Marketing BEEP

Promotional Calendar Tips for the Amateur Designer

The appeal of promotional calendars is irresistible. With promotional calendars, you are creating a functional, year round advertising tool. Customers love them and you benefit greatly from them. If you have never before designed a print calendar, though, it may seem like a difficult task. The truth is that you can create your own promotional calendar and you can do it well. Here are a few tips for designing a professional looking calendar with ease.

Ideas for Generating New Customers

It is a lot easier to keep your current customers than to draw in new ones, but every business has to generate new customers at one point or another. If your business is needing to expand your customer base, here are some ideas for making your business irresistible.

Offer Something New
Brainstorm about what you are not offering that would make your customer's lives easier. Think about related services that you could combine to make your business a one-stop shop. Then offer packages of services or products at a lower price than each would cost individually. Make sure you advertise these new packages all over the place, and you will probably steal plenty of clients from your competition.

Market to Prospects with a Great Introductory Offer
To get new people to take a chance on you, make them an offer they cannot refuse. Offer your services or products at a greatly reduced price for the first X weeks. Then give customers a guarantee that if they are not satisfied, they can get a refund. Tell people about this offer through telemarketing, when you hand out business cards, and on your website.

Use Testimonials from Loyal Customers
Ask your loyal customers to write out testimonials of how your business has helped them in the past. Include the customer's name and occupation along with the testimonial so people know it came from a real person. Put these testimonials on your print brochures, business cards, and posters to make your business look more credible and attract new customers.

Sell Static Inventory Online
If you have stuff just sitting in store rooms, get it to generate cash by selling it in online auctions. With a world-wide pool of people, there is bound to be someone who can use your unwanted items.

Attend Trade Shows Armed with Materials
Go to every kind of trade show, business expo, job fair, and community event you can find. Prepare ahead of time by printing business cards and brochures to take with you. Practice what you want to tell people about your business. Be sure to include information about how your company benefits people because people are only looking to do business with those who can improve their lives.

6 Marketing Materials Every Small Business Needs for Start Up

Before you launch your small business, you should have several marketing materials ready to go. If you generate interest in your company before it even opens, you will have a strong beginning to build on. If you are already doing business, you should get these materials as soon as possible to help your business thrive.

Tips for Choosing the Right Marketing Strategy for Your Business

Marketing your business well will be worth the time and money you put into it; customers must hear about you in order to choose you. There are so many marketing options available to you, media such as brochure printing, business card printing, poster printing, and media such as radio and televisions ads, press releases, and phone sales. Obviously, the choice can be a difficult one.
 
While some cheap or free marketing techniques can be effective on a local level, you will see more success if you spend more money but wisely. A marketing strategy that fits your desires may not be the least expensive option. Here are some things to consider before you choose your marketing strategy.

Designing Your Own Business Cards

Many small businesses try – and fail – to design business cards for themselves.  It takes a special talent to balance both the art and science of business card design.  Fortunately, in a pinch, you can design business cards on your own.  Just be sure to keep some of these tips in mind so that you business card printing endeavors are not a waste of time and money.

Making Calendars in Publisher: Font Tips

Creating a print calendar can be a rewarding experience. Not only are you making something that will promote your business, you are creating something to give to people that they will appreciate. Here are some tips for using fonts that will help your calendar printing experience go much more smoothly.

Business Card Printing: Offset Vs Digital Printing

Business card printing is one of the first and most important print advertising formats that businesses use, but few people understand when offset printing or digital printing is the best option for their business.  Both have distinct advantages which can save your business a great deal of money.  Which one is right for you?  This article discusses basic offset and digital printing concepts and gives you some direction on when each format may be best.

Marketing with Door Hangers

One of the forgotten direct marketing methods that many businesses neglect to consider is door hanger printing.  Other direct mail formats, such as fliers and postcards, have the potential to go unnoticed altogether.  But a customer cannot ignore your door hanger.

There are some very specific considerations before door hanger printing is a direct marketing method you are ready to utilize.  This article highlights just a few ideas you should think through before launching your own door hanger printing campaign.

 

Postcard Printing – Direct Mail 101

If your business has never engaged in direct mail advertising through postcard printing, there’s never a better time to begin this marketing method than now.  The return on investment for postcard printing is almost always a net positive, as long as your postcard campaign is well designed.  This article discusses the key benefits of postcard printing and direct mail advertising.

Why postcard printing?
Postcards are an inexpensive yet effective way to quickly communicate with a customer.  Bright pictures and exciting graphics grab the attention of the customer, and before they know it they’ve been exposed to your marketing message.  Whether you are letting them know about the big promotional event, new products and services, or just letting them know that you’re thinking about them – postcards very simply and inexpensively connect with customers.

Why direct mail?
Direct mail advertising allows you to target customers.  When you know specific information about your typical customer – age, gender, geographic location, specific interests, etc – you can carefully target a print campaign to similar customers.  A well-designed mailing list can yield significant response and conversion rates.  If you’re new to these terms, response rates are simply the percentage of individuals that actually call or visit a web site because of your print campaign.  Conversion rates speak to the percentage of respondents who actually make a purchase. 

How can you use postcard printing?
You have a limited amount of space on a postcard, so you have to choose carefully what and how you communicate your message.  Postcards are typically divided into two parts: the front and back.  The front of the postcard is for the full color graphics and pictures.  The front is also where you include a very basic message.  The back of the postcard is where you include details.  This may be sales promotion dates, new product specifications, or coupon details.  The point is that the front of the card draws the customer into your marketing message and the back of the card fills in the details.

Final thoughts
Now that you know a little bit more about direct mail marketing with postcard printing, you can start putting a plan together.  Make sure to work with a professional printing firm to ensure quality printing.  Don’t forget to find a firm that can also handle your direct mailing duties, as this can save you a great deal of time and money.

Choosing the Right Grid for Print Catalog Pages

Using grids to lay out a print catalog can seem confusing at times. They can however be a useful tool in creating a page that makes sense. Remember that the grids are there to help guide your design, but don't let the grid force decisions on your page. Instead, choose a grid that compliments your content.

A few things to keep in mind...

There are a few elements that will determine which grid to use. Page elements, including graphics and text and whatever else you put on the page, will determine the grid. The type of text, whether you are using short or extended articles, will also be a factor. Lastly, the photographs and illustrations, what size and shape they are, will help you choose which grid to go with. 

Some guidelines for grids with different projects:

Books with mostly text and a few graphics would require a 1-3 grid only, while catalog printing with lots of picture would require many more grids. The more grids you use, the smaller each individual unit would be; therefore, you can insert more graphics and text. 

Newsletters use columnar grids more often. 1,2, or 3 columns work nicely for a newsletter with long articles with lots of text. Four or more columns give you a wider range of possibilities to mix it up with graphics. Keep in mind that even-numbered grids can make the page seem too symmetric. 

Suggestions for making grids versatile:

Instead of forming your content to fit into a grid, mix up the uses of your units. For instance, you can use two columns for text and then the third and fourth combined for a picture. Or you can leave some grids blank for extra white space. Be flexible with the use of grids to add interest to your print catalog. 

An idea to add variety to your print catalog pages:

Instead of using the same grid for every page, choose two and alternate them as is appropriate. Use one grid for short articles and the other for more lengthy ones. Or, use one for text-heavy pages and a different one for pages with lots of pictures. 

Once you are familiar with the different styles of grids, you will be able choose them more easily. Once you are comfortable with grids, your page design will be a breeze.