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The rhythm of trends can catch anyone off guard. It seems that there is never just one trend-setter. It would appear the design community holds a collective train of thought that shifts together to create new and better design. When you find a new trend in design, you are likely to see it elsewhere at the same time.
 
In the blog Web Design Trends for 2010 there are examples of new trends being set by several designers. These certainly are not the only ones of their kind. Study these and then take a look around to find others like them. Below are some of the trends discussed in the blog, but with my own thoughts on how they affect print media as well. Continue reading »

Once you find what works, it’s easy to keep using the same marketing ideas over and over again. The only problem is that your marketing can become stale and boring to customers and prospects alike. This is why it is so important to constantly be rethinking and improving your marketing plan. If you are having a hard time coming up with new tactics for marketing your business, here are some creative ideas to get you started.

Partner with Other Companies
Partnering with another firm can double your audience while cutting costs. Think about other businesses that could naturally partner with yours. For instance, a pizza parlor and a video rental go well together; another logical pairing would be a florist and a wedding planner; another combo might be a real estate agent and a small loan company. 

Join forces and share your advertising costs. You can put both businesses on everything from radio commercials to posters. You could also give each other coupons to pass out to customers, and offer packages combining your goods or services. This can cut costs on promotional gifts as well; for instance, both include coupons and your logos when brochure printing.

Give Out Calendars
Give out thank you gifts to your customers and put your logo and contact information on them. You could also do a calendar printing and send them out at the end of the year. Use the calendar to make a personal connection between your customers and your business by featuring an employee on each page; tell a short story about that employee and get creative with the photograph. 

Submit Articles to the Local Paper
Raise the stature of your business by writing articles related to your industry and submitting them to the local paper or to professional organizations. You are an expert in your field, so make sure others know about it.

Use Promotional Items at Events
Have lots of promotional items made to give out at trade shows, community events, fairs, and meetings. You can have mugs, erasers, key chains, and drink cozies made for little money. You could also do a calendar printing or create promotional stickers. Be sure your items are attractive and have your logo and web address on them.

Offer Free Classes on Your Area of Expertise
Host seminars at your location on subjects related to your industry. This will help people to view you as an expert. It will also give you a chance to announce the event in your local paper and give you a reason to send out direct mail inviting people to the classes.

The most important thing to remember about marketing is always be advertising your company. The best way to make your business popular and known is through consistent marketing. Just don’t get stuck in a rut with your advertisements so that customers remain excited about hearing of your new offers and promotions.

As a small business owner, you may find yourself at a loss when needing photos for brochure or poster printing. You can do a search online for free stock photos, but the only problem is that many of the sites that come up in such a search do not really offer their photos for free if used for corporate or commercial materials. Below are a few of the best sites for free stock photos, along with a brief explanation of the terms of use each site puts forth. Continue reading »

Gaining customers is often the hardest task for a start-up or growing business, but your lawn care business will easily prosper if you use some simple marketing techniques. For instance, using print and word of mouth to distribute your brand will increase the first time customer base for your lawn care business. After this, service and quality will keep the customer satisfied. Want to know more? Here are five marketing tips for successful marketing of a lawn care or landscaping business. 

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Marketing is tricky. While marketing efforts are supposed to be what turns your small business’s product into a household brand, marketing can also become a money drain if not conducted correctly. If you find yourself quickly sinking down the drain of inefficient marketing, turn your efforts around by following a few steps that will increase results, not increase your costs.
Trade More Expensive for More Effective
Any marketing that isn’t bringing in leads and making an impact on consumers needs to be eliminated. For instance, brochure printing and mailing to your most encouraging prospects or in response to direct inquiries are more promising rather than continuing to air lots of radio commercials that aren’t bringing in leads. Also, look at those areas in which you can increase exposure while cutting costs, for instance, a weekly email newsletter rather than monthly print newsletters.
Go After the Right Consumers
Don’t waste your valuable marketing dollars chasing those consumers who will never be interested in your products or services. Rather than sending your print brochures to everyone in town, reserve them for your target market. Instead of hanging print posters on every street corner, post them in the path of your intended audience.
Prepare a Better Message
Is your sales pitch all it can be? Does it really tell consumers why your product is the best, how it can solve their problems, make their life easier, and then some? If not, then you will need to revamp your message and print brochures and business cards and re-design your website to include this new approach. When making a purchase, customers don’t care about the history of your business and other irrelevant information. They want to know why they should be purchasing this product from you.
Use a Combination Approach
Limiting your marketing to only a few different media and materials will limit your results. Combine print brochures, email blasts, social networking, and more. Get creative and try some new methods of exposure. Accept speaking engagements, attend a trade show or two, hand out your print brochures during carnivals, if your target market will be there. Just remember to choose those marketing efforts that are bringing in new customers, otherwise your marketing will suck your pockets dry rather than increase revenue.
Commit to Daily Marketing Tasks
Write a portion of your newsletter. Send greeting cards to customers with birthdays this month. If you are the only one doing the marketing in your business, you may need to complete several tasks a day. What if you don’t have time to keep up with it all? Instead of hiring a new employee for marketing purposes, divide marketing tasks among current employees. Or, for less than hiring a marketing department, you can outsource your efforts to a marketing firm. You just need to decide which path will give you more for your marketing dollars.

Powerful call to action phrases will make all the difference with a brochure printing design - a difference between a stellar increase in sales and a little bit more than what you had before. In this market, brochures can illustrate your willingness to do what it takes to go the extra mile, but make sure that yours are worth your time and advertising dollar by including the following call to action phrases.

