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Summer is a great time to connect with people and attract new customers to your business. The sunshine improves every one’s mood, and people are outside and accessible. Take advantage of the summer time to promote your business by trying a few of the fun summer promotional ideas below.

Sponsor a Swim Team
Even small towns have swim teams for children that compete at regional swim meets. You can check at your local swimming pool to find out who is in charge, and ask to sponsor the team. You could purchase their swim gear and have your business name printed on their swim caps. Not only will this help get your business name out there, it will show people that you are involved in the community.

Leave Brochures at Hotels
When you go on vacation, you can leave business brochures at your hotels. You can also leave them at the different restaurants you eat at. Just be sure that your printed brochure has all of your contact info, including a web address, email address, and Facebook or Twitter info.

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Obviously, every graphic designer would love to create the perfectly original design for every client, and in a perfect world, this would be possible. Designers would have unlimited freedom in their creations, clients would love to be original, and advertisements would be appreciated for the art form they are. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world and designers very often have to forgo unique designs and their creative flair for a canned design that their client desires. In all reality, commercial design just is not the place for showing off artistic talents.

With this in mind, the question arises, how do you as a designer keep each project from looking like the last one? When you get an amazing idea, it’s hard not to want to keep using it for every client, but for your future clients’ and your career’s sakes, you cannot just copy the best idea you’ve ever had into every project. Keep your work original for each new client by following these tips below:

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A poster can be a great tool to get your products, services, or company noticed, but it has to be designed effectively. Here are a few things to consider so you don’t make mistakes when designing and printing posters.

1. Don’t use too much text.

A poster should be more visually appealing than something like a print ad; it should be bold and eye catching. Your emphasis should be on showing, rather than telling. It’s fine, and necessary, to put in some text, but it’s not the first thing a person should so. Photos or illustrations should be the main focus of a poster, and these are what draw in the potential customers. An eye catching poster will make the person pause and take the time to read the text. A poster with too much text may just be overlooked; people may not be interested enough to begin with to even look further. Another consideration is the text itself: always use large and easy to read fonts. Fancy typefaces may look nice, but if you overuse them, customers may find your poster hard to read.

2. Where will the posters be hung? Will your customers be able to see all the information clearly?

You should consider the locations of the posters when coming up with a design as well. If they are on a bulletin board where passersby will be very close to them, you can allow for somewhat smaller text. If they are hung high on a wall or on a billboard, it’s important to use less text and clearer, large images. 

3. Is your poster organized?

Disorganization can also cause people to ignore your poster. It should draw the eye to all the main elements and information effectively and clearly. A poster should never confuse the customer, and the information should be organized in such a way as to tell them about the product, why he or she needs/wants it, and of course, how to get it. The customer’s eyes should move around the poster in such a way that he or she takes note of all the information and the design elements should be pleasing to look at.

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Every company needs an Internet presence and marketing plan. A company without these marketing strategies is a company that is missing out on valuable opportunities to reach a nation or world-wide customer base. Even for those businesses who only want to keep their customer base small or local, an Internet marketing plan gets them in touch with the perfect customer they may otherwise never have come across. A dynamic website design, the use of search engine optimization, social marketing, and even print media are all a part of making your presence known on the web.

Dynamic Website
The design of your website needs to be professional, which is why many businesses opt for a web designer. A professional designer knows the current trends for website design and can combine these trends with the image you want to portray. If you are a do-it-yourselfer, you can build your own website, but be sure to keep some design tips in mind:

• Keep it simple – most websites today are leaving a lot more white space around text and images and breaking up text into columns for readability purposes.
• Use large fonts – the larger your headline font, the more quickly customers will notice it. It should be noticeably larger than the rest of your text, including any subheadings.
• Include vivid, bold images – the more attractive your graphics, the more attractive your website will be. 3D graphics are very popular, as well as enhanced photographic images.
• Study your favorite websites – get inspiration for your website design from those that appeal to you the most. Not sure where to look? Check out these 16 Sites for Web Design Inspiration.
• Use tutorials – especially if you are a beginner with web design programs, using a web design tutorial will help you get the professional look you need.

Search Engine Optimization
Even if you design the most attractive website out there, no one will find you if you don’t show up in the first few pages of Google or Yahoo. Getting your website to meet SEO standards requires more than can be discussed in this article, so your best bet is to hire a professional. Or you could teach yourself some of the basics and at least get the ball rolling until you can afford to hire a professional. Many free SEO tutorials are available and provide both the information and tools you need to get started.

Social Marketing
Keeping up with your customers through social marketing sites builds strong loyalty. Social marketing helps your customers feel like you are there for them no matter the time of day. Posting regular articles through Facebook and Twitter updates customers regularly in regards to your company. Any relevant useful tips are also great posting material. Starting a blog and allowing customers to leave comments allows them to feel involved in your day-to-day operations, and builds a relationship with your customers.

Print Materials
What, exactly, do print materials have to do with Internet marketing? Everything, in a sense. Even if your business is solely Online, you have to have business cards to hand out at business conventions or to the prospect you meet at the grocery store. Even brochure printing, flyers, poster printing, or any other print media will help spread the word about your website. If you have an office or storefront, advertise this information on your website, and advertise your website on print media. This technique gets you more results for your marketing dollar.

