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1. MARKETING Your logo here
ADVISOR ISSUE THIRTY-SIX
Locking in
a Lasting
Relationship
with your
customers
also in this issue:
Loyalty Programs Really Pay Off
Three Reasons to Hire a Professional Designer

2. Want to sell more? Try building relationships with your customers. Yes, it really
can be that simple. People like to do business with people. More specifically, they like to
do business with people who care about them, who listen to what they have to say, and
who are accessible and responsive to their needs. By using the variety of tools in your
marketing arsenal, you can build relationships that keep your customers engaged and loyal.
What tools do you have at your disposal?
Print. Multi-channel marketing. Social media.
Newsletters, direct mail Every marketing channel Social media is not a sales
Build Business
letters, postcards, and has its own sweet spots, channel. It is a relationship
other printed materials are so understand the power channel. Use social media
great relationship builders. As you use of each channel and maximize it. Print to engage your customers in a larger
these tools, don’t always be trying to creates the sense of gravitas and trust. community. Get your team members
sell something. Share information. Give Email and mobile allow immediate interacting with your customers as
advice. Provide useful resources so that communication and facilitate click- genuine, caring human beings. Have
your customers look forward to each through feedback. Social media fosters your team participate in discussions
communication. Consider selecting long-term engagement and community (whether on your sites or third-party
interesting or unusual substrates, folds, building. Understanding the sweet sites) so your customers know you
by Building Relationships
and bindings that take advantage of the spots of each medium and layering are really listening. Sponsor contests.
unique, tangible characteristics of print. them over time reinforces your brand Create discussions around the culture
Data. Knowing your customers helps and helps you stay top of mind. of your business, or fun and unusual
deepen relationships over time. You will ways to use your products.
speak differently to the Gen-X crowd than Personalized URLs. Regardless of the channels you are
you will to Baby Boomers. You will speak Personalized URLs allow you using, ensure that your phone number,
differently to a recent college graduate to connect with customers Web address, and links to your Facebook
than you will to the head of a household and get their feedback page, Twitter account, and Pinterest
with children. Using data doesn’t have using a simple, personalized online boards are included and clearly visible.
to mean full personalization, although interface. By asking their opinions on Give customers multiple ways to contact
it can. Segmenting into different target products, services, and their experience you and encourage them to do so in
audiences can also be highly effective with your company, personalized the ways they feel most comfortable.
by allowing you to speak to customers URLs let people know that you care
based on their common interests. and that their voices are being heard. As a marketer, you have
It also gathers additional information tremendous resources for
on those customers so you can better building long-lasting, positive
target and customize communications relationships with your customers.
with them in the future. Relationships Need help using them? Give us a call!
require two-way communication!
photos ©istock.com
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3. Loyalty Programs D
oes your company have a loyalty program?
A way to keep customers engaged with your
business and encourage repeat business
over time? If not, it might be time to get started.
Case Study: Hotel Resort The program now has been running
Take the example of this New for years, and the facility is nearly
Jersey-based hotel and resort that always booked to capacity. Ongoing
used loyalty programs to encourage CRM programs permit the resort to
20% of its customers to repeat effectively resell, upsell, and cross-
business just the first year alone. sell to its customers, all the while
The resort learned the value of building additional rapport and trust.
loyalty campaigns when it implemented Loyalty programs take a little extra
a program that gathered information time and effort to set up, but once
on customers on their first visits. It they are up and running, they are
highly cost-effective to maintain. The
Case Study Results
immediately followed up with colorful
brochures thanking them for their visit and benefits? They speak for themselves.
inviting them to return again. Automated, • 20% of customers
trigger-based workflow was used to receiving the direct
get these mailers into customers’ hands mailers booked with the
immediately while their good memories of hotel or used its facilities
ay Off!
time spent at the facility were still fresh. the first year — nearly
Really P
The resort was willing to spend a 30 times the industry
significant amount of time, money, average for static direct
and energy to develop these mailers mail campaigns.
because it knew that once a customer
returns a second time, his or her loyalty
• The resort recorded
is cemented. Thus the extra effort spent
record revenues from its
getting those customers back in the door
services and had the most
would pay off in long-term profits.
lucrative month in the
company’s history.
• Quarterly earnings
doubled year over year.
photos ©istock.com
3

