Marketing and Sales Ideas

Here are 47 tips to help you extend your marketing reach. Choose a handful, plan and implement them, then watch your sales improve.

The document management industry seems to move at the speed of light, and it's easy to place new sales and marketing ideas on the backburner. But companies that stick with the status quo can't expect bright futures. Successful firms constantly find new ways to spark their sales.

Is your company fired up about the future-or is it plugged in to the past? Is your marketing plan dynamic-or is it a dinosaur? What has your firm done recently to improve its web site, prospecting strategy and promotional campaigns?

With the help of document pros and outside sales and marketing experts, Print Solutions editors have compiled 47 sales and marketing tips that can give your business a boost. Circle ones that interest you, and take your sales to another level.

1. Make customer service quantifiable.
   Customer service involves accessibility, speed, quality, flexibility and personalized attention. Most companies boast that excellent service sets them apart from competitors. Make this a fact instead of an assumption by soliciting feedback in surveys and on your web site. It's up to you to make the first step. Positive feedback can be used in your company's marketing materials, and negative responses can spark positive changes.

2. Think value, not products.
   Most document products are commodities end users can get from hundreds of companies. Offer design services, warehousing, fulfillment, forms management, usage reports and other value-added services. Consider launching frequent-buyer programs in which clients receive free products or services for buying a certain volume of products.

3. Get your appreciation noticed.
   Make your company stand out by sending greeting cards to customers when competitors wouldn't think to do the same, such as the firm's anniversary or your contact's birthday. Thank your customers with hand-written messages, quick emails and phone calls.

4. Hire a copywriting professional.
   Presidents and sales managers often write marketing pieces, press releases and advertising copy when marketing professionals aren't on staff. Outsourcing work to a freelancer who knows how to write and approach publications can have a huge impact on the success of your marketing objectives.

5. Advertise benefits, not features.
   Most end users don't care about new folding machines or the ins and outs of label/form combinations. They want to know how that new equipment or product will save them time, make them money or improve their image.

6. Solicit referrals.
   After every successful sale, ask customers to recommend others who could benefit from the same products or services. Customers are often flattered when you ask for their help, and referrals are an easy, cost-effective way to gain customers.

7. Make your web site a 24/7 marketing machine.
   Your web site creates an image of your company. What does yours say? A cleanly designed site with simple navigation and clear, informative content is a great promotional tool. Your site should also explain who your company is and why visitors should do business with you. Include pictures of your staff, product guarantees, several ways to contact your company and success stories from existing customers. Update your FAQ page regularly.

8. Add a marketing message to voice mail.
   Leave a brief tidbit of new information about your company at the end of your message. For example, a message might conclude with, "The next time you go to the symphony, take a look at the programs. We donated the printing."

9. Ask.
   It's easy to assume what a client wants based on your past experiences. To be responsive to your clients' needs, you must first understand those needs. Guesswork is hardly reliable, so ask customers what you can do to bring them the most benefits.

10. Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
    When you tell customers you'll do something-have an order by a certain date, call at a certain time, provide a certain service-do it. Live by the adage, "Under-promise, over-deliver." When you don't make good on a promise, even seemingly small ones, customers often will feel frustrated.

11. Identify problems early.
    Customers buy from you because you can solve their problems, so it's important to identify those problems as early in the sales process as possible. Ask, "Is there a problem I can help you with today?" Asking detailed, open-ended questions often yields a nugget of information you can use to gain an account.

12. Pay attention to trade show attendees.
    Most exhibitors at trade shows have a canned sales pitch they've said hundreds of times. Listen to attendees, who often have particular applications in mind when stopping at your booth.

13. Touch base with past customers.
    Every week, call a previous client, even if you're not currently doing business with the company. Ask what's new with the firm, and update your contact person on new products. Leave the conversation with a thoughtful and open invitation for the company to return as a customer.

14. Don't say you "don't know."
    If you're not sure of the answer to a customer's question, that's fine-but leave a positive impression by saying you'll double-check on the right answer. Find out, and get back to the customer with more information than he needed.

15. Walk the walk.
    Use your products to market your own company. If you sell plastic products, carry plastic business cards or membership cards. If you profess the importance of covert security features, make sure your company's payroll checks include them.

