by admin | Dec 16, 2011 | Blog
If you have a small budget and your marketing agency is suggesting email marketing – consider the benefits of a direct mail piece instead. The payoff between the better marketing tool can make the difference.
The main difference is that direct mail is considered a more acceptable form of communication for new leads, especially if you have a great offer. Whilst email is a cost effective was of keeping in touch with people who know and love you, but is often dismissed as spam when it arrives in the email inbox of a prospect.
If you have a decent budget, then hedge your bets and do both! But, if you don’t then you have to know the facts before you make your decision
At qubePartners, a marketing agency and advertising agency, all in one, we understand that you can’t have it all, on a small budget. So we suggest that to really get your brand noticed, consider the old fashioned way – snail/direct mail. The rationale is quite simple.
• Firstly, you are putting your brand in the hands of your target market.
• Secondly, it engages all the senses, plus addressed mail has an emotional component (i.e. it’s addressed to me, I feel special).
• And lastly, the letterbox is the least cluttered promotional channel. The inbox is full and the letterbox is quite empty!
On a small budget, it makes sense to look for a channel that is less cluttered, allows for a high degree of creativity and has a far higher chance of getting noticed. A direct mail that ends up in the bin was read first!
by admin | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog, Strategy
If you’ve realised you can’t do all your marketing and advertising in-house, take action now.
It’s quarter 4 already and your plans for 2012 should be signed off and ready to implement. Most budgeting and marketing plan development for 2012 normally happens around September. But, it’s not too late.
The key to getting your marketing sorted is being a priority to the marketing agency and advertising agency that you plan to use. Before selecting an agency, consider this…
Are you going to be a big or small client to the agency? The truth is, if you are just a small account, you might not be a priority.
Choose an agency that is of a comparable size to your business. This way you will get the service you deserve, the attention you need and the outcomes you expect. At qubePartners, a marketing consultancy and advertising agency, all in one, we work with many small to medium size businesses that need a partner in marketing and advertising. Our business is an extension of yours and functions as your marketing department.
It’s about resourcing and experience, we have both! So, don’t think that using a big agency is the answer; firstly, they will charge you like a large corporate but will put your account down the priority list, because your business is small. It just doesn’t make any sense.
When you are too small to matter to the big boys, you’ll matter at our agency and we’ll make a big difference to your marketing results.
by admin | Dec 9, 2011 | Blog, Strategy
Is your brief, too brief?
We are not talking about showing too much skin, but we are talking about improving your bottom line.
When you measure the success of your marketing project it is dependent on how well your marketing agency met your expectations. But, how do they know what you are expecting? It’s all in the brief!
Consider a dating site, you fill in the questionnaire and it doesn’t ask you some critical questions…what’s the likelihood that on your first date you’ll end up with Mr/Mrs. Right? Highly unlikely! Asking the right questions, leads to the right outcomes.
So, it makes sense that if you only tell your marketing agency half of what you really want them to do, they will never be able to fully meet your expectations. You don’t set out to withhold information from your marketing agency, but if they don’t ask all the right questions…. it’s not surprising that they won’t know your full expectations.
Take the situation of a B2B company, perhaps one with a smaller budget, chances are they have only ever completed a handful of briefs to agencies. Brief writing is hard to do and takes experience to master. At qubePartners, a marketing agency and advertising agency, all in one, we assume that our clients need guidance with completing their briefs. Our briefs are specific and detailed; they are simple, yet comprehensive and all online.
In many cases, the first step with our clients is not receiving a brief; we undertake a marketing audit or brand health check, a review of all existing communication and how effective it’s been or ineffective. Then we work on their advertising or creative brief collaboratively to reach a better return on investment.
Make sure that when using a marketing agency, they know you and your brand inside and out, and if the brief seems too brief, then it probably is!
See qubePartners resources for all briefing needs…
by admin | Jan 6, 2011 | Blog
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, services firms wanted more customers.
Without time or skills they wasted money on websites, collateral, and marketing in general, actually repelling prospects and making sales people’s jobs harder.
Like sand in an hourglass, opportunities passed. One day they found the lost wisdom of Peter Drucker, who said: “business is about two things and two things only; marketing and innovation”, but marketing and selling were becoming increasingly complex due to media fragmentation, increased competition and clients with A.D.D.
Copywriters, designers, SEO experts were engaged, budgets spent, yet they still weren’t getting results. They were missing out on “big picture” strategy and creative. Well meaning specialists lived in silos without the necessary skills to teach them that their brand was their biggest asset; not a logo, or their look and feel. They heard of Coco Chanel who coined a phrase “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different”, and learned that their brand was what their customers thought, felt and said about them and this made sense.
Told to go to a “professional” advertising agency to develop their brand, they heard that awareness is key, from the Account Director who walked out the door to attend a long lunch with blue chip clients, never to be heard from again. Serviced by juniors who had little experience but a great desire to work on a more glamorous account, our heroes, from I.T., HR, accounting and law, to name a few, were still busy and stressed, and now confused by the jargon used to “impress” them. Meetings with pretty young things, free tickets to events, cool parties came and went.
When they took charge of their own brand and understood the basic principles of branding, they discovered what made them truly unique, learned how to communicate effectively and within 6 months had increased sales. They focused on what they did best and made their customers happy, increasing their profits and enjoying life. But that’s the end of the story and we are only at the beginning…
by admin | Jan 6, 2011 | Blog, Strategy
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, services firms wanted more customers.
Without time or skills they wasted money on websites, collateral, and marketing in general, actually repelling prospects and making sales people’s jobs harder.
Like sand in an hourglass, opportunities passed. One day they found the lost wisdom of Peter Drucker, who said: “business is about two things and two things only; marketing and innovation”, but marketing communication and selling were becoming increasingly complex due to media fragmentation, increased competition and clients with A.D.D.
Copywriters, designers, SEO experts were engaged, budgets spent, yet they still weren’t getting results. They were missing out on “big picture” branding strategy and creative. Well meaning specialists lived in silos without the necessary skills to teach them that their brand was their biggest asset; not a logo, or their look and feel. They heard of Coco Chanel who coined a phrase “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different”, and learned that their brand was what their customers thought, felt and said about them and this made sense.
Told to go to a “professional” advertising agency to develop their brand, they heard that awareness is key, from the Account Director who walked out the door to attend a long lunch with blue chip clients, never to be heard from again. Serviced by juniors who had little experience but a great desire to work on a more glamorous account, our heroes, from I.T., HR, accounting and law, to name a few, were still busy and stressed, and now confused by the jargon used to “impress” them. Meetings with pretty young things, free tickets to events, cool parties came and went.
When they took charge of their own brand and understood the basic principles of branding strategy, they discovered what made them truly unique, learned how to communicate effectively and within 6 months had increased sales. They focused on what they did best and made their customers happy, increasing their profits and enjoying life. But that’s the end of the story and we are only at the beginning…
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