4. E
ngaging customers Professional designers do more
Good design
involves more than than place text and images on a
accommodates
just sending out page. They take into consideration
multi-channel.
informational or promotional everything from aesthetics to
In today’s
substrates to prepress, binding, and
print pieces. It involves competitive, multi-channel marketing
finishing that the average marketer
touching customers’ environment, you must not only be
can’t possibly be expected to know.
emotions and engaging with able to design for print, but for the
If you’re doing 1:1 marketing, designers
them at a deeper level that Web, email, mobile, and more. Each
play a key role, as well. This is because
draws them in. That’s why, has its own nuances in design, color,
variable fields can bring some unexpected
even with so much template- and format. Professional designers are
surprises in a document layout. For
expected to be comfortable working
based design available example, if you have 1” maximum
in most or all of these formats, and
these days, professional available space, that’s no problem if the
the ability to create consistency across
designers still play an recipient’s last name is Smith, Walker, or
multiple channels is one of the hallmarks
important role in today’s Johnson. But what happens if someone
of professional design and marketing.
marketing communications. has the last name Salomonowicz or
If you’re tempted to shave a few
Drozdovandropopozgiopanatzakis?
dollars off your budget by cutting out
Here are three areas where (Yes, these are real last names!)
a professional designer, think twice.
professional design can Those and other possibilities have
These critical links in your marketing
really make a difference.
to be planned for upfront.
chain bring value far beyond just creating
printed (or electronic) documents.
Professional Your company’s They are the creative force behind the
designers know image is professional image of your company, and
Three Reasons to
things the average affected by the some things are just worth paying for.
person doesn’t. quality of your
Want to grab someone’s attention?
marketing materials.
Use color and graphics! But when
Like it or not, buyers judge a book by
you’re creating the pieces yourself,
Use a Professional
its cover. If your marketing materials
sometimes even the most eye-popping
look unprofessional — if your colors are
colors just don’t reproduce as you
muddy or your hairlines don’t match
expect. Or when you re-size a picture,
across the fold — your company will
it becomes pixilated no matter what
appear unprofessional, too. When all
Designer
you try. What happens if your paper or
else is equal between you and your
finishing cost is more than expected
competitor, the company with better
or your project is delayed because
designed brochures and marketing
of design and format considerations
materials will get more sales.
that were overlooked upfront?
photos ©istock.com
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5. MARKETING MAILING INFO
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About Us About This Issue
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paragraphs about you and your compa- Illustrator CS use to print this issue?
ny. One or two small paragraphs about Photoshop CS
you and your company. One or two
Computers used:
small paragraphs about you and your Paper used: iMac
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about you and your company. One or to print this issue?
Press used:
two small paragraphs about you and
What kind of press did you
your company. One or two small para- Ink used: use to print this issue?
graphs about you and your company. What kind of ink did you
use to print this issue?
Bindery used:
What kind of bindery did you
use to print this issue?

6. W
hen you think You don’t have to calculate out LCV
indefinitely. Many companies estimate their
about evaluating
LCV out for three to seven years. Otherwise,
the success of
it’s considered too speculative to be useful.
a 1:1 printing campaign, how
long a window do you use True Measure of Effectiveness
to determine the dollars it Even if it’s an estimate, LCV gives you
generated? Do you cut it a much better idea of what value your
off after a week? A month? marketing campaigns are creating.
Several months? What about For example, the Print on Demand
the lifetime of the customer? Initiative case study archive contains a
Lifetime customer value (LCV) case study submitted by a small lawn care
is an overlooked metric that company that sent out a mailing of 300
needs to be a larger part of how 1:1 pieces to great effectiveness. When
marketers measure their success. the campaign revenue was considered in
Granted, LCV is very difficult to estimate, isolation, the mailing barely broke even.
but it’s important to keep the issue in But the company knew that its customers
mind. Customers gained through 1:1 tend to be very loyal over time, so the
printing tend not just to purchase more, addition of every new customer meant
but to be more loyal than customers several years of recurring revenue. As a
gained through static methods. Thus, the result, the owner estimated the campaign
benefits of customer retention must be ROI at 8000% on a LCV basis, something
Look at Value Over a Lifetime
considered alongside other factors in that made this a best practices case study.
evaluating the cost-benefits equation. How do you view your customers?
On a one-off basis?
How do you determine LCV? There are Or as having Lifetime
a variety of factors to consider:
Customer Value?
Churn rate:
How often do customers leave your customer base?
Retention cost
How much does it cost you to support, bill,
and incentivize your customers?
Periodic revenue
Do you have recurring revenue streams?
How much do customers spend during an average period?
Profit margin
You don’t have to calculate out LCV indefinitely. Many companies
estimate their LCV out for three to seven years. Otherwise, it’s
considered too speculative to be useful.
photos ©istock.com
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