Imagery Matters. Think about it.

Good marketing should reflect the benefits that your product/service offers consumers. It should be simple but memorable, comfortable and unexpected. All business owners generally want the same thing; profitability. The ambitious ones recognize that to generate demand, they need to reach, connect with, and nurture a customer base. This is when many take a stab at what we call marketing. Yes, the water is warm, please jump in folks. But first, you should fully consider all the elements of that customer relationship.

How do you initially reach them? How do you keep in touch with them? Are you easy and pleasant to interact with? Meaning not just you, the human being, but your website, your parking lot, and your billing department. Who are you, what is the whole experience of interacting with you like and what is the augmented benefit that you have to offer? Even a commodity, like dry cleaning, can differentiate themselves with things like branding and more importantly, the cornerstone of any business, customer service.

All the time I see companies that are making an attempt (that’s the first step!) to connect but need go back to the marketing lab before shouting Eureka. Here’s an example of a direct mail piece from a local “emergency pet care clinic,” that needs a little help!

Problem #1. How do you know I have a pet? Problem #2. Your name is scary. Names can be overlooked, and relate directly to your brand. If you’re name is “Emergency Pet Care Clinic,” your prospects are envisioning running red lights at 90 miles an hour with poor Fluffy in the back seat impaled with a foreign object. Your name is part of an experience that people don’t want to have. (NOTE: I’ve later found out this Emergency Pet Clinic is part of a larger practice called, West Chester Veterinary Medical Center. Well, why didn’t you say so???)

Problem #3 This piece’s problems are furthered by the imagery. Your customers are pet lovers who come to you to keep their pet healthy, then go home and rub their bellies, throw a ball in the backyard, go for a walk. These are the real benefits of your service. Don’t show photos of doctors in scrubs operating on some unidentifiable and presumably four legged patient. Really, no one wants to see that. Oh, and the card is red. Not a good color for anything medical related.

Problem #4 TMI. Delivering too much information to people before they want it or ask for it is annoying. Don’t list services that your audience may or may not be interested in. At this point in your relationship with someone, it doesn’t matter whether or not you do diagnostics and ultrasounds. You want to introduce yourself, or reintroduce whatever it is your offering, and then be prepared for the follow up in the event one of your recipients is interested. If someone wants to investigate your specific offerings, they’ll check your website, which you did include. Nice work.

Thanks for keeping those puppies healthy and cute!