Reminder Marketing

Last week I froze strawberries. I love to savor their peak-season freshness at off-peak times, and, thus, every year I freeze several quarts. I froze the first few quarts in a store-brand plastic bag. When I ran out of those bags, I opened a box of Ziploc bags.

As I pulled the first Ziploc bag from the box, I immediately noticed a difference from the store-brand bag. The plastic was a heavier, distinctive blue color. Boldly printed across the front of the bag was “Ziploc” followed by a white space to write a reference to the bag’s contents.

“Look at that,” I thought. “Ziploc has used reminder marketing.”

I returned to the berries. Reaching for the last lush, ripe, juicy berry at the bottom of the flat, I noticed something under the strawberry that was red, too. It was a sticker. The sticker said, "Govins' Meats and Berries," followed by a listing of the products that they offer, “All natural beef and lamb, free range chicken and turkey, strawberries, and pumpkins,” and ended with their phone number and Web site address.

"Good for them!" I murmured. Govins, too, had used reminder marketing.

The next day I had lunch at Taco Johns. After removing my food from the tray, I noticed a coupon for a free cini-sopapilla bites with a five dollar purchase. Taco Johns was giving me an incentive to spend another five dollars, either that day or another.

All three of these are examples of reminder marketing. Each business was reminding the customer of the origin of the purchase and inviting the customer back. Three important characteristics of reminder marketing are that it is easy to find, provides information that the customer wants, and offers additional benefits. Let's look at each of these more closely.

Reminder marketing must be easy to find. While this may sound obvious, I know of a business person who placed the business's name on the bottom of a cup rather than on the cup's side. Unless the customer totally drained the cup, the name was hidden. Notice that Ziploc positioned its name boldly toward the top of one side of the freezer bag. Govins' name caught my attention from the bottom of the empty flat, and Taco Johns invitingly slipped the coupon underneath my lunch so that when I removed the tacos, I saw it.

Further, each of these gave me information that I wanted. The Ziploc name on the bag was a convenient reminder of the brand of bag, making it easy for me to know what to buy next time. Govins’ information gave me a handy reference to call for additional berries and told me of other products which I may want. Taco Johns informed me of a new offering that sounded delicious.

Finally, two of them gave me an additional benefit. Ziploc left a white space on the bag in which to label the bag's contents. Taco Johns gave me a free sample with a purchase.

These additional benefits left me with a good impression and a reason to do business with them again. The benefits took me a step beyond reminder marketing, setting me up for my next purchase.

Every business has opportunities to invite the next purchase. Every business has ways to do reminder marketing. This is a simple but critical method to develop a customer.

How many ways does your business implement reminder marketing?