How to Increase Your Bottom Line Return Through Customized Personalization

VARIABLE DATA PRINTING IN THE MODERN ERA

When delivering a message to clients, there is always something that will stand as a valid question. How do I attract the client’s attention to my message? The answer a lot of times is within ourselves. If we think about it enough and position ourselves as a client, what is one thing we appreciate in a message from a company or service provider? Well studies show that 31% of U.S. adults within a wide range of industries prefer to receive unique customized messages.

Consider Combining the New With the Old for Successful Marketing Touches

Think of the direction the world is moving towards today. Everything is digital, according to AdWeek, 28% of the time users spent online is used for social media networking. What does this mean for us? It’s simple, our society craves for personal relationships, personal engagement, and personal communication. With programmatic buying and native advertising, personalization has found a way to drive engagement in various types of media, all targeting the places where your customer spends most of their time.

One of the many observations for companies today is that they shouldn’t just be using social media as a channel to spread corporate messages, but instead they should add to those efforts and leverage it in ways that engage the audience in genuine two-way conversations.

In tying your social media and online efforts with traditional media such as printing, you will achieve a higher level of trust among your customers. Not only will you promote your message wherever they are located, but you will have a variety of touch-points in your arsenal.

IF YOU’RE ONLINE MARKETING EFFORTS CAN BE PERSONALIZED, SO SHOULD YOUR PRINTED MEDIA

If your online marketing efforts can be personalized so should your printed media. Instead of delivering a single message to 20,000 customers, consider using variable data printing (VDP), which allows you to deliver 20,000 unique documents with customized messages for each customer within your targeted audience. VDP uses your database as reference to edit text, graphics and images from one printed piece to another. It allows you to deliver personalized pieces without slowing down or stopping the production process. For instance, a set of personalized letters, each with a similar layout, can be printed with a different name and address, exponentially increasing your chances of prospecting and bring clients towards the end-goal of your sales pipeline.

In addition, much like emails and social media ad campaigns that are used for retargeting purposes, variable data printing offers the ability to have a direct connection with the client through a personalized message and if used appropriately through tracking down your customer’s digital activity, pin-pointing their zip-codes and sending a direct mail piece can be the critical factor between closing a sale or ignoring your product through the thousands of ads consumers see every day. Having them interact with opening an envelope is something that you’ll know in most cases will happen, especially if the envelope says PRIORITY MAIL on it. SmallBizTrends states that 70-80% of consumers open almost all their mail, while only 45% of those consumers open their emails.

With this in mind, I hope that I’ve been able to give you some clarity as to how personalization is critical to establish a unique connection with your customers. Always remember that we are all in the business of establishing personal relationships that can lead to profitability.

If you would like more tips and strategies to improve your brand awareness, digital marketing, direct marketing efforts or if you seek traditional printing and personalization I would be more than happy to assist you. I am proficient in both B2C & B2B Marketing & Advertising.

4 Steps to Increase Brand Awareness

Often times business owners wonder, ‘How can I increase my brand awareness?’ Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who has asked this question, several business owners and even marketers have asked themselves this question. The problem stems from the very fear of being different. You see we all say that we want to be different and stand out from the common crowd of competition but how many times do we actually differentiate ourselves?

Many businesses believe that they need to talk about their products, services or industry the same way their competitors do, eliminating the possibility of attracting customers through their unique value proposition. Today I will discuss 4 steps that can help you increase your brand awareness while standing out from the common crowd.

 

1. Define Your Positioning and Unique Value Proposition

The first step is to define your positioning in your industry. What do I mean by positioning? It’s simple, the positioning statement or unique value proposition of your brand is the core value of your business, it is the promise you make to your customers and to the world that supports the purpose of your company’s existence in the market.

This core element of your business dictates that you deliver something in a particular way that no other business can deliver. Below is the example of Maersk Line, a government and commercial service provider that has defined their positioning to the point where it is laser-focused as to the specific markets that they dominate in.

This is a very important aspect of your positioning statement, as you should not sell your products or services to anyone and everyone, the key is to sell to people who believe in what you’re offering. When you align your outreach to audiences that can identify with your position in the market, you have higher chances of converting this audience of followers into customers.

2. Produce Unique Content

After defining your position in the market the next step is to produce unique content that is relevant to your target audience. To capture the essence of your brand you must tell a compelling story through your content. Your compelling story must resonate with your target market and it must create a bond between the brand values and those of your primary audience, the key focus to these efforts is establishing trust.

What is a compelling storytelling?

• Useful information in a narrative
• Company motivations
• What your brand stands for
• About your customers
• Emotional and engaging
• A beginning, a crisis and a resolution
• Interaction between your brand and your customers

3. Keep Consistency

A major factor in brand awareness is the ability to remain consistent. This applies in all sectors: branding and positioning, the quality of the content produced, and the frequency of the messaging campaign. Once your content is produced and shared with the public audience, there will be a need for consistency in order to stay top-of-mind in your space.

DO NOT RISK HARD WORK FOR LACK OF EFFORT

A big mistake that several brands make when working towards brand awareness is, once they reach a particular level of success they stop building and sharing their content. The potential consequences that proceed after the matter is that the few loyal customers that were gained or had a certain level of interest or trust in you simply turn to another company that is more relevant. Absence of consistency with producing content can have a damaging effect on your brand. As customers may interpret this lack of consistency spreading towards the products or services that is provided to them. Do not risk your hard work for lack of effort. Stay TOP-OF-MIND!

