The Latino Coalition (TLC), a non-profit focused on helping small business owners of Latino descent, has tapped Image Direct for a new direct marketing campaign. Image Direct was chosen for the work partly due to their successes in working with the US Small Business Administration.
The campaign, called ExitoUSA, will launch at the end of this month and will target 1 million Hispanic small business owners annually through weekly mailings of 20,000.
“One thing we were approached for by our constituency and partners was a strategy to get more engaged with the Hispanic community and really do a strategic branding product penetration,” explained Allen Gutierrez, executive director, TLC. “We are a nationwide organization, and we thought a campaign like this would be a perfect fit in our economic development initiatives, in that it provides tools and services to our members that they can utilize for their business on an ongoing basis.”
Image Direct receives names and addresses of new small business owners when they register for business licenses; the agency then selects out new Hispanic business owners for mailings from TLC. Mailings are done in English.
“We create our program around trigger events,” explained Brad Pagano, executive director, Image Direct. “In marketing, the goal is to send the right product to the right person at the right time. Our goal is to help new small business owners succeed, and having a program that reaches them before anyone else — within four days of getting their name — with relevant information, is why we succeed.”
ExitoUSA mail pieces are sponsored by corporate partners, which use the mailings to offer their products and services to recipients. Corporate partners also are featured online and in opt-in e-newsletters offered to ExitoUSA mail recipients.
Image Direct offers its corporate partners access to its marketing platform, contact database— names, addresses and e-mails — and various campaign management tools, such as tracking and analysis. Partners include Bank of America, DirecTV and eHealthInsurance. Partnerships are category exclusive, meaning only one bank or insurance provider is featured.
“We feel it is important because it gives our corporate partners the opportunity to reach out and also really redefines and fine-tunes our information on an ongoing basis with constituents,” Gutierrez said. “The long-term strategy is to keep providing ongoing tools and services for members to create a one-stop shop for them.”
