Whether you’re #withher or #greatagain, there’s something every floral industry marketer can learn from the respective successes of both presidential contenders. According to seasoned marketing executive Michael Bassik of MDC Partners, every election cycle provides lessons marketers can incorporate into their own campaigns — not the least of which is that unconventional tactics (think: Trump’s ditching traditional paid media for free media interviews and Twitter posts) can work just as well as the conventional ones (think: Clinton’s widespread television campaign).
Bassik offers a few lessons from the campaign that apply to all kinds of marketing:
Every impression counts.
“Every hand shaken, baby kissed, event attended and door knocked is a chance to influence a vote and change the fate of your campaign,” Bassik writes. Same goes for the customers who walk in your store: Each team member has the opportunity to create a customer for life. Customer service and sales trainer Tim Huckabee, of Floral Strategies, is a big believer in first impressions — check out his missives on the topic here.
Get personal with emails.
Emails from political campaigns this season sound like a cross between a letter to a friend and a supermarket circular. “They fall somewhere in between, mixing personal messages with a single, personalized call to action,” Bessick says. Exhibit A, an email from Clinton: “When I think about why I’m running for president, I always come back to one person: my mother.” The email ends with: “Michael, can you chip in $187 today?”
On top of that, emails from Clinton and Trump are light on graphics and include their signature and just one call to action based on prior actions.
The lesson for you? Stop the mass emailing and consider a more personalized approach – your VIP customers get one version (“Barb, we just got a shipment of your favorite buds”); those who haven’t bought in a while get another (“Jamie, we miss seeing you.”)
Customers will pay to promote your brand.
From “limited edition” tshirts designed by fashion icons to the world’s most famous hat, both presidential candidates have raised millions while “turning supporters into walking billboards,” Bessick writes.
Create that kind of passion in customers and you might find that (with an attractive design) they’d be happy to spend $20 to parade your brand around town — as plenty of customers of King Florist, featured in the April issue of Floral Management do.
