Fundraising letter challenge: limited funds, running out of stock, time, and energy
Scott Newman came to Moxie Media seeking help with a daunting task he and his wife, Ginny, were undertaking for his District 18 Senate fundraising campaign. They were manually printing and addressing a letter that included a remittance form insert to their strong GOP address list. They would process about 60-80 per day, completed over 600, and had about 7000 more to go! Needless to say, they were overwhelmed and questioning if this was a good use of their limited time. By this time, Scott was getting down on supply of his preprinted letterhead, remittance envelopes, and mailing envelopes. Time was running out because Scott needed all the remaining 7000 letters sent within 2 weeks. Scott also had to guard the limited funds he had to work with for this and other election campaigns. Scott knew he needed help but wasn’t sure what could be done to work through these issues.
The Creative and Practical Solution
Our team came up with the proposal to take Scotts existing 3-piece mailer and combine it all into a single 2-color 8.5” X 14” self-mailing folded layout. This approach cut the cost down considerably. We re-purposed Scott’s letter content so the key points caught the reader’s attention. We pulled the right resources together to confidently get the job done. We worked with Ginny to produce an address list for the remaining targeted addressees and that was formatted suitable for the mail house’s requirements. The job was completed within 2 weeks of Scott coming to our office and we stayed within Scott’s limited budget constraints!
“Scott was relieved that Moxie Media understood what he was trying to do, pleased that Moxie Media was willing and capable of delivering a positive, viable, cost effective solution to his fatiguing problem.
He was very pleased that the design and development of the project was completed almost over night.
Scott felt that Moxie Media wanted his business, Ellen and LuAnn kept Scott’s cost request always in mind, and provided excellent and personable service”.
Ginny Newman
“I was in desperate need of a company to provide me with marketing tools to accommodate the growth and development of our company. I was referred to Moxie Media by a close associate. During our consultation, the representative listened to my marketing needs and was able to show me actual examples of products. I am impressed with their quick and accurate job performance. I was concerned with the cost, as we have little funds for marketing, but I was pleasantly surprised as it wasn’t what I expected. The cost for the design and products were reasonable. Moxie Media is a must for all companies looking to promote good professional marketing tools.”
-Jodi Evenson, CEO e2 Electrical Services Inc
e2 Electrical integrated marketing components
We were first introduced to e2 Electric July 23rd at their stunning office located just east of Hutchinson on Hwy 7E. We met with co-owner and CEO, Jodi Evenson to learn about their company and how Moxie Media could support their needs.
Jodi was preparing for a big event to recognize two major milestones for the company; the Grand Opening of their new facility and their 5th Anniversary in business. She was looking for ideas.
Jodi commented that their business cards were outdated and need a new look. She also wanted help with updated letterhead, getting a website presence and some merchandise for the event. Jodi was looking forward to revising their branding to something more professional and consistent with the new office atmosphere. We gathered her feedback and one of our designers created multiple business card design concepts for her to review. Jodi quickly narrowed down her choice and provided her input for revisions. Before long we had a business card design that she and co-owner, Justin, liked and approved.
The look and feel of the business card set the tone for the other projects that followed; including the letterhead redesign, and a single web splash page. The website at www.e2electrical.com serves as a temporary placeholder until their fully developed website is ready to be launched.
We were able to support Jodi with a full-colored designed post card invitation for their Open House and 5th Anniversary. This invite design lead to a full color insert in the local Hutchinson Chamber newsletter.
Jodi also requested magnets in the shape of their white van. She said her clients loved these in the past and they were running low on supply.
All this happened over the course of several weeks and the Moxie Media team had fun working with Jodi and Justin Evenson as they embraced their new image, updated their print materials, and prepared for their upcoming event on September 10th, 4-7 PM. We are honored to have played a significant role in helping them communicate to their customers and were a part of their transition and celebration.
Promotional items are just one way to reach your customers. Handing out a trinket, a pen, a mug, needs to serve a specific purpose. How do you choose?
There are many factors in choosing but the following are some we ask as we walk our customers through the process.
What is the marketing goal you are trying to achieve when you hand out your item?
We are a new retail company in town and need to our name out.
We want to say thank you to our employees for all their hard work this year.
We want people to remember where they get their service done.
How many will you need? And when do you need it?
This is probably one of the most important questions as it will weed out alot of options. It will pay to preplan.
What is the price range you need to stay within?
Is the product available in the color scheme with in your brand. Do the colors match or coordinate with your logo?
Will the recipient keep it visible so others can see it? Or will they show it to others because of it’s meaning and purpose?
How do you plan to distribute the items?
Will they be mailed, personally handed out, left on a table at a meeting?
If you need some ideas, give us a call. We would be glad to walk you through the process?
When looking how to spell “tchotchke” I ran across this blog post from a company in the UK that sells promotional items. It is exactly why I was looking to how to spell “shotzky” because I wanted to explain the different words that describe promotional items or ad specialties. So here it is.
The articles of merchandise which are used in marketing and communication programs are known as Promotional items. These various items are generally imprinted with a company’s name, slogan or logo. Its products are given away at conferences, trade shows, and also as a part of guerilla marketing campaigns. The Promotional items are referred by the slang terms swag from the British usage of word meaning as “stolen goods” and also as tchotchke derived from a Yiddish word which means “trinket”.Promotional items as Business gifts are used to foster customer goodwill and retention. The main objectives of companies behind using promotional items is to facilitate brand awareness, employee and public relations, new customer generations, internal incentive programs and marketing research.
The Promotional items are same with the term Promotional products. Most of the promotional items are quite inexpensive and small in comparison to other items. But often expensive perfumes, electronic items and leather goods are used as promotional items for like celebrities at film festivals and popular award shows. Companies use to provide the celebrities with expensive gifts and in return ask the celebrities to allow a photo shoot with the gift item. Thus the gift presented to the celebrities act as Promotional gifts helping the company for promotional purposes with the brand name and product.
HOWEVER…. I sometimes take offense to promotional items being referred to as cheap plastic “stuff.” It may be inexpensive, plastic or both, but remember if you buy it, you buy it for a reason. Not because it is on special, or it is cool but what is it going to do to promote my company, organization, event and the message I want to deliver to the audience. Oh, and YES…special pricing and cool can be very effective in marketing.
