The Promo Direct Blog

I recently came across this quote by Zora Neale Hurston; “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”

It got me thinking of the importance of market research for any business. Is marketing research really that important? And how important is DEMOGRAPHIC information in the bigger scheme?

The answers are yes and very!

Not knowing your target audience is really like shooting an arrow in the dark. How can you engage in appropriate promotional marketing if you don’t know who your customer is and what he/she likes, needs etc?

Customers today are spoilt for choice. In such a scenario, companies that can provide each individual customer with exactly what he/she needs and not a generic product are the ones that are successful. Indeed, demographic segregation and customization are at the core of brand marketing strategies of successful companies like Dell. Dell realized that customizing its offerings for its customers is essential in carrying out its marketing strategies as well as in enabling it to build a solid customer base.

The first step to any successful brand marketing strategy is determining your target audience. While in some industries, the target audience is limited. For example, a store that sells clothes for moms-to-be has a very niche target audience. For some industries, the target audience could be people from almost any age group, of any social background and any income level. For example, if you manufacture tomato ketchup, your target audience ranges from 5-70!

When identifying your target audience, don’t ignore potential customers from industries you haven’t worked with in the past. The ideal brand marketing strategy is to identify a wide ranging target audience and then segregate further. For example, 20-50 year old American men and women. Thereafter, segregate your audience further according to their ages or other aspects and create different promotional strategies for each group to appeal to them better. Thus, your advertisement aimed at those in their 20s-30s should be different to your ads catering to your 40-50 year old customers.

Similarly, if you want to engage in effective promotional marketing, you need to provide customers with products they will use. Thus, if you are a manufacturer of a product like chocolates (that appeal to both children and adults) you could offer promotional products like slap bandz to children and products like photo frames to adults.

So before you work on any elaborate marketing plans, remember that the first step to a successful brand marketing strategy is identifying your target audience based on key demographics and then catering your advertising, promotional marketing and products to the different customer segments you have identified.

I hope these branding tips have helped you! Good luck with your brand marketing strategy!

We all know that Word-Of-Mouth marketing is the most effective branding strategy. And the best and easiest way to establish your brand as a trustworthy one is by publishing client testimonials on your website. Publishing effective client testimonials on company websites is an extremely easy and cost-effective small business strategy.

However, in order to ensure that you achieve positive results and not negative results from publishing testimonials, you need to ensure the following:

Don’t write fake testimonials: Never underestimate your clients. People can usually tell when they’re reading a fake testimonial. Even if you don’t get caught, why risk it when you can easily get genuine testimonials from satisfied customers? If customers feel like you’re publishing fake testimonials, they will automatically lose trust in your brand. Sure, it’s much easier to write a fake testimonial yourself than to ask a client and wait for your client’s response but knowing your clients are truly satisfied with your work will be worth being patient for.

Ask at the right time: Don’t wait for weeks or months after you’ve met a client’s order to get a testimonial from him/her. Chances are your client may have forgotten just how great your service was or may not remember your customer rep’s name! It’s best to ask clients for testimonials right after you’ve completed their work. If they are truly pleased with your products and services, this will come across effectively in their testimonials. If your clients aren’t too enthusiastic about writing testimonials, you can ensure them that having their details on your website will increase their brand visibility and may lead to increased business for them too.

Make them visible: Now that you’ve gathered positive testimonials from your customers, you need to ensure that you benefit from their encouraging words. To do this, you need to position client testimonials on your website home page. Many websites have a separate page for testimonials but there’s a high chance that the entire testimonial page may get skipped by your website visitors. The best way to guarantee visibility is to place testimonials with the body of your content or in a sidebar on all your website pages.

Twitter has launched a new site known as “Twitter for Business”. The site looks like an expanded version of Twitter 101; an online business guide which was launched back in July of 2009. The site, which is available at /business.twitter.com, opens up its previously limited advertising products and lets anyone put in a request to buy ads on the service. At the same time, it also represents a significant step for the company in terms of offering a formal and organized set of products for the business community.

Essentially, Twitter is saying, “We’re open for business.”

Out of the many new additions, the most noteworthy is a Start Advertising form that lets anyone contact Twitter with an interest in advertising on the site.

