4 Print Campaign Examples Millennials Love

With so much advertising being thrown at millennials, it makes sense that it takes an original message to cut through the noise. And with the rise of digital media, print ads have to work twice as hard to convey a message to tech-savvy millennials. Millennials want print ads that cut to the chase and utilize attention-grabbing, direct visuals to convey their message. Here are some examples of print campaigns that speak to millennials, as well as to the young at heart.

Boredpanda.com has a list of ads that are chock-full of millennial favorites. Let’s pick out and discuss some highlights:

1. Volkswagon: Precision Parking

If there’s one thing millennials love, it’s cuteness. This Volkswagon ad features a cute hedgehog parking between goldfish, just the kind of image millennials enjoy.

2. Reading Campaign: Face-A-Book

Millennials love social media, so this reading campaign ad is sure to turn their heads, turning social media giant’s logo Facebook into a pro-reading message. Good advice for millennials, and everyone else.

3. Oogmerk Opticians: Get the Respect You Deserve

When people think millennials, they think hipsters, and this ad for Oogmerk Opticians shows how to turn anyone into a hipster by giving them a pair of trendy glasses.

4. Lego: “Imagine” The Simpsons

Many millennials grew up watching The Simpsons and playing with Legos, so this ad combines the best of both worlds, with The Simpsons characters built out of Lego blocks. All that’s missing is Homer’s pink donut. Maybe there will be a circular Lego in the future?

What makes these ads stand out in the minds of millennials? Not only are they all creative and well thought out, but they are simplistic too. Most people don’t have time to sift through wordy, overbearing direct mail pieces. Keeping yours creative and to the point is a great way to catch the eye of not only millennials but other generations as well.

Is Blogging Right for Your Business?

A blog keeps you engaged with your industry and your community. It can position a person as a thought leader—in any business.

If you are reading this, you already know that the dynamics of doing business has changed. Advertising has changed. Today’s clients expect companies to engage them. Blogging provides a straightforward entrance to the world of online engagement.

Keeping your website reader-worthy makes it into something more than the modern version of a phone book listing. And it will rise in search results through blogging. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is vital for businesses today. If your potential client seeks your service on the web but finds another provider first, you have a problem! You can turn this around with quality blogging.

Setting Up Your Blog

Your website might enable a blog already. As it helps bring in clients, you may seek writing support, so blogging goes on in the background while you handle your professional responsibilities. Consider it part of your marketing budget.

To start, it’s important to establish desired return on investment (ROI). Are people finding your updates, and sharing them with their friends and colleagues? Do readers locate the content of your posts worth returning to? A useful service shows you stats on the time users spend on your blog and how your posts are shared.

Of course, you also want information on how many readers explore your services or place orders. With statistically measurable goals, you can see if your efforts are working, or if it’s sensible to get pros involved with your marketing.

When to Post?

Blog weekly. You can schedule the posts so that they don’t go out at 3 am when you finish writing. Again, if time’s an issue, hire quality writing support. Give your readers material that is valuable to them.

You will want to update your blog about upcoming events where your company will have a presence and about any special promotions you are running.

Community Engagement

The best return from your blog will involve engagement. Enable people to sign up and be alerted to your new blog entries. Allow reader comments. And yes, set up a Facebook page as well as other social media platforms suited to your business. Make sure the word is getting out about your company.

Need inspiration? Watch a big company, one you’ve known a while, using social media. Pick out some ideas that would work for you. Then set a timeline to implement them.

Common Website Mistakes to Avoid

Websites are the modern equivalent of a business card. They’re necessary to stay competitive. If you don’t have a website, the chances are that your competitor down the street does.  And you can bet that customers will go to that business in a heartbeat if they can’t find out anything about your business online.

These days, an online presence confirms your legitimacy as a business.

With that being said, you don’t want to waste people’s time when they do come to your website. They want readily available information that gets straight to the point of what they need. Wading through useless, peripheral information will only frustrate them and send them clicking over to your competitor before the web page has finished loading.

