Why Bother Personalizing Your Marketing?

You want to get your company’s name out there, so it’s easy to think that all you need is as many touchpoints as possible. Radio, television, print: you’re using repetition so that people will think of you the next time they need your service. However, you need to think a little bit further than just repeating your name over and over again. You want to find a way to condense all of the amazing and different things that you do so that your marketing becomes more personalized to your business.

Let’s say you run a bakery, and if you look at other people’s website you find that they all start to sound like carbon copies of one another. Fresh ingredients, great taste, custom ordering are all far too generic for people to get any real sense of why they should pick them over other people. It’s gotten to the point where everyone checks Yelp before they even think about going to a website because it’s too difficult to get any real sense of the truth. When you approach your marketing the same way you approach your business, you can start to unravel where it is you distinguish yourself from your direct competitors. You can only fool people for so long, so start by being as upfront as possible. In this way, your marketing becomes personalized to you. Then you can start driving that home through the many different mediums available to you.

No matter how you set yourself apart, stay true to your original message so people can expect consistency from you. You can always offer new services or discounts, but don’t look desperate or imply that you’re skimping on quality. Real marketing takes time, so stick with it and don’t be discouraged.

How Print Materials can Spread Your Company’s Message

From screen printed T-shirts to high gloss posters, your company can reach out to the public for increased visibility. Soon people will recognize your colors, logo, and connect your brand image with your company when you use print materials on a wide scale. Depending on your marketing budget plan, you may want to have materials printed large enough for bus stop enclosures or print materials suitable for mounting on fencing or on stadium or sports field walls. People love the look and texture of a high gloss multicolored post card or pamphlet, plus it finds its way into their office or home to be picked up again as a reminder. Below are some ideas to consider!

 

1) Try making wall calendars and refrigerator magnets, as they have taken the place of bookmarks. Laminated place mats have replaced disposable ones in restaurants and coffee mugs are something that will always keep your company on your customer’s minds.

2) Make creative water bottles, customizing messages for conferences, seminars, and community events, to show that you have innovative ideas!

3) Magnetic signs for car doors and other vehicles can be specialized and are a great way to spread your company’s name. Upload a picture of your business card on the magnet and make sure it has an enlarged phone number people can punch into their cell phones is efficient and creative!

4) Stand out! Colorful ad campaigns used for package inserts that can also be included with a customer receipt as a handout can offer a valuable incentive for next time purchases.

 

Imagery Over Wording Print Work

Get print messages out in short, bite sized phrases to satisfy the short attention span of today’s purchases and decision makers. Make your print more visual with images and little text. Printed packaging that makes the customer or client want to re-use it for something, is a successful engagement and memorable experience. Print companies are constantly printing on every media imaginable, for non-profits and small businesses to corporate accounts, using experiential booths at festivals and conferences, sporting events, job fairs, and conventions, providing necessary visible recognition. Unusual packaging shapes, sizes and materials can be printed with intuitive designs and company logos, making a lasting impression on your customers. 

Is Integrated Marketing Appropriate for All Industries?

Business owners want to use a well-coordinated marketing plan using different promotional methods with consistent brand messaging that reaches across non-traditional as well as traditional marketing channels. Print materials and online visuals alike, must have the same recognizable elements of color, visual stimuli, and Brand representation across paid advertising, public relations, social media, owned assets, and promotional items. You want to relate to your prospects and customers in a consistent manner whenever you contact them. High-level marketers will develop your marketing plan and direct your investment toward:

opportunities for added value and bonus
singular/synchronized brand voice and experiences
creative and productive design and cost efficiency
If your company is experiencing limited connectivity – shift your marketing strategy to pervasive connected-ness. Your marketing partnership should provide you with high accountability in market spend, specialized media engagement, and a quick move from traditional marketing systems into interactive digital marketing with integrated campaigns that all incorporate the same launch and end phases. You need to select a few strong e-commerce methods to begin increasing your online presence. Develop your SEO, (search engine optimization), SEM, (search engine marketing), mobile marketing, email campaigns, blogs, articles, and other forms of consistent content marketing, plus regular posts on your chosen channels such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook and Google+.

