Will your customers think of you the moment they need your services?
Where will your customers be when they need your service the most? The answer to that question is precisely where you want to place your marketing and invest in having your brand seen. More on this further on…
A client of mine is a trial lawyer and he came into our showroom to find a new branded pen to give to his customers. We found the Uni-Ball 207 gel pen and it made sense for him to give because it writes really nice and is a pen his clients will definitely hold on to.
He then asked me, “what’s hot right now?” That’s the question I never like to hear because, although there are some cool trendy products, our approach is to focus on tried and true effective promotional products. So I shared with him the key question to ask in marketing, “where will your customers be when they need your service the most?” The answer to that question is where you want to invest your marketing and place your brand for it to be seen so your customer immediately thinks of you when they need your products or services.
It used to be that you wanted a big ad in the yellow pages because when someone wanted their gutters cleaned, they’d flip through those yellow pages and find someone for that service. Nowadays we flip through the Google search pages for that supplier or vendor and you’ll see paid ads on Google, Facebook, and other social media outlets. These paid ads are usually relevant to what you’re searching for and are exactly where the customer will be when they need your service the most. The problem with online ads is that they only exist in the digital world. Once you navigate off that webpage, or otherwise carry on with your day, that ad is not seen in your environment and disappears. If you’re paying per click or paying per Facebook ad view then that money, sometimes as high as a few dollars, has evaporated with no long lasting advertising value.
The lawyer and I continue talking and I share with him that he doesn’t want what’s hot, he wants to place his brand in his customer’s environment so it fits into their lifestyle and when they think to need his services the most, his brand is present and they contact him.
Specifically for him, the nice writing gel pens made sense. Because he’s a personal injury lawyer, some kind of a drinkware item like a custom branded travel mug or a custom branded Swell water bottle are perfect because if the customer is injured in a car crash, his brand is right there in the vehicle for all to see.
I then showed him one of the best items we have done for our own self promotion, a trunk organizer. For a personal injury lawyer, the branded trunk organizer printed with his name and company brand would be perfect because it’s again where his customer’s will be when they would need his services the most (their vehicle). It’s also incredibly useful and fits into his client’s lifestyle (perfect for being what you bring into Costco to do your shopping, place in your car with everything you bought inside, and then carry into your home).
If location, location, location is the real estate mantra, then placing your brand in the right location to be seen when customers need your services the most is the mantra for anyone looking to successfully market their brand. Branded promotional products are what get kept, used, and seen. They don’t get turned off or disappear like online advertising. They’re omnipresent and always showing off your brand.
Here are a few branding ideas of where you can place your brand so your customers think of you when they need your products or services:
Marketing ideas for home service companies:
Memo boards to be seen in the kitchen
Marketing ideas for businesses (B2B):
General marketing ideas:
Title image source: http://canadaplumbingservices.com/plumbing-problems/
