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Go Beyond the Basic Calendars Each year during December through January the flood of new calendars will hit the market. Along with all the companies selling them will come the places handing them out for free instead. 4 Reasons to Use Postcard Printing in Your Marketing Campaign When it comes to marketing, you have many options to bring business to your business. Postcard marketing is only one of those options, but it can be the most efficient and effective. Utilizing Business Cards as Advertising Tools A necessary marketing component for any company are business cards. Common Mistakes to Avoid for Brochure Printing Many offices have a deadline to meet and cannot afford to spend extra time sending and resending their brochure to print. A few of the most common mistakes to avoid include: a Networking Knowledge that Will Make You Need More Business Cards When you network, you are trying to create a positive reputation, business contacts and business referrals. Networking can morph into word-of-mouth marketing if done correctly. Pulling Everyone Together I don’t care what kind of advertising you’re doing: odds are good multiple people are going to be working on it. 4 Tips for Small Businesses in Today’s Economic Turbulence Nowadays, it’s much harder to market a business than it used to be. With the Internet and television always “on,” that means you must always be “on” as well. No more marketing just around the holidays. Marketing has to be something you think about and do every day of the year. Avoid Tradeshow Problems by Preparing for Them Sometimes the smallest mistake can take what was going to be a great tradeshow appearance and turn it into a disaster. The problem is you’re going to be away from your company, away from home, and without all the resources you would normally have access to. The Looming Threat of the Deadline: Managing Your Time Managing your time under deadlines isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially when you take into consideration time for yourself. Poster Design Tips to Attract the Masses Posters are a great medium for marketers, advertisers and sales people alike. They can be huge, colorful and most importantly, they’re hard to ignore. Have you ever walked into a business meeting with a poster sitting in an easel in the front of the room and not looked? Probably not – posters are hard to ignore! 3 Common Qualities of Great Small Business Marketing There’s no worse feeling than spending a boatload of money on your marketing campaign just to be disappointed by your sales. Print Design Tips for Beginners I’m going to give you a couple of print design tips that everyone should know who is going to pay a printer for their services. These will save you money and headache in the long run. Poster Printing for Outdoor Events The fair weather seasons provide your company with more opportunities for marketing with the many outdoor events that occur. Carnivals, fairs, and concerts are just a few that could expand the knowledge of your business and grow your client list. Print Advertising Guideline Advertising costs money. Period. You probably have a limited budget for marketing your company and want to create print advertising that will get results without wasting your budget money. Design a postcard, brochure, newsletter, or any other form of advertisement that will capture attention right away and cause clients to contact your business by following the tips below. The Top Elements of a Marketing Plan You can pick up any marketing book at your local bookstore and it will have a different list of the top elements of a marketing plan than the book next to it on the shelf. Here is a compilation of the top list-makers for your quick perusal. Write Ads that Promote Brands To let consumers know about your brand promise, you need to write ads that promote your brand. Here are some ways to write your ads so that they promote your brand: Logo Reference Materials If you have decided to design your own logo but aren’t sure where to start or if you can’t come up with any ideas, here are some resources that will educate and motivate you. Poster Design Strategies There are some things that you should take into consideration as you plan your next poster printing project. What Benefits do you Offer Your Customers? Your business has certain benefits that it offers to customers. At least, I hope it does. If it does not, you may want to find a new line of work. The Power of Choices Everyone likes to have multiple things to choose from. The age of the internet has given rise to pages filled with several products people have that they can sort through in order to make their purchase. This system works because of the ability it gives a person to look over everything a company has before making their purchasing decisions. The Components of a Strong Direct Mail Campaign Here is a quick list of what should go into a direct mail campaign to get great results. Advertising Techniques to Avoid Here are a few rather unique ideas that you can incorporate into your next brochure printing project. As a general rule, you will not want to use more than one or two of these ideas on any one brochure. Otherwise, you may overwhelm your readers. Advertising Techniques to Avoid Sometimes the ideas that seem so great and well thought out can really backfire. Take a lesson from the advertisers before you, and don’t use the following techniques that have bombed in the past: The AIDA Marketing Model Posters are a cost-effective way to promote your business or product. But to be most effective, you need a great poster design that is eye-catching and also gives people valuable information. How to Write Effective Advertising Copy Writing advertising copy that grabs people’s attention and convinces them to take action is difficult, no doubt. But you can do it by following the guidelines given here: How to Write Effective Advertising Copy Writing advertising copy that grabs people’s attention and convinces them to take action is difficult, no doubt. But you can do it by following the guidelines given here: Trade Show Marketing Tips Here are some tips and suggestions to mull over before you decide to participate in a trade show: Letterhead and Envelope Design: Important Pieces of Your Marketing Strategy One of the best and easiest ways to make your company look professional and experienced is to have nice letterhead. Matching envelopes make a nice touch and exude an even more professional image. A Bagful of Holiday Marketing Ideas Here are some ideas to use the holidays in your marketing campaign: Some People Like to Be Invited Odds are when people come across a new business there are going to be three primary reasons why they don’t bother going in. Either they don’t have any need to, they don’t know enough about the company to feel comfortable going in, or they