Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Stephen-

Believe it or not, direct mail works great on me. As long as it is unique and creative. I'm always looking for new ideas and new mediums. If you wow me with a great/clever design piece and then a sample, I will usually take the time to look at it.

Another technique that seems to work on me for some reason is a invitation type direct mail that offers a free starbucks card or barnes and noble card for taking the time to meet with them. The starbucks card was $20 and the b & n card was $40. I took the time to view both presentations. One I bought services from, the other I didn't, but referred someone else who could use their services to them. In my eyes, both of those sales calls were winners. The key to this is that you only give the cards after the presentation.

The b&n card was pretty unique and I was actually able to purchase a couple marketing books with it! AND I remember the company that gave it to me. Pretty effective direct mail if you ask me!

So check with the AAAA and see if you can get a list of agencies to mail the piece to and you are off and running.

Good luck!
Jeff

As an Agency, we are inundated with printers- does that mean there is no room for a good quality printer-NO-

It is quite imperative you open the door to creative director and the managing partner with a "catchy" direct mail piece----since they are an agency it must be a great creative, quality piece----next follow up with another direct mail piece, a little more compelling with your message than the first - NEXT make that phone call, offer samples, direct them to your site.

Make certain you have your value propositions in order---- simply price will not do it ---no good agency will change printers strictly on price----it is their reputation at stake with the client not yours!

Offer to meet face to face if possible---develop the relationship with direct mail, email, and offers to provide some prime deals to earn their trust ----give them an extra overrun----offer to do their in-house letterhead or a collateral piece free of charge to show your abilities for their clientsAgencies love this over price!!

Ofer to do a few pieces for their lobby or conference room of thie past work in poster form- mounted - Agencies love this. It also shows your ability to do qualit work.

Also agencies love printers who offer the agency a hidden discount - remember this- offer a quarterly credit based on their volume.

Here is a good way to get a listing for prime agencies:
https://www.adweek.com/aw/directories/about.jsp#adweek

Another good tool to get names:https://www.productionhub.com/directory/listings.asp?section_id=7&cat_id=119

Join the DMA and go to trade shows first as a visitor then as an exhibitor. Collect contacts, contacts, contacts.


Hope these help you.

Good Luck & Happy Marketing ~ Bill

A local large format agency had an open house with finger food and drinks from 4pm until 7pm. They invited current clients and prospects to come and take a look at their facility. When we got there, the sales rep took us on a tour of the facility and showed us the different equipment, different materials, printed jobs, jobs currently being printed and generally how the process worked. Though this was more of a social event, I did think of them first when I had a job that suited their shop.