Filed under: advertising, branding, brochures, business cards, marketing, printing | Tags: advertising, branding, brochures, business cards, marketing, printing
Whether you are a new company looking for ways to make sure your brand is successful or a company that has tried and tried again but just can’t seem to get your brand to stick, there is a solution. When a brand flops, it is usually due to the same few mistakes. Your business can create a successful brand simply by knowing the most common reasons for branding failure and know how to correct them.
No Memorable Image – Some companies make the mistake of creating a logo without a memorable image. Make sure that the image in your logo is something that is uniquely yours and is appropriate for your company. Think of the Nike logo – the swoosh image is not only one-of-a-kind but also appealing to their target audience. The swoosh looks athletic.
Inconsistency - In every single item that is associated with your company, whether color posters or packaging materials, consistently use the same core branding aspects. The same logo, company name, tagline will reinforce your brand over and over to the public. For the same reason, you will need to give employees the same business card design for further branding consistency.
No Focus – What do you do best? What do you want to be known for? Whether it is one-on-one personalized service or the newest technology, constantly reinforce this unique offer. Also, know who your company appeals to. Know your target market so that you don’t waste your branding efforts on an audience that doesn’t have a need for your services. Knowing your target audience will further help you fine tune your company image to fit your customers’ needs and lifestyle.
Unbelievable Message – Your tagline and core message should be believable to customers. If you advertise like Verizon Wireless that “we never stop working for you,” you’d better follow through and never stop working for a customer when they come to you with a complaint about your service or product.
Poorly Constructed Message – In order for your customers to both remember and believe your message and tagline, they need to be able to understand what it is you are offering. If your message is jumbled with too many technical terms, your customers will get frustrated and give up trying to understand you. Be clear with your words and phrases so that customers know exactly what you offer and also what sets you apart from your competitors.
Poor Maintenance – Ever heard the phrase “keep on keeping on?” Don’t just stop with one marketing campaign, one run of color posters, one printing of brochures. Your marketing campaigns should be ongoing and constantly putting your brand in front of your target market. This concept is at the heart of successful branding. Most brands are successful simply because they become recognizable because they are always in the public eye.
Poor Customer Service – Train employees on your mission and goals. If your employees don’t know the image your company wants to portray, how can you expect them to portray this image to your customers? Employees should know the reason for your tagline; they need to be excited about making your brand known to customers.
Old Marketing Materials – Keep your look fresh by re-designing your marketing materials, including flyers, brochures and postcards every so often. While it does save money to order larger quantities, don’t order too much or you’ll bore your target audience with the same materials year after year. Just remember to keep your key branding items the same.
No Word of Mouth Advertising – One of the most common reasons for customers to switch companies is through referrals from their friends and family. Give existing customers referral postcards with a 10% discount for new customers, and give your existing customers the same for every postcard with their name on it that gets used. When you get positive feedback from customers, ask if you can use it in your brochures or place it on your website. Referrals help to reinforce the integrity of your brand.
No Plan for Testing – Your business needs to keep track of marketing efforts so that you know what works for getting your brand name to your target market. Track the return on investment (ROI) of your direct mail campaigns, research the best locations to hang your color posters, ask new customers how they heard of your business. Testing your marketing efforts will help you to build a tried and true campaign that will work for you year after year.
Filed under: advertising, branding, brochures, business cards, flyers, marketing, posters, printing
Marketing a non-profit organization with limited funds can be a challenge, but it is vital to the flow of contributions and therefore important to the impact your organization can have on its community. Marketing should be maintained on a regular basis to keep your organization in front of both potential donors and those who may be able to benefit from your services. Special fundraising or awareness-raising events require ramping up the marketing efforts in order to have the most benefit. This is why you should consistently be checking your brochure or poster designs for certain important elements.
As a non-profit organization, your marketing should have several key elements. Not all of these will fit into each type of marketing, but you should always review the list and analyze each item for suitable application to each of the advertising venues:
- A mission statement introduces your organization’s cause and the services you offer and how they positively impact the community
- A demonstration of what your organization has been able to accomplish with past donations with the use of graphics, statistics, and/or numbers. This demonstration should boost confidence in the responsible use of donations by your organization.
- Examples of individuals involved with your organization through profiles of beneficiaries, donors, and volunteers. Spotlighting these various areas exemplifies the importance of involvement on many levels and how each participant is vital to the success of the organization.
- A call to action is easy to accept when the previous elements have been delivered in a compelling manner. A call to action invites individuals to visit your website, attend your event, call your office, make a donation, or even accept the beneficial services. During key fundraising promotions, having a sponsor who will match donations made in a certain time period adds a sense of urgency for those donors who might otherwise wait.
With these elements in mind, here are some low-cost marketing ideas for non-profit organizations:
Signs – Widely used during political campaigns, signs can also be an effective way to advertise