16. Invite a breadth of ideas.
    When evaluating your company's marketing or sales objectives, pass the message throughout the company. Include a range of employees in brainstorming sessions. When creating a simple slogan for your goals or implementing measurable ways to attain them, the right ideas can come from left field.

17. Swim with the sharks.
    Keep your competition in mind at all times. Study their web sites and trade magazine advertisements. One distributor carries his competitor's coffee mug with him on business trips so that he has an extra incentive to sell ad specialties.

18. Attract repeat web visitors.
    Provide web site features-tips, downloads, useful information updated often-that give visitors a reason to return even when they're not looking to buy.

19. Learn about customers' industries.
    Ask customers to name the trade shows that are important to their businesses, and consider attending them. By attending educational sessions and speaking with other attendees, you'll learn more about common heavens and hells your customers deal with daily. More importantly, you'll solidify relationships with your clients. Also, subscribe to publications that your clients read.

20. Think like a designer.
    When designing a print advertisement, consider your target buyers' mindset. Would they prefer an emotional approach (a lot of pictures) or technical information (a lot of text)? What's likely to get their attention right away? What's likely to make them laugh?

21. Be readily accessible.
    Include contact information on every page of your web site. Many online visitors go on the internet to check out your capabilities, but would rather order products by calling or faxing. Carry a cell phone or maintain a hotline staff.

22. Go postal.
    Attend a U.S. Postal Service regulations seminar, and invite an important client to come along. Use the knowledge you gain to cut mailing costs for both you and your customer. Also, visit www.usps.gov.

23. Motivate yourself.
    Give yourself an extra incentive to accomplish your goals by writing them down and looking at them periodically. Share them with people who are likely to encourage you to reach them.

24. Promote with post cards.
    Customers may not read a letter, but most will turn over a post card. Because the message on the post card isn't enclosed in an envelope, other potential customers may see it. Keep post card text brief and clear.

25. Advertise your web site.
    Some firms that have eye-catching and user-friendly web sites don't actively market the sites. Print your web address everywhere. Add it to business cards, brochures, post cards, fliers, delivery vehicles-anything customers might see. It will result in more online visits and better business.

26. Part with problematic clients.
    If a client demands too much of your time and energy, consider ending the relationship. Customers who aren't cost-effective are literally more trouble than they're worth.

27. Become a high-tech promoter.
    Use a laptop with presentation or video programs to present new products and services to customers. Using high-tech tools enables you to prepare colorful, animated, professional presentations. Store your supplemental paper-based literature on the computer, and print sell sheets with a portable printer as needed. Learn how to store presentations on CD-ROMs, and make them available online for customers to download.

28. Use the web to research prospects.
    Prospects' web sites often include names and titles of key people and product lines, the mission or vision statement of the company, and names of important customers they serve. Every piece of information can be useful when determining how to approach a prospect.

29. Make marketing a daily habit.
    When asked about marketing budgets, some firms say they don't have one. "We didn't spend anything on marketing last year," they say. In truth, they probably spent plenty of resources and money on marketing-but not targeted marketing. Write a marketing plan with specific objectives, such as "We will attain three new hospital accounts in the next six months." Remind other employees of the objectives during weekly meetings.

30. Divide your marketing plan into pieces.
    Divide your marketing plan into sections that include a mission statement, short-term marketing objectives, short-term sales and profit goals, long-term goals, target markets and action steps. Then develop promotion strategies and time lines for implementing each step. Spread out deadlines for updating your web site, re-evaluating your customer base, generating a capabilities brochure and organizing print advertising.

31. Create a tag line.
    A catchy tag line can help customers associate a phrase with your company. Include the tag line with your logo on all printed materials.

32. Do homework before submitting press releases.
    When looking for some "good ink," familiarize yourself with the publications you're targeting. When you read an article about something similar to what your company does, note the name of the writer. Call or email the publication to find out how often that person writes similar articles. Also ask about the publication's policy for submitting press releases. The less overtly promotional your release is, the better chance it has of being published.

33. Sponsor community groups and charitable events.
    Get involved in charitable events such as golf tournaments and bike rides. Donate ad specialty door prizes for local chamber of commerce events. Donate the printing of programs for a local high-school sports team. A logo printed on a child's baseball uniform or Little League outfield fence is an easy advertisement. Community participation generates goodwill-and good business.

