Do you feel like it’s difficult to find customers every month?

If you don’t know where to look it can be frustrating to see other companies be successful while yours has to struggle for every sale you make. The reality is that people are buying what you sell. The challenge is finding them and staying in front of them.

Do You Want Everyone?

When marketing it is easy to get trapped thinking you have to get as much marketing out there as possible and that everyone is a potential customer. I would challenge you to ask yourself, “Do I want every potential customer?” Think about the customers you meet at a fair or home & garden show. Do you want to sell to all of them? Do you think they will pay their bills and stay active or potentially churn out? Better yet, is Exede a fit for them? Instead, identify whom you want to buy from you and find ways to start a conversation with them.

Knowing Personas

Exede has even identified your potential customers. They are characterized by personas based on the customers that have already bought Exede. They range by income, stage of life, education and age but they paint a picture of what the typical Exede customer looks like. Once you understand who they are you can identify how to reach them. If they are older grand parents you won’t effectively reach them with online marketing as much as you will with direct mail. If they are younger professionals you can use things like blogs, social media and online review sites to reach them. Knowing who they are is just as important as knowing where they are. Knowing their habits and mindset you can craft the right message or presentation to them. Imagine talking to someone that you just found out has a lot in common with you. You now have a connection and that connection leads to trust.

It’s your job to choose the marketing and message that will create opportunities with the kinds of customers that you want. Marketing is not about being everywhere. It’s about being where your customers are. Once you take that approach to marketing, it will make your marketing selection process much easier.

If you don’t sell Exede Satellite Internet you still need to know who your customers are. Start asking your customers questions about how they found you and try and learn as much about them as you can. From there create your own customer personas and then use that as a guideline for future marketing campaigns.

Do you know Exede’s Customer Base Personas?  If you would like to learn more about how to better target your customers then email us at trostinfo@trostmarketing.com and request a marketing consultation from Trost Marketing.

Stand Out

Fall is here and as the temperatures start to cool down businesses start to think about close out budgets, end year trade shows and the holidays. When it comes to promoting your business, the things you know limit your options. If you don’t know what is new or what options you have available to you, you will not be able to promote yourself with a stand out tactic.

Millions of Options, So Little Time

The promotional items industry is notorious for having millions of options but if you don’t know what you want it can be overwhelming. Think about the last time you went to a trade show or the last time you sent a gift to a customer. Was their response filled with excitement or did you have the feeling that they were going to throw away whatever you gave them. Your goal should be to identify things that align with your brand and are something that your customer will keep and use.

Ideas With Cool Factor

Trost Marketing has the unique advantage to see what companies are doing across multiple industries to promote themselves. Technology is definitely a popular choice. One of the newer products is the AuraBox by Divoom. It’s a LED Bluetooth Smart Speaker. It’s a Lamp, Digital Palette, Thermometer, Alarm Clock, all in one. It even works as a speaker phone. It’s so cool we had to get our hands on one. After playing with it, I am confident that it will be a popular gift option this year. To see it in action check out their video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvtuwMcroLo). Best of all we can personalize it with your logo and your customers can draw their one logo with the interactive phone app.

If you would like to get pricing for this innovative new product contact on of our promotional marketing specialists today!

Have you ever heard the saying, “People love to buy, but they hate to be sold”? Businesses that are not growing have a skewed view of their marketing. They are programmed to believe that marketing is about selling—selling by being the loudest, fastest and cheapest. They focus on advertising bursts, inflatable-dancing-wind-people and hokey promotions.

What customer’s really want is to understand the value.

A sale happens when value exceeds price. That’s where marketing comes into play. Marketing should promote value, not a 25-percent-off sale. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes.  Think about the reasons why they need your product and the possible pain points that have led them to make a purchase.  When you are evaluating your marketing, focus on the value first, and use it to build your message. Here is a great way to build a value-based marketing campaign.

Begin with the vision.

Tell the story that will help them see what your product or service does. You can do this effectively with a carefully selected image or headline. You only have a few seconds to grab their attention, so make sure that they know what your are selling as soon as they see your ad.

Present the advantage of your product.

What will it do for them that makes it the best? Build up your advantages and benefits. This will separate your product from all of the others and help you to stand out from the competition.

Build the love for your product.

