So, valentines came and went pretty quickly as always. Did you get a valentines card this year?
At [codepotato], we like to innovate and go against convention. Stand out from the crowd, turn heads and make people think differently. This year, we wanted 16 valentines...
This year, we decided that it felt right to send a number of hand-made valentines cards to business we would LOVE to work with. So that's what we did!
Even though we make wonderful web creations, spending our days mashing keyboards means we're almost incapable of cutting straight with scissors. We needed outside help if we were going to make hand-made cards! Thankfully my fiance, Samantha, is a crafty card-making ninja with some spare time on her hands!
We spent a few evenings working out what we were going to do, and who to target (it was really hard to choose!) and set on with our plans. The design was simple; a custom designed barcode-style heart with the text "We're looking for love" on the front cover. Inside, it read :
"[codepotato] is a growing and enthusiastic web development company that loves working with advisory firms. We understand your industry & want to help you stand out from the crowd. We want to work with innovative & forward thinking advisory firms to develop a successful and trusted relationship. We would love to work with you."
But hey, where's the contact details? What use is marketing without knowing who it's from? Well, the scissors inept Gareth came up with a cunning plan to cut two slots into the back of the card, to slide in one of our funky mini business cards. All in all, the cards looked ace!
The cards were shipped first class on the Friday before valentines (never trust Royal Mail!) and we saw that some people received them Saturday (damn you Royal Mail and your sporadic moments of organisation!).
The feedback was great. Everyone we spoke to thought the idea was different, and clever. So was it worth it? Without a shadow of a doubt, yes. Here's why.
We received two "hot leads" from the effort, and at normal rates (although we're offering "lovers rates" for this!) the return on investment is around 1400%. Beat that Lord Sugar!
For those that aren't pushing ahead with web projects, i would like to think that we've planted a seed in their mind about working with us in the future. Only time will tell if this is likely to be true, but i'm forever hopeful!
So, we've raised the bar, and already have ideas for our next marketing push!