Integrated Marketing Beyond Print and Internet

Have promotional opportunities like contests, coupon giveaways, freebies, premiums, rebate news releases, and special events. Take part in related trade shows using advertorial company booths, product demonstrations, and glossy handouts at the exit. Become and active participant in your business locality. Join in on volunteering opportunities, with your staff decked out in identifiable T-shirts, water bottles and baseball caps.

Weaving an effective integrated marketing campaign together successfully means you have leveraged every communication channel available to your company to achieve engagement with your target audience having a noteworthy effect. With familiarity, your potential clients will examine communications according to the brands’ perspective, a “one sight, one-sound” approach that directs consumer responses and loyalty.

Creative Presentation Kits – Why They Are Useful To Have

When it comes to creating awareness for your brand, promoting your company goes a long way. Companies are starting to hire marketing firms to help grow their company and earn them more public recognition. One of the main things that marketing firms are doing is telling the company that they are representing to have customized promotional products made for their company.

 

Why should you have custom made Promotional Products?

Below are some reasons explaining why your company should have customized products.

 

#1. One of the main purposes of having custom kits is to help enhance your company’s look and become professional. By having a professional name or logo, current and potential customers will take you more seriously, helping to build a better relationship. Having a unique and professional look is also very important because you want to attract new clients and make sure that they know you are a trustworthy and reliable company.

 

#2. It is a great way to gain publicity for your company. Today, almost every company has some custom products that they give away to customers and prospective clients. Some give away pens, cups, or shirts with the company name on them while others give away binders and key chains. The bottom line is that this is an effective way to advertise your business and increase your brand recognition.

 

In What Types of Situations Can Custom Presentation Kits Be Useful?

As previously mentioned, custom presentation kits are a great way to expand your brand recognition and are useful in situations where you can reach a lot of people at the same time. Some of which include:

 

#1. Trade Fairs: Trade fairs are a great opportunity to do some advertising for your business because they are usually attended by large crowds. The only problem with trade fairs is that the other companies that are present also recognize that it is a great opportunity to increase their brand recognition as well, so when you go to trade fairs, you should try to make your custom kit stand out above the rest. This will help you to differentiate your company from the others and become memorable.

 

#2. Presentations: when you are trying to make a sales pitch to a potential client, having custom kits can be beneficial in a couple of ways; it helps your business look more professional, and they can also be given as gifts to members of the team that you are making the pitch to. It may also help them keep your company in mind when making their final decision.

 

#3. Promoting Your Company Image: If you want to generate some goodwill for your company, nothing beats giving away free stuff because who doesn’t like free stuff? One of the best ways to buy that positive image for your company is to give away free custom kits to people, regardless if they are prospective clients or not.

 

By following these tips above, your company will be on its way to becoming a successful, professional, and reliable business.

Benefits of Incorporating Direct Mail and Email in the Same Marketing Campaign

According to Karl Dukes, a UK marketing executive, when combined with email marketing, print mail campaigns produce more conversions than either medium used alone. In order to leverage these two mediums, you must know how to use them together effectively. Although most firms are investing in digital marketing, half of all consumers delete email messages as soon as they receive them.

As an advertiser, your challenge is figuring out how to combine the effectiveness of direct mail with the efficiency of email to increase your marketing campaign response rates. Almost three-fourths of all consumers who receive a direct mail piece open and review the mailer. In contrast, this percentage drops to one-third of email recipients. Most consumers enjoy receiving mail and are even disappointed when their mailbox is empty and, rather than discarding a marketing piece immediately, will keep the mailer for later review.

