onceyou’ve zeroed in on your target audience, review your tactical options and pickthose that would most appeal to that audience and would be the most appropriate.

• Calculate your payout. Almost every promotional tactic that isintended to increase sales should have a measurable result and produce a profit.You should know how many new customers you need in order to cover the costs ofyour promotion. How many of those new customers must you convert to regularcustomers to consider the promotion a success? If you do your homework ahead oftime, you’ll be able to tell how realistic your objectives are and what, if any,adjustments are necessary for next time.

Improving employee morale or improving the image of your business is moredifficult, but not impossible, to measure. Ask yourself, or your bookkeeper oraccountant, “What does it cost us to hire and train a new employee?” or “Howmuch traffic will an improved image generate?” In most cases, you can find a wayto track the results of a promotion.

Remember, if you can measure it, you can manage it. Or, as Yogi Berra once said,”If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else!”

• Check the calendar. You shouldn’t be mailing announcements today for apromotion that starts tomorrow. You don’t need New Year’s noisemakers deliveredin January. Leave extra time to make sure that each element of your promotion isin place in time. Leave time for creating, producing, and implementing eachelement. Make a promotion calendar or schedule showing each phase, and pad thetime a little to allow for the inevitable changes and delays.

• Refine your products and services. Be sure that the service or productyou offer is right for your target customers—that you’re offering theright varieties, with the most customer appeal, the right pricing, and the rightpresentation. Keep track of what is most popular, what’s producing the mostsales, and what’s producing the largest profit margin.

Compare what you know with what your competitors are offering. Survey yourcustomers by questionnaire or one-on-one conversations. Take the temperature ofyour market, and be a good listener by leaving your ego and your preconceivedideas out of it.

• Polish the brass. Go a step beyond your regular maintenanceprocedures. Make sure that your selling, operating, and customer areas areattractive; that your physical space is clean and tidy; that any backgroundmusic appeals to your audience; that unpleasant sounds or odors are neutralized;that fading paint, broken door handles, and any other flaws are corrected. Itall sells, even sparkling bathrooms. You may not see the grimy windows or thelitter because you pass them every day and they’ve become invisible, but yourcustomers will.

• Check the logistics. You can execute your tactics with minimumdifficulty by making sure that you have the technical know-how, the space, andthe resources to handle the promotion without disrupting customer service orstaff efficiency. Plenty of otherwise successful promotions have been ruined byinsufficient or poorly trained staff, poor product quality, or equipmentfailure.

Practice run-throughs, when appropriate, to help iron out any kinks and increasethe chances of a smooth promotion.

• Cheerlead. Hold a team meeting of all your employees and explain theobjectives, the rationale, the implementation, and the fun of your upcomingpromotion. Let employees know what is expected of them, what is in it for thempersonally, and how much you care about their job satisfaction and feedback.They are your customers, too, and you should work just as hard to earn theirloyalty. It’s the right thing to do, and it pays.

• Plan your analysis. Successful promotional activity is a learningprocess. You take lessons away from each effort, and you build on them. Settingspecific objectives allows you to measure the success of your promotion. Forexample, before your promotion even begins, you might prepare brief customer andemployee questionnaires that you can use afterward to solicit reactions. Reviewevery aspect of your promotion, and gather the information you need to make yournext promotion even more effective.

CHAPTER 4

Must-Do Business Tactics

Whether you’ve just invented a new product on your kitchen table and are readyto build a business around it, are involved in a mature business that needs akick in the pants, or your business faces a competitive threat, there are somebasic steps to take first. In the following pages, you’ll find some steps thatare obvious and some that you might not have considered as important as theyare. Take the best, and leave the rest.

You’ll also find a menu of the various basic tactics that most businesses usesuccessfully. Use these pages to familiarize yourself with the tools at yourdisposal.

Think of this process as basic training for your marketing battle or the systemschecklist before launch. The marketing way of life requires us to constantlyreexamine, reconsider, and reinvent. If you absorb the information in thesepages, you won’t have to guess which tactics will work best for you. You’llknow.

1. Have a Business Plan

How well do you know your business? If you’re like many busy entrepreneurs,managers, and owners, you might have trouble answering some basic questions,such as:

• What are your business’s greatest strengths and weaknesses?

• What are your biggest challenges and opportunities?

• Who are your current customers, and why are they patronizing your business?

• Who are your competitors’ current customers, and why are they patronizingtheir businesses?

• What changes or new programs would have the greatest potential to boost yoursales?

If you haven’t already done so, you should develop a business plan based onfacts, not hope and speculation. Prayer may comfort your soul, but it is not aneffective promotional tactic.

Facts include customer attitudes, as measured by a questionnaire or survey;employee attitudes, also measured by a questionnaire and by interviews; ananalysis of your sales, broken down by product or group or category or time ofday or time of year and measured against previous months and years; an analysisof profit margins, broken down; the demographics of your market area; yourcompetition; and so on. You can never know enough about your business. Measureit so that you can manage it.

Out of all this information comes a blueprint for building your business. Use itregularly to be sure that you are headed in the right direction. Build yourmarketing plan into it. Be sure to include both top- and bottom-line goals andobjectives—and stick to them!

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(Continues…)Excerpted from 501 KILLER MARKETING TACTICS by TOM FELTENSTEIN. Copyright © 2010 by Tom Feltenstein. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc..
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