Marketing Tips

July 14, 2010
How to book more school dances
By Tom Quiner

School events offer DJs something weddings don’t: the opportunity for repeat business. Schools may need you several times for different events during the school year, including homecoming dances, winter formals, and proms.

Do a good job and they’ll have you back next year, and the year after that … and beyond!

A single school can be the source of dozens of bookings for you over the life of your company.

Not every DJ company is interested in school events. Nothing wrong with that. But for those who are interested, you should market aggressively. It’ll pay off with a stream of repeat business to keep your calendar full.

Here are the marketing challenges that await you:

MARKETING CHALLENGE #1: Who is the decision maker?

MARKETING CHALLENGE #2: When should I try to market to schools?

MARKETING CHALLENGE #3: How should I try to communicate with schools?

MARKETING CHALLENGE #4: How often should I communicate with them?

MARKETING CHALLENGE #5: My competitor has a school’s business locked up. Why bother?

Let’s address each challenge:

1. I don’t know who the decision-maker is, do you? Is it the principal? Vice principal? Student advisor? Prom committee? Student Council president? Do different groups and individuals make decisions for different events? In other words, is it possible one group makes decisions about the homecoming dance, and another handles the prom?

It all depends on the school.

Design your marketing campaign accordingly. Make it clear what you’re selling. Postcard campaigns are a great way to communicate with schools and instantly communicate what it is you offer. One technique you can use to reach the decision-maker is called routing copy. List key people in schools who are viable candidates for your message. That way, the school secretary gets it into the hands of the right people. [See sidebar]

This card contains information for students & staff planning school dances. Please route to:

√ Principle

√ Vice principle

√ Student Advisor

√ Prom Committee

√ Homecoming Dance committee

√ Student Council president

√ Cheerleader squad

To play it safe, mail multiple copies to each school since more than one person or group may be decision makers over the course of the year. If the homecoming committee doesn’t hire you, maybe the prom committee will, if you they receive your message.

2. Schools make entertainment decisions at different times during the school year. You’ll maximize the effectiveness of your marketing if you launch a postcard campaign that reaches each school several times a year.

3. As mentioned above, a postcard direct mail campaign is a good way to go. Here’s why: Most market areas don’t have a huge number of high schools to target in a direct mail campaign. The cost is low to reach them, even if you mail several cards per school with each mailing. Postage is just 27¢ each for postcards as long as you keep the size between 3.5 x 5 inches and 4.25 x 6 inches. The card must be printed on a cover stock that it at least 7 point in thickness.

4. A campaign is better than a one-shot mailing for the reason stated in # 2 above. I recommend you mail four to five times a year with the campaign beginning seven to ten days before school begins. Follow up after Labor Day or a within two weeks after school has begun. Mail again in early October for schools still making decisions about Homecoming. Mail again in December for schools planning winter formals. Finally, mail once more in late January or early February for schools finalizing prom details. Each market is different. Each school is different. Customize your campaign based on these local situations.

5. Things change. Even if you think your competitor has certain schools locked up, keep marketing. Staff and students change over the years. It may be that someone new is making decisions this year and they’re not committed to last year’s entertainment company. Or perhaps last year’s DJ company didn’t do such a great job. Things change. Your marketing campaign opens up new doors for you every year.

Keep marketing and increase school dance bookings.

CHECK OUT HERE TO SEE WHAT WE HAVE FOR SCHOOL DANCES.

June 1, 2010

Maximize DJ Profits with Micromarketing
By Tom Quiner, President
Breakthrough Marketing, Inc.

Typical DJs generate at least a two-thirds of their profits from the wedding industry.

That number may be even higher in recent years with the contraction in the corporate market due to the recession.

You have other market niches that comprise a small percentage of your total sales. However, these small niches offer tremendous opportunity to increase your sales with minimal marketing investment.

The postcard is the cost-effective tool you can use to reach some of these micro niches. Postcards are affordable to produce. In addition, you can mail them for just 28 cents per card (as of May 20, 2010) if your card meets these requirements:

they must measure at least 3.5 x 5.5 inches and be no larger than 4.25 x 6 inches.
the paper stock must be at least .007 of an inch thick.

[Breakthrough Marketing prints their cards on much thicker paper than required by postal requirements. We use a rigid 14 point laminated card stock. They hold up better in the mail. They impress your prospects more. And the UV coating looks sharp.]

Here are three Micro Marketing strategies you should consider now:

Pool Parties. Launch a simple direct mail campaign targeting an audience with swimming pools: apartment complexes. Depending on where you live, it may not be all that big of a list. Even it’s only a few hundred apartments, it represents repeat business if you can get your foot in the door with some of them. In fact, it’s a targeted enough market niche that you may want to mail to the list a couple of times each summer. Offer to supply them with a supply of cards to display in their clubhouse for their residents to see.

Class reunions. This isn’t a huge market, but you can reach them with postcard mailings to the high schools in your market area. Ask the school secretaries to pass them on to the heads of each class reunion committee. Don’t forget about the middle schools, including Catholic and other parochial and private schools. Be sure to put the front side of your postcard on your Facebook page with a link back to your website.