Twitter’s ad products — Promoted Accounts, Promoted Tweets, and Promoted Trends — have previously been limited to a small group of test advertisers. And Twitter has been especially cautious in rolling out those products widely across its platform. This move signals that Twitter is ready to take another step in opening up its ad products to a wider group of advertisers. Noteworthy form fields include one that asks for an estimated budget, and one that asks how soon you want to start advertising; choices include 1-4 weeks, 1-3 months, and 3+ months.

Also of note is the inclusion of Twitter’s first official reveal of its analytics dashboard, which the company says provides “in-depth insight into both paid and unpaid activity on Twitter.”

Overall, the new Twitter for Business is an impressive marketing addition. While the company has generally been somewhat guarded about its business-related services, this signifies a more serious approach to its advertising capabilities. It’s also a message to detractors who’ve always criticized Twitter for not having a business plan.

Follow @PromoDirect on Twitter to get updates on business, branding, advertising, promotional products, offers & services.

I always say that three things should instantly course through the mind of an employer before he ticks off an employee/s. (I know its too subjective to be small business advice, but it always works for me!)

• You were once an employee too

• Split second anger will cause staggering distance between employer-employee

• Be a leader not an autocrat

Turns out that a whole bunch of managers agree with me too! According to a research on what leads to reduced business performance conducted by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), 44 per cent cited a lack of leadership while 45 per cent pointed to poor staff morale.

I know its difficult being a boss – too many people to co-ordinate with and too many tasks to delegate. But just imagine, your employees are dissatisfied with their work but they need the job, they can’t share office troubles in detail with their families, neither can they discuss them with their bosses who are the cause of their misery in the first place. Thinking ‘stuck between the Devil and the deep blue sea’?  Exactly!

Its not a cakewalk but you can defuse the tension and make your office a happy place to work in if you heed my small business advice on how to generate a motivated bunch of employees.

Communicate
Talk to your employees. I am not saying that be a friend to them, but an occasional chat, a periodical review of their grievances can reassure them that their company cares for them. Giving them occasional business gifts can also convey what you want to say.
Co-operate
Running a business is all about team-work, and a feeling of mutual responsibility is necessary to make that happen. Discuss company goals with your employees and don’t announce them. After all they are the ones going to make it happen and they need to find it feasible.

Care
Your employees are people who work for you in exchange for money and you don’t own their life. Its harsh to put it this way I know, but be considerate with your employees. Give them flexible working hours or while giving them promotional gifts for X’mas or New Year’s, give promo items that can be enjoyed by the entire family.

Just a small tip. A kind word can do wonders to your employees’ morale. For e.g. don’t make your promo items charity gifts for your employees. Adorn them with words straight from your heart!

To view a large variety of  promotional gifts for your employees, please visit our website at www.promodirect.com

I am a firm believer in the ‘what goes around comes around’ – in business, just as much in life! Its probably for this reason that I subscribe to certain causes that have considerably facilitated my growth as an individual and as a businessman! And a latest post on the Forbes blogtells me that I am on the right track!

• More than 88% of consumers while working towards achieving their business goals, companies should think about improving society and the environment

• Around 83% of consumers think companies should support charities and nonprofits with financial donations

I don’t think you need any more convincing about why donating for a cause should be a part of your strategic business plan. Donations need not be monetary alone. You can donate time, effort and skills and even make it a part of your promotional activities.

Donate a part of your profits – Contribute a percentage of your profits to the charity you support. This can be in the form of promotional gifts that are likely to be used.

Donate a portion of your time – Support an orphanage or an old age home, then make your presence felt physically instead of only monetarily.

Donate your effort – Writing a cheque is the easy way out; contributing your effort is priceless.

How will this earn accolades for your business?

Its easy PR that’s doesn’t cost a bomb, has a ring of selflessness and truth to it AND promises quick results. Consumers who learn about your ‘softer side’ will want to do business with you as they will perceive you as a businessman with a heart instead of a fat wallet.

Your employees will want to work with you not because you offer them a huge pay packet or give them fancy promotional items, but because they know that someone who can reach out to people he hardly knows, will never treat his employees shabbily. And no one needs to tell you that happy employees mean happening sales.

Even the Government will recognize your efforts and you won’t even have to give them promotional gifts to win them over! Depending on the chunk of revenue you spend on charity, you can also get a tax exemption! (Terms and Conditions apply, of course! Do they ever not?)

What are you waiting for? Make your strategic business plan cause-friendly! Good Luck!

To view a large variety of  promotional products to donate for a cause, please visit our website at www.promodirect.com