How Your Fellow Marketers Do It Right
Winning sales & marketing best practices developed and deployed by installing security contractors across North America highlight the 17th Annual SAMMY Awards. Which companies took home the trophy hardware and what set them apart is detailed here. Takeaway tips and advice abound.
Protection 1
Best Display Advertisement
Sponsored by Visonic
Hooking Customers With a ‘Call to Action’
When Protection 1 set out to design a display ad geared toward communicating the solutions it unveiled at ASIS 2011, a key goal was to achieve call-to-action effectiveness. Mission accomplished: The ad was placed in several industry publications, online and distributed via E-mail. Of the nearly 700 E-mails sent to ASIS attendees, P1 says it received more than 4,000 clicks and thousands of national account brochure downloads.
SAMMY judges gave the ad high marks for its word economy and tidy typography, which allowed for an uncluttered, easy-to-read presentation. Text in the ad quickly communicates the four product offerings introduced at ASIS and provides contact information for P1’s senior vice president of sales, plus directs readers to the Web for more information.
To further support the ad’s call to action, a QR code was implemented. Short for “quick response,” these increasingly ubiquitous barcodes contains data that can be read by a smartphone camera and generate vendor contact information, product information, links to Web sites, etc.
Jamie Haenggi, chief marketing & customer experience officer, for Romeoville, Ill.-based P1, doesn’t believe QR codes are requisite elements in display ads, but they do show a certain level of digital savvy on the marketer’s part, she says.
There is also the question of whether to continue committing marketing budget dollars to traditional display ads with so many consumers now getting their information online and on Web-enabled mobile devices. “Display ads vs. digital ads are really a matter of your audience. People still take in media the good old fashioned way, turning the pages of a magazine or newspaper,” Haenggi says. “So reaching your customers where they are is the most important aspect of selecting your advertising medium, and your budget!”
Protection 1
Best Company Newsletter
Sponsored by Tri-Ed/Northern Video
Connecting Readers to the Company Brand and Family
An effective newsletter can produce many benefits, including building brand awareness, improving reputation and credibility, and keeping customers informed about your company.
By and large, the newsletters that clientele remember most are the ones that provide them with useful advice. For instance, installing security contractors may want to include an ongoing series of quick tips that help readers out at home. Perhaps include a basic guide to home safety when on vacation or even appliance energy usage. This type of informative content doesn’t necessarily have to relate to your business or service offerings. It simply and efficiently serves to strengthen the company brand by garnering a loyal following of readers.
Another useful tool to build relationships with readers is by highlighting lots of photos. If your company participated in a community fundraiser, then sh
are it with your customers in a photo essay. Other beneficial features include an employee of the month program, and incorporating photos of your customers helps build loyalty too.
This personalized touch is what helped sway SAMMY judges to elevate Protection 1’s internal company 1VOICE newsletter above other entries. Jamie Haenggi, chief marketing & customer experience officer, for Romeoville, Ill.-based P1, notes a key aspect to the success of a newsletter is to keep it focused on the target audience. For 1VOICE that would be individual P1 employees and teams.
“Feedback has been that this helps keep people connected across the company and feeling like part of a team versus just their local office team,” she says.
1VOICE is produced twice monthly and distributed via E-mail, printed form and linked to from P1’s internal Web site. “Much of the content is employee generated as it comes from people excited to share what they are doing,” Haenggi says.
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