Keep Hold of Your Existing Customers
By Mo Yusuff “Just popped out. Back in a few minutes.”
Helping You Grow Your Business
One morning last 2016 travelling to an Exhibitor Masterclass on the tube took me back to my Debenhams days when I would commute to work by tube.
By Mo Yusuff
A friend emailed me a story way back in 2016. It went something like this:
By Mo Yusuff
First it was the boiler last 2015. Then the dishwasher a month or so later. Two months ago in 2016 the washing machine packed up and a few weeks ago the same year is the fridge.
By Mo Yusuff
What started as an idea less than eight years ago has developed into one of the most amazing stories about breathtaking service, and not just giving people what they want but giving them more than they ever imagined possible.
By Mo Yusuff
You may have heard me banging on about customer service and how, good customer service just isn’t good enough.
By Mo Yusuff
When you’re working to deadlines its crucial to keep things moving forward.
By Mo Yusuff
Ever see a drunk walking? He knows exactly where he wants to go but his head is all jumbled up. His actions are not congruent with what his brain is telling him.
By Mo Yusuff
It’s very easy sometimes to mistake arrogance with confidence.
By Mo Yusuff
It’s very easy sometimes to try something and all too quickly, write it off as a failure because results haven’t materialised straight away.
If you have lapsed customers, in other words, people who have bought from you in the past, but for some reason does not buy from you now, then it’s good to have a strategy to tempt those customers back.
To persuade these customers to return, all it takes is an intelligent approach.
When developing your strategy, it’s essential to identify which past customers you’re keen to target. Maybe you’d like to contact those customers who were buying most often or those who were investing the most money.
If you have a big marketing budget, you might be tempted to throw your money around on many different marketing projects and see what sticks.
Although it’s obviously ideal to have a big budget, your money won’t last forever, so you still need to think intelligently about how to use your it, where to invest it and what’s more likely to work.
If you’ve ever wondered how potential prospects and potential customers are wooed, this might help to clear things up.
Although people can sometimes be hard to predict, there are factors and influences to which we are all susceptible.
Research has shown that there are six factors which influence us to say “Yes”. Here are these six factors, and how they may apply to your business:
In life, we’re all prone to the law of attraction. We seek out products and experiences that reflect who we are, and we attempt to build relationships with people who are similar to us. We all tend to surround ourselves with the ideas and the people who we feel share our values.
This also applies to business, where customers will gravitate towards companies and businesses who share their ethics, values, style, aims and sense of fun.
In order to make use of this, it’s very important for you to think about who your target market is…
The middle of the sales funnel is a very important time for attracting new clients. During this period, you work out which prospects are worth pursuing and which aren’t.
If you are able to grab attention at this pivotal time in the middle of the funnel, you’re in a great position to convert prospects into clients. To bridge the gap between initial intrigue and a big sale, it’s important to be intelligent and innovative.
Customer loyalty is one of the driving forces of a successful business. After all, repeat customers help to ensure that profits keep flowing.
It’s, therefore, a good idea to encourage this type of business by enticing your customers with incentives. Incentives encourage repeat business.
First of all, let’s consider the benefits of branded promotional products for customer loyalty schemes:
When funds are low in your business it can be tempting to cut corners and try to save costs any way you can.
In many ways, this is a useful approach and can help you prioritise, streamline and think sensibly. If you can save money, you’re in a good position to continue making profits.
That said, there are some areas in which you should avoid cutting corners, and this includes some aspects of advertising.
When you’re marketing your business, the bottom of your marketing funnel is an exciting time.
At the bottom of the funnel, you’ll have been wooing potential clients for some time. As you’ve invested time and money into the relationship, you really want to maximise the chances of getting them on board.
To achieve this, it’s important to think carefully and be innovative when devising your strategy. Using promotional products intelligently and strategically helps to impress prospects and encourage conversion.
Hiring a stand at a business expo is a tried and tested way of promoting your business.
Not only are business expos full of potential prospects waiting to be lured and lulled, but those prospects are brought right to you, meaning they don’t have to be tracked and trailed.
Expos draw together a huge audience all in one venue, allowing for you to make immediate and dynamic relationships. A captive audience if you like. But like any sales opportunity, it’s important to use expos effectively in order to properly profit from the opportunities they offer.
