Self-Promoter

Automated Records Centre, with locations in Bellefonte and Lock Haven, Pa., serves hundreds of clients across a number of industries, including the health care, legal, insurance and financial sectors. The recession has affected business, but Michael Sullivan, president of Automated Records Centre, says the company is using the softer market to its advantage.

"If our clients are downsizing or streamlining overhead, then we are in an ideal situation," he says. "We can help them reduce the cost of retrieving files and we can store their records at a fraction of the cost that they are paying to maintain records on site. We secure their business by ensuring their data are backed up and managed, and we reduce their exposure by shredding unnecessary documents."

Sullivan adds, "In times like these, our prospects are sensitive to spending money, and that is why we need to do our job. That job is to educate them that we can reduce their costs and their risk of doing business."

Part of that education process includes a robust strategic marketing and promotions program that includes a variety of tactics, from direct mail to newsletters to telemarketing. According to Sullivan, Automated Records Centre has grown by 70 percent since adopting its current approach to marketing.

Below, Sullivan talks with Storage & Destruction Business about developing a marketing and promotions strategy for his company.

MS: We have grown by more than 70 percent. Much of our success has been due to the fact that we discovered a successful marketing strategy. Prior to our latest efforts, we realized we had strong tactics, but we lacked an effective strategy. We credit our consistent message and targeted marketing efforts with not only developing new clients, but also with increasing sales across our existing client base by continuing to deliver an effective message.

MS: My marketing philosophy is this: 1. It must support our sales efforts and 2. All marketing tactics must support one another.

In other words, cold calling must set up our direct mail campaigns. Our direct mail campaigns are then supported by our telemarketing efforts. All telemarketing efforts are a follow-up to our mail campaigns. And finally, our newsletter program is then used to support all of our previous efforts in telemarketing and direct mail.

Newsletters are key to staying in front of clients and prospects in an unobtrusive way, so we have built a strong newsletter campaign that keeps us in front of our prospects so that we are top of mind when they are ready to make a decision. Long gone are the days of randomly following up with a prospect whom we find has gone with another vendor because they didn’t think of us.

MS: No. I didn’t approach my marketing this way at all. I previously used cold calling techniques, telemarketing services, direct mail and such, but they all were being managed independently of one another. My telemarketing services had nothing to do with my direct mail campaigns. In fact, we rarely called the prospects on our direct mail lists.

Today, if someone does not respond to our campaign, we don’t settle for nothing. We add them to a newsletter program and we are there when they are ready. We will target them again in a campaign down the road, but in the meantime, they are not out of mind.

MS: For us, the keys are to answer the three following questions: 1. What is our message? 2. Who is our target audience? 3. How will we deliver that message?

Once we have answered these questions, the key is to have a seamless process for delivering the message and tracking the results.

MS: To differentiate oneself in our industry can be challenging. Sure one can differentiate from the competition based on service offerings or quality of service, but we differentiate ourselves by promoting that we are someone you know and can trust. We already offer a comprehensive service offering, such as hard copy storage, scanning, shredding, media vaulting and remote backup, but we promote our personality and build a culture with our clients that says we are trustworthy and very successful at what we do. So, everything we do is about building trust and building rapport.

MS: There is no question about it; it’s not marketing if it is not able to be tracked. To not be able to track a marketing effort is simply throwing darts blindfolded.

Now I say this as if it was never part of our process, but it was, and now I don’t know whether to chuckle or cry. But now, we know that we must be able track every effort, so much so that we apply a different phone number to every campaign effort that we run. We don’t just want to know that direct mail works, but we want to know which direct mail pieces are producing the results.

Is someone calling via the Web or phone book? Well, we have different numbers published in each as we do with all other efforts in order to track them.

MS: It is a collaboration of things. What I can say is that no one tactic works as well without the support of the others. Direct mail would still produce meager results without the support of our telemarketing efforts.

MS: One of my favorites was our third step in a direct mail campaign in which we sent a pint of Guinness to our target list on St. Patrick’s Day along with a 57-minute CD that told the clients about who I am, what makes me tick, how I got started in the industry and what we do for our clients. The pint of Guinness is to enjoy while listening to the CD.

In the letter I also highlighted a link to my Web site where they could go to learn how to pour a perfect pint. This step really allowed me to showcase what we can do for them, but just as important, they got a chance to know me and hopefully trust us.

It is all about getting to know us. Because until they know us, they can’t trust us, and we believe the sale is made when we have given them reason to trust us.

We got a 26-percent return on this direct mail campaign.

MS: Funny you ask. Before we never had a specific budget, but we would spend money on marketing, trying random things—$500 to $600 a month on telemarketing alone, $500 a month on direct mail pieces, etc. If we had the money, we would try things.

Today, we spend no more money than we spent before, but it is all targeted and measured.

We only spend about $1,800 per month on marketing. Of course, there are probably some soft costs not reflected in this.

MS: Sure, I would spend more time and money on an effective marketing strategy and support and worry less about the number of salesmen. If you have an effective strategy and a solid salesperson, you will be far more successful than hiring multiple salespeople without a plan.