We asked, you responded and now we’ve listened! It’s the first rule of customer service and that’s exactly what we’ve done – we’ve taken on board the comments from you, our clients. The result is the unveiling of our ‘self-promotional tools’, which will help you grow your business, and in turn, ours.

This is something I’m quite excited and passionate about. Since 1996 we’ve partnered with our clients to help them achieve the best results possible. Now, we’re stretching that partnership to assist you in growing your business, even during times of economic uncertainty.

I believe it is during tough times that you should make an effort to talk with your customers, as there’s a strong chance your competitors have decided to reduce or cease their marketing efforts. You can do this too, using the self-promotional tools we’re making available to you over the coming months. These tools can be found at www.ibscards.com.au/selfpromotools.html

I hope you enjoy and find some useful marketing ideas in our new regular article, ‘Marketing Matters’ by our Marketing Manager, Kelly Smith.

Before I go, I’d just like to thank those clients who responded to the survey. By providing us with some feedback on what we’ve made available so far, you’re directing us to where we can help you even further in the future.

Good luck and don’t forget to tell us how your self-promotions are going!

Scott Siganto

Do you have a system in place that alerts you when six or 12 months have passed since a customer has placed an order? Our new management information system (MIS) allows us to do this. Furthermore, we are extending this capability to you.

Around the third week in every month, you will receive an email, with a list of the orders you placed with us six and 12 months ago. If you don’t receive an email from us, it means you didn’t place any orders with us for that period. For instance, last week you should have received a list of orders placed in February and August 2008.

These lists will allow you to contact your customers to see if they require a re-order, to offer any specials and to cross-sell other products. You may even be able to obtain information about your current customer service.

To help you further, some email content, a direct mail letter and three telemarketing scripts have been created and are available free-of-charge on our website. Visit www.ibscards.com.au/selfpromotools.html to download these.

Welcome to the first monthly article on marketing initiatives you can implement to help increase your sales. We are hoping to present a different idea to you each month, along with the tools to implement it. However, you don’t have to follow exactly what we suggest, you can try mixing it up a little or extending any of the initiatives longer than the four-week period.

To start with, we suggest you conduct a branding audit on your business. Have a look at your own company stationery, store layout and signage. Think about how you answer the phone, greet customers and follow up. Consider whether your business currently communicates your unique selling proposition (USP) in everything you do.

Are you saying what you really want your customers and prospects to know about you? Is there a better way you could be communicating your great prices, excellent service or fast turnaround times?

Here are some questions that may help you:

Do you contact your customers once six or 12 months has passed since they placed their order? (We have tools available here to help with this.)

How enticing is the design of your office or store?

Are you using as many tools as possible so customers can find out information about your business?

Do your marketing tools communicate your USP in a consistent manner?

What can you do to keep your business top-of-mind when your customers think about your USP? (Perhaps send a calendar!)

If you’d like to discuss anything marketing-related, feel free to send me an email kelly@ibscards.com.au or by calling 1800 062 550.

By now most of our clients would be aware of the great value offered by our stationery packs. Consisting of 1,000 letterheads, 1,000 ‘with compliments’ slips and 20 A5 notepads of 50 leaves, they cost you only $352. But have you thought about splitting the products between clients to add more margin or order them yourselves to give to your clients?

Stationery packs
As an example, let’s pretend that you have a customer who wishes to purchase letterhead and ‘with compliments’ slips, but has no use for the notepads. Why not offer the notepads to another customer and order the three products as a stationery pack? By ordering the pack, you save a whopping $143 (compared to buying each product separately). Furthermore, as you’re required to supply the artwork for each product, you can send orders through for different customers, as long as they’re all ordered at the same time and delivered to the same address.

Juliet pondered, “What’s in a name?”

We ask you, “What’s in a date?”

Well, for those born on 29 February in a leap year or 25 December, a date really is quite significant.

And that’s why calendars play an important part in most people’s lives – they’re referred to on a daily basis as reminders of events and activities.

This email is reminding you that there’s only days remaining to place your calendar orders, but you may already know that because you’ve marked it on your calendar.

Click here to see our prices, specifications and our ready-made templates that will save you time and money.

Ask every client you speak to this week, if they wish to capitalise on this opportunity of promoting their company name for an entire year…

And place your orders by the end of this week to benefit from these fantastic prices! Ring 1800 062 550 or email your order to sales@ibscards.com.au