Editor's Note: As part of Marketing Month, we're revisiting some of our best, and most importantly timeless, articles of marketing advice.
When the marketing team at Anthony Wilder Design/Build met with consultant Linda Case several years ago about analyzing the company’s quarterly newsletters, Case advised them to make the publications more client-centric by including tips for homeowners.
“In addition to changing the newsletter format, we decided to include a gift,” says Danielle Frye, marketing director at the Cabin John, Md., company. The first gift — matchbooks of herb seeds — came naturally. The matchbooks had originally been purchased for owner Anthony Wilder’s talk at a garden club, but had never been given out to the participants.
Subsequent gifts have included pencils and mesh grocery/produce bags and, more recently, a leaf cord tie and silicone leaf bookmark (pictured above). Gifts have to meet several criteria that reflect the company culture: they must be small, eco-friendly, well-designed, whimsical, and inexpensive.
Of the gifts sent to-date, the pencils didn’t quite meet all the criteria, and the company has since been careful to seek out items that do.
In each newsletter, AWDB includes a note explaining why the company is including a particular gift and where clients can purchase more of them. Frye usually contacts the manufacturer to see if she can arrange a discount for clients with a promotional code, but since the company does not have a large base of clients, many manufactuerers do not see the benefit. “We haven’t had great luck with that,” Frye admits. The company did receive a discount for the cord ties and herb seed matchbooks and tracked if clients used the promotional code. Only a handful used the code to purchase additional products.
Frye advises remodelers to put thought into “finding something that speaks to your company and what you are known for.”
—Nina Patel is a senior editor at REMODELING. Find her on Twitter at @SilverNina or @RemodelingMag.
Want to join the conversation? Use #RMMarketingMonth on Facebook and Twitter!