34. Create visual identity in your ads.
    Block out your company name in your most recent ad. Would people still recognize that the ad is about your firm? If the answer is no, reconsider your visual identity. Your ads should have some common visual effect customers instantly recognize as yours.

35. Focus on one message.
    While it's natural to want to tell customers everything about your company in one ad, resist the temptation. Concentrate on one product or theme. Bombarding readers with information is counter-productive.

36. Employ a graphic design intern.
    Most colleges and universities have graphic design majors looking for résumé-building experiences. They're likely to work for little money, and could bring an air of creativity to your company. Also, consider calling professors to see if they'll consider making a class project out of your advertising or marketing goal.

37. Participate in online forums and newsgroups.
    Newsgroups and forums are good ways to stay informed about industry trends and customer attitudes. By reviewing responses to an issue in a newsgroup, you'll get ideas about common industry problems. (PSDA runs a private newsgroup for member principals. To participate, email Christine Kenny at ckenny@PSDA.org.)

38. Qualify your mailing list supplier.
    When talking with a mailing list source, find out how often the list is updated, and get the names of others in the industry who have used it. Consider calling those firms to ask if the list generated results. After the mailing, keep track of the response rate and the number of respondents who become customers.

39. Send out irregular-sized mail.
    Get your direct mail noticed by sending perfect circles or squares. Check with the post office to make sure the pieces meet current postal regulations.

40. Include a brief tip with direct mail.
    Add value to a direct mail piece by including a tip or idea that can help to generate a question or order. For example, a company that offers promotional pieces could include a tip about which colors are the most appealing to teenagers, senior citizens, men and women.

41. Follow up on marketing campaigns.
    Get on the phone a week after your direct mail campaign, and ask prospects if they have any questions about what you sent. More importantly, ask about their businesses. What new products or services do they have? What special events are on their schedules?

42. Put a time limit on promotions.
    Send customers a letter or brochure containing a coupon that's good for a limited time. You can easily track how many people take advantage of the discount. Keep in mind that firms could receive the promotion, not order during the discount period, but remember your company months later.

43. Suggest a new look.
    Target companies with old or outdated logos, and offer to redesign them. Then you can supply the company with hats, shirts and mugs featuring the new logo. An added bonus is that you get to replace the company's forms and letterhead as well.

44. Add a P.S.
    What's the most powerful section of your sales letter? The postscript is often the first (sometimes only) line a prospect reads. Use the P.S. to restate your key point, emphasize a deadline or pique the customer's curiosity enough to read the entire letter.

45. Don't sound stuffy.
    Read your next sales letter aloud before mailing it. Does it sound like you're reading a formal, impersonal business document or a letter to a friend? If it sounds stiff and formal, start over.

46. Include an email signature file.
    Your email signature file should include all possible ways to reach you, plus a link to your company's web site. You can get creative by including images, logos and links to testimonials.

47. Cross-promote with partners.
    The most expensive part of advertising is the cost of distributing your message. With a cross-promotion, you can get that for free. Talk to your strategic partners, and come up with joint marketing plans for 2002.

Darin Painter is managing editor of Print Solutions; Kara Carpenter, Kara Gebhart and Rita Tiefert are assistant editors. Email them your comments at editors@printsolutionsmag.com.

EXPERT ADVICE: Develop a Marketing Plan
"Marketing eliminates excuses by salespeople," says John Haskell, president of Dr. Revenue's Marketing Clinic, a 27-year-old marketing firm in Los Angeles, and the author of the book ProfitRx. "If companies want to have successful sales programs, they need to have a marketing plan."

When companies look at every element of their business that impacts revenue, they gain ideas of how to build business, says Haskell, who works with small and medium-sized companies such as printers and prepress shops. "It's easy when times are good and everybody's just calling up and buying," he says. "But when times are uncertain-like they are right now-you want to have some advantages in the marketplace."

A marketing plan doesn't have to be a formal document or cost a lot of money, Haskell says. The planning process begins with an analysis of your opportunities. Start with clearly stated, measurable goals. "The second most important step is to state all of your tactics-all of the things you're going to do to reach those goals," he says. Creating a tactical plan also requires a time line and a budget. Businesses should count on spending between 2 and 5 percent of their sales volumes on marketing, Haskell says.