In short, no online presence equals an old-fashioned appearance. Keeping your company image updated with current marketing trends will show that your business can handle your customers’ needs more efficiently than your competitor who barely has a working website.

Coca-Cola recently announced that its Times Square billboard is going green as well as 29 neighboring billboards. All 30 billboards will be powered by wind, which would be the equal to powering 38 hourseholds for a year. This sounds like a real turning point for the environment – with the bright lights of Times Square and multi-national Coca-Cola going green. But critics wonder, is this really a green initiative and commitment to the environment or is it another case of greenwashing? 

Greenwashing is when companies misrepresent their greenness in marketing – they either claim they’re green when they’re not, or they claim to be more green than they actually are. Basically, greenwashing is lying about being green. For instance, a company might claim to use 100% recycled paper when in reality the paper is only made of 75% recycled content.

Coca-Cola’s Environmental Stewardship

To me, it seems as though Coca-Cola is really trying to be more environmentally friendly in its operations. The company has already taken strides in reducing its water usage with its water conservation initiatives around the world and its recycling campaign in the U.S. The Times Square announcement falls perfectly in line with Coca-Cola’s new campaign: “Refresh. Recycle. Repeat.” This campaign supports its goal to recycle or reuse 100% of its aluminum cans and plastic bottles in the U.S. By promoting its green efforts early on, Coca-Cola is breaking new ground for multi-national consumer goods companies.

Showcasing Corporate Initiatives

Up until recently, corporate social initiatives were only announced internally in annual reports and externally by the PR departments when there was an image problem. Marketing managers have been too afraid to promote social initiatives publically due to the possible backlash if someone found out about an unsavory practice. Coca-Cola’s Times Square announcement showcases its leadership and also might be a precursor to more international companies evolving to current trends and customer demands.

Consumer Shift to be Green

This shift in emphasis can be attributed to mainstream America dealing with the same challenges as corporate America, but on a smaller scale.

In the past few years, consumer attitudes have shifted toward the environment. People are more concerned about their own carbon footprint and are buying up LED light bulbs, hybrid cars and organic cotton clothing. Consumers are worried about their actions on their health and the environment for this generation and generations to come. President Obama and other high profile figures have helped bring global warming and other environmental concerns into the mainstream.

According to a 2008 DoubleClick Performics survey, 60% of consumers say it is either “extremely important” or “very important” for companies to be environmentally conscious. Green consumers are frustrated by the time it takes to change over to a green social economy, but applaud anyone’s and any company’s efforts to go green.

Coca-Cola has taken a giant step in the green direction, and now we wait for other companies to join in. 

Outdoor poster printing is important for all businesses, no matter what the industry. Outdoor posters include signs that hang in your business’s windows, signs that hang on the outside of your building, posters that are set on easels on the sidewalk and billboards along the highway.

Poster printing can be a great deal, but it’s not that cheap so you don’t want to waste your money by designing ineffective posters. Here are some ways to not design your posters and the ways you can create an eye-catching poster that will get people to slow down and stop in your store.

1. Make your poster hard to read. This is one of the most crucial mistakes marketers make when designing posters. Even though you might want to use a fancy poster font that is elegant and in curly cursive writing, that’s not the best choice for posters that will be viewed from more than 20 feet away. If your font isn’t clear, people won’t take the time to try to figure out your message. Make sure your sign is legible from the viewpoint of driving cars or on a sidewalk full of people.

2. Clutter your poster. By cluttering your poster with lots of words and images, people driving by won’t know what to look at first. They might only get part of your message and will therefore be confused. Instead, have one or two main images and a few words or have no images with a short phrase or tag line of no more than 8-10 words. The 8-word limit applies mostly to billboards, but it’s a good rule to follow for all other outdoor posters too. Be sure to use plenty of white space so your poster is easy to read. About 30 percent of your poster space should be filled with white space.

3. Don’t appeal to impulse buyers. Studies show that at least 55 percent of all retail sales are due to impulse buys. By using your sign to only identify your business, you’re missing out on all those impulse sales. Use your sign to relay a tempting call to action, like “Stop in now for 25% off.” If you have a popular product that sells out quickly, let people know you have that product in stock for a limited time.

4. Hide the poster. This might be an obvious mistake, but it’s an easy mistake to commit. Drive down the road in front of your store from all angles and make sure there’s no tree or neighboring sign hiding yours. Put your sign as close to the street as your city ordinances allow. Make sure your sign can be seen from all angles.

Also be sure you use colors that don’t blend in with your poster’s surroundings. If your poster will be hanging on a green light pole, don’t print a poster on green poster board. If your poster will be on a red brick building, choose colors that will help your poster stand out from the brick.

If your sales presentations aren’t getting you a lot of return phone calls, you should read the following tips for ensuring your sales presentation is the best it can be.

1. Time it. Your audience has a limited attention span, no matter what their age! CEOs get bored just as quickly as teenagers. If you drone on for too long, you’ll lose any interest gained in the first part of the presentation. Keep it short and to the point.