Clothing can be a fantastic way to increase brand awareness. The products you use to promote your business say a lot about who you are, what your business is and what you do. Branded clothing can say a lot!
You can brand all sorts of clothing merchandise:
There are a whole host of promotional products you can use to market your business. Great gifts such as good quality branded mugs, pens and notebooks are hugely popular and often effective.
However, if you want to make a real impression, it’s often better to do something a little different.
One way to do that is by sending branded food and drink to prospects. Most people love food and so you’re already on a winner! Plus, it’s an unusual approach and that’s the point. They won’t have seen it a hundred times before and are more likely to remember you.
There are lots of different options.
Branded promotional products are a fantastic way to create and maintain brand awareness.
We’ve already considered how to choose the right products to attract the right clients in a previous post, so in this post, we consider how to choose the right branded promotional products according to what you want those prospects to do.
It’s essential to think about the aim of your promotional drive.
If you’re considering a new marketing channel to help maximise your sales, profit and reputation, the first thing you need to consider is how you’re going to attract the right audience.
One of the best ways to do this is to use branded promotional products because they offer huge value and versatility.
The versatility of branded merchandise offers a perfect way to reach them. If your target audience do it, there’s a product to help them do it.
By Mo Yusuff
When your customers say great things about you, you know you must be doing something right. This is true, not just in the promotional products industry, but in any type of business.
The reality is most promotional products end up discarded and forgotten. Yep, that means wasted money and a damaged reputation.
Chosen well, promotional products can make your business stand out and help your audience remember your brand. They can also demonstrate the qualities you want to be associated with – high standards, innovation, success, etc.
You need the most effective promotional products to convey these qualities to your customers, prospects, or employees.
By Mo Yusuff
As you know, customer service is everything, especially in the promotional products industry.
Are you worried about making the same mistakes as your competitors when it comes to choosing the most effective promotional product to market your business?
Are you scared of investing your time and money in a promotional product that does not perform the way you need it to?
Well fear not, I’m going to introduce you to the 3 golden rules of how to choose the most effective promotional products to market your business.
By Mo Yusuff
It’s actually not that difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff.
By Mo Yusuff
It’s amazing just how most companies (and I mean most) – in promotional products industry and others – don’t have a clue when it comes down to customer service.
By Mo Yusuff
Believe it or not, being successful in business is not all about selling.
By Mo Yusuff
We are proud to say that we are good are choosing promotional products.
It’s easy to tell people how good you are and that’s fine, but why would they believe you?
Besides, you’re not going to say bad things about yourself. Are you?
Now, there are lots you can do to help people believe you’re as good as you are and something I saw just two days ago was definitely not one of them.
By Mo Yusuff
One of the most frustrating times in my life was when we had too many brown jumpers.
By Mo Yusuff
It’s not uncommon to encounter unreliable suppliers in the promotional products industry. Let me tell you a story.
By Mo Yusuff
There’s a shop not far from our old offices that probably made the one fatal mistake so many businesses make.
In fact, this shop isn’t a shop anymore. It’s an ex-shop or a shop that doesn’t sell anything anymore. The reason is so simple.
By Mo Yusuff
Why would you offer someone a discount when they’re happy to pay full price?
By Mo Yusuff
Do you know why Cadbury’s are not allowed to call their chocolate bars chocolate?
Basically it’s because. Technically, they are not chocolate.
By Mo Yusuff
How much is a customer or client worth to you?
If you’re not sure, here’s a really simple way to find out.
By Mo Yusuff
It’s so sad when change leaves a trail of destruction behind.
When it harms people and businesses to such an extent they never recover.
By Mo Yusuff
Keeping in touch with customers and clients is not just a nice thing to do. But it’s essential to the success and growth of any business.
Thanking your customers and clients for the business they give is also not just a nice thing to do – it’s the right thing to do.
By Mo Yusuff
You know those situations when something is so wrong you just can’t ignore it.
There was a time when I spent literally weeks and weeks suffering until eventually I just couldn’t take it anymore and just had to make my point known.
By Mo Yusuff
In the industry of promotional products, this question is very common: What do you mean you didn’t get my order?
Ever heard that before?
By Mo Yusuff
People’s buying habits have changed so much over the last decade or two. This should be considered in every industry and that includes in the industry of promotional products.
By Mo Yusuff
Funny how different people respond differently to the same message.
