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 You either have, or shortly will be receiving one of our 2016 Marketing Calendars. This is an amazing tool that’s designed to help you plan your marketing for the year. 

Each month the calendar lists out all the popular holidays that you can use to increase response. That may seem simple, but holidays should be an important part of your focus.  Have you ever heard of the Collier Concept?

Robert Collier was an early 20th century author that was well published in the ‘self-help’ niche. He was also a master salesman on paper, and one of his greatest revelations came in a book he wrote, “The Robert Collier Letter Book.” One of his primary principles is that in all your marketing you have to, “Tap into the conversation already going on in your prospect’s head.” 

If you’ve followed my past articles, you know I’ve referenced Dan Kennedy several times, and I consider him to be the Godfather of Direct Response Marketing. He’s known for doing an exercise where he’d have students write out a description of their favorite TV character. Most people have no problem filling up a whole page.

Then, on a separate piece of paper he’d have them write a full page about their ideal customer/prospect. Most folks can’t get past a couple sentences. This exercise demonstrates just how difficult it is to write copy that relates to everyone. That’s why holidays are so important – everyone is impacted by them.

When you tie events to holidays that everyone is familiar with (tap into the conversation going on in their heads), people respond at a higher level. Therefore, you can get more traffic in the store, and sell more products.

Along these same lines, it’s essential that you substantiate the reason for your marketing. If you’re having an event or a sale, you have to validate the ‘why’, or your marketing will be less impactful. Folks in today’s world are more educated and skeptical than they’ve ever been, and you don’t want them to think ‘you’re just trying to sell them something’. 

I mentioned having a ‘sale’ above, but I want to be clear that I don’t recommend them. While they’re extremely popular, promoting a sale/discount actually makes your marketing incredibly less effective, and it’s a race to the bottom. 

If you sent direct mail to 5,000 customers promoting new & used inventory specials,  only a very small percentage of that 5,000 are in ‘buy a bike’ mode, so you’re not tapping into the conversation going on in their heads. You can actually train customers and prospects to ignore your marketing because it doesn’t relate to them. It’s not the conversation going on their head right now.

Even if you were to include a discount for each department, you’re still alienating well over 90% of the folks you’re marketing to and missing out on a great opportunity to build loyalty with them. 

In the calendar we also provide several samples of the creative we’ve used for our Sharp Shooter program during each month. Whether you choose a theme that’s listed, or we create a custom design for you, we want you to know that our team of marketing experts is ready to generate a positive R.O.I. on your marketing dollars. We’ll generate traffic in the store so you can sell. We’ll also create a list of responses/leads who give you their contact information and tell you what they want to buy. 

Be sure you utilize this powerful tool. It’s a roadmap to growing your business and having a prosperous 2016. 

If you don’t already have one of Powersports Marketing’s 2016 Marketing Calendars, call us at 1-877-242-4472 right now and we’ll send you one at no charge.