Website mistakes which can cause that situation to happen more quickly include:

1. Talking Too Much About Yourself Instead of What You Can Do for the Client

Your website is a marketing tool. It is not a one-sheet for your personal or business biography. Your “About” page can give some relevant background about your business’ origins or mission statement, but when people visit your website’s homepage, the focus should be on how they landed on the right website to get exactly what they need. The “who” is not as relevant in this case as the “what” and “how fast.”

2. Forgetting to Add a Search Box

If all the things that you offer can’t fit on one page, then people will probably want to do a quick look up for what they need. The emphasis here is on the word, quick. People are used to doing web searches, and they will look for a search box if they don’t immediately see what they are looking for. That search box should be in a highly visible place because if your visitors have to search too long for it, they’ll just as soon go to Google and search for another business that can deliver whatever it is they’re looking for.

3. Allowing Links to Other Sites to Open in the Same Window

The goal is to keep your website visitors on your site for as long as possible. The longer they stay and engage with your content, the more likely they are to become a customer or at least a subscriber. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to link to third party sites for such things as reading source material or to complete a purchase. No matter the reason that they leave, you always want your visitors to come back. Make it easy for them to do that by having all of your outbound links open in a new window. This way, your website remains present and available as a reminder for visitors to take another look whenever they’ve finished doing the offsite tasks.

By having a website for your business and avoiding these three common mistakes, you can create a better online experience for your prospects and customers.

4 Ways to Get Creative with Content Marketing

What is the absolute BEST way to get your website content seen? People consume content all over the internet in many different ways.  Think of various websites like Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, or Facebook.  The popularity of these platforms lies in the fact that people can choose how they consume information.  So, how can you make use of this when creating your own web content?  Here are four ways to get creative with your content marketing strategies and help encourage more website engagement from your viewers:

Video Blog with Transcript

Video blogs are exactly what they sound like… a video of you (or someone else) speaking on a topic; and they are becoming increasingly popular.  However, you should consider taking that video a step further by including a transcript of it on the same page.  By doing this, you will optimize both the written content as well as the video content for search engines.

Infographics

Many people love infographics, and for a good reason! They are incredibly easy to understand and can be reviewed quickly.  Infographics are nothing more than simple images that convey your message.  A Google Image search of the term “Infographic” will provide several hundreds of examples.  Best of all, with the right tool (like that provided by piktochart.com), creating a custom infographic can be easy.

Expert Interviews

Nothing gives you credibility like having a celebrity endorsement.  However, that is not always possible.  The next best thing is showcasing an individual’s expertise – whether that is someone within your company or outside of it.  Creating content using an expert interview is an excellent way to add credibility to your website.  You can even combine this concept with the video blog tip, above.

“A Day in the Life”….In Photos!

People love to see a story. Is your company having a business retreat soon?  If so, that could be an excellent opportunity to add a “human” element to your website and help your target audience connect with you.  Just a few pictures, each with a caption telling the story, can go a long way towards building rapport with your audience.

With so much content on the web, it is important that yours stands out among the crowd. Changing things up and throwing in something other than a blog or whitepaper every once in a while can make a world of difference for your business.

Do Catalogs Still Drive Sales?

The belief that print is dead is not only erroneous, it is a false mindset that can cost you customers. Catalogs and brochures remain very effective tools to reach customers and drive sales. Printed marketing materials need to be a component of a successful outreach campaign. Email and digital materials are easily dismissed with a click of a button, whereas print is tangible, vibrant, and imparts information in an effective manner. Catalogs make shopping a more interactive, tactile, and physical experience. Many customers enjoy a mix of print and digital information, and when making the buy decision, many tactile people would rather shop from a printed catalog.