Take this email I sent out a very long time ago.
By Mo Yusuff
You know those mornings when you wake up feeling a bit…down?
There’s absolutely no reason you should feel that way and you can’t quite put your finger on the reason why.
Happened to me some time long ago after going to bed the night before all excited and fired up and promising myself Sunday was going to be a great day.
By Mo Yusuff
Ever start a day with every intension of getting lots done? Then something happens that you really didn’t expect and that’s it, game over for the rest of the day.
By Mo Yusuff
A friend of mine, Richard, has a glass splashback business. (You know, those glass panels you see in kitchens to stop fat and stuff messing up your wall or in bathrooms to stop water going everywhere when you take a shower?)
Now the reason for mentioning Richard is because of his sceptical reply to an email I sent him.
By Mo Yusuff
“We manufacture bike locks and I don’t suppose this is possible but I’m looking for some bottle opener keyrings in the shape of one of our products.”
By Mo Yusuff
“Wills, we have a marketing campaign coming up this summer and I need some t-shirts and mints.”
By Mo Yusuff
Ever have those times when you just can’t get it right?
Happened to me one time a couple of years ago and if it wasn’t for the eagle eyes and brilliant service of Pauline and Graham, the guys who print my newsletters, that one edition would have been a bit of a disaster.
By Mo Yusuff
Promotional products have a hand in proving that direct mail is alive kicking.
I can confirm and have proof that the reports of death are greatly exaggerated. Direct mail is alive and kicking and living in South London.
By Mo Yusuff
Two years ago, after sending an email about jobs and finding great promotional products, I received a reply from my eco warrior friend Martin, he said:
By Mo Yusuff
Did you know that you can win back a few of your lapsed customers with promotional products?
Yes, that’s true! Two years ago, we ran a lapsed campaigned that worked well for us. It may not work for everyone but, like most things in life, you’ll never know until you try.
By Mo Yusuff
You know those moments when you glance at something and can’t believe your eyes?
What you see seems so ridiculous, so bizarre. It just can’t be true! Then you realise it is and you really want to tell everyone about it.
By Mo Yusuff
Let me talk about a sales strategy that is also being done with promotional products.
Would you like fries with that?
The simple phrase heard at just about every McDonald’s is an example of an upsell that has sold millions more fries each year.
By Mo Yusuff
Bad service is never excusable. Ever. Especially in the industry of promotional products.
What’s even worse than bad service is when a company doesn’t accept its service is so bad.
By Mo Yusuff
To be absolutely honest, football is not my game. So when I heard on the radio one morning years ago the words “7 – 1 defeat” and “the worst moment of his career,” I thought, “That’ll be someone like the USA getting thrashed by, probably, Brazil.”
By Mo Yusuff
Ever been hit by the rule of reciprocation?
There was a time I was caught hook, line and sinker and didn’t even realise until it was too late.
The rule of reciprocation, as explained by Robert Cialdini in his brilliant book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion says:
By Mo Yusuff
I’ve talked about using promotional products as “thank you” gifts already but here’s another reason why you should do it.
By Mo Yusuff
Challenge Mo tasks can be quite tricky and sometimes takes hours and hours of hard work to find the perfect promotional products for somebody.
By Mo Yusuff
I remember, two years ago, I was in the gym on the cross trainer and something on the screen stopped me in my tracks and had me scrambling for my phone to make notes.
By Mo Yusuff
It seems banks, like our promotional products, are on a different planet.
By Mo Yusuff
Ever heard the phrase, “He’s so lucky, he’s always winning.” or something along those lines?
By Mo Yusuff
You ever had a job you really disliked doing?
A job you struggled to get out of bed in the mornings to go to?
Before I started in this fantastic world of involves promotional products, I experienced having that kind of job.
By Mo Yusuff
Fancy over £780 worth of research, information gathering and sampling for free?
By Mo Yusuff
Do your clients ever use the words, “Oh my god” repeatedly every 45 seconds?
Or even, “You completely blew me away”?
By Mo Yusuff
I love my local cinema.
It’s been there for donkey’s years, but it hasn’t always been as rosy as it is now, and for a very good reason.
By Mo Yusuff
Promotional power banks are favourite promotional products of mine.
By Mo Yusuff
Doing the same old stuff day after day can get really boring.
