It’s funny. So many of us said something like, “If we can just get through 2020, everything will be okay.” And of course, as we look back at the tumultuous year that was 2021, we understand that watching the ball drop on New Year’s Eve is not a solution. 2020 was a tough year, to be sure. There were plenty of lessons to learn. We actually wrote a blog about a few of those lessons here. So to put a bow on 2021, we wanted to do our Hasseman Marketing Year In Review…through our content!
The Supply Chain Challenges
You are probably tired of hearing about challenges with the supply chain. I get it. We have been talking about them since back in April. We even wrote this blog back in July saying that organizations should order their holiday gifts then. This is not an “I told you so” moment. It’s just an acknowledgment that the challenges are real. And the lesson here is that these challenges will not “fix themselves” on December 25th. If you are responsible for purchasing branded merchandise in 2022, you will see the same challenges. Here are the 6 things we said you could do to help…it will be important that you stick to that plan moving forward.
It’s Time To Invest
No, I am not talking about throwing money at crypto. This is about investing in you and your organization. One simple way to invest if you is to read (or listen to books). Here are my 10 favorite books I read in 2021. Dig in there. If none of those tickle your fancy, we created a list of 29 game-changing business books as well. And what about investing in your marketing? That is what we do, after all! So we created the HMC Marketing Pyramid. It’s a tool that will help you decide where you need to invest your marketing dollars (and efforts) first.
Another theme I see when I look back at 2021 is the addition of new team members and services. Katlyn took a promotion, Skylar joined the team and we even welcomed Dustin Haywood back! These new additions allow us to offer new and better services and continues to make HMC a fun place to work! Our most recent addition, Briar (helping to keep the print room rocking) is keeping that tradition rolling!
2021 has certainly been a year of change. And isn’t that what they say the one constant of life is? Through all of that, we want to continue to provide you with value. Whether we are writing about how to market without Facebook, or even how our Haters Help Us, the goal is to help lift you and your organization up! So thank you for taking this journey with us! We are excited to work with you and we can’t wait to see what 2022 has to offer.
If you are a marketer or an entrepreneur, you likely have more than a few challenges. But one of them is most likely, where to spend your time and resources. There is finite time and money, and you want to make sure you are doing the thing that will bring you the most return. Mike Michaelowicz turned me onto this idea in his book “Fix This Next.” Mike created a “Business Priority Pyramid” so that entrepreneurs can decide what is the right thing for them to be working on each day. I found this to be a powerful tool in order to make sure my efforts are going in the right direction.
But I find this to be a challenge for marketers too! There are so many marketing options to spend your time and resources on, it can be tough to know what to work on next. In addition, it seems like every day, a shiny new marketing tool comes out. As marketing professionals, we want to stay on top of the latest trends. But you don’t want to spend all of your time distracted by the newest toy…and lose out on the foundation.
That is why we created our HMC Marketing Pyramid
The concept is simple. We have created our HMC Marketing Pyramid as a worksheet for marketers. We have created levels so that you know where you are on your marketing journey. It also helps you prioritize what you need to work on next (or budget to work on soon). As you go through the pyramid, you want to check each box where you feel you are strong (or at least comfortable) where you are. After you go through the whole checklist, go to the lowest part of the pyramid where there is an unchecked box. That is where you need to start! You need to have a strong foundation if you want a pyramid that is going to last.
Rookie Level
If you love sports metaphors, you are going to dig this. If not, think of this as the foundation of your marketing plan. You might be starting a new venture, or you want to get back to basics. You start at the Rookie Level. At that level, you want to make sure you are happy with your logo, basic branding, website, and more. If you leave something un-checked here, no problem. It just shows you that it’s time to work on that to move your marketing efforts to the next level.
Starter Level
And speaking of the next level, now you are a starter! At this level, you have mastered the basics and you want to begin to be more intentional and more consistent. This is when you “up your game” on communication and letting your best customers know you love your fans.
All-Star Level
All-stars take it to the next level, and that is exactly what this ranking means. Once you have completed all of the tasks at Rooke and Starter, you can take bigger swings. Sure you have social media pages, but do you have a plan? Have you made the transition from rented media to owned media? I talk about what that means here. This is what happens at the All-Star level.
