Tag Archive for: marketing

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Is It Time To Update Your Brand’s Logo?

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Is It Time To Update Your Brand’s Logo?

When is it a good time to update your logo? That is the question that many wrestle with in companies but there isn’t a hard and fast answer. There are a few things that can cause you to update it. These things include age, complexity, company changes, or you want to stay current with recent trends. We’ll take a look at each instance, and help you answer the above question.

The Logo Is As Old As The Company

Many people in the company, particularly those who were there from the beginning, may feel attached to the original logo. It is hard to let go of something that represents the founding of the company. However, consumers today are highly perceptive of old logo designs, which is why it’s always important to keep your up to date. More than likely you are using it with your marketing materials, so you want to make sure that a consumer’s first impression of your brand is a contemporary design.

Busy Designs Don’t Translate

One thing that you should keep in mind is simplicity over complexity. In this day and age, your logo must be able to translate online. If it is too complex and doesn’t look good on your website, that is a clear indicator that a redesign needs to happen. One of the biggest things you should think about first before redesigning is how you will use your logo. Are you going to be putting it on merchandise? Or on other sorts of promotional products? If that is the case, you will want to make sure the design can translate into different mediums, otherwise, you are going to end up with too many different designs.

Rebranding as the Company Evolves

Another great time to consider rebranding the company with your logo is if there are changes taking place with the company. These could be internal changes, moving the company a new direction, and as such, will need a new look. Perhaps your company merged with another well-known brand, and you want to take advantage of that branding opportunity. In any case, both would be great examples of why a company would want to change their logo.

Consumers Are Trend Sensitive

Consumers are very aware of what is current and what is not. The current trend for logos has been minimalist and geometric in their design. As such, something that doesn’t fit into this trend could come off aged in the eyes of consumers. However, of all of the reasons to change your logo, this one would probably be at the bottom of the list. You don’t want to have an old logo, but you also don’t want to create something that doesn’t fit with your brand just for the sake of keeping up with trends. You should only do it for this reason if it makes sense with your brand image.

Getting The Right Design

Don’t make the same mistake when you first designed your logo by hiring an amateur. Find a professional that can understand what you are looking for and deliver. This means you need to define why you want to change your logo, what you want it to convey, and what your budget is for designing this change. With these three things, you can ensure that you don’t waste any time, and get your new logo out into the world.

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Testing Your Direct Mail Campaign

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Testing Your Direct Mail Campaign

There are many marketers that believe they are above testing because they have enough experience to know what works and what doesn’t. However, this sort of thinking prevents one from improving or confirming their marketing decisions. Testing your direct mail campaign should not be thought of as a one-time chore. It is a routine task that needs to be maintained because it is really the only way you can improve your campaigns, even ones that are already successful.

If It Is Already Successful, Why Test?

It is easy to disregard testing when your campaign is already successful. But even so, there may still be room for improvement. Moreover, for all you know, your competition may be testing a lot more and achieving greater results. In the article “Successful Direct Mail Is All in the Testing,” by Lois Geller, she tells an interesting story about how they “… developed a completely new and more expensive creative approach for a correspondence school. The client mailed it with the same offer to the same kinds of lists as the control. Our new creative brought in the same percentage of responses, so the client thanked us and said they’d stick with their cheaper control to save money.” Naturally, if you are getting the same results for more money, most would see this as a waste of money. However, the story takes an interesting twist as she continues, “Two years later our creative director ran into the client at a convention. The client said that our package had become the company’s control because, for some reason, it brought in a better class of customer, the kind of people who stick with the program a lot longer—and who are willing to pay a lot more money.” This is a perfect example of a client overlooking one of the most important metrics when testing—customer value. In this case, the client only focused on response rates rather than the quality of the customers who were responding. This is why testing when you already have a successful campaign can take your business to the next level.

What Should You Be Testing

Now that you have decided testing is a critical component to your direct mail marketing success, you need to determine what you actually need to test. According to the article “Direct Mail Testing – A/B split and multi-variable testing,” the top priorities for testing include two things: your list and the offer. The actual creative is an important component, but it should not monopolize your time. This is because the list and the offer are really going to have the most influence on your results at the end of the day.

Testing Strategies

Typically, you only want to test one element at a time. To do this, you need to establish some sort of control. So if you have a current campaign that is receiving some success, that can be your control. You can then develop a test campaign that you will send out at the same time and monitor the results. Perhaps you try different lists or a different offer. You can even try a different creative and see how it performs in comparison to your current design. This is called A/B split tests, and is the most common form of testing. If you are starting from scratch, you will just have to make an educated guess on what the best components will be and then test it. Make sure you track where all of your data so that you can make sure you are making the correct decisions based on reliable information. From there, you can combine the best elements to make an optimized campaign.

It’s Not A Chore, It’s How You Improve

Check your ego at the door. No one cares how much you know, or what success stories you’ve had in the past. What matters is in the present, and each campaign is different. From the outset, everyone must change their perception on direct mail testing. It is not a chore, but a necessity of life if you want to improve. Never stop at success, because there is always more success to be had if you are willing to put in the work.