4. Introduce A Low Barrier Offer

What is a Low Barrier Offer? This is a term that marketers use to describe a program that offers a product or service that is easy access, user-friendly, and tries to minimize risks that can stand in the way of potential customers and meeting their needs. It is an entry point for a variety of services and approaches. Once they do become a customer and you show them the value of your product or service, then you can upsell them to your higher end products. 

Low Barrier Offers are effective in establishing the initial trust between a brand and a customer. The reason behind this deals with the term in psychology described as loss aversion, the cognitive bias that states that people strongly prefer avoiding a loss rather than receiving a gain. This was first discovered by Daniel Kahneman, Professor of Psychology at Princeton University. The fear of loss behind losing possessions, which initially is the case of the customer investing money in your service or product, however, this same fear can be a benefit when the value of your service is shown to the customer. 

Points to remember on Low Barrier Offers:

• They are used to introduce your product or services to new potential clients.
• They are low commitment (less than 30 days) and low price.
• They are much easier to sell than larger programs.

 

Ultimately, these 4 steps could play a pivotal role in creating your brand awareness strategy. Through practice and persistence, you can create and tell your brand's story in a compelling way that speaks directly to your audience, empowering you as a visionary and leader in your industry.

If you would like more tips and strategies to improve your brand awareness, digital marketing efforts or if you seek traditional printing and personalization I would be more than happy to assist you. I am proficient in both B2C & B2B Marketing & Advertising.

How To Get Traffic?

The key factor to getting more web traffic, and audience retention is content marketing, the single most important part of an online marketing plan along with Social Media.

Think of Social as “The Modern-Day Word of Mouth”

Social media marketing through various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the latest trend Instagram. When fusing social media marketing with a blogging strategy is capable of creating attractive content.

Connecting with your audience on a personal level is essential!

When you receive a client referral through any of the social media platforms, in regards of a service or product that reflects your brand and overall standings of your business, that referral has an added weight and strength.

Know Your Audience

It is important to know whom you are communicating to, in order to produce the proper content for your audience. We study our audience through both demographic & psychographic research. Demographic research focusing on paying close attention to age, sex, ethnicity, & race; while psychographic research focuses on the social norms and social groups and ideals of your audience. The goal with psychographic research is finding out what makes your audience tick, and how their perspectives come into play with certain topics.

Provide Value To Your Content

When producing content marketing to your online community, it is imperative to focus your attention on informing your audience on particular aspects that are beneficial to them. In other words, content that will provide a sense of guidance with issues that your audience may experience, or with topics that spark their interest on self improvement whether it is for their brand, company, or personal growth. Adding value increases your audience retention, and spark growth in the community, making your brand or personal image be seen as an expert or leader in your industry.

For more information on how you can increase your web traffic through content marketing & social media marketing send me an email!

HOW TO MAKE YOUR VIEWERS STAY ON YOUR WEBSITE!

So what happens to a child when you tell them a boring story? Chances are they will doze off, daydreaming about more interesting things or simply fall asleep on you. But when you truly grab their attention by telling a story that keeps them interested and on the edge of their seats, they tend to crave more and develop an affinity towards the story. This is similar to how business owners view modern day websites; if the business owner sees something he or she likes or is of main interest to them more than likely they will stay on your website and see what you have to offer.

WAKE UP CALL!

The #1 reason why many viewers leave websites is because of how long it takes to reload content through a click on a web link. WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO MAKE a visitor look for information and have to wait while each page loads? It should all be visible and clear to the potential prospect, as soon as they get on your page they should already know what it is that you or your company does, it should be easy for them to see what product or service you offer, and even simpler to get to know who you are in a short amount of time. Because lets face it NO ONE likes to waste time.

Benefits of having a One Page Website

Well for starters, a one page website would be recommended for sites that are constantly updating their web content (including HTML5, CSS3, & Javascript), as an informative source for their viewers. In a One page website we are trying to convey a story, and I think it’s EXCELLENT! People love a good story, people love to feel like they can connect with others simply because they feel like they are being understood with what they WANT and what they NEED. A good story subconsciously will lure your visitor TO TAKE ACTION! Another benefit of the One Page Website would be the increase in conversion rates and decrease of bounce rates on the one page site.

For those of you who are not familiar with these terms, not to worry I’ll be happy to explain. A conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who take action upon visiting your site. A bounce rate shows the percentage of viewers that leave your site after only seeing 1 page, this tends to happen when the viewer feels overwhelmed by the massive amount of content he or she needs to constantly look for through the various tabs. But not to worry! As I was previously stating with the one page design there is an increase in conversion rates and decrease in the bounce rates and this is being achieved through the interactive features, in other words, buttons that work with a particular type of animation making it interesting to the viewer.

These features have a certain emotional effect on the viewer because the site is a combination of a great design that conveys a clear message and when involving a call to action with these features creates a loophole of enjoyment, this good feeling is connected to the Limbic part of the brain which is responsible for the emotional aspects of the human thought process. Apart from the story and direct approach to the viewer, it only makes sense that the conversion rate of the site would increase due to the fact that the viewer is following one path as opposed to searching information through various pages that lead to positive decision-making. The story and motive are directing the viewer to the final goal of reaching the end of the page to act upon something.

So whether you are trying to sell products, offering services, or inform the viewer on a specific subject this layout is a clear path. Think of the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy would go through various encounters (in relation to the web, the encounters would be various informational content within your site), but in the end she stayed on that same path and got through with the story making it to the end, a happily ever after.