How To Make Your Anniversary Promotion Campaigns Better

posters for anniversary campaigns

posters for anniversary campaigns

Celebrating an anniversary whether it be one, ten or a hundred years is certainly something to be proud of. You, as a company should almost be bursting at the seams to tell potential and existing customers the news.

Of course, for customers to get as excited as you, they expect something in return. That’s how the system works. They support you for x amount of years and at each anniversary expect a little appreciation. As Mark Twain astutely noted: “It is better to give than receive- especially advice” and following this I will offer my own – He’s right. And this is why businesses offer sales; they give a little in order to gain a lot. 

The question of course is how to celebrate and promote your anniversary. This can depend on a variety of facets such as the length of time of existence, the size of the company and the type of company.

It is for this reason I have come up with 4 simple categories.

4 types of anniversary campaigns

  1.  Sales & Giveaways
  2. Promotions & Interaction

  3. Reincarnation (Sticking with the religious theme)

  4. Internal Appreciation

1. Sales & Giveaways – Clever discounts and freebies

This one is relatively straightforward. Simply reducing the final bill for the customer will obviously get them interested – more bang for your buck has traditionally been the ‘go-to’ strategy. Giveaways however can work equally effective. The total bill may not reduce however the value perceived would still have increased. Better yet, it means more of your product is being consumed by your customers.

A common tip often acted upon is to link the number of years celebrated to the sale/gift. Whether it be 10% off if you’re celebrating your tenth anniversary or every 5th item is free for your fifth, linking the years to the deal instils that number into your customers brains, meaning they will be more likely to associate your business with success and longevity. As has been hugely publicised, customers who associate success and longevity with your business are more likely to purchase from you.

Remember, you can be clever about it – 40 years 40% off may be too much of a discount for some stores so be clever! 40 = XL in Roman numerals so have an XL sale, whether it be just a larger sale than usual or a sale focused on extra-large items, it will most likely prove cheaper than 40% off but have a similar effect.

2. Promotions & Interactions – Get the word out there

This deals with how your company reaches out to your customers and the general public. Obviously, if no one has heard that it’s your anniversary no one will be excited. This therefore is critical that it is done right. Larger companies may not have to worry about it and let word of mouth do the work. Smaller companies however have their own competitive advantage – personalization.

Personalized, handwritten notes prove effective time and time again. These interactions will obviously be critical to making your customers aware of your anniversary. Under interaction I have associated cut-cost ways to deliver value to your customer – tours. Customers are always interested in how their favorite good is actually made, so offer it! They aren’t expensive to run as attendees would actually prefer to see the business running as normal as possible and give your business greater exposure to the public..

3. Reincarnation – Bring back the past

I’m sure you’re all familiar with the reincarnation of old products and methods when companies celebrate birthdays or anniversaries so I won’t go into any detail about it. However, many don’t even consider replacing current prices with the traditional ones. An example would be if Coca-Cola were to sell cans for 5c each – their original price. You may be thinking, this should be under the sale category and you’re probably right, but as it refers to the original price, it could be seen as the rebirth of the price; okay compromise, it’s both.

4. Internal Interaction – Celebrate your team

They say nothing is more important than the customer; if that’s true then employees can’t be far behind. When celebrating an anniversary, celebrate your employees’ efforts. They are just as much a part of the company as the customers and therefore, deserve similar recognition and perceived benefits. Traditionally a party always goes down well, however ensure that at least the long-time employees receive a memento, something which they can be proud of and something that will portray your eternal appreciation.

Most successful anniversary campaigns utilize more than one of these categories so for greater success, try and aim to hit at least two. And remember, no matter what strategy you choose, conveying your appreciation for the past and enthusiasm for the future never hurts.

Need help brainstorming and planning ideas? We’d be glad to help. Click here to get in touch with us.

 

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Top 3 Marketing Agency Scams/Ripoffs

When you hire a marketing agency, you need to ensure that you are getting your money’s worth and aren’t being fooled into signing a contract that takes advantage of your lack of knowledge. Here are the top three marketing agency scams to teach you what not to do and help you make the right decision.

1. We can make you the “1st Result on Google”

Nobody in marketing can guarantee anything. These types of extraordinary promises are false because you can’t be sure of the actions of a target audience. Good agencies have their feet on the ground and focus on developing an effective SEO strategy rather than making empty promises. So, if an agency tells you that they’ll procure immediate results, or that they can get you to be the top search result because they have a “priority submit” with Google, it’s a strong red flag.