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The Advantages of Direct Marketing Versus Branding

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Anytime you’re creating a new marketing campaign, you may find yourself asking a slew of questions about the advantages of direct marketing and whether it matches your campaign goals. Will the objective of your campaign be to increase brand’s reach, acquire new customers, monetize your existing customer base or if you’re like most– are you unsure of what to expect? Understanding the difference and setting the correct expectations will infinitely improve mediocre advertising tactics and allow you to make the most of any campaign.

 

What’s the Objective?

 

If your marketing department functions like most, you’ve got an annual budget and department expectations that were established by upper management during the latter end of the previous year. We’re past the halfway mark and now the pressure is on, we need results. One of the most frequent questions we get is, what’s the difference between branding and are there specific advantages to direct marketing?

 

Brand Awareness – Think billboards. You’re driving on the freeway and see a catchy ad with cows telling you to eat more chicken. Some drivers familiar with the brand will get a laugh out of the billboard while others unfamiliar with the brand may connect the logo with a restaurant they see occasionally. The goal of this marketing method is to increase awareness and be visible to as many people as possible. Strictly defined sales goals are not to be expected of this method and more often than not, you won’t see strict tracking methods implemented with brand awareness campaigns.

 

Marketing – If the name doesn’t say it loud enough, direct-action result-based campaigns strive to provide a measurable increase in conversions. Whether the conversion metric is more newsletter signups or an X increase in new customers that translates into a Y increase in revenue, your campaign has set expectations and goals. Examples of these campaigns include coupons, limited time offers and opt-in campaigns.

 

The Purpose of Branding 

 

Increasing brand awareness may nearly impossible to correlate with monetization. For branding, reaching new, existing and potential customers is the objective. An example of an awareness through conversion cycle for a brand awareness campaign can look start with a direct mail postcard or billboard ad designed to peak your interest.

 

Fictitious pizza chain Chewy’s Pizza has been experiencing a slump in sales for nearly a decade. A focus group has revealed the brand’s image is struggling due to its low-quality pizza’s and sub-par taste. The pizza chain has decided to revamp its entire operation and will now use high-quality ingredients and focus on an artisan pizza rather than provide a bottom dollar product. The general perception of the brand needs to improve. Chewy’s Pizza runs radio ads, tv commercials and send postcard mailers to all homes within a 4-mile radius of a franchise in each market.

 

The advertisements emphasize a brand revitalization and commitment to top quality ingredients and taste. The messaging directs people to pizzamatters.com, a website the Chewy’s Pizza created to build value and modify existing perception of the brand. The company is monitoring campaign impact by keeping a close tab on the amount of unique and return visitors to the website. A conversion will be counted anytime an individual watches a video about the company’s new image or signs up for the mailing list.

 

The Advantages of Direct Marketing

 

For many SMB’s it is crucial to understand if a marketing effort is profitable, has the potential to become profitable or perhaps it’s a complete wash. Direct-action result-based campaigns strive to provide a short customer monetization cycle with a measurable value tied to each conversion. The ideal way to track campaign effectiveness is to use a variety of calls-to-action and tracking methods that will simplify how the results can be segmented.

 

Fictitious company Lazer manufactures computers and computer peripherals. The company has 50,000 addresses of previous customers but is having a difficult time engaging its fan base through emails and social media. Robert, Lazers sales director, has been tasked with spearheading a sale in an effort move stagnant inventory and make room for upcoming new products. The company decides to mail a scratch to win postcard to all previous customers. The direct mail marketing postcard offers vary with incentives ranging from 5%-50% discounts and a select few postcards have online-store gift cards or free item redemption codes.

 

The offer codes needed to redeem the incentives will allow Lazer to track how many customers redeemed offers, the campaign participants’ average spend if individuals purchased additional products and additional data to determine lifetime customer value and the potential for future monetization. Data shows Lazer that the campaign was able to provide a significant increase in revenue and was able to re-engage previous customers who had not made purchases in a long period of time.

Check out our helpful article for more information about building a great direct marketing mail campaign.

 

Which Do I Use?

 

Although branding and marketing can function in tandem, it is important to understand the difference in order to craft a successful advertising campaign. If your goal is to spread the word far and wide, branding could be the best solution to your advertising woes. Marketing campaigns have the benefit of being incentive based and allow time constraints to increase urgency. Next week we will discuss the difference between good offer and a fantastic one.

In the meantime, if you’re looking to get results on a direct mail marketing campaign, turn to experts with many years of direct mail experience. One Stop Mail can help you achieve your objectives — give us a call at 602.962.5104 or reach out to us here.

 

This article is part 2 of a 4 part series covering:

The Advantages of Direct Marketing Versus Branding?

Learn to Entice Customers with these Irresistible Offer Examples

Direct Mail Tracking Methods

Crafting a Successful Direct Mail Campaign

Direct_Mail_Basics and Direct Marketing Principles

Back To School: Combine Small Business Basics with Direct Marketing Principless

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One of the hardest areas of business for a smaller operation to get a handle on is basic direct marketing principles.  After all, a small business is going to be focused on providing their core business, and marketing requires learning a entirely new skill set. Read more