You can effectively increase consumer engagement by combining direct mail and email marketing in your advertising campaigns. Direct mail pieces make a consumer feel important and are more effective at gaining a consumer’s attention than email alone; over twice as many consumers that receive a direct mail piece, versus an email alone, will remember your brand message. Adding direct mail to your email campaign increases advertising effectiveness. A mail piece encourages consumers to consider your offering and helps them form an opinion of your brand. A follow-up email communication allows you to increase your brand strength in the consumer’s mind, divulge more information about your offering and lead your consumers to conversion.

Direct mail and email used together can help move consumers through the sales process and increase your consumers’ lifespan with your firm. Marketing campaigns that combine direct mail and email see a response rate five times higher than email marketing used alone. Using these two mediums together can give your marketing campaigns a response boost that will greatly increase your firm’s profits.

The Importance of Maintaining Marketing Lists

Marketing yourself or your business isn’t just about gaining new clients, although this is a vital aspect of the process. This part of marketing also includes keeping your old clients up to date with your business and making sure you’re continuously reaching out to these individuals about the specials you’re running and anything that may appeal to them enough that they want to maintain a business relationship with you.

Every six months or so you should go through your list and remove people who are no longer interested in your business. These are the individuals who no longer respond, show up to important events, open your emails or purchase your products. There’s no reason to focus on people who aren’t interested in you and your business anymore. Keep your focus on the people who have continuously made an effort to keep up with your business. You may want to reach out to the people who you don’t feel are following your emails anymore and inquire if they would like to remain on your list. You’ll also want to remove bad emails and anyone’s that bounce back to you. Cleaning out your list is important since you don’t want to focus your energy on people who aren’t interested in what you have to offer.

Another important aspect of managing your marketing list is to make sure your addresses are up to date. When you’re sending to addresses that are no longer valid, you’re not doing yourself or your business any favors. This is why you need to make sure people update their email with you.

In some instance, the unopened emails might be costing you. Let’s say you send out an email to a large number of people and some of them never open them. If the payment you make to your marketing agent revolves around the number of contacts you have, you’re paying for the people who aren’t opening your emails.

How to Get More Data From Your Marketing Campaigns

When spending significant monetary resources on marketing, it’s important that your business derives as many benefits from those dollars as possible. Nowadays, complex statistics are easier to track, and the effectiveness of a campaign is not only about the bottom line. If you implement a marketing campaign aimed at generating sales, gaining clients, or raising awareness, keeping accurate, detailed records can help improve your business’s strategy in the future. If you answer to your company’s boss, executives expect data to back up their advertising investments, meaning it’s imperative to track your successes–and failures! Consider these three tactics for getting more data from your marketing campaigns.

Embrace Internet data-collecting resources.

Educate yourself about applications such as Google Analytics, one of the many free feature that allows you to tag and track links you include in emails, tweets, blog posts, or on Facebook. By taking the extra step to utilize the easy URL Builder tool, your business will optimize its marketing campaign money. Once your advertising push ends, you’ll be able to pinpoint which links resulted in successful conversions.

Beyond social media, invest in display banner ads.

Unlike a traditional print advertisement, online graphic buttons or banners can be easily tracked, providing data for important campaign analysis. When users encounter your banner on social media or a shopping site, information on their “clicks” and other behavior can help legitimize–or disprove–the ad’s effectiveness. In the future, expert consultants can help you tweak the wording, color, and overall appearance of your advertisement from initial campaign records.

Whether digital or print, keep coupons in your campaign.

When people think they’re getting a consistent deal by buying your goods or services, you generate a dedicated consumer base. Mining customer data through their use of digital coupons is simple, but don’t forget about manual record keeping for coupons clipped from the paper. The time, place, and money spent at the time of a coupon’s in-store redemption offers important statistics for evaluating your greater campaign strategies.

Bring Video to your Print Successfully

A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that creates automatic links to multi-media and text-files like websites. To assess the information, one scans the QR codes using a smartphone camera. The QR codes have enabled authors, publishers and businesses to make the printed material become more attractive. The Quick Response codes allow one to transform a lifeless paper into an exciting sensory material. The Anti-QR codes came up in a bid to fight piracy. The QR codes were seen as a threat to the music and movie industry as they promoted piracy.