2. One Size Fits All

A proposed marketing strategy should be specifically tailored to your company and situation. A template marketing strategy won’t be effective because every business has a different model and needs a unique strategy that will cater to their strengths and build on their weaknesses. If they present a proposal that isn’t customised to your business, chances are, they’re after your money, not rooting for your success.

3. Lack of transparency

Some marketing agencies will assume their clients are oblivious to terms and strategies and will take advantage of this by providing very few details whilst promising grand results. If they aren’t being specific about procedures, timelines, and costs, it might be worth a little investigation. For example, we discovered that TopBuzz, a video marketing company,  took advantage of the fact that most people don’t read the “terms and conditions agreement” to hide the fact that as soon as a client gives them a video, TopBuzz owns the rights to the video forever. Don’t let them leave you in the dark. Good communication is key to a healthy working relationship between any marketing agency and their clients.

These are just three of many ways a marketing agency can take your money and not deliver.

If you want to learn more about marketing agency scams and how to avoid them, join us on July 31st, 2018 for our seminar How To Hire A Marketing Expert (When You Aren’t One)

 

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How To Hide Your Business Address On Google

Having your business address easily accessible through Google is a fantastic resource for traditional brick and mortar businesses. However, in today’s world, there are many e-commerce companies or organisations that simply don’t need their address openly available to the public. If you fall into this category, this post is for you.

If your address is on Google My Business and you want to hide it, here are 3 easy steps to get it done.

While I will be using our company, Creative Agency Secrets, as an example, it’s worth mentioning that we keep our address visible to the public since we have a physical office space that many of our clients visit. Nevertheless, this is a very useful tool for many businesses, such as one of our clients, AmCham. AmCham is a virtual company whose employees work from home, and as a result, they don’t want the addresses public. So let’s get started.

Step 1: Get to the “Info” page

The first step is to log in to your Google My Business page. On your Google My Business portal (located on the first page), click the menu bar on the top left corner of the screen and select “Info”

Google My Business Portal

 

Step 2: Edit Your Address

On this page, select your address and a window should pop up where you can edit your address settings.

Info Page With Address

 

Step 3: Change Visibility Settings

Scroll down to the bottom of this window and you’ll see a box saying “I also serve some customers at my business address”. Un-check this box and your address will be hidden from the public.

Address settings

 

Bonus – Step 4: Edit your radius of service

Many companies can only offer their services in a certain area. Google gives you the option to adjust your service area in the window to ensure your business prospects are within reach and that you’re only getting relevant inquiries for jobs.

You can either select the “Region, city or postal code” option and add a general area your business operates in, or select the second option, “Within ___ km of my business”, and establish a radius of access for your business. And of course, don’t forget to click “Apply” at the bottom right to make sure it’s all saved.

Set radius of business

For example, one of our past clients, MethSolutions, offers meth testing in their clients’ locations. However, they can only service locations that their certified samplers can access by car. They have hidden their main office address, but each sampler stationed around New Zealand has a specific but limited area that they can reach and meth test. They used the “Region, city, or postal code” option to ensure that they will get business opportunities from local and accessible clients, but don’t necessarily have to give their exact location away. As the picture shows, one of the areas the can access is the suburb Pegasus in Christchurch, so Google Maps highlights that region.

MethSolutions business area

We hope this helped you optimise your use of the Google location feature. Good luck and let us know if you have any questions or concerns!

How To Create A Seamless Facebook Profile And Cover Photo

Ford on Facebook

Ford on Facebook with matching cover photo and profile image.

A matching Facebook cover photo and profile picture looks professional and exciting.  Look at the Ford one here – see the large image becomes the background behind the smaller logo picture?  Cute!

You can do so many things with it such as making your Facebook followers laugh or just to make your profile look professional. But how do you line up the two images and make it work? Read on.

How to line up Facebook cover photo with a profile picture

1. Screenshot your Facebook profile page: The first step is to take a screenshot of your profile page for size reference. Paste this screenshot into  PowerPoint or a similar programme where you can CROP the screenshot. We’ll be using our client, Rowperfect, as an example:

Screenshot of Rowperfect Facebook page

Screenshot of the Rowperfect Facebook page

2. Crop your chosen picture into two images: now that you have your profile screenshot and have pasted it into  PowerPoint you can begin cropping your desired image. Detailed instructions follow this image…follow steps 1-4 frame by frame below.cropping

  • FRAME 1: mark your cover photo and your profile photo. The blue rectangle we’ve created represents the cover photo size area and the red square represents the profile picture. Remember to paste the screenshot exactly as it is and do not re-size it, even though it is larger than the PowerPoint work area.
  • FRAME 2: import the image you want as your combined profile picture and cover photo. Then re-size it so it is as big as the blue and red rectangle combined. Line it up as you wish.
  • FRAME 3: duplicate your now re-sized imported image, place it in the same location as its original and crop your imported image and its duplicate to be the size of the blue rectangle and red square respectively.
  • FRAME 4: now you have your two images, save the big one as COVER PHOTO and the smaller square one as PROFILE PICTURE.

