The Rebates are Coming! The Rebates are Coming! 7 Ways to Stimulate Your Business’s Economy
This past week the so-called “Economy Stimulus” tax rebate checks started to go out. Some of you with direct deposit may have already received your little slice of the pie.
I sure hope this is a good thing for catalogers!
It would be a shame if all the good citizens out there in the U.S. decide to use their windfall for something like paying off bills and paying down the all-time high consumer debt we’ve racked up.
Nah! Won’t happen! We’re a nation that loves to consume, so I think catalogers are OK.
In the meantime, I sincerely hope you’re factoring in said rebates into your marketing plans. If not, here are some last-minute tips to help you stimulate our economy.
1. Create a special e-mail campaign with the U.S. flag or in good old red, white and blue with a special discount to folks using their rebate checks.
2. Change your homepage to do the same. Forget your company’s color palette for a few weeks, and fly Ole Glory on your homepage with the copy, “Economic Stimulus Rebate Checks Accepted HERE.”
3. OK, so while Nos. 1 and 2 above are tongue-in-cheek (or maybe a bit snarky), you can certainly fit them within your own branding and make them work.
4. Make sure your call-center representatives have a great inbound offer to make when customers call.
5. Use outbound telemarketing to make contact with your customers and offer them rebate specials.
6. Get some package inserts printed — there are printers who can turn this around quickly for you — with a special rebate offer. Insert them into your outbound shipments ASAP.
7. If you’re about to go to press on a catalog run, quickly get a dot whack printed and have it affixed to your cover.
Jim Gilbert has had a storied career in direct and digital marketing resulting in a burning desire to tell stories that educate, inform, and inspire marketers to new heights of success.
After years of marketing consulting, Jim decided it was time to “put his money where his mouth was" and build his own e-commerce company, Premo Natural Products, with its flagship product, Premo Guard Bed Bug & Mite Sprays. Premo in its second year is poised to eclipse 100 percent growth.
Jim has been writing for Target Marketing Group since 2006, first on the pages of Catalog Success Magazine, then as the first blogger for its online division. Jim continues to write for Total Retail.
Along the way, Jim has led the Florida Direct Marketing Association as their Marketing Chair and then three-term President, been an Adjunct Professor of Direct and Digital marketing for Miami International University, and created a lecture series, “The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing,” which he has presented across the country at conferences and universities.
