image compliments www.africaknows.com
One word you can bet big brands will temporarily adopt into their vocabulary during this year’s festive marketing season is ‘discounts’. You will see it online, hear it on radio, watch it on TV. No problem, you as an SME owner are free to follow the pack, problem is unlike the big brands, you can’t afford the mass media advertising rates that will also allow you to peddle your holiday discounts to your customers.
As yesterday’s social gaming post outlined, a lack of a deep bank account shouldn’t discourage you from promoting your SME’s value proposition. In fact, this situation should force you to be creative. Email marketing is another inexpensive tool you can use to position your SME as a 2011 holiday discount contender.
Contact list
We will assume you have been communicating regularly with your customers via email since 2011 began. One of the results of this back and forth communication is that you have created familiarity, trust and a rapport. The other result is that your holiday discounts emails won’t end up in your customers’ spam folders. Good.
You will need to decide the percentage of discounts you will offer your customers. Will they have to order online (the better) to qualify for the discounts or will they have to call you? Set a deadline for the discounts offer. Encourage them to forward the discounts emails to their friends, associates, etc. Consider awarding a goodie bag to the customer who refers the highest number of new customers because of forwarding the original holiday discounts email. Keep the emails brief and the subject title precise.
This being the festive marketing season, you will have to design your emails to reflect the holiday mood. If you lack design skills you will have to hire a freelance designer to do that. You can download excellent email design tips from Demographica, a digital database marketing company.
Email marketing in Kenya isn’t given the thumbs it deserves. It’s inexpensive. It’s targeted. It’s measurable. It could just be Kenyan SMEs’ most potent weapon this festive season.