3. Place them on your Facebook profile page: now you have your two images you can place the PROFILE PICTURE image on your Facebook profile picture and use the COVER PHOTO image as your Facebook profile cover. If all is done correctly your Facebook profile cover photo and profile picture will now line up together and look flash, just like the Rowperfect Facebook page!

Screenshot of Rowperfect Facebook page

Be creative: more interesting ideas

Here are a few ideas we found that might spark some inspiration for you… speech bubbles, a cartoon bird house, multiple images overlaid or a camera icon.  Be creative.

ideas

Facebook profile picture ideas and improvements

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What Does A Client Brief Look Like?

Thanks to Dawn who wrote in asking “What does a client brief look like?” 

Let us help you out.

What to do when hiring an agency

If you sub-contract your marketing to an agency or to freelancers, you want to be sure that you pay for and get good quality work.

A lot of the quality of output is due to high quality input.  By that I mean, briefing documents.  If you can explain clearly what you want, how you want it done and timeframes, you are far more likely to get high quality work back.

We use Upwork and People Per Hour to find freelancers and expert sub-contractors.

 

Ask the freelancer to write back

For briefing we always give a lot of detail and we also ask the freelancer to write back with answers to our questions.

We choose these carefully in order to show us that THEY have read the brief.

  • Please tell me what access permissions you need before you start the job

And we also ask them open questions whose answers tell us if they understand the scope, how they would approach the job and allow us to assess how good their English is.

  • Estimate how long the job will take
  • Tell me what problems you anticipate

Below is a template document which we use when we receive instructions to do some marketing for our clients. You can download it from the link.

Each sub-heading is self explanatory – as a client you should fill in each section as clearly as possible and then send it out to the agency or agencies you want to work with asking them to send you price quotations.

Alternatively, you write longhand what you want and the agency will fill in the gaps in the document.  Then you should approve it before instructing the work.

DOWNLOAD Master Client Planning Brief Template

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How Online Fantasy Sports Companies Market Their Platforms?

Online fantasy sports are experiencing huge growth and are even rivaling online betting platforms. For those who don’t know, online fantasy sports platforms allow users to create fantasy sports teams and join competitions to potentially win cash prizes.

For example, users can create their own NBA basketball lineup packed full of stars such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving, and then enter a league against other players to see how their teams match up. As the real life result roll in, scores are calculated based on your team selection, and your league standing is based on this score.

Due to the huge boost in popularity of online fantasy sports, their marketing techniques have had to improve and diversify. Popular platforms such as DraftKings, FanDuel, and PlayOn have to compete with each other and try to bring in customers through clever marketing. DraftKings is currently on top, with bettingsites.me.uk reporting that 50.6% of all players currently use the app.

Social media are playing a huge role in fantasy sports marketing. Both FanDuel and DraftKings have a huge following on Twitter, for example (FanDuel – 212k followers, DraftKings – 244k followers), and use this network to post game highlights and interact with customers.

If you scroll through DraftKings’ Twitter feed, you can see it posting videos of MLB games and clips, uploading player profiles of top sporting personalities such as Cristiano Ronaldo, and even cheat sheets to help its user base improve their fantasy teams.

FanDuel alternatively regularly post WNBA highlights, show awesome MLB home runs, and also funny sports bloopers and memes. All of this gives content to its users and helps get them excited about the world of sport, as well as encourage interaction with their respective fantasy sports platforms.

Affiliate marketing is also hugely important for online fantasy sports platforms. Both DraftKings and FanDuel operate an affiliate program through which customers can gain commissions. In essence, a customer promotes the fantasy sports platform by using a special hyperlink. If someone clicks on this hyperlink and registers an account, the customer gains a small fee.

This is a clever form of marketing. The fantasy sports platform doesn’t really have to do anything and it benefits from increased exposure and more customers; all it has to give in return is a small percentage fee.

These are just two examples of fantasy sports marketing and there are many more. It is clear that marketing plays an important role in the promotion of fantasy sports and that it allows platforms such as DraftKings and FanDuel to gain a competitive edge in this ever increasing market.

The infographic below offers further insight into the world of fantasy sports: