A couple of weeks ago, I went to the weird little town of Arcadia, Florida; I’d seen it advertised on the Antiques Roadshow. Quaint, lots of antique stores and not all that far – maybe a couple of hours on Alligator Alley, I-75 and some country roads. Perfect! Off we went.

Need to unplug sometimes.

The “city” looked like a ghost town but there was, indeed, a lot of antiques shops. First, we checked into a little hotel called the Oak Park Inn in the antiques district which is three blocks long by two blocks wide. It was one of two buildings to survive the disastrous Arcadia fire in 1905. Its owners had renovated it recently and it’s lovely. Each of the dozen or so rooms has a different theme: Victorian, Oriental, French, dude ranch, etc. There’s a big social room with a fireplace but, since we were the only guests (all the snowbirds have gone), we never did get to socializing.

The door to the Inn is always locked. The manager’s around town somewhere, though, and you can call her on her cell phone if you need anything. The number’s taped to the inside of the front door window. She gave us a key and asked us to lock up and away she went. After that, we were on our own.

Arcadia’s the seat of Desoto County and they say it’s located “in the heart of Florida’s Cattle and Citrus Country.” In reality, it’s at the western edge of conglomeration of big farms. When we drove over to Sebring (a happening little town in the middle of nowhere) we passed a zillion orange trees and acres of cattle ranches. Who knew Florida had so many cattle?

The all-Florida Championship Rodeo has been held in Arcadia every March since 1928. We missed it.

We didn’t miss the Cinco de Mayo Parade. It was hokier than hokey, so much so that it’s completely charming. It seemed odd that hundreds of Mexicans should show up in the middle of town for a parade and then just disappear. Where’d they come from and where’d they go? We guessed that they live and work in the groves and ranches.

Looking at antiques gets my creative juices flowing.

The antique stores were okay. I saw a set of dishes my Mom had when I was a little girl. There was an old poster of Atlantic City that showed “Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy”. Fralinger was a cousin and we were at that store many times when I was very young.

There were vases, and great old postcards, and Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, paintings, carvings, big old furniture pieces, knickknacks …lots of good old stuff.

On our way home, we headed straight across the state past gigantic groves of orange trees, to the top of Lake Okeechobee and down its east side before turning east again into Palm Beach county which, amazingly, is nearly all cultivated land.

I arrived home feeling renewed and ready to get back into the fray. I loved Arcadia and the very old-school Wheeler’s Diner where we had breakfast with the world’s best grits. It was fun, like visiting the 1940s.

After picking up my puppy, Daisy Mae, at the kennel – was she ever happy to see me – I was glad to get home.

Excited to write my Joy blog, and my new column on Forbes.com: Marketing Matters More Than Ever

In the first hour, agencies from NYC and Las Vegas pitched for a Waste Management assignment; in the second, it was LA against Durham, NC. The Pitch is real and the business an agency can win is real. AMC has ordered eight episodes.

The show’s pretty good, at least to this industry vet. I’m not so sure that it’ll appeal to a mass audience, but who knows? So much on TV is a complete mystery to me, from Jersey Shore to the caterwauling contest called “The Voice”.

I still get excited thinking about a big marketing pitch.

I’ve lived through many a pitch, some just for the direct marketing business (which is rarely, and should never be, a creative shootout), and some with general advertising partners like TBWA, Saatchi & Saatchi and J Walter Thompson (JWT).

Our agency doesn’t pitch anymore. We stopped when I realized that a lot of clients were using the pitch process to get free ideas. I thought of pitching again a couple of years ago but the paperwork you have to fill out in advance puts the FDA’s new-drug paperwork to shame.

Our business often comes after people hear me speak.

Then they call us and new business develops from simple conversations with potential clients. Some are referrals, some come out of the blue, and some we find ourselves by reaching out.

We get a lot of inquiries from financial companies. They all say they can’t do anything too edgy or they’ll lose credibility. Some want to try a new approach but stay conservative – in other words, do exactly what they’re doing now, only different.

Banks, brokers and insurance companies aren’t the only tippy-toers. We spoke to a restaurant owner last week who said you cannot do anything unique for a restaurant. Maybe I’ll show him the new ad for the Four Seasons in New York that talks about how unique the restaurant is and why it’s worth the high prices. Despite its bad grammar and some misspellings, it’s not a bad ad.

This ad for Smith and Wollensky has some interesting Kenneth Cole type copy and simple graphics. It works.

I’m always hoping that our next new client will take a chance, like the CMO of Subway, Tony Pace, did when he hired the agency that had found a rapper who had gone viral on YouTube. They even brought the guy to The Pitch for a freestyle rap. They took a chance, and it worked.

Subway CMO, Tony Pace

Oh, how I wish Subway will call us for marketing programs.

If you’re about to become some agency’s next great client (especially ours), I hope that:
1. You care passionately about your company.
2. You give the strategic planners and creative folks a chance to do work that might seem weird to you; it doesn’t have to appeal to you personally unless you personify the target audience. You can always pull it back a bit. Free swinging thinking often results in amazing revenue.
3. You test carefully without worrying too much about the budget. Worry about the upside, not the downside.

If you can do that, we can deliver terrific ads that will do two wonderful things: build your business and make your brand memorable.

Then Rachel in our office told me she hears all the time from a company called RedBox.

I’d never heard of it so Rachel had to tell me that RedBox rents out movies from fancy vending machines for $1.20 a night. They’re in 29,000 locations with a presence in every state.

It’s all computerized. You search for a movie you want and swipe your credit card. If this is your first time you use the onscreen keyboard to enter your email address. Then out pops your DVD in a plastic case. You bring it back the next day. 

The CRM part starts before you get home with a receipt/confirmation sent to your Inbox.

When you return the movie, you get 1) a thank you with a receipt and confirmation; 2) a weekly email, mostly about new releases; 3) a contest to win free movies for a year. RedBox even has a blog with giveaways, lists of top movies and reviews.

Twitter? About 47,000 followers. Facebook? About 4 million likes.

Rachel says “The website and mobile app are great! I can see if the movies I want are at my nearest Redbox so I can save time. I can even reserve the movie online and go pick it up.”

The Los Angeles Times wrote: “…Redbox’s parent company, Coinstar Inc., reported that revenue for the $1.20-per-night DVD rental business surged 40% during the final three months of 2011 to $445.6 million and 35% for the year to $1.56 billion.” That’s a lot of $1.20 credit card swipes.

RedBox’s ongoing contact program, its CRM, offers peace of mind (the confirmations and receipts), useful information and a chance to win something … all the time and oh so effortlessly. Along with the quick service and low price, it’s a great combination. Why do so few companies do things like this?

Whenever I’m hiring new people for my agency, I look for the ability to get things done. (“No problem” is my favorite phrase.)

People talk (and talk) about getting things done. “I’m going to write a book” or “… getting a portfolio together” but it so rarely happens. Talking about doing things instead of doing them is dead giveaway.

I can say that I’m working on a new marketing book because I’ve already written five or six of them.

Donald Sexauer…

But people with no track record should just do it. Which brings me to my friend Donald Sexauer. He told me that he wanted to write and illustrate a whole series of books about his grandchildren and their pets. When he showed me some of the illustrations, paintings really, that he’d already done, I knew he’d come through.

He wanted books that would be fun for the kids, both of them boys, to read. The stories are based on simple homespun values. And, since he’s a retired English teacher, he wanted to improve their vocabularies.

Moue

Donald is a wonderful artist – two of his painting hang in my living room – so I wasn’t surprised when I saw his initial sketches of the boys’ faces grimacing. He called it a “moue”. It’s a pouty look that can also be an upside down smile. Here is an illustration to the right.

The first book, Kramer Makes David Smile is charming and actually true. It’s about how David (the younger boy) never smiles until he realizes he has so much to be grateful for, and that life is fun. He learns this from Kramer, the family cat.

The book was just perfect book for Donald to read to his grandsons. When people I know heard about the book they started reading it to their children, too.

The second book in the series, Kramer & Jack Make Choices, is tougher. The boys lose their beloved Kramer and learn that although a choice can make them sad, it can be the right choice.

Book Number 3, Kramer??!, just came out and it’s my favorite. Anyone who has ever lost someone dear to them can relate when a special kitten brings new happiness to the boys. The story grabs you right away and the illustrations are so charming that children everywhere will want to see, point to, and cover them with chocolate fingers.

Kramer the cat

The three-book series is now available at Amazon.com. Please order one or two and snuggle up with your own kids to enjoy these wonderful stories. This year I’m hoping the books win an award for the values they teach.

Donald Sexauer is a man who gets things done.

They didn’t.

I called again the next day. Same thing. The bank is a Florida operation with 20 branches, so I tried calling another branch that is near my office, but apparently you can’t do that.

Hmmm. I called my original branch, tapping my feet, and told whoever answered that I’d be in to close the CDs the next day. He said “okay”.

So, I drove over there and, after an hour of waiting to get approvals, I left with my cashier’s checks. The employees didn’t even pretend to try to keep me as a customer.

Later many people tweeted and emailed me that the reason the bank didn’t care about renewing my CD’s is that they really make no money on them and that they’re more interested in investment accounts or loans.

That may be the case, but aren’t I a prospect for all of those programs also? Yes, I am. Plus, I’m on my Condo Board and we have a huge sum of money in that particular branch. They made me upset because they didn’t recognize our long-term relationship. And, as a business owner, I would be so upset if any of our clients were ever treated poorly like I was.

Flash forward a day

I was talking to my right-out-of-college assistant, Rachel, about saving money and investing wisely. One thing led to another, and I called to make an appointment for her with Jack Howell at a nearby branch of Scottrade.

He was happy to meet her and spent a lot of time explaining how to trade online. He answered her questions and was so informative that I, who’ve had a Scottrade account for years, learned a few things – like how to find dividend bearing stocks on Scottrade’s website. Here’s a photo of Jack with Rachel.

Since then, I’ve told all kinds of people about how great Scottrade is, even Tweeting the company’s praises to my 17,700 followers. My cousin, Fran up in Philadelphia, just called to tell me she signed up for a Scottrade account. Maybe others did, too.

I can’t understand the bank’s cavalier approach to customer service. They weren’t always like that. My Mom and Dad banked there for years and loved it. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that a large international bank group bought them a while back and now their marketing focus has changed.

Maybe they just wanted me to leave. It’s possible. But, why? What are your thoughts?

First of all, old fashioned as they are, contests and sweepstakes still work. In fact, they work better than ever. People pay attention to them because of the opportunity to win something for nothing. And marketers love them because they’re such great involvement devices.

She told me about some of her clients who had doubled or even tripled their Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers just by adding an inexpensive contest.

Inexpensive? Yes, indeed. I am amazed at how few marketers know they can launch an impressive contest or sweepstakes for not a lot of money. Best of all, it’s very little work because Marla’s people at Ventura Associates handle everything: hosting, creative development, social media platform, state bonds, winner selection, administration, and prizes. They’re especially good at getting all the rules and regulations right.

Results, results, results.

An apparel company, Bare Necessities, doubled their fan base with a top prize of $1,000 a month! Marla says that’s not at all unusual. You can make a significant impact with a budget as low as $10,000.

Just about any company can sponsor a contest. As a practical matter, it makes no difference that people can enter without buying anything. For instance, one of Marla’s bank clients recently had a sweepstakes you could enter by opening an account or just mailing in a free entry form. A lot of accounts got opened anyway.

Utility companies are getting into sweepstakes in order to promote conservation.

If you like, Marla’s people can come up with the core idea based on a client’s objectives, or work with an agency.

I asked her what companies want to achieve with sweepstakes promotions: more prospects, engage customers? She said “Sweepstakes can address all kinds of objectives: awareness, reinforcing product benefits, sell a product directly, generate store traffic, generate online traffic, build an email database.”

We talked for a couple of hours and I’d love to give you a transcript here, because we wrote it all down. But the details don’t really belong in a blog like this. Who has time? Best to talk to Marla directly. She’s very pleasant to work with.

I did ask her, in closing, what was the funniest contest she’d ever handled.

It involved an elderly man from Maysville, Ohio, who’d won over a million dollars. But he refused to sign the release because he didn’t want to give out his Social Security number. He’d seen the local sheriff on TV warning against that.

Marla had to call the sheriff and ask him to drive over to the man’s home and tell him it was ok to do it. Then the old man turned down a fabulous trip to New York City: limo, dinner, fancy hotel, Broadway show, etc. He preferred a simple party in Maysville, at the Ramada with macaroni, potato salad and ham sandwiches.

You can call Marla Altberg at (212) 302-8277 or email her at maltberg@sweepspros.com

What does it take to get someone to buy a car? A personalized letter promising a $1,000 discount can go a long way. That’s what I discovered years ago in Canada when I worked on a direct mail campaign for Ford, promoting Lincoln’s Town Car, Continental and Mark VIII. We told recipients that all they had to do was visit a dealership, negotiate their best price and then produce the letter to save another $1,000. Sales took off.

Consumers are bombarded these days with advertising messages. Direct marketers like me are part of the reason. For 12 years in New York and now in Hollywood, Fla., I have run Lois Geller Marketing Group, a marketing advertising firm with big clients such as J.P. Morgan Chase, as well as other large companies.

Sending an offer by mail can cost anywhere from $1.00 to $150 for each prospect, depending on the different components of the campaign.

For the most part, direct mail is more expensive than advertising, or e-mail or social media, and it can also be much more effective in the long run.

How do you get the most out of the money you invest in your direct mailings, whether you handle them in-house or hire an outside firm? Here are eight of the approaches I recommend to clients.

1. Save the postcards for vacation. The classic letter in an envelope has a much better chance of generating a significant response, in my experience. To most consumers, serious mail comes in a letter, which is private. The act of opening an envelope and unfolding the letter is engaging.

A few years ago my company created a two-page letter for a firm that was selling a $2,000 annual subscription service to advertisers and ad agencies. Our client had done fairly well with a post-card campaign. It was generating paid orders at a rate of about 0.75%. We thought we could do better. We created a letter to the ad agencies that said, “If you can send me an e-mail with the 4 letter code above, I’ll send you a secret that will help you land new business you didn’t even know was loose.” Each recipient had a private code, available only in the letter. Paid response increased to 11%.

2. Impose a deadline. Give recipients a valuable freebie that they can’t get any other way than by responding now. It should fit what you are selling. For instance, if you were a tax preparer trying to attract new clients for next year, you might send a mailing in January of 2013 offering the first 100 new customers a free leather binder to store their 2012 taxes – and tell them that the offer would expire on March 15. Potential customers who can’t procrastinate will act immediately. We call this a “call to action”.

3. Emphasize your product’s benefits, not just its features. Say you are selling a teapot with a spill-proof spout. Rather than simply mention the spout’s spill-proof shape, focus on the problems it will prevent: burned hands, ruined suits, embarrassment.

How do find out what your prospects will value most about your product? Ask them. For instance, if you were selling the spill-proof teapot, you might want to chat with tea buyers at your local supermarket to find out what teapots they use and how these pots could be improved.

4. Outdo the competition. If you are a dry cleaner, and ABC Cleaners down the street is offering 20% off to new customers, give your regular customers 25% off as an incentive to stay loyal.

5. Use real people. I have found that when we include photos of actual customers or employees, rather than models, in our mailings, the response rates go up. Your direct marketing agency or art director can help you arrange an inexpensive photo shoot and get the permission you need to incorporate the pictures into your ad.

6. Rent the right list. List brokers will offer to sell you all kinds of lists. Ask for those with recent high responses to offers to products similar to yours. I suggest using a list broker who’s a member of the Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org), a reputable trade group.

7. Get personal. If it looks like your letter and envelope might have been in the hands of a real human being at some point, customers will be more likely to open it. Sign your letter in blue ink. Use the same ink to highlight a paragraph or to add a margin note. (The art director on your campaign can help you add your black ink “handwriting” on the layout and change it to blue.) Try a real stamp (or stamps) on the envelope. The more unusual the stamps, the better. Use a blue signature line above the return address.

8. Repeat your offer in the P.S. People often read that one first.

When we mail our own newsletter, I usually write personal notes on about 100 of them. I might mention someone’s family or a catalog their company had done. Typically, about 50% of that group will respond. In an e-mail driven world, a human touch can have a dramatic impact. So, try it.

I’d want to keep me, as a customer.

Why should they want to build a relationship? For starters, it’ll help them keep me as a customer, and if they keep customers, they won’t have to spend as much time and money acquiring new ones. When you think about the lifetime value (LTV) of a single good customer, it’s a wonder more companies don’t bend over backwards to keep customers happy.

Customers may defect.

When I talk to clients about CRM, the objection is usually: “Why should we spend money on current customers? They’re already buying from us.” Here’s why: If you don’t offer your customers something special—something that’s of real value, that’s relevant—when another company does make that offer, they’ll leave you.

I’m loyal to 1800 CONTACTS, because I buy my lenses from them and my lens solution too. Sometimes I go to the eye doctor and he changes their strength so I call them and they send me the new ones, and give me a credit for the ones I haven’t used.

They keep in touch with me by email, and their customer service people are very nice. I won’t try another company, because they’re great. Plus I’ve recommended about 6 other people to them also, talk about them in my speeches too.

What Customers Need

CRM is not about the software or some million-dollar technology. It must start with looking at needs, specifically what customers need.

Recently I ordered pantyhose, and I got an e-mail confirmation almost immediately. Sure, it’s a step in the right direction, but it’s just the first step. When it comes to communicating with customers across channels, there are many disconnects. It seems that the technology still isn’t smart enough. Most business owners who have been around a while seem to be smarter than the smartest technology, better at offering customers what they want and showing customers how much they value them. Some of the challenges we face include:

1. There are few loyalty clubs in multichannel environments, but unifying loyalty programs across channels should be a big deal. American Express and other companies work to deliver this for their best customers.

2. I believe CRM will work. Often it seems that interactions have occurred in silos. When and if you create meaningful conversations through flexible systems that bridge different environments, you’ll be effective.

3. Companies such as Amazon.com, eBags.com, 1800CONTACTS, even Netflix use CRM to meet and anticipate customer needs, and are leading the way. Software itself can accomplish many things. It can make business move faster and help you see relationships you might have missed. It can remind you to follow up. But too many companies are asking technology to do the one thing it really can’t do: manage a relationship.

CRM has a chance of working once companies recognize that it doesn’t exist separately from the business strategies and processes of a company. Success requires planning, and a rush to adopt technology without strategy is dangerous. Software is only a means to an end. For CRM to succeed, there must be a strategy in place that makes sense. And there must be people in place who have direct marketing sensibilities.

I hope one day a bank will have a great program in place (but that’s for a whole other blog post).

I dream that one day when I buy from nearly any retail store, I’ll also be given information about service online. I’ll be able to buy from a store and return the item to a central distribution center and get credit on my card. I’ll even get appropriate offers based on prior purchases and preferences. A company will thank me for my purchases—recognize me when I call. And it will know when I’ve defected and invite me to come back. Then I will be a loyal customer forever.

Our agency in South Florida

Most people thought I was out of my mind to leave the security of a great job (with a son to support and parents in need), but I went with my feeling anyway. Besides I did think that someone “upstairs” was watching over me and telling me to take a chance. In order to win BIG, you have to risk BIG. Walking away from that fancy corporate job was the best decision I’ve ever made.