Sweeten the Deal with an Upgrade
Insist upon a giving an upgrade for ordering now, for instance, “Call now and we will add even more to your order for the same price.” Leave out how much you are adding on the printed brochure to create a curiosity. This will entice the procrastinators to order now rather than putting off ordering and just forgetting to order later. 

A Guaranteed Trial Period is a Must 
Nothing motives more than a win-win situation. With a guaranteed trial period, the consumer has no risk or reason not to order. Inform the consumer that returning the product will simply give you feedback and allow you to better serve your other future customers. Best of all, most consumers do not return a product within the given time period.  

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry! 
“Special offer” or “Limited time only” are great call to action phrases for brochure printing pieces. Motivate the consumer with a discount that will not be available in the future. Use a short term deadline or a coupon. You might even try a “Coupons are limited to the first 1000 callers.”

Free Gifts are Great Motivators
Offer a free gift if the customers places their order now. To further encourage an immediate purchase, make it clear that the gifts are limited with a phrase such as, “Get your free gift before they are gone!” Free gifts are great for causing the phones to ring with more orders. Everyone loves a good deal and a free gift is just the way to do it.

Other Free Stuff! 
The customer will say, “Oh my gosh, this is unbelievable!”  A free gift, free accessories, and a limited time discount. No customer will be able to resist. Oh, and don’t forget the upgrade. All of this will call customers to action and push your printed brochure over the top.
        
One final tip for motivating customers: if what you sell is only available on your website or at your storefront, let customers know. For instance, “Call now! This is not available in stores.” You may even want to advertise that operators are available 24 hours, but only if you plan on following through with this offer.

A successful brochure printing can be similar to an athletic event: you too can take that shot that an athlete takes to make the winning score in the final seconds of the game. A good athlete will not let that chance for success pass them by and great brochure printing will not allow a consumer to pass by either. This chance is not a result of pure luck. It is the result of preparation and opportunity crossing and resulting in success. With a few simple tactics and phrases on your brochures, they too will seize the opportunity more often than ever before. Here’s how:

Action Phrases

Action phrases are the best way to motivate your customer.  Don’t sell your message short by being to timid for the action phrases. Most ads use “Call Now! or Purchase Today” to motivate the customer. Your brochure printing should too to move your customers to action.

Free Trial

Don’t just show confidence in your brochure printing; show the consumer that you have confidence in your product. Offer a free trial period in which they will be billed after the fact, if the product is not returned. By establishing a trial period, this will aid in getting that sale when the opportunity arises. Use a “Satisfaction Guaranteed!” for the action phrase in this type of advertising. Delayed billing and a time limit will especially attract new customers.               

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Research is key when you are developing a marketing strategy. You have to know your target audience before you can design materials like brochures and door hangers that will appeal to them. While most people are probably familiar with the idea of catering to a specific demographic, there is a new way market researchers are starting to group people, and they call it psychographics. 

Demographics Explained
Demographics have to do with tangible differences between people. Demographics are categorized by information like age, gender, weight, and income level. It’s pretty easy to separate people into these kinds of groups because the distinguishing characteristics are observable.

Psychographics Explained
Psychographics are groupings of people according to intangible items like beliefs, values, and preferences. These are a little more difficult to measure than demographics, since it’s hard to know who believes what.

Using Demographics
Demographics are very important when planning your marketing campaign. Unless you have unlimited funds, you will need to target your marketing to a specific group. Which group you need to focus on should be relatively simple to figure out. If you run a beauty salon near a college, you know that you need to focus mainly on women between the ages of 18 and 22. Then you can just ask people in this group what kinds of things they want. Then you advertise that you offer these items.

Using Psychographics
Using psychographics is a bit trickier for some kinds of marketing campaigns. If you are using door hangers, for example, it may be difficult to know whose door to hang them on because people don’t generally congregate based on values. You probably don’t want to make your beliefs the focus of your marketing, just include them as a side line.  Continue reading »

Whether you are a new company looking for ways to make sure your brand is successful or a company that has tried and tried again but just can’t seem to get your brand to stick, there is a solution. When a brand flops, it is usually due to the same few mistakes. Your business can create a successful brand simply by knowing the most common reasons for branding failure and know how to correct them.

No Memorable Image - Some companies make the mistake of creating a logo without a memorable image. Make sure that the image in your logo is something that is uniquely yours and is appropriate for your company. The Nike swoosh image not only is one-of-a-kind but also appealing to their target audience - the swoosh looks athletic.

Inconsistency - In every single item that is associated with your company, whether color posters or packaging materials, consistently use the same core branding aspects. The same logo, company name, tagline will reinforce your brand over and over to the public. For the same reason, you will need to give employees the same business card design for further branding consistency.

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Word of mouth advertising is effective because it is trustworthy – when a friend or relative recommends a product or service, you know you can trust their opinion based on the history you have with them. Word of mouth advertising fits well into any budget because it is inexpensive, but it does take a concentrated effort. Here are some tips on how to encourage word of mouth advertising among your customers.

Give Rewards
The most obvious way to get your customers talking about your business is to offer them something in return. This should be a carefully thought out promotion or you may end up spending too much money in your promotional offers. Referral postcards are a great way to keep promotional offers within reason. Offer customers a few of your postcards at checkout. For each new customer who comes in with a referral postcard, the existing customer named on the card could be given 10% off one item or 20% off a purchase of $100 or more. You may want to offer the same special to the new customers as well. Continue reading »