General parties. How do you tap into hard-to-reach niches like wedding anniversaries, pool parties in private homes, baptisms and christenings, picnics, family reunions, and more? Here’s an interesting approach. Display your postcards in popular bars and restaurants. However, only put your message on the front of the card. Use the other side of the card to advertise the restaurant or bar where you’re displaying the cards.

The bar or restaurant will love it, because they get their message out to more people. They may split the cost with you as well. Even more, their message on the back of the card serves as an endorsement of you. How many people who frequent a bar or restaurant have wedding anniversaries. All of the married ones! Many have or know friends and families with christening parties and family reunions coming up. You get the idea. Without even investing a cent in postage, you’re getting your very affordable postcards into the hands of legitimate prospects you’d never reach otherwise.

You can build on this idea by replicating your efforts in multiple bars and restaurants in your market area. You can even do it with coffee shops. Imagine if 20 cards a week are getting picked up in a dozen different establishments around town, you’d be reaching 12,000 prospects a year, many, even most of whom, you wouldn’t have reached any other way. Your postcard will plant the seed that maybe they should consider your company when planning their next celebration.

SEE MORE POSTCARDS HERE

May 1, 2010
HOW TO MAKE YOUR HOME PAGE WORK BETTER
By Tom Quiner, President Breakthrough Marketing, Inc.

I googled DJ entertainment and checked out the first ten companies that popped up. I was interested in their home pages.

There were some good ones. Most were too busy, though. And most weren’t personal enough.

In this economy, I suggest you revisit your home page and make it more personal. There are many ways to do it. Here’s one approach.

Write a personal letter from you to the bride. (This assumes you’re a wedding specialist). Make sure the letter is written to just one, single bride to increase the impact and make it more personal. This is a “me” to “you” letter. Refer to yourself as “I” instead of invoking the collective pronoun “you” which is less personal.
Include your photo. Eyes will immediately be drawn to it. Watch readership go up. Your photo should be taken professionally with an interesting pose, perhaps like the one in the sample home page that accompanies this article.
Don’t be afraid to take on price concerns. In the nearby graphic, I use a curiosity headline: “A simple way to afford the most extravagant wedding entertainment in town…” The letter that follows develops the theme that quality is affordable.
Plant seeds of doubt if brides don’t use you. In my example, I refer to cheesy DJs with lousy equipment and no back ups. To overcome price resistance, brides need to know they may pay a price if they scrimp.
Put a link in your letter that takes the reader to your testimonial page. I provide one example, a testimonial of a bride who actually hired another DJ. Acme had to bail him out. The idea is to gently guide prospects through your website with strategic links that build on a central marketing theme. In my example, the central theme is that (extravagant) quality is more than affordable, it’s a necessity.
Use your phone number a lot. I put it in the letter three times. Some DJs prefer to transact as much business online as possible. That’s fine. I like the personal touch and would prefer phone calls, If you do too, use your phone number liberally.
Write clearly. Keep paragraphs and sentences short. Use an occasional subhead to break the letter up. Write to the 6^th grade level.
Use a P.S. I like to bold the P.S. itself. Everyone will read it if your letter is short enough to fit on one page, which I recommend.
Offer a quick, easy solution. That’s what every stressed out bride wants, thus my use of the word “simple”.

Direct Mail Tips for DJs

By Tom Quiner

Do you remember the old Ed Sullivan show back in the fifties and 60s? If you’re too young, just go to You Tube to sample the extraordinary talent that graced that legendary show.

As a kid, I was fascinated by the guy who balanced a spinning plate on a long pole. It amazed me. Try it yourself and see how difficult it is. Just don’t use your wife’s good china!

That spinning dish with its precarious perch on a skinny pole makes me think of the marketing efforts of some DJs. Their entire marketing efforts live or die based on their websites.

Your website is vitally important to your success. No question about it. But websites work best as part of an entire, balanced marketing campaign. Just like a table has four legs, your marketing efforts should have at least four legs.

One is direct mail.

Direct mail is proactive. You control the timing of the delivery of your message.

Direct mail is targeted. Is the third week of August still open? Send a mailing to brides getting married in the third week of August. Want more corporate holiday parties? Send a mailing out to companies with at least 50 employees. Want more school dances? Blast a mailing out to schools in your area.

Direct mail is real. Prospects hold your message in their hand. You’ve gone to effort and investment to reach them, and this gives you more credibility than just getting an e-mail from a stranger. In an age of spam, direct mail has more impact than ever.

Direct mail enhances your website. Direct mail always has a call to action. For DJs, the first action step is to call now. The second is to visit your website. The more qualified prospects direct mail drives to your website, the more bookings you’ll generate.

Direct mail is cost-effective. The key is your list. The more targeted, the more cost-effective. For example, direct mail is powerful in the wedding industry, because most DJs have access to local, targeted lists of engaged brides-to-be.

The question becomes, what should you mail? A postcard or an envelope? The answer is: it depends. I use both. Postcards are low-cost, cost-effective sales tools. But the Cadillac direct-mail format is an envelope mailing, consisting of a sales letter, your brochure, and maybe even a reply card.