Catalogs also make a perfect leave behind at the conclusion of a sales call; rather than state that you will email them material, you are able to put it in their hand during those vital moments when they are strongly engaged with you. Catalogs are also perfect for recurring customers with whom you want to keep in touch, by having your catalog on their desk, and making that visual impression, can help to keep your company, and your products, at the forefront of their mind. Printed materials that are vibrant, promote the company’s brand identity, and impart useful information will be an effective piece of any direct marketing campaign.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that your firm does not need printed materials, and that digital can meet all of your marketing needs. Catalogs continue to play an important part in driving sales and keeping repeat customers engaged in the sales process. Catalogs present your products and services in a straightforward, informative, and easily digested manner that is accessible to customers across many market niches. Make sure that your marketing campaigns contain all of the tools available.

The Color Of Your Mail Envelopes Can Effect Your Responses

How important is the color of the mail you are sending out to prospects? Consider that the envelope is the absolute first thing a person will see. Before they read the return address, before they open it and find out what it is, they will notice the color. On that one split second alone, their mind has now framed how they are going to frame the information. The person may have even decided if he is going to open it at all or toss it.

There is an entire field of study dedicated strictly to the responses people give to color. Color symbolism, for instance, studies the conditioned associations we make with color. This of course, is based greatly on where we are raised. Green, for example, is considered lucky in Ireland but unlucky in England.  Red is associated with danger in many places but not all.

Color Psychology shows the effects colors have on a person’s mood and behavior. Certainly a key piece of information when it comes to print and direct mail marketing!

So as opposed to the conditioned meanings we can give to colors, they also create a psychological response because of the way the wavelengths are received by our brains.  Red can create aggression, intensity and get the blood pumping. Green can relax and soothe.

If you absolutely want someone to open a piece of mail, a red envelop will do it.  On the other hand, it might also make them aggressive and potentially angry when they open it. They might feel the sense of urgency wasn’t worth it. So really, it comes down to figuring out what kind of reaction you want, what kind of mental state you want your prospect to be in when they receive your message.

It’s also important to make sure (and test) that it is not evoking the negative side of that emotion as described with Red. Yellow will bring up emotion and confidence, but can also evoke anxiety and fear.

Take some time to learn some basics about this concept and apply it to a split test. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn and apply from the results.

http://www.colour-affects.co.uk/how-it-works

https://www.fluttermail.com/colour-affects-email-response/

Using Effective Communications in your Marketing Efforts

Marketing communications is designed to help your company gain brand awareness and at the same time retain its existing customers. However, it is not always easy to communicate effectively especially if you have no experience in the marketing field. it is hard to know who to target, how and when to market and what strategies to use among more. So, what should you do to make the most out of your marketing communications?
Here is a glimpse of some of the communication strategies you can use to make your marketing efforts effective.
•    Keep the message simple and clear – Most companies have a deeper and complicated meaning as to why they do the things they do. But, that is not what people out there are interested in. Their only interest is what they can gain from the company and so, make sure your message is brief, simple, intriguing and clear for them to understand.
•    Know your audience – Successful marketing efforts begin with analyzing and knowing your audience. Different people have different needs and therefore, it is good that you do some research on the target audience before giving them any information. Sending information to the wrong audience will only use your money and effort.
•    Drop your corporate person hat – Remember, the people you are meeting out there are ordinary citizens and they will only listen to you if they feel they can relate well with you. So, use simple terms, understand their culture and try fit in to their day to day activities. From there, they will be interested in what you have to say.
•    Be confident – Nobody wants to listen to someone who is not sure of him or herself. When marketing, you are selling you company’s product and so, you have to convince your audience that you understand and believe in the product you are selling. Otherwise, you will just get frustrated since nobody will pay attention to you.

Successfully Tracking Your Mail Campaign

Direct mail advertisements are one of the most effective methods of advertisement. The main advantage stems from the fact that with direct mail marketing, the market targeted is one that is likely to convert rather than a general market.

Moreover, it is an inexpensive method as compared with other methods of advertising, it costs much less. The major advantage, however, must be the fact that you can track your mail campaign. Most businesses, after releasing an advertisement, always wonder whether it is effective and whether it reached the intended market. With direct mail, you can track the results to realize whether you had a successful mail campaign.