Hall of Fame
Marketers and entrepreneurs at the Hall of Fame level are truly building brands. They have custom events to showcase their services and to connect with their tribe. Many also feature custom apparel that their customers actually pay to wear! Now THAT is a brand!
So where do you land on the HMC Marketing Pyramid? This is a jumping-off tool to help you plan what should be next for marketing your organization. Let us know if you want to meet with one of our Hasseman Marketing reps to go over the pyramid…and plan the next steps!
Last Thursday was our Annual Customer Trade Show. If you are a reader of this blog, you know we have been doing this show for over 15 years…and we have been talking about it for months! We love the opportunity to give our customers the chance to see products and suppliers from all over the industry. It’s a fun event and (hopefully) we create a lot of value for our clients.
On the other hand, it’s a lot of work to put the event on! So after each year, we take a look at what worked…and what didn’t! And let’s face it…this year is different. We were not able to do the event at all last year, and we are still in a world where events are not the same. That’s a kind way of saying that, right? So…I felt like it might be interesting and helpful to give you some lessons I learned from doing our in-person customer event this year.
Re-Set Expectations For Attendance
We live in a different world now than in 2019. We know that. But sometimes it doesn’t hit us until we try and recreate something from our past. This year’s event was great. But attendance was down (based on previous years). While my initial reaction is to be a bit disappointed by that, I think it’s important to re-set our expectations. While things are certainly getting better, it’s not 2019. This is a new time…and we need to judge it that way. And for what it’s worth…that’s okay. We were incredibly happy with the customers that were able to come. The conversations and opportunities created were amazing!
Focus On Top Client Attendance
File this one under “what we did right.” While not every client will be able to attend any event you host, getting your top clients there is key. In nearly any business, 80% of your sales results will come from 20% of your clients (I talk about that here), so make sure you focus your efforts on that group. We were successful in doing that…and it helped make the event extremely productive.
Give Safety Options
We are still in a time that is filled with trepidation and doubt…so I feel like it’s important to address that. Our solution to safety concerns was to make masks “recommended but not required.” Then, as a team at Hasseman Marketing, we wore masks during the event. We did not want to anger customers that did not want to wear masks, but we wanted to make sure everyone felt safe and comfortable. As you might expect, we provided mask options (branded of course) for anyone that wanted them. As a result, around 50% of people attending wore masks.
Create An Experience
If you want to have a great event, you need to create an experience. That has always been true, but it’s great to remind yourself now. Let’s face it. When it comes to hosting events, many of us are out of practice. Our theme was “Fall Fiesta” and that helped us to create an atmosphere that was fun. And since we built decorations, food, and music around the theme…it made for a successful experience…in addition to the business that was done.
Stock Is A HUGE Issue But…
We have been talking about this for months too. Inventory is a huge challenge. In addition to that, the labor challenges have created longer lead times. That is why we have created our “In Stock and Ready To Rock” program. Suppliers at our show last week were talking about these challenges too. It’s real and it’s not just in our industry. On the other side, there are items that are in stock.
The advice is simple…order your year-end gifts as soon as possible.
Those that wait until the last minute are going to be frustrated AND they are going to pay more. In addition, my advice is to create an option A and an option B. That way, if you order your favorite item and they are out of stock (and that is happening a lot my friends), you can move quickly to your next option without missing a beat.
So those are a few lessons I learned from our in-person customer event. If you are interested in hosting an event, we would love to help. And a special thanks to everyone that was able to attend this year’s Fall Fiesta! We had a blast hosting you!
It is almost time for the Hasseman Marketing Fall Fiesta…and we are fired up to bring back this event! For those that don’t know, we host an annual (except of course last year) in-person event to showcase the best and brightest ideas in marketing…just for you! Essentially, it’s a fun trade show that we put on just for you. There are plenty of reasons to attend (in fact here are 6 reasons), and we want to let you know that we are still on.
