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Sweet Treats Bring Great ROI
It should be no surprise that a direct mail marketing company like Mostad & Christensen Inc. (M&C) runs some effective campaigns promoting its own products and services. The company, which sells mailing lists of accountants to clients looking to market to the CPA market, promotes its "CPA-Accountants Hot List" through targeted – and hard-to-resist – direct mail campaigns.
"We've done mailers with smoked salmon, with taffy, with Brownie Points brownies – we try to make them kind of fun mailers and they seem to work really well," says Kim Seldal, in-house list manager for M&C. Last year, mason jars full of chocolate coins were sent to 50 previous clients, resulting in some $24,000 in orders.
The most recent effort was a shipment of chocolate-covered sugar cookies – imprinted with the CPA-Accountants Hot List brand, logo and contact information – and a can of key lime lemonade mix, which went to 37 brokers and end-users who had ordered in the past. The orders were meant primarily as a thank-you for the customers' previous orders, but also included a 15% discount on orders placed before the end of July (the packages were shipped on June 7).
As with other promotions M&C has done, this effort played on the theme of the treat being mailed, with a note saying, "What could be more refreshing than lemonade and cookies in the summertime? How about a great offer on a great mailing list?" In addition to the treats, which came in a box with a branded ribbon, Seldal included her business card, a tip sheet on marketing to accountants and an order form.
The goodies cost only $12.25 per package, but shipping chocolate in the middle of the summer cost an additional $14.85 for second-day mail and the inclusion of ice packs. Seldal considers this a great return on investment, since of the 37 packages sent, M&C received seven e-mail responses and one order (as well as two new prospects), which more than paid for the promotional gifts.
M&C also sees this effort as having a longer-term impact on the company's relationships with the recipients. "It's the goodwill it puts out there," says Seldal. "It keeps our name out there, and that gives it value."
October Is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Join The Fight Against Breast Cancer
October Is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
According to the National Cancer Institute, Breast Cancer is the most common non-skin cancer, and the second leading cause of cancer related death in women. Although the breast cancer diagnosis rate has increased, there has been a steady drop in the overall breast cancer death rates since the early 1990s. Currently, $570 million dollars a year is spent on breast cancer research
Pink e-Catalog
Related to social responsibility, in cause marketing, a company fosters goodwill by adopting a worthy cause, such as awareness and research for a disease or funds for disaster relief. Often a percentage of proceeds from the sale of a product or line is donated to the cause, or companies may ask employees and customers for small donations.
How it was applied in a campaign:
To do their part to raise awareness about breast cancer, we offer special pinkthemed products and donate 10% of profits to the cause. “The polish and lip gloss have both been purchased by corporate sponsors of Walk For The Cure programs and are used as giveaway items to participants,” The sponsor’s name is imprinted on the product, which goes into a gift bag, along with literature about the company. Sponsor names are also featured
in advertising and publicity for the event. “The combination of these two benefi ts creates high visibility, but it also creates goodwill for the corporation sponsoring the event, as the participants receiving these" products know exactly which companies are spending their advertising dollars to sponsor these fundraising events.”
Why it worked:
Breast cancer is mostly a women’s disease, and many of the walk participants are female. Giving away cosmetics addressed this fact. “These products promote pampering and feeling good about oneself,” Antinelli says. “Truth be told, these are unique items to be given away – and what woman doesn’t love cosmetics?”
Besides keeping sponsors top-of mind after the event, the products offered word-of-mouth value, too. If someone takes a bottle of nail polish to the salon to have her nails done, when she hands the bottle to the nail tech, they’re going to talk about how and where she got that bottle of polish. More people may join in the conversation, and now the topic of conversation is that corporate sponsor.”
Take advantage of this trend: Mammography centers, hospitals and health-care facilities have all purchased these products and distribute them at their locations or at community events to raise awareness and remind women to have mammograms. Even banks have distributed the products to female clientele during the month of October.
But don’t stop at breast cancer. Worthy awareness campaigns run throughout the year, and Diamond Cosmetics is involved with a new one, Teal for Toes, just in time for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month in September. The attention-grabbing polish shade “Don’t Teal My Heart Away” is intended to start a conversation among women about the disease. For each bottle sold, 10% of profi t goes to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.
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