Follow the 60% rule: however much time is set aside for your meeting or presentation, use 60% of that total time. If you have a half-hour scheduled, use about 18 minutes for your presentation. If you have an hour scheduled, your presentation should last about 40 minutes. This allows your prospect to think it over and ask questions without being rushed.

2. Match your prospects’ tone while speaking. If your prospects (or main prospect, the highest-ranking person in the meeting) talk fast, you should talk fast. If your prospects talk slow, and take time to pause before the next phrase, you should try to do the same. The way they speak is the way they best understand speech back to them.

3. Watch your body language. The way you hold yourself can contradict the words coming out of your mouth. If you’re slouched over and have your arms crossed, it’s going to be hard for the prospects to get excited about anything you have to say. Stand up straight, use eye contact with everyone in the room (not all at once – although that would be an interesting trick!) and be careful of how much you use your hands. Use your hands to point to posters or other visuals to emphasize a point, but try not to let your hands get distracting by flailing about.

4. Use visual aids. Visuals aids should be just that – things that help you make your points – they shouldn’t be your point. Don’t rely on your visual aids to tell the whole story for you. Visual aids can reinforce your message and they increase retention, so definitely use them, just don’t abuse them! And definitely don’t read straight from them like a boring college professor – paraphrase the words on the visual or add information to them with your speech.

5. Keep your prospects involved. Do this by asking questions or use your presentation as a stage for a demonstration. Let the prospects use your product as they or their customers would in a real situation. Use their reactions and questions to gauge their interest.

6. Avoid clichés and overused phrases. People will start to ignore you when you say “We’re the best, forget the rest” or “I’ll be honest with you.” If you use phrases that are old-hat, you’ll lose attention and interest. Take time to rehearse your presentation and if you find you’re using clichés when you don’t mean to, write down some alternative wordings and practice with those.

7. Practice, practice, practice. You can also find phrases or parts of your presentation that don’t work and you’ll have time to fix them before the real deal. This is the best piece of advice because the more you practice, the better you’ll become and the more comfortable you’ll become with your presentation.

Believe it or not, there is a world outside the Internet. People still receive and look at mail. They also often go outside. The multitude of billboards, signs and posters are a testament to the fact major marketers realize this avenue still retains great value.

Catalog printing and poster printing are tried and true marketing gems. Booklet printing provides for an alternative to catalogs for companies without an extensive product or service line. Return on marketing dollars makes a business owner happy when utilizing these traditional techniques.

Of course, one has to craft their catalog and poster campaign with creativity. Concise wording and attention grabbing colors are both critical. Ensure that you deal with a trusted professional when seeking catalog printing, booklet printing or poster printing services. An inferior product can translate to missed potential customers.

Your audience can be ascertained through basic market research. There exist myriad purveyors of direct mail lists which allow you to effectively target your desired niche. Smart placement of posters accomplishes the same end. Posters additionally provide for an opportunity to display your web site address thus helping sales coming from your interactive efforts.

All business owners should review their comprehensive marketing plan. Many will find they are missing key components and letting a segment of potential customers slip through their net.

Advertising is not about imitating what has already been done, or even copying techniques that have been successful in the past. Advertising your business and being successful with it means having a marketing style that is unique and distinct.

Sure it pays to imitate what the others have done so you can also reap the same rewards. In fact, why rock the boat when the same marketing technique has been very effective with other businesses.

But the danger of doing so lies on being stuck with the same old strategy and failing to see other possibilities and new perspectives to help you develop a more unique and appropriate tactic for your business. In fact, getting stuck to one marketing strategy, your advertising posters for one, can be difficult to get out of because as they say, it is easier to teach a dog new tricks than to unlearn old ways that is not working anymore.

To be successful in your advertising campaign, copying other successful strategies can be a worthwhile process. But having your own unique style is way better in ensuring that you generate the leads you need to grow your business.

It may take you awhile, but having a distinct marketing campaign can help you not only to create your very own image that your clients will recognize for years to come, it also guarantees that you build a stronger relationship with your clients.

What do you need to get your clients to clamor for more of your posters, booklets, and even business cards? A good headline should do it.

Yes, Iʼm talking about pure, raw and unadulterated headline that packs a mean punch wherever it hits. Youʼll say, sure! A good headline does give you the enticement you need to make your audience thirsting for more. But what can you do to make sure that you have one for your marketing collaterals?

For one thing, you have to make sure that your headline is the first thing that your readers would see in your material, and not your name or your store address. I know that you want people to know you. But letʼs face it. Itʼs not you that the clients would be buying. Itʼs your product. So get off your high horses and teach yourself to write a great headline.

Second, write your headline like youʼre the only business that can provide the solution to their problems. Make it sound like youʼre the miracle drug of all miracle drugs. If thereʼs one thing that would make your audience hopping to your store itʼs the benefits that you can give, more than that of your competition.

If you have a great headline, you can convince your target not only to read your ad, but to clamor for more. Heck, you can even convince your clients to buy, which I think is the objective of this exercise in the first place.