Importance of Consistency in Coupon Advertising

Photo credit: Steve 2.0 via Flickr

We have found that consistently advertising in the same area gives you the best results, and by repeatedly advertising to the same consumers, you are able to better design, target, and utilize this important method of promoting your business or service.

What do we mean by consistency? Consistency is providing information about your company and offer on regular, frequent basis to the same mailing area over an extended period of time. We have some clients who have mailed a coupon regularly in our products, to the same areas, for fifteen or more years. Of course, we have many others who have mailed for far shorter time frames. The point is, we have validated the increased success of frequent, consistent mailings repeated

ly to the same mailing area has a higher return rate compared to just mailing to an area infrequently.

We believe this is possible because the people begin to identify coupons that they receive frequently as reliable, successful businesses. The consistency of a particular coupon advertiser becomes a comfortable, dependable potential resource to be contacted and used when needed. This is also why it's an excellent idea to maintain a consistent look across all advertising and marketing materials.

If your business is seasonal in nature, such as a chimney cleaner or a holiday specialty store, this strategy will not be as practical, except as it relates to those times of the year when your business is providing a specific seasonal service or product. Thus, for the vast majority of businesses, a well-designed, effective coupon message can enhance customer volume by participating in a specific mailing area consistently.

If you are looking to increase your customer volume (and who isn’t? :)) consistency of exposure has proven to be a very effective method to insure additional response. Plus, you gain the added advantage of enhanced name recognition in the community.

How to Create a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is, very simply, a written out plan that states the steps of how to accomplish your company's marketing strategy. A marketing plan will to cover at least one year and up to five years. The purpose of it is to show a very detailed, step by step plan of action, and can also cover budget planning for future marketing needs.

What you will need:
First off, you'll want to refer to your marketing strategy - Once you've compiled your marketing strategy, you will have a better idea of what your business goals are, your description of your product and services as well who your customers is.

• A binder You will want to refer to it quarterly if not monthly. You can have your marketing strategy here, tabs for putting in monthly reports on sales so you can see what it working or not working and ideas that you would like to try for the next year.
• Time It can take a couple of months the write a plan and should not be taken lightly. Give yourself time to write out all the steps that you will need to be able to get your plan off the ground. For example you may put that you would like to start a website for your business. Break this task up into smaller easier to chew task. Do you have a logo? Do you want to put before and after photos? Planning out each step out will allow you to see a better idea about time frame and budget. You also want to allow your self to think out ideas and it is okay to allow yourself to make changes.
• A team Discuss what goals you would like to accomplish over the estimated time period. Determine who your target market is; would you like to specialize in a niche market? Make sure that you give detail information about the product and service that you would like to use. A marketing budget should be esitistmated, you want to make sure that what ever you start should be able to run for at least 3-5 times. Your team could be a spouse, your staff or a business mentor.

Ideas of types of Marketing you can use in your plan

• Networking either in person or online
• Online advertising
• Direct mail - Solo or with other local companies
• Trade Shows
• Write Articles or educate in person about your product and service in your local community
• Advertise in print media - News Papers or in a magazine
• One to one selling - either door to door or cold calling

These are just a handful of ideas; there are endless possibilities out there!

Here are some tips:

• Concentrate on finding ways to attract new clients
• Set up a plan that once you start working with a new client what can you do to make sure they stay a good client for years to come
• You want to make sure you have a program set up to contact clients whom you have not talked to in a while
• Be prepared to revise your plan and make changes as time passes

Your goal in creating a marketing plan is to create a road map to help your companies future. It is important to take your time a study the market to see what your different options are and the measured effectiveness. With careful studying you may be able to even find a new niche advertising market that no one has tried
Good Luck and Happy Planning!

More on Signs

Signs are a great tool you can use when creating your marketing plan.

A sign is a method of advertising that allows business to communicate effectively with their consumers. It is important to keep in mind what a sign can do for a business; signage can build an image, give information and providing advertising. These are some very powerful features and it's important to make sure that when designing your sign you don't get carried away and lose track of your original intent

When you sit down to design your sign keep in mind these 3 very basic principles.

1. Make sure it's big enough to read! I can't say this enough; I hate when I see a person holding up a sign or a truck drives by and I can't make out what it's saying, even when I'm stopped at a light or in traffic. Hold up the sign and ask a friend to walk back, way back. Can they tell you what your message is in 3 seconds? If not, then you may want to head back to the drawing board! I also want you to have someone who had not helped you work on the sign help you with this assignment. I can not tell you how many times I have worked on an ad from start to finish and been very proud of what my team and my I came up with, to only have another salesperson walk by and ask what the ad is for. This is a sure sign that I've lost track of my intent, and this the ad gets reworked ASAP.

2. Make it Short and Simple Too much information or poorly designed logos will detract from the message on your sign. This is true to many forms of advertising; you always want to consider ad content whether is is designing a business card, a logo, or a business sign.

3. What is your message? Ask yourself: "What is this sign meant for? To build an image, give information and provide advertising?" Choose one, and in the end you will make your sign more powerful with a clear, direct message.

As always make sure you check with your landlord and city planning regulations before ordering your sign. Depending on where you are located, some types of signs are not allowed so it always better to double check first!

Book Review: Good to Great - Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't

Good to Great - Why some Companies make the leap and Others Dont By Jim Collins

What made Good to Great standout to me was how the book was based on years of collecting and studying data. Five years of research went into finding out what differentiates good companies from the great companies. Collins even put a section in the back of the book to answer the toughest critics most asked questions.

I was very impressed with how the book combined simple explanation, true stories and interviews to tie in the factorial finding all in an easy to follow format.

Here are some tid bites of information that I walked away with
Level 5 leaders primary ambition are the success of the company and not of themselves. This idea of person humility, a savvy business mind and strong work ethic gives this leaders an advantage over their ego centrical counterpart. A good leader knows that he can't make a company great by themselves and that they need to have a team that will stand with them. First who and than what, you need to concentrate on getting the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus before you can concentrate on where to take a company. If you can't trust that a person will do the job they were hired for, maybe they should be placed in a different position or maybe they are not in right for the company. We all need to Confront the Brutal Facts. For example we all know that our economy is not at its best. That is a fact, however we do know that one day the economy will start to get better. We need to rise above unrealistic optimism by acknowledge simple facts that are around us without forgetting that in the end you will prevail! You may not know when or where but at some point you will prevail. Once you have the right people then you can start evaluating if your company is staying true to its Hedgehog Concept, A hedgehog concept is simply three circles. Circle 1. Be the best in the world for what you do. Circle 2. Can your business economical support the idea and Circle 3 Are you passionate about the business at hand. The concept is so profoundly simple that it seems almost silly not to practice the hedgehog concept, dont you think.

I came away from reading this book Inspired and Motivated, Jim Collens gave me the tools and the hope to improve our business.
I look forward to hearing the ideas that you got out of this book as well.