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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 »

Catalog printing is a costly process, so catalogs need to be as effective as possible. In general, your catalog needs to work like a good sales person: it should describe product benefits, talk about quality, assure customers they are making a good choice, and make it easy to purchase products. Here are some ways to improve your catalogs so they will generate more sales. Continue reading »

The big temptation is to send your marketing message to everyone. The more people who hear about you, the more clients you will get, right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. The most effective way to market your company is to direct your approach to a specific smaller group. Once you have found your niche in marketing, you find that your client lists will grow far faster then if you send a general message to everyone. Here is how to make that happen. Continue reading »

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 »

After awhile of being in the business, a company can find itself at a loss as to how to get out of the vicious stale marketing cycle in which it is trapped. This problem often occurs when a business finds a few marketing techniques that really work well and can’t bring themselves to leave it behind when it no longer provides the same results. (It worked before, so why not now?) But recycling old marketing ideas will eventually backfire, and your company will find itself gaining fewer and fewer customers and, unfortunately, losing loyal customers to the competition across the street with the latest and greatest marketing efforts.

Below are some ideas on how to create fresh marketing designs using the example of a booklet printing, but these techniques can be used for any advertisement that needs refreshed.
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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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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 »

Advertising is a sound investment for any business, but these days everyone is evaluating the bottom line. Poster printing is a great way to advertise effectively on a budget without giving the appearance that you are on a budget. Here are some tips for advertising successfully with poster printing.

Use a variety of sizes
One way to get your posters noticed is to have them printed in a variety of sizes. This allows flexibility to advertise in small or large spaces when placing your posters. The difference in size also breaks up the familiarity to persons who have already seen it. That is, they may have a greater tendency to dismiss a second poster of the same design in the same size but not recognize quite as quickly that they have already seen the poster when it is a different size format. This gives you more advertising time.

State the benefits of your products
The best way to advertise successfully with poster printing or any advertising campaign is to educate consumers on the benefits that your product offers them. Rather than pointing out features that your product possesses, tell the consumers that make up your target market how your product is going to make their task easier and more productive.

Vary your designs periodically
Variety is the spice of life and advertising. Adding a little variety to your poster printing designs will attract more “views” from passersby. Design variance builds on the two previous points. 1) Having a variety of designs increases the likelihood of a second look. And 2) you can use different designs to highlight different benefits. Make an even greater impact by hanging the posters close together.

Build on your brand identity
One of the most important elements to any poster printing campaign is incorporating the brand identity of your business. Do not over crowd your design, but be sure to include the established look of your business as well as your logo and tagline in every poster design. Maintaining consistency across all advertising venues is the key to quick brand (business) recognition when consumers spot your poster.