By Mo Yusuff
A dazzling display of brilliant marketing was performed in front of the whole world back in 2014 and dozens – if not hundreds of companies – had a bumper couple of months because of it.
By Mo Yusuff
Loyal customers are very important to every business, so finding a way to make them come back to you is crucial. You’d be surprised at how promotional products can effectively ensure repeat businesses for you.
By Mo Yusuff
Let me tell you about the time I failed miserably.
In fact, I not only failed, I blew it big time.
By Mo Yusuff
His sales pitch was just a bit too long and he blew it.
By Mo Yusuff
I’ve been watching films on Amazon Prime for a while now (ever since my two tellies gave up and went to telly heaven) and it’s great that I can watch films for free or next to nothing in the comfort of my own home.
By Mo Yusuff
Sending promotional products as thank you gifts can touch people’s feelings. But that’s not all they can do? They also make your customers come back to you.
By Mo Yusuff
Did you know that the longer you can wait for your promotional products, the more options there are available to you? So if you have something coming up later in the year, why wait? Let’s get things moving now and you’ll be amazed at what we’ll come up with.
By Mo Yusuff
Have you ever been faced with a project and don’t really know where to start.
It could be something you’ve done before and, although the easy option would be to do the same as you did last time, you want to do it even better.
By Mo Yusuff
How many companies would try and stop you buying something from them?
Not many I’d imagine, so when one of my team says “I don’t want you to have that” to a client, it can take them a bit by surprise.
By Mo Yusuff
From time to time, we are tasked to look for the most unique promotional products out there. Even if it’s hard, it’s great fun hunting for new ideas.
By Mo Yusuff
Figures are fundamental to the success of every business.
By Mo Yusuff
Having grown up in a world before personal computers or in fact anything hi tech, the speed at which new technology is changing the way we do things completely blows my mind (especially when I see these developments on promotional products!).
By Mo Yusuff
Success in business is all about promoting yourself and your products.
By Mo Yusuff
Don’t you just love new technology? Even promotional products aren’t saved from this phenomenon.
By Mo Yusuff
There’s no doubt investing in promotional products can help you grow your business, but a lot of companies do it all wrong and lose out.
By Mo Yusuff
Some advice I was given a while ago was this: whenever you buy something, choose the highest quality you can afford and usually, the more you spend, the less the headache and the more you save in the long run.
This is true with promotional products and, actually, with anything.
By Mo Yusuff
Here’s a story I heard a couple of years ago – it made me laugh so much I wasn’t about to keep it to myself – that somehow demonstrate why you should always consult experts before doing something.
By Mo Yusuff
Experiencing great service – not only in the promotional products industry – is something most people love to share.
By Mo Yusuff
Finding promotional products that’re different is dead easy.
There are literally thousands out there so finding them is never a challenge.
What the real challenge is though is finding the promotional products that do the job you want them to, the items that solve the problem.
By Mo Yusuff
Frank Perdue loved chicken.
He worked in the family chicken business in Salisbury, Maryland, USA and took over from his father as President in 1952.
At that time chickens were a commodity product, there were no brands, just supermarket chiller-cabinets full of frozen chickens.
By Mo Yusuff
One of the things I bang on about all the time is my 3 golden rules when investing in promotional products.
If you don’t know them, I’ll share them with you now:
By Mo Yusuff
Watching an old film one Sunday night back in July 2014 made me realise how making things – like finding unusual promotional products – seem so easy and effortless, takes a lot of hard work, pain and discomfort.
By Mo Yusuff
Ever done something really daft? Something so dippy but so funny you really don’t mind people knowing?
Here’s something that happened to me a long time ago and something that still makes me smile when I think back.
By Mo Yusuff
Aside from earning money, us in the promotional products industry also aim to make our clients happy. It’s no different in other existing industries like the transportation industry.
By Mo Yusuff “Just popped out. Back in a few minutes.”
One morning last 2016 travelling to an Exhibitor Masterclass on the tube took me back to my Debenhams days...
By Mo Yusuff A friend emailed me a story way back in 2016. It went something like this:
The Kuro Rollerball is a stylish promotional pen made from chrome undercoat.
Supplied with black refills as standard, you can have your company logo printed or engraved on the four different branding positions and have them delivered to you in two weeks or less.
Click the image to find out more
