Sometimes you want people talking about you every day. Sometimes, you need them to talk about you every so often — once a month, once a year, or when someone asks.
If you sell something like flooring, you want your customers to remember your name for a long time. When a friend asks a customer where to go, you want that customer to have your name top of mind, even if the floors were installed years ago.
Quality Carpet One in Northern Virginia does a great job of this by giving customers a gift bag full of things that they will keep and display. (And everything has a logo, of course.) You’ll put the thermometer on the wall and the emergency contact list on your fridge.
Does the stuff you give out stick around long enough to generate a referral?
Good post, Andy. We give out small bottles of honey @theKbuzz – obivously because our logo is a bee, we help create and sustain buzz, etc – but less obviously, because it has a very long shelf life in people’s cabinets
Giveaways are always an ROI concern. What will the client keep? What will they throw away or give to their kids? What will they keep in their decision environment (office, car, home, etc.) How do you track the responses, opportunities, calls or sales if several items are included all having the same tracking code or phone number.
Hi Andy. I like the concept of handing out lagniappe and I am glad to see someone writing about it. Hopefully these items do hang around the home or office, but more importantly you have given your client a gift or token to show your appreciation. Roger, John Scully said, “No great marketing decisions have ever been made on quantitative data.” I believe this to be true. Marketing is based on emotion. Andy, thanks for the post and the conversation! Christine