3 Updates For The Fall Fiesta
Safety Protocols
As you can imagine, there have been plenty of questions about safety protocols for the event, so here is where we have landed. We will be recommending that guests wear masks. We will not be requiring them. There will be masks and hand sanitizer for those that want them. Since we are recommending masks, the HMC team will most likely be wearing them. I have no intention of being the mask police, but we will be asking everyone to respect one another’s choice. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.
Reminder Of Hours
Just a reminder, this year’s show hours are 11 am to 3 pm. We have made that adjustment based on supplier and attendee requests. The goal is to make this an action-packed event with lots of ability to interact and learn.
Super SWAG
Every year we are blessed to have some wonderful branded merchandise to share with our events. This year is no different. We have been getting boxes of “marketing joy” for the past month and we are excited to share these with you. We will be packing bags this coming week in order to get ready. If you registered early, there will even be an extra goodie in the bag as well.
Didn’t register early? It’s okay! We will have plenty of good swag for you. You are still welcome to join us!
Once again, the event is Thursday, October 14th from 11 am to 3 pm at Lake Park Pavilion in Coshocton County. We hope to see you there!
(Coshocton, OH)—Coshocton-based marketing firm and promotional products distributor Hasseman Marketing & Communications is growing again. Hasseman Marketing is excited to welcome Dustin Haywood back to their team. Haywood worked at Hasseman Marketing for 10 years previously and rejoins the team as Director of Marketing.
“I could not be more excited to have Dustin back on the team,” says Hasseman Marketing CEO, Kirby Hasseman. “Not only is he a great team player but he is incredibly talented. That will be great for us and our clients!”
In his new role, Dustin Haywood will not only help to market the services that Hasseman Marketing has to offer, but he will also provide marketing services to clients as well. This includes new digital marketing services for Hasseman Marketing clients. In addition, Haywood will also help to increase the video production services Hasseman Marketing offers.
“I am happy to be back home,” says Haywood. “The last several years I have had the chance to increase my knowledge base and skills and I can’t wait to use those to help our clients.”
It’s a tradition like no other. For over 15 years, Hasseman Marketing has hosted an “End User” trade show and has invited our customers. It’s evolved and grown over the years and we are quite proud of it. This year’s event will be Thursday, October 14th from 11 am to 3 pm at Coshocton County’s Lake Park! And since we missed hosting the event last year, we are ready to get back after it!
But why should you come? We want this event to be fun AND add a ton of value. Here are 6 reasons to attend The Hasseman Marketing Trade Show.
Incredible Product Access
We invite some of our top (and favorite) supplier reps to showcase their lines at the show. I like to say “There is no way I could fit all of this in my trunk.” You get to see and touch and feel the product and see what it’s really like. We all know that many products look the same online or in a catalog. But when you get them up close you can really see a difference. This is the perfect place to make sure your brand materials are on point.
Idea Generation
As you walk around and see the latest and greatest in Promo, you will come up with some great ideas for upcoming projects. The reality is, the show is at a great time of year for year-end gifts for your team or customers. But some of our best customers come every year and start to plan their marketing for the next year and beyond.
Great SWAG
Nobody leaves empty-handed! We put on a fun event where (with the help of our suppliers) we invest in putting some really cool SWAG in your hands. In addition, we build the event around a theme so you can see how we use a bunch of different items around a theme!
Additional Services
You may think you know all that we do at Hasseman Marketing, but we find that most people discover some new ways to promote their organization! Having all of the ideas in one place can be very illuminating! For example, did you know we do website development or in-house print services? We do. And you can find more about them at the event.
Tasty Food
You have to eat right? We have food and drinks as well. Each year we get compliments about the tasty treats and we know this year will be no different. The event this year is on Thursday, October 14th from 11 am to 3 pm at the Lake Park Pavilion (in Coshocton). Our goal is to create an event that provides value and fun…and you never want to miss.
Things Have Changed
I am not sure if you heard about it, but a lot has changed since we were able to do this event last! And while we are excited to get back together to get back to normal, there are some real business reasons you should attend. Your organization might have changed logos, brand messaging, go-to-market strategies, where people work, and so much more. Or, like some of our clients, you might just need to update your materials because it’s been 18 months since you’ve needed them!