Brands that placed QR codes on the products to prove their validity and originality claimed that the codes are open-sourced. That made the names readily available to anyone as the counterfeiters could copy the pages quickly after copying the codes. The QR codes are beneficial only to brands that would like to make their products readily available like pharmaceuticals, beauty companies and nutritional firms. The consumers’ can then scan the codes to confirm if the selected products are genuine. The QR codes can however be secured by creating a complex backend server to secure the system. Secondly, the codes can be placed inside the product where they are unreachable. The counterfeiters will therefore find it hard to interfere with the codes.

Most anti-QR organizations claim that the QR codes have encouraged people to use their phones to unlock images and the real world for an instantaneous static action. The firms also state that the word QR in itself is ugly and nerdy, not suitable enough for a tech world and dampens consumer interest. The anti-bring video to your print aims for a more interactive way of dealing with clients. QR codes are believed to be dying since they are a one-dimensional web link and are not a patented product hence prone to misuse by consumers.

Why its important for businesses to utilize multi-channel marketing (including printers)

Multichannel marketing has become essential because it creates a diverse way for a business to generate profit and create shareholder value. Most customers deal with multi-channel marketing because of the different experiences and individual tastes and ways of interaction. Clients exhibit different responses depending on the channel used to market a product. The sales of products also depend widely on the efficiency of the channel. Marketing products online often appeals to people depending on their lifestyles. Those who surf the Internet and carry out online jobs tend to get more appeal from the online adverts than the people who prefer reading the ads in newspapers. Research has however shown that using multimedia tends to increase the profitability of the marketing firm as different people in different areas and scenarios get access to the products.

Multichannel marketing gives a company the ability to reach multiple segments and provide flexibility for customers and also build a vast database of purchase information. A company can diversify its store-based business to include an active catalog, an online channel and even printers to create posters for marketing. The most successful consumer product company’s communication involves mass marketing approaches that diversify the whole promotion process. Adverts that are in the form of printed ads are as useful as broadcast ads because one may not watch the show on television, but the printed ads may get his attention. Printers are therefore quite relevant to this multichannel marketing era.

Online ads, viral marketing, blogs and social networking, printed adverts are effective when used as multichannel because of the audience they get. Major television and print advertising are effective ways of carrying out broad marketing for a firm. The fragmentation of the media has also made it possible for entrepreneurs to increase their marketing strategies and promote their products more. Multi-channel marketing is also important because they help ease the traffic in social media hence that is when the printers become active. More importantly, the social media can provide a company with a significant customer base when effectively used.

How to Maximize Your Direct Mail Campaign’s Response Rates

Make your marketing campaign unique

If you use the same old worn out campaign along with the same ideas, designs and psychological ‘appeal’ as everyone else, then your scheme will lack and be treated just like everyone else’s work in that mode – thrown in the trash.

Make your purpose concise

Don’t veer off the subject of what your product does or what you are trying to sell. People have short attention spans and won’t pay any more attention than they have to. Be sure everything you want them to do (and see), your product details, what the product can do for them, contact information, and etc. is all on one page. Sending them on a horse chase will keep them from the original plan – purchasing your product.

Make responding easy

Provide a way for clients to reach you. Nothing is more annoying to mature adults who want to buy a product and can’t reach the company because there is no phone contact. The same goes for the upbeat, young moderns who wants to purchase online but can’t because there is not e-commerce available. Provide your mailing address, web address, telephone contact and email in the mail and there is no excuse for them not to reach you.

Test your marketing plan

The look of your design, its color, the people in it, the type of logo; all these components have an impact on prospective buyers. Showing people what they need to see to influence sales depends on the effectiveness of your campaign. Make certain what you put out there works.

Include a call to action

Information alone never induces people to act. Telling people to call reminds them of the need to purchase your product right away. Persuade them to act.