Marketing Manner

It doesn’t take a genius to know that small businesses often have very limited budget to work with. In fact, with the very small budget you have, you’d probably be wondering how you can market your products and services without having to blow all your money in a marketing scheme that would only give you failure more than success.

But there are ways and means to market your business even on a small budget. In fact, a limited budget can help you become more creative with your marketing collaterals such as your posters, business cards, and advertising flyers.

Here’s a few of the strategies you can use to help you manage your own marketing campaign:

1 – Identify your goals in your marketing plan.

2 – Provide a plan of action that helps you effectively implement your marketing plan.

3 – Use your marketing budget wisely on collateral that can work for your business growth.

4 – Look for opportunities and chances for you to market your business. But be sure that you can afford whatever it is you’re going to do to market your products and services.

5 – Identify your target market.

6 – Spend you money on marketing collaterals (i.e. business card printing, poster printing, flyer printing) that work for your benefit. Choose a material that is suitable for you.

7 – Be consistent in all the elements in your marketing collaterals, and in your marketing campaign as a whole.

8 – Increase your chances of being seen by providing a marketing campaign that is frequently aired or printed.

9 – Go get yourself reference materials so you can get more tips to increase your marketing strategy.

The key to a successful marketing campaign is to have your business in plain sight of both the media and your target audience the whole year. When you engage in brochure printing or postcard marketing covered throughout the year then you have successfully provided your business with a truly effective marketing arsenal.

But in order to be a viable publicity material, you have to understand that there’s actually a rhythm that publicity insiders and media people have learned over time. Based upon the highs and lows of the seasons, you can fit your stories and features to generate instant coverage and publicity.

It’s all about keeping in touch of what is in and what is out of fashion. Basing your marketing rhythm to the different seasons can help you be in the limelight from the first quarter to the last.

To make sure that you have the perfect stories and articles, you have to, first, make sure your timing is right. Your stories will not get attention even if you make a fit if you don’t time it to coincide with particular needs of the media during a certain time of the year.

Second, you have to provide the media with features that take advantage of the events and holidays during that season. For example, from April to June, people are looking forward to summer vacation and the Memorial Day. If you can create your story to include these two events, it would mean more media coverage for you and your business.

So how do you make your color business cards work double time? Turn your standard and boring pieces into handouts that are of value to your customers and prospective clients. Provide business cards that are in a totally different surface and stock.

What do I mean? Just get your contact information printed on any surface which is very easy these days with digital printing. In fact, online printers like PrintPlace.com can provide you with a wide range of choices when it comes to unique ideas for your business cards. Your marketing tool can be a fridge magnet, a note pad, a stick-on, a mug, a t-shirt, on pens, and even on calendars. The bottom line is to get your contact information and message in plain sight of your customers that they are reminded of your business and your offer.

Your item can double as your promotional tool and at the same time a business card that has all your contact information that your customers and potential clients can use to get in touch with you someday.

Not only do you provide your customers and prospects with your complete contact details and message, you are also able to hand out a promotional item that they can actually use, and hence, see everyday.

Some business owners would tell you that with the present market trends and slower economy, it might be a good idea to slow down on your marketing efforts. To tighten your belt when it comes to developing your marketing collaterals such as your promotional flyers and color brochures would help in maintaining your budget.

On the contrary, studies have shown that despite the crises and hardships, the best time to promote oneʼs business and even step up on marketing efforts would be now. When everybody is trying to slow down, it is the time for you to build your relationships and advance your position in your business niche.

Smart companies become success stories precisely because they took the opportunity to rise above the hardships. Those that are more willing to support their brand even when the economy is down would be better off when it comes to sales rates compared to those who cut back.

When is the best time to advertise? Now is the best time. When market is down and the economy gets slower, it is the time for you advance rather than to recede. Those that stay in the advertising game usually have a steady rising course because customers see their presence even during the tough times, which provides recognition and retention of the kind of service they offer. 

Make sure that your trade show giveaways not only do their job, but they do it well. When done right, nothing can beat your postcards or color business cards in getting your message across your target audience.

However, business owners often make the mistake of putting too much attention in making sure that their promotional materials generate new leads for the business. They put all their money to create marketing collaterals to attract new clients to the business. We tend to forget that our current roster of customers is also worth marketing to. In fact, building customer loyalty through your corporate gifts is one of the strongest tools to use to grow your business.

Customers are a capricious lot. You need to boost their ego and always make them feel important. When they feel that they are no longer appreciated, then they leave you and look for another vendor that would make them feel important again. In fact, they may even go to your competition for their next order.

So be sure to build a stronger foundation for your business relationships. Provide your loyal customers with gifts and special discounts to make them feel appreciated. None is better than a satisfied and delightful customer that brings repeat business to your company.

To start the New Year right, you might want to create a production planning calendar that would make it easy for you to track your plans for the whole year, as well as make your production planning simpler. A production planning calendar can help you to keep track of your deadlines and make sure that you keep up with delivery dates.