"Time is the biggest challenge in establishing a marketing program," Haskell says. "You need to say, 'I'm going to take half a day and get my people together, look at what my opportunities are and decide what my goals are.'" Once you have the plan in place, test your marketing ideas on a few customers or a small part of the market, he says. By testing ideas on a small group, you won't risk losing a great deal of time and money if the ideas aren't successful.

A roadblock for many companies, Haskell says, is recognizing their own weaknesses. "They don't want to hear that their customer service stinks, that the phone rings 12 times before somebody answers it, and that their marketing literature was done in 1952 and hasn't been updated since," Haskell says. Businesses should analyze differences between their own firms and their biggest competitors, he says.

"Take a few minutes out of your life to stop working in your business and start working on your business," Haskell says.

EXPERT ADVICE: Concentrate on Prospecting
Small businesses should concentrate on generating leads, not brand awareness, says Charley Swayne, instructor of marketing at the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse, Wis. "If you've got a gazillion bucks, you can do brand awareness, which is just letting a company know how wonderful you are," he says. "Instead, you should be lead producing-getting an immediate potential customer or prospect. You want traffic through the door." He says businesses should think of the most persuasive promise they can make to potential customers, decide if they can deliver the promise, then make it.

When Swayne talks about marketing, he quotes Lou Holtz, former University of Notre Dame football coach who's now head coach at the University of South Carolina. "Holtz says every customer asks three potential questions, and you should try to answer all three of these with a 'yes,'" Swayne says. "One: Can I trust you? Two: Do you really care about me? Three: Are you committed to excellence?" If a small business can constantly answer "yes" to these questions, they probably will have all the customers they can handle.

EXPERT ADVICE: Sell to the Top
Senior-level managers are becoming increasingly involved in print purchases, according to a recent study by sales consulting firm Stuart Levine & Associates, Jericho, N.Y. Robert Reiss, the firm's managing director, attributes the rise to two causes. "Whether we want to admit it or not, we are in a recession," he says. "Dollars are very tight, so clients need to involve senior managers on the client side. Second, more clients are strategically aligning all of their projects to their core value propositions." Reiss offers five tips from the firm's training course, "Selling to CEOs":

1. Know CEOs' business and how you can help improve it.
2. Be understanding of their time constraints.
3. Call CEOs directly; they often answer the phone.
4. Start with the point. CEOs may make a decision in 10 seconds as to whether you can add value.
5. Show respect for CEOs' personal assistants.

EXPERT ADVICE: Send a Monthly Newsletter
"Our newsletter is one of the best ways we contact customers in a regular, systematic way," says Stan Ritter, CFC, president of Superior Business Associates, a Greeneville, Tenn.-based manufacturer of custom forms, labels, label/form combinations, envelopes and tags. Since 1983, the company has published Impressions, a monthly newsletter that includes Ritter's column ("Stan's Forum"); industry trends and statistics (June's issue included text about bond paper prices); and the firm's monthly "Report Card," which includes the number of orders shipped, rush orders shipped, complaints and mistakes caught. A list of Superior's contacts or an abbreviated price list appears on the back. Ritter writes or compiles all of the newsletter's text.

"The critical issue is that we stay in contact with customers," Ritter says. "We're reporting our high level of on-time orders and our ability to handle rush jobs. The newsletter also helps customers recognize that we catch a lot of errors."

Superior prints the newsletter's masthead roll-to-sheet. It supplies text and a mailing list of approximately 800 people to a local quick printer, which mails and prints Impressions. "We haven't missed an issue yet, and we'll keep printing them because they add value."

EXPERT ADVICE: Concentrate on Relationships
Michael Esworthy, vice president of sales and marketing at distributorship Progressive Forms & Label Systems Inc., Harrisburg, Pa., doesn't market through direct mail or advertising. "Our marketing is really based on relationship selling," he says. "We find out what our end users' needs are and work toward solving their problems. We go at it one-on-one."

Esworthy says price is still an important factor for end users, especially government clients, but "we're not out there saying we have the lowest price," he says. "If that's your advantage, you're probably not offering value and building long-term relationships."