Being Remembered for Saying Thanks

I don't know if you belong to any leadshare, network marketing, BNI or other type of referral marketing groups. If you don't, you are missing out on not just the referrals that you might get, but advice and ideas from folks who have and are running businesses. Last year I had the opportunity to speak to one of the lead share groups I belong to. During that 10 minute presentation, I told them about my future blogging exploits and asked them to write on the back of their business cards, one or two topics that they would be interested reading here. In order to encourage participation, I promised to draw one card from all of the suggestions and give one of our chocolate-dipped 'Thank you' cookies to that person. Theresa, the real estate agent extraordinaire in our group, asked a really great question:

"How do I give something with my advertisement on it to someone and make them think it is a gift"

It's a great question because it gets to the heart of what we try to accomplish when we use ad specialties as business gifts. We want the giftee to think fondly of us as we give them the item and to remember us warmly whenever they use or look at the item in the future. Now, you can't expect to get that effect by handing them a pen or a mug and saying, "Here. Take this item with my logo on it." It won't matter if it is a $0.71 Bic Clic Stic or a $146 Waterman Carene.

Instead, we have to 'romance' it a bit. Put it in a gift box or basket. Better yet, put their name on it along with yours. When you give it to them, don't just say "Here." Tell they why you are giving it to them and what you want them to remember whenever they use the item. If you can't be there, add the sentiment to a card included with the gift. Make a big deal of it.

A few years back I gave our best referral sources - the folks in each of the Leadshare groups I belong to who referred the biggest new customers that year - Waterman pens. At the next meeting, when the time for announcements came, I stood up and explained to the group about the award I was giving, showed them the pen (Waterman pens still get oohs and aahs) and asked the award winners to come and get their pens. I shook each person's hand and said so everyone could hear, "I want you to remember whenever you use this pen, that my job at Raggo Advertising Products is to help you write more business." and then I promised them that they would never run out of ink. All they had to do was call me and I would get them a refill.

I gave them a 'memory hook' and I made the hook personal. I hope that they still remember.

So, romance it up a bit. Put a bow on it or wrap it in gift wrap or buy a gift basket and add the item to it. Put their name on it if at all possible. Whatever you do, though, make it memorable and make it personal.

Thanks, Theresa

Steve

Fun and Clever Things!

I am aways amazed at the variety of our products and the variations in the ways that they can be used. A few years ago I had a client who was looking for pens that had a really big circumference, like the Bic WideBody Grip or the Big Kahuna from Gold Bond. These are over-sized pens with grips. They are appreciated by almost everyone (ie., they have a higher perceived value than smaller, but similarly priced pens). They are especially coveted by those folks getting up there in age, like me, as well as arthritis and other joint-pain sufferers. My customer's best prospects were people over 50, so it seemed like a good idea. Anyway, I entered 'large pens' into my database and got 1300+ listings. That was too many to quickly look through, so I changed terms to 'wide pens' and got about 500 selections. Finally, I entered 'giant pens' and out came 29.

Glancing through the list I clicked on the Giant Monster Pen from Great Big Stuff. Wow! 1.5 feet in length and it writes! Ha! That's longer than most people's forearms! "Too big for our use" I thought. "Who could I show this to?"

Fast forward a few years and I am sitting in one of the referral marketing groups I belong to. We had decided that, in order to increase the number of referrals we pass, we would reward the member who passed the most leads with a gift certificate to the restaurant we met at as well as a trophy which would be passed to subsequent referral leaders. Kind of like the Stanley Cup, but cheaper and without the blood and broken teeth. Something that conveys bragging rights. Linda, our group's new Secretary, said, "We should get something fun and clever!" As I was driving back to the office I thought "What do we give the person who writes a lot of leads? OH! Why not a giant ink pen. After all, it takes a lot of ink to write a lot of leads!"

After getting the requisite approvals, we ordered one in, took it over to Dave, the sign maker in our group, to be lettered and...wait for it...wait for it...TA DA! here is our Leadshare Group's Quarterly Referral Award Trophy

Clever and fun, right? Now if I could just find an efficient way to market them to all of the business networking, leadshare and referral marketing groups around the globe. Some medium that doesn't cost any money, but can be seen by everyone, everywhere searching for referral trophies. Hmmm...Any ideas?

Steve
www.raggo.com

Trial, Balloons

Ahhh....I have remembered one of the reasons I stopped making New Year's resolutions. It's the whole business of having to keep (or at least trying to keep) them. There is usually a pretty good reason why we needed to make the resolution in the first place - why we needed that extra 'prod' to our consciences that resolutions represent. It usually has something to do with liking the things that we resolve to give up or not liking the things we resolve to do. After spending a good number of hours this past week updating our Specials pages and repairing broken links on our web site, I found out on Friday that the repairs needed to be repaired again and some of the links that were working on our Specials pages no longer worked. I guess our vendors were working on their web page resolutions as well. Such a hard life I lead... (I know, I know, everyone is laughing)

So I have repaired the repairs and updates. Let me know if you find any of the hyperlinks on our web pages don't work. There is a sugar cookie dipped in dark chocolate in it for you!

I did notice something unusual this year while updating the Specials. For the first time in a very long time balloons are on sale - even the mylar ones. Balloons are one of those ad specialties that have never really needed to go on sale. They are quite inexpensive without the sale discount, and usually in fair demand. Think about it. Just about every event we celebrate can be celebrated with balloons. Open houses, anniversaries, Grand Openings, fairs, trade shows and award ceremonies almost always include balloons either falling from the ceiling or tied to sign posts or carried by kids of all ages. After all, if you are exhibiting at a trade show or expo or street fair of any kind, wouldn't you think it was great if everyone walked past your competitor's booth carrying one of your balloons!

Time to Hit Restart Again

It has been a very long time since I made a New Year's resolution. I think it was the late 70's and I was at the US Naval Academy at the time. Something about keeping my weight down so that I would not have to go through the agony of making weight for next year's boxing season. I was a Brigade boxer at the time and in case you can't tell, I am the guy on the right. Going from about 180 in the off season to 139 to make weight in the fall was not something I looked forward to. I usually had to accomplish the loss in less than a month. You can check out my LinkedIn page to see how well I have kept that resolution (not!). In any case, I am going to make a couple of resolutions this year.

First, I am going to focus on my web presence. I will not let my web pages go out of date and I refuse to have a multitude of broken hyperlinks. I know that it is going to take some time to repair it and a lot more time to keep up with it. After a week of waiting for vendors and taking care of customers, for instance, I have ALMOST gotten our Current Specials pages updated. Add to that the changes our vendors make to their pages without our knowledge and we have a recipe for trouble. Nevertheless, that is what resolutions are about, isn't it - addressing and readdressing challenges that we have failed to meet in the past. My waistline is proof.

Second, I am going to change the way I look at this blog-thing. Granted, I did not really understand what it was all about when I started. A quick look at previous posts shows that I approached these entries as sales presentations rather than a means for you to get to know me. I might have come close on a couple of them...I really do hate cheap ink pens, for instance. Overall, though, I focused on product rather than relationship. I will go for relationship this year.

So, then, what does this mean? Hopefully, more work for me and a better experience for you. If you are better informed about our pricing, can get where you want to go on our web site, and if I can better relate my 13-plus years of experience with these products here, then all will be well. If not, then I will have another resolution for next year.

Hoping you have a very prosperous and happy new year.

Steve