I’d like to focus on just one component of the direct mail format: the envelope. The envelope is like the subject line of an e-mail. It’s an attention-getter than can either make you or break you.

Here are some tips on how to make your envelope work better:

Tip 1. Use your company name and address in the upper left hand corner. Some mailers leave it off, assuming they’re forcing the recipient to open it, because they don’t know who it’s from. That’s the wrong way to look at it. You’ve invested in a nice logo, right? Don’t hide it. Flaunt it. You want those people who do open the envelope to be receptive to your message.

Tip 2.Use a teaser headline on the outside of the envelope. Again, it’s much like the subject line on an e-mail. If you were mailing to a corporate prospect promoting your entertainment services for a holiday party, you might say something like this:

ATTENTION CORPORATE PARTY PLANNER

Inside: details on how to throw your best holiday party ever.

Or …

Build loyal employees with a holiday party that’s really fun.

Open now for details.

To be effective, your teaser headline should do one or more of the following: Grab attention; identify your audience; create curiosity; make an offer.

Tip 3. Use a live stamp instead of a meter or pre-printed indicia. The stamp makes the communication look more personalized. If you’re preparing a large mailing, this may not be practical, and don’t worry about it. But if you’re mailing follow ups to prospects who’ve visited your website, for example, the personal feel of a stamp helps warm up the prospect.

Tip 4.When you’re sending out information to a prospect who has requested it, be sure to put the words “here is the information you requested” on the outside of the envelope. This little reminder ensures your mail gets special treatment and gets opened first.

Tip 5. Use stickers. Stickers can brighten up ordinary envelopes. They can draw attention to an important offer. They can showcase your slogan. For example, you might make up several stickers: One might say “the wedding specialists.” Another might say “the school dance specialists.” And another still might say “the holiday party specialists.”

Tip 6. Print photographs on the envelope. I received a big, white envelope in the mail last year that stopped me in my tracks. It was from a cruise company. One side of the envelope was covered with three big photos printed in black and white. In an instant, the cruise line conveyed the fun and glamour of their product. My company immediately created similar envelopes for our DJs clients. You want your envelope to warm up your prospect, to begin pre-selling her before she even gets inside to read your wonderful marketing materials. This is an effective way to do it. [See example.]

Tip 7. Go a step further and print your envelope in four color. This can get a little pricey. But are you trying to tap more bookings from upscale prospects? You know, the ones with bigger pocket books, the ones who are willing to pay more for quality? Then you’ve got to look the part. This is a way to make your mail leap out at your prospects, whether it’s a bride, corporate executive, or a mitzvah Mom. We’re doing more and more standard business envelopes in four color for DJs. [See examples.]

Direct mail works better than ever for DJs, because fewer DJs use it since the advent of the e-mail age. Direct mail and e-mail make a powerful one-two punch. Once you drop your mailing, e-mail your prospects to look for your mail. Time it so the e-mail reaches the bride about a day before her mail arrives, a controllable proposition for you if you mail via first class mail to a local audience.

Your e-mail might say something like this:

SUBJECT: I just mailed you our brochure …

Dear Bride-to-be: Check your mailbox tomorrow. I just mailed you our brochure. You can’t miss it. It will arrive in an envelope with a beautiful bride printed on it along with our name, Acme Entertainment.

Read the brochure. It gives you a good feel for our quality and professionalism. If it looks like we fit your style, call me at xxx-xxxx without obligation to check on available dates.

Thank-you,

John Williams, Owner

Acme Entertainment

Another e-mail strategy is to instead send the e-mail the day after your mail is scheduled to reach your prospect. It’s very similar to the approach used above:

SUBJECT: Did you receive our brochure in the mail yet?

Dear Bride-to-be: I just mailed you our brochure. You should have received it yesterday. You can’t miss it. It’s the one that came in an envelope with a beautiful bride printed on it along with our name, Acme Entertainment.

Read the brochure. It gives you a good feel for our quality and professionalism. If it looks like we fit your style, call me at xxx-xxxx without obligation to check on available dates.

Thank-you,

John Williams, Owner

Acme Entertainment

P.S. If the brochure hasn’t arrived yet, learn more immediately at our website: www.AcmeEntertainment.com.

DO YOU NEED HELP UPDATING YOUR PROFESSIONAL IMAGE?
Visit our BROCHURE PAGE to get an peek at some of the covers from some of our brochures. www.breakthroughbrochures.com/professionaldjs.cfm

If you see one that looks appealing, let us know and we will email you a full pdf so you can see the entire spread, inside and out.

Our brochures are completely customizable.

If you don't see one you like, call anyway. We would be happy to come up with a design that fits your specific needs.

Do you have a design and just need printing? Visit our sister site at www.breakthroughprinting.com
for wonderful printing prices.

CHECK OUT TOMS NEW BLOG

Last Updated: 7/15/10

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MARKETING TIPS ARCHIVE

June 2010 - "Maximize DJ Profits with Micromarketing"

May 2010 - "How to Make Your Home Page Work Better"

April 2010 - "Direct Mail Tips for DJs"