With an ordinary calendar, you only have a month-to-month document that lets you manipulate one page at a time. This can be a challenge especially if you want to see the year-round activities.

Thereʼs a designer that developed a compact calendar that makes it possible for marketers and PR people to see all the dates in one whole year without having to flip the pages in the calendar.

You see, this designer provided the solution with having the dates and weekends, months and weeks indicated in one long page. The weekends are seen on the right side of the calendar, while the months and year are indicated on the left.

And you donʼt have to lose sight of the holidays, too. Theyʼre safely ensconced in color within the calendar.

The result: a calendar that lets you plan your production of your marketing strategy which makes it easy for you to work out the dates with just one look at the calendar. You can also modify the production calendar to suit your requirements and marketing needs.

Why not do something of the kind for your own marketing efforts? Develop a one-page production calendar that would allow you to see your activities and deadlines in just one glance. With a compact production calendar, you might just be able to provide your business with an effective year-round marketing strategy, and eventually, growth for your business.

Do you know that according to surveys, a flyer printing piece that has an 800-phone number gets noticed more often than those that don’t have one? Actually, it’s 20% more from the total number that received your flyer printing pieces.

As a general rule, it is at least twice the number of target clients in your database that respond positively to your 800 number in your flyer printing project, than using your regular phone number. In fact, there are more responders to your 800 number when you use it in combination with an attractive offer or incentive. Maybe because it’s free that’s why it’s so popular.

So how do you maximize the potential of your 800 number? Use it in your flyer printing piece to form part of your flyer printing design. You can actually increase its font size to emphasize its position in your flyer printing piece. In addition to the font size, place your 800 number in the lower right hand corner of your flyer printing project to increase its visibility. Nevertheless, you still have to include your regular phone number to optimize your contact features.

Using an 800 number in your flyer printing project not only increases your response rate, but it actually provides your target readers a more affordable way of getting in touch with you.

While I am writing this, I am staring out of my hotel window and guess what it is that captured my attention – a huge billboard. This billboard does not contain anything but three words:

Explore. Adventure. Fun. And one picture of the deep blue sea.

Right now, I am tempted to check out of my room and just abandon whatever I am doing to just do that.

I am not very familiar with marketing but I thought that was powerful -very few words yet the message gets through. Those three words have occupied my thoughts and to the extent that I had to write something about it. If it was intended to catch my attention then I would say they ae quite successful.

As I compare that message with the travel brochure I got at the hotel lobby, I thought the brochure was a complete waste. As I scan through the brochure right now, I just realized that it did not have the same effect. First, it was cluttered. There were just too many words and I hate reading! It told me about everything they offered and not leaving anything for my imagination.

Don’t get me wrong, I mean the details help but if I am interested I will call them up and get the details myself. Second, there are too many pictures. Again, I wanted to leave some things for me to recreate in my mind.

I better chuck this brochure and call that number in the billboard.

Why postcards? Because they still work, thatʼs why.

Even with so many high-tech gadgets and digital advertising available nowadays, postcards are still a constant reminder to us marketers that advertising doesnʼt need to be expensive and complicated.

For one thing, postcards can be used in whatever business youʼre in. If you need to create sales activity in your business, then postcard marketing can do it for you. Postcards are great tools to complement other promotional campaigns such as your website or direct mail brochures.

They are also very simple that creating your very own postcard printing design need not be that complex. Your message will be well remembered if you write it in brief and concise copy that is conveyed in a personal manner.

And because postcards are simple to create, you can always have them done in your personal computer for less than 3 cents. But if you want a professional postcard printing company to do it, you just have to pay at least 5 to 8 cents a piece.

All in all, creating your own marketing collateral should not be too expensive, including the mailing service. With postcards, you can have the US Postal Service mail your print materials for only 23 cents, and thatʼs first class.

A business card is a business ownerʼs best friend. But what most business owners donʼt understand is that whatever image you would want your target readers to get depends a lot on the kind of business card printing job you have.

People generally judge a book by its cover. This means that people usually brand individuals with what they see at first glance. Same with the business image. If they see you as unprofessional and unskilled, your clients would simply walk away and go to another business that does a better job.

A poor marketing image starts from business cards that donʼt have an effective message to clearly describe the business, a strong visual logo, and the lack of a catchy phrase to define the companyʼs image. Here are more popular mistakes that you should try to avoid when creating your print cards:

- No focal point, image or consistent theme.

- Unreadable, fuzzy and creates confusion.

- Out of date, with information and other elements that has seen better days.

- Filled with unnecessary details.

- Has a cluttered look that makes it hard to concentrate on the details.

- Does not generate additional business.

- Unappealing brochure copy that provide a negative impression.

- Does not have a clear definition of your products and services.

- Inconsistent design, confusing layout, and messed up message.