How to Successfully Track Your Mail Campaign

The methods to successfully track your mail campaign are as explained below:

a)        Send follow up emails.

When using a direct mail campaign to advertise, a single mail is not enough. Most times, adverts in an email will receive a glance then it will be ignored. However, after sending the first mail, send a second mail reminding the potential customer of the first mail, and then a third mail reminding him of the first two emails. This way, if your competitor sends an email after your first mail, your subsequent mail will remind the customer of your product.

b)       Ensure that the target market is likely to convert.

Each business aims to increase profits and reduce costs. Increasing your Return on Investment requires cost-effectiveness of your campaign, and this cost –effectiveness is achieved if more customers convert. Therefore, target a market that has shown interest in your product before, as they are likely to convert.

c)        Use an attractive and eye-catching headline.

The first letters that the target market’s eyes will land on is the heading of your email. An attractive and well-scripted heading will increase the curiosity of the customer, and he or she will end up reading through the email.

By increasing the cost-effectiveness of your direct mail campaign, you increase your ROI, and this is possible only if you successfully track your mail campaign.

Achieve Increased ROI With Direct Mail Marketing

With the ever-growing popularity of campaigns for social marketing, landing pages to gather leads and the use of mobile apps as marketing tools, smaller businesses may find using direct mail marketing to be viable option. With the ultimate goal of increasing traffic and leads, ensuring the optimal ROI is achieved means taking a tighter grip on the reigns of already small budgets for marketing. What may be deemed by some as an old-fashioned method for marketing may in fact be a cost-effective option.

Effectively Combine Digital Channels

While research has proved the ROI resulting from direct mail compared to the sole use of email marketing, the use of direct mail as a stand alone isn’t as effective. When combined with multiple channels, direct mail marketing can increase response rates and significantly lower the cost per acquisition when compared with paid search and internet displays. A study conducted in 2015 by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the CPA proved that direct mail marketing ranked third in performance at an average cost of $19. Moreover, when combined with all digital channels, it was proved to be seven times more effective.

Track Metric

While many businesses employ the use of multiple marketing channels to generate leads and bring about better awareness of their brand, direct mail marketing can still stand as a viable means of bringing substantial ROI. In order to determine the effectiveness of campaigns, it’s important to track the rate of response. This can be accomplished by using a call to action that can be used to properly monitor responses.

Growing a customer base is one of the main objectives of your business. Using digital marketing combined with direct mail marketing will not only increase the customer base but will increase sales if executed effectively.

Digital Marketing for 2017: Avoid These 3 Marketing Traps

According to Social Times, nearly 90 percent of companies rely on social media for all or part of their marketing. If you plan to use digital marketing in 2017 to promote your products or services, you should know that the internet is a powerful tool. If you use it well, you will receive great rewards. If you fall into one of the following traps, however, your results might not be what you expect.

Ignoring or Misusing Digital Data

When you market your business online, you will receive a ton of data that you can use to better align your marketing strategy with your audience. However, the sheer amount of information that you receive daily can be daunting, which may cause you to ignore important information or pay too much attention to data that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. The best strategy is to have one person handling all of your data and making informed decisions based on that data.

Too Many Irons in The Fire

If you have too many marketing strategies, you may stretch your marketing department thin. If you want to focus on digital marketing, make sure your resources are allocated properly. You may have to cut back on traditional marketing methods in order to free up the resources to launch an effective digital campaign.

Not Creating Enough Content

In digital marketing, content is vital. Blog posts, social media posts, press releases, web pages, and articles are all necessary to drive traffic to your website and promote your products. Don’t overlook the power of unique, fresh, and relevant content. It’s what drives a successful digital marketing strategy.

To make a marketing campaign successful, you must first identify what works and do it. However, you must also watch out for potential pitfalls and traps that can undermine your efforts.