don’t even notice the business exists. Greet Them With Open Arms The one image you want to avoid is that of an uncaring corporation devoid of any kind of emotion or personality. How to Market to the Wealthy To market to the wealthy, you need to change your marketing strategy a bit. Tweak what you do for your middle-class targets. Here's how to reach the rich: How to Keep Your Business Cards from Being Tomorrow’s Trash Knowing why people decide to keep business cards instead of throwing them away can give you a big advantage when designing your business cards. Here are the top 6 reasons why people keep business cards: Low-Cost Marketing Tactics You don’t need an infinite marketing budget to be able to run an effective marketing campaign. Some of the most effective marketing techniques are the most inexpensive ones. Here are some ideas if you are in a penny-pinching situation or if you are just looking for some low-cost ideas to get you through to the next quarter: Laying the Foundation of a Great Business Card I’ve noticed a trend that seems to exist among business cards. Quite often people do everything they can to make themselves stand out among all the other companies out there, and the business card is seen as a good tool for accomplishing this. Five Steps to Marketing Success on Facebook Here are five ways to achieve marketing success on Facebook: Know Your Niche Every company has one. No matter how big a company’s customer base is they still started initially by targeting a certain part of the population. You can’t avoid the need for a strong niche market no matter what size your company is. Original Advertising Ideas There are many inexpensive ways to reach individuals; you just need to get a little creative. Consider using the following original ideas to reach the specific consumers you’re targeting: The Important Aspects of a Direct Mail Campaign Although those choices are important, what you should spend the majority of your time focused on is your purpose for the direct mail campaign, your mailing list, your offer and your results. Culture Lessons Hopefully I’m not dating myself too much with this anecdote, but you may remember a particular urban legend that gained wide circulation in the 80’s and inspired a fair share of hearty laughs. Marketing Keys for Small Businesses Market research is not just for large companies. It can be even more crucial to a small business. What’s Your Communication Style? Technology has come a long way in helping us to communicate with customers. Between teleconferences, the Internet, and other advancements, we can communicate with people halfway around the world. But, the message we convey is still up to us. We have to make sure we send messages that are clear to the recipient. Read This Before Dealing With A Commercial Printer Many business owners today have become captivated with the interactive world and have consequently devoted virtually all of their marketing efforts to the online arena. Smarter business owners understand that all marketing methodologies have an appropriate place within an overall sales strategy. Creating a Marketing Plan One of the most important aspects of making your business successful is creating an effective marketing plan. Economical Marketing With the cost of advertising on the rise, many companies are looking for more innovative ways to get their message to consumers. Get Sales Without Being a Pest There’s always going to be that question: how much is too much? Getting People into Your Store Even in the age of the Internet, one of the best ways to generate business is to get people to actually walk into your store. Nothing can compare to the benefits of having people physically in your building and shopping. Are You Using Postcards? No company should be without a strong postcard marketing approach. This style of marketing is such a proven and effective form of advertisement that any company bypassing it is failing to capitalize on a great approach. Various Binding Options – Which is Right for You? If you are planning on doing any booklet printing or catalog printing, you need to decide how your finished product will be put together. Direct Mail Offers a Step Up To Help You Achieve ROI ROI are three letters which represent the key metric for analyzing any marketing idea. ROI stands for return on investment. How to Create Effective Marketing Headlines It doesn’t matter if your marketing brochures have the best, most effective copy. It doesn’t matter if your business brochures have been designed by a world-renowned artist. What matters most is the words you use in your headlines. Headlines are what hook potential customers and draw them in to read the rest of your copy. Partner with Your Customers for Big Sales Many companies don’t use direct mail as a marketing tactic anymore. They think it’s outdated. They don’t think they can get the response they get by advertising on the Internet or through other marketing techniques. Turn Your Brochure into a Superhero for Super Sales Your brochure is an avenue for your potential clients to see who you are and what you represent. Your marketing brochures give the first impression of your company to nearly everyone who sees it. Do’s and Don’ts of Using Flyers for Advertising Inserts You may already be using flyers as part of your marketing campaign. You probably have full color flyers hanging up in local businesses, supermarkets and maybe you’ve dropped them off door to door. Consider another method to distributing your flyers: as inserts in newspapers. Network for the Life of Your Business Just like a person, a company who stays home alone will not accrue many friends. For your business to be known it is essential you engage in extensive networking. Today, networking can take on many shapes and forms. These exist both in the interactive and offline worlds. Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Copy Are you wondering why your advertising materials aren’t producing the results you want? The calls just aren’t coming in? Maybe your well-intentioned copy isn’t selling your product. Full color flyers may attract attention, but it’s the copy that keeps the customer reading them. Take a closer look at your copy and make sure you aren’t doing any of the following common copywriting mistakes. The Importance of Solid Market Research for Your Business Do you truly know your target market? Do you really know what types of people have the potential to buy your product or want your service? Do you know how to best plan your next poster printing project so that the resulting ad appeals to your potential customers? You might think that you do, but unless you have spent time researching this, you likely do not know all that you could, and should, about the people you are trying to reach with your business advertising efforts. Brochure Printing, Postcards and More Do you own a small business? If