In a revealing study by Workfront, with over 500 marketers responding, an overwhelming number of marketers indicated they are under an “inordinate amount of stress” directly related to “the way their work is being managed.” The study revealed that 80 percent of marketers say they are “understaffed and overloaded” – 25 percent say they are stressed to the max. Nearly one-third blame internal issues for most of their stress.
This sets the table for you. So get on your horse and get ready to charge in and save the day. As outsource consultant with expertise in promotion and communication, you are the tonic for stress and the conduit for marketing success. You cannot only relieve stress, but can bring the marketing creativity needed to get better results. You can fill the void of being understaffed, without the overhead associated with hiring. You can take overloads in the form of short and long term projects. You can serve the needs of marketing from creative program development to implementation and results monitoring.
The opening provided by the information in this study is in self-promotion. An empathetic campaign acknowledging your understanding and availability to help the marketer through their stress, positions you as a needed partner.
Be extra vigilant on your self-promo. As a marketer, self-promotion to another marketer is truly under a microscope. A more critical eye will be given to this promotion than to almost any other department and application. However, if this self-promotion gets through the gatekeeper you are on your way. If it gets a response, there is little in the way of matriculating the prospect into a client.
Self-promotion should not be a one shot deal. It needs to be a campaign using all the portals possible to gain attention, build repeated awareness of you and incite action. Lumpy mail, dimensional mailings get attention.
It starts with a target list. 100 seems to be a common number in target marketing. 100 targets in your pipeline is a substantial enough number where a response rate of 3 percent or more can generate enough revenue to validate your campaign and finance continued promotion. Your target of 100 should constantly be replenished. As they turn into clients, add more. As they change jobs, close businesses, etc., get replacements.
Consider quarterly campaigns. Every three months is enough to get you the recognition and awareness.
Packaging Counts – Look for a creative package that can be hand delivered or sent by a cost effective method. While UPS and Federal Express get attention, they are costly. The Post Office is your best option other than hand delivery. Whatever the box, pouch or envelope, decorating the outside with your logo and theme is critical. When the recipient sees the design more than once it builds greater interest. Variable data in your design speaks volumes about your ability, so add that to your promotion. It is easy to print a full color adhesive and wrap it around most any packaging.
Theme – There are boundless opportunities to create a theme for stress relief, etc. Your theme and approach should clearly answer the question the recipient has… what is in it for me?
Positioning You – This is not the place to show your “stuff,”, but rather your capabilities. A broad stroke is best in copy. All you are seeking is a meeting and you need to entice the prospect.
Stress Hotline – Your office number is your business number, your personal cell phone is your stress hotline. From this thought can come one of your dimensional self promotions. An item for the phone branded with your name and stress hotline speaks volumes. There are hotlines for all human conditions from binge eating to serious issues such a suicide etc. – your hotline can be unique.
Stress Toys – I have long protested that stress balls do absolutely nothing to negate stress. I have not changed. However, “stress balls” and other toys such as sand and a rake, thumb twiddlers, etc, can carry the message for you at a low cost. By the time this is published, fidget spinners will be in your product arsenal or perhaps already run its fad course.
Serious Stress Tools – Readers will know that this writer owns a company that provides music therapy. It can be provided as an e-mail attachment, on CD or as a download. Music, aroma therapy, exercise materials are among the very few promotional items you have that are proven stress fighters. “Take As Needed” for your stress headache can be an effective and low cost self-promotion.
Lumpy/dimensional mailings must, must be accompanied by constant contact. Use the phone to say hi, use e-mail, if you know it, to keep in periodic, but not too frequent, touch. Use your network groups as an open channel for face to face contact.
A distributor recently told me she enclosed a “groupon” for a “Healthy & Stress Free” lunch to discuss a prospect’s marketing objectives. It worked, she related, and she did three lunches from a self-promotion mailing of 50 pieces.
The reality is that most of your buyers are pressed for time, have limited staff to focus on projects and need outside help. The key to you is that you deliver the creative help at little or no cost and are remunerated by being awarded the execution of the programs you develop. This too is a vital message to deliver in your self-promotion.
Joel D. Schaffer, MAS is CEO and Founder of Soundline, LLC, the pioneering supplier to the promotional products industry of audio products. Joel has 48 years of promotional product industry experience and proudly heralds "I was a distributor." He has been on the advisory panel of the business and marketing department of St. John’s University in New York and is frequent speaker at Rutgers Graduate School of Business. He is an industry Advocate and has appeared before the American Bankers Association, American Marketing Association, National Premium Sales Executives, American Booksellers Association and several other major groups. He has been a management consultant to organizations such as The College Board and helped many suppliers enter this industry. He is a frequent contributor to PPB and Counselor Magazines. He has facilitated over 200 classes sharing his industry knowledge nationwide. He is known for his cutting humor and enthusiasm in presenting provocative and motivating programs. He is the only person to have received both the Marvin Spike Industry Lifetime Achievement Award (2002) and PPAI’s Distinguished Service Award (2011). He is a past director of PPAI and has chaired several PPAI committees and task forces. He is a past Chair of the SAAGNY Foundation, Past President of SAAGNY and a SAAGNY Hall of Fame member. He was cited by ASI as one of the 50 most influential people in the industry.