Customers that love products will soon become referrals and indirect salespeople for you. Buying is an emotional decision, and emotions are part of every decision we make. People remember more of how you made them feel than what you said. Most importantly, emotions trigger action, and getting them to respond is the purpose of marketing.

Present everything so that it is easy for your customer to understand.

Don’t get super technical. Let your salespeople take care of that. Put out enough information that makes them curious to contact you to learn more but not so much information that they make the decision on their own. Guide them to you so you can help them with their purchase.

Get them excited

You want them to be eager to purchase your product because it will solve their problem and fill their need. Get them to imagine what they will do with your product before they buy it. This will build anticipation and make them want to buy now. There is a reason that people line up for the newest iPhone™ every year. It’s because they are excited about all of the value it brings them. Build the excitement, and help them imagine their lives and all the things they can do with your product.

V.A.L.U.E – Vision, Advantage, Love, Understanding and Excitement. Build value into your marketing message, and your customer will reward you with their business.

Radius Ravings

We are often asked what is the best way to advertise to new customers?  The question seems simple enough but the answer is always complex.  In marketing the goal is to be in front of the right customer, at the right time with the right message.  Demographics and analytics help us find the right customers.  If you understand the kind of marketing your customer consumes and responds to you can use those mediums to be in front of them as well. But being in front of them at the right time can be the tricky part.  Do you know why customers respond and buy when they do?  Is it seasonality or is it only when there is a full moon?   What we have found is there are outside factors that influence these buying times.  It can be times like the holidays when people go from being shoppers to buyers or a simple as something has broken and now they need it fixed.  In the Exede world it can be as simple as an increase in a customers bill or slower internet speeds.  You probably have noticed this in your business but have you really put your business in a position to use it to your benefit?  The good news is that you can!  With the Trost Marketing Automatic Radius Program (ARM) you can target customers around previous activations with radius mailings.  This means that your message is in front of customers with similar needs and demographics around the same time as other neighbors are making buying decisions.  This is the best time to be in front of these potential customers because they are more likely to be going through the same things that caused their neighbor to respond.  This puts you one step closer to a sale and allows you to cultivate areas where you are getting activations.  This program is consistently our most successful tactic by the numbers because it incorporates targeting, timing, high readership rates and consistency.  The best part about it is that campaigns only mail when you have activations so it’s self sustaining.  You will never deplete your marketing co-op or go over budget with this program because it adjusts to the activations you have each month.  As an approved Marketing partner for Exede we work closely with your distributor marketing programs to make sure all of your co-op claims are processed smoothly and efficiently.  You can have the peace of mind to know that your claims will be processed quickly and automatically.  Now that you know one of the best ways to advertise call us today to learn more and get signed up today.

Do you every wonder why direct mail is one of the most commonly used forms of marketing?  The answer is in the name.  It’s direct.  Many times we speed past the name of the tactic and focus on the the cost or the design and think that just because we are doing direct mail that it will be successful.  The true value of direct mail is it’s ability to directly target your ideal customer.  If done correctly your message will be in the hands of a potential customer that has a need that you can meet.  If you know who your customer is and how to reach them you will put your business if the best opportunity for success.

Targeting customers is more than just picking addresses based on their proximity to you.  It is the careful review of indicators that match your typical customer.  The best way to find out what your typical customer looks like is to ask them.  Pay close attention to who is already coming and who are the customers that actually buy from you.  From there find demographic indicators that match the people you want to be in front of.  If you use this knowledge properly you will be putting your direct mail in the best opportunity for success.

You may think twice next time you walk past a penny on the ground.  For most a few pennies isn’t much.  In fact many people believe that the dime is the new penny and won’t bother to pick one up if they dropped it.  But for all of us those pennies can add up.  Last Sunday the USPS officially raised the cost of a stamp $0.03 which works out to an increase of approximately 6%. The USPS anticipates this will increase the USPS revenue $2.6 Billion dollars.  That’s a lot of pennies.  260 billion pennies for those keeping track.

So what does that mean for companies marketing with direct mail?  It means marketing planning is that much more important.  Your marketing budgets probably didn’t go up by 6% so you need to make sure you are sending the right message to the right people.  Look closely at your demographics and identify your best opportunity for success.  Find out who your current customers are and see what they have in common.  Then use demographic indicates to find more people like that.  If your not sure.  Find a marketing company that can help you get started.  Direct mail is still one of the best ways to advertise and is a great way to send a target message to potential customer.  And that’s our 2 cents.