Marketing Manner

It is a well-known fact in business circles that keeping your current customers is a lot less expensive than attracting new ones. Generating customer loyalty starts with good customer service and quality products, but there are also some marketing strategies that will help keep customers returning to your store.

Show Appreciation
If you have a client who buys a big ticket item from you, show your appreciation with a thank you note. Everyone likes to be appreciated. You can even cut costs through postcard printing in the form of a thank you note; 4″x6″ postcards are cheaper to mail than regular mail.

Keep in Touch
Regularly contact your customers. Send out greeting cards around the holidays. Mail birthday cards to clients. Give customers seasonal coupons sent with postcard printing pieces. If your business deals with just a few clients, take them out for coffee or invite them to a cocktail party at your house. Continue reading »

Short term ad campaigns attempt to get people to take action immediately. Whether the campaign involves postcard printing or newspaper spots, the ads tell about products and offers available for a limited time, creating a sense of urgency that causes people to respond. Here are some tips to help you short term ad campaign be all that it can be. Continue reading »

Poster printing can be a great way to promote your business. For the new business owner, self-made posters are simple and inexpensive and can be very effective. For well-established businesses with vast marketing campaigns, posters offer the exact same benefits. And since posters can range from a small 8.5″ x 11″ to huge billboards, the advertising possibilities are endless. Need some more convincing evidence on the power of poster printing? Here’s exactly why (and how) you should incorporate posters into your marketing plan.

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Easter is an excellent time to gear up for print advertising of all types.  Spring is in the air, customers are out shopping again, and this represents a perfect opportunity to remind your customers about your products and services.  Easter is a unique holiday on a number of levels.  First of all, from year to year the date changes.  Easter also means different things to different people.  For some, it is the most important religious holiday of the year.  For others, Easter represents a holiday celebrating spring, Easter bunnies, and family get-togethers.  Keep these important distinctions in mind when designing for Easter print advertising. Continue reading »

Few business managers understand the difference between offset printing and digital printing.  This is important to understand for postcard printing in particular, since the difference between offset or digital printing can mean significant savings.  So what are these differences?  What is the best method for your postcard printing project? Continue reading »

Independence Day is an important holiday in America as it represents the pinnacle of patriotism for holidays as well as encapsulates all things related to summer.  This makes Independence Day an important opportunity for businesses to connect with customers and associate with the positive imagery surrounding this holiday, and this is especially true for small businesses that are locally owned.

There are many design elements associated with Independence Day that can be incorporated into print advertising.  Knowing the right one for you depends on your goals and what kind of print advertising medium you are using.  This article discusses a number of design tips that you can use to connect your business with the positive excitement and energy surrounding Independence Day.

Support local business
Don’t be afraid to point out the fact that your business is locally owned, if that is the case.  Many customers would gladly support a local business over an international firm as long as prices and services are competitive.  Using the “Made in the U.S.A.” phrase can go a long way to connecting your customer with the fact that you are a local business.

Be brilliant
Make sure that your print advertising is in full color.  Independence Day imagery should include fireworks and summer themes.  Black and white simply cannot translate these ideas properly.  Explore a number of alternative printing methods, such as plastics, to really help your promotional items standout.

Call to action
Make sure to include a call to action such as the “limited time only” sale, promotional events, or even include coupons in your print advertising materials.  Print advertising has at its core the goal of improving sales, and a great way to get customers shopping with you is through a call to action that includes sales and promotional events.

Red, white, and blue
Of course, a great way to connect with the patriotic elements of Independence Day is through the red, white, and blue colors that are iconic of this holiday.  To stand out from other patriotic advertisements, incorporate the colors of your company into your print advertising materials and consider using red, white, and blue as a backdrop or incorporating these colors into other graphical elements.

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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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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