Dianna Huff, my dear Twitter friend, contacted me recently to tell me she was compiling an e-book featuring 23 stories of women (including me) who have gone after their dreams. The book was created to inspire women to overcome obstacles and fears in order to live their best lives.

This book will inspire you!

These extraordinary women are from all walks of life including accomplished entrepreneurs to a triathlon participant who experienced a debilitating accident. The commonality among these women is that they said “Yes” to dreaming big.

All of the proceeds from her book will be donated to the Girls Fight Back foundation. GFB provides personal safety and self-protection education to women and girls across the world.

Please support my friend Dianna and the Girls Fight Back foundation. To purchase the book, please visit her site: profitablefemaleconsultant.com

It will be the beginning of good karma for you too, as this has been a labor of love. To learn more about the extraordinary women featured in this book, please visit them on their websites linked below:

My hand sewn picture "The Circus". Note the frame

Chris Roberts-Antieau is an artist I discovered by accident. I came across her “The Circus” and bought it immediately (wrote about it in a previous post). It’s hanging in the hallway just inside the front door of my apartment. Every time I walk by it, I pause, chuckle, and marvel at it.

I’ve always liked “primitive works”, and in New York I spend a lot of time at the American Folk Art Museum.

I love her naïve style, and her sense of humor in the characters she sews onto the fabric.
She has a new gallery in New Orleans (although her studio is in Michigan) and a terrific website here: http://www.chrisroberts-antieau.com/ Chris describes her complicated work simply: she cuts out pieces of textile and sews them to fabric.

I drove downtown when I heard she was exhibiting at this year’s Art Basel in Miami and was delighted to meet her son, Noah, who was kind enough to spend quite a bit of time chatting about his mother’s “fiber art”. That meeting inspired me to call her the other day to ask if I could interview her for my “Joy” blog. I was curious about her marketing challenges which strike me as daunting.

Noah and I

She needs to sell one piece of art to one person who loves it.

When I heard her voice, I was delighted. She’s warm, easy to talk to … not a hint of artistic temperament … and as whimsically funny as her art.

Most artists think it’s “crass commercialism” to market
their works.

When I asked how she markets her art now, she told me that the biggest boon to her business has been her website. She sells her original pieces online along with signed limited edition prints, posters and notecards. Having that site has made all the difference to her business.

And then she told me her story….

Chris started drawing when she was 4 years old and just loved it. She never excelled in school and somehow flunked out at grade 9, so there wasn’t any college for her.

Chris Roberts-Antieau

She married young and had Noah, now 7 feet tall. Chris is 6 feet tall (a woman after my own heart). After her divorce, she struggled. She started making little figures for Noah and other Moms asked to buy them. She particularly remembers a piece that took her about 24 hours straight to make and sew. She sold it for $18.00 and was delighted. She started making more fiber art pieces and taking them to art fairs.

Her sense of humor comes through in her work, and she loves the mediocrity of Pop Culture so she pokes fun at it, herself, her pets.

At a show at the Smithsonian Institution, someone from the George W. Bush Administration bought a piece for the White House. Soon over 100 Galleries wanted her work. Now she has her own studio in Michigan and her own Gallery in New Orleans.

And she’s started working in acrylics.

So for all of us who make a living in marketing, Chris’s encouraging words:

1. 

   Antieau Gallery in New Orleans

   Price your product right. If she really loves a piece, she prices it high or hides it in the back of her studio. She also prices her pieces higher when she sees there is a demand for them.

2. She said “the essence of art is communication with the viewer”. It’s the same in our business which is why we find it amazing when we see ads that are nothing more than companies talking to themselves.
3. Don’t give up. If you can do it long enough, it will work out. I agree. Over my career, I‘ve seen dozens of marketers just give up when they’re on the brink of success (and that’s another story).

Whenever people visit my apartment for the first time, they comment on the Chris Roberts-Antieau piece hanging just inside the door and they ask about the artist. Well, she’s a lot more than an artist. She’s a wonderful human being and an inspiration.
It’s a long story! Please tell me yours, here (in a comment):