so, you are well aware that the way you market your services and/or products will have a lot to do with your eventual success or failure. With that being said, you need to have a marketing plan in place that will give you a sense of direction from the first day that you open your doors. What’s Cooking for 2008? Marketing is always evolving, and this year is no exception. Here are some of the latest and greatest marketing trends that are hot in 2008. Three Key Elements to an Effective Marketing Campaign Creativity is an outstanding asset, especially in the business world. Not everybody possesses creativity, so it is extremely valuable. Most companies face so much competition that it takes a creative idea to make them stand out from the pack. Creativity contributes to your business success at every step along the way. It helps to build a more effective business plan; it boosts your ability to bring in customers after opening; and it usually makes for a better product. Standard Business Card Font Sizes Your business cards can be wonderfully effective for you if you design them right. If you take the time to design an attractive and unique business card printing, and then follow through by actually handing out your cards to a lot of people, you will see a significant up tick in your business. Giving a Good First Impression It might not be fair, but odds are a person is going to make judgments about you in the first few seconds after you meet them. The old saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” doesn’t necessarily apply to a face-to-face meeting for the first time. The conclusions people draw about you might not be set in stone, and you might be able to change them given enough time, but they’re still going to be made whether you like it or not, so why not make sure those first impressions are good ones? Contrary to Popular Belief, Flyers Still Work There is no doubt that we are living in the technology age. As a businessperson, you have seen the old marketing tools largely replaced by new, internet-based techniques. Ads are embedded into websites; pop-ups, as annoying as they are, continue to, well, pop-up on our screens to promote products; email campaigns are prevalent, especially the ridiculously irritating spam that shows up in our inboxes; instant online shopping has cut into the brick-and-mortar shopping scene. Getting Business Ideas in an Unusual Place As a businessperson, you spend a great deal of time trying to think of ways to expand your customer base. You might pull off some unique sale that will entice normally wary customers to check out your products. Perhaps you change your advertising strategy to better target a different demographic. You may even alter your product or service to cater to a while different set of consumers. 5 Ways to Improve Your Logo Design The logo is a very important part of your company’s marketing strategy. It will appear on every piece of literature that your company produces. From black and white business letters to full color business cards, the logo will appear on all of them. So it is vital that your logo is well designed and reflects the image that you want to convey about your business. Here are five techniques in logo design that might make yo Grabbing Their Attention When was the last time you went to a bookstore? Walking down the isles filled with books you really can’t look at just one book at a time. Instead your eyes sweep over all of them at once. But eventually you’ll probably grab one of them and take a look. How Paper Stock Can Affect Your Advertising How much do you know about paper stock? Until recently, I personally didn’t know much at all. It didn’t seem particularly important for me to know. Now that I have a better understanding of advertising and marketing I can also see why knowing about paper stock can be such an important detail. The Difference Between Corporate Identity and Logos On many websites now, you can create an avatar to represent you. An avatar is basically a caricature that you can tweak to look as much like you as possible, without being an actual picture. As you chat or send emails, the people with whom you are communicating will see your avatar. When you are talking to someone whom you have never met, it helps them get an idea of what you look like. Effective Product Marketing Marketing isn’t something a person can just quickly pick up and become a master at. There are a lot of finer details to what works and why it works. What complicates the matter even more is the nature of the market itself. What types of strategies are effective today aren’t always going to be what works tomorrow. Understanding Your Niche The concept of a company having a niche market can sometimes be confusing. The problem is how often people confuse the services a company offers with the niche they provide them to. And what is the difference between the two? The Return of Print Advertising At one time, the internet was looked upon as the future of advertising. If you did not have a website, your business would fail. Now, if you are not optimizing your website to show up high on the list of search engine results, your business will suffer. Answering the Most Important Question Whether you realize it or not every advertisement and every type of marketing is trying to answer for all their potential customers the exact same question. I’ve asked it myself before going into a store. I see all around me attempts to give an adequate answer. Some businesses are successful and others fail miserably. And what is this all-important question you might ask? How to Boost Your Advertising Campaign Imagine this: you’re in the middle of designing some full color brochures, or maybe some postcard marketing strategy, and you have exactly three days left to get the job done. You’re giving the task your full attention when suddenly something else comes up. Maximizing Your Marketing Dollars Marketing is one thing that every business, small or large, has to engage in if they are to be even moderately successful. But implementing a profitable campaign, especially within a small business' budget constraints, can be challenging at best. There are, however, cost effective methods and here are three to help jump start your marketing efforts. The Right Way to do Postcard Marketing Printing postcards offers a company a way of immediately grabbing a person’s attention, and yet, so many companies fail to properly utilize the postcard marketing strategies. Making Postcards Work for You "When working for a real estate office, I had to create and mail thousands of postcards over the course of just a few months. Postcard marketing seemed to be the office's main avenue of advertising to top clients, and these mailings seemed to create more responses than flyers or personalized letters. It didn't take me long to notice the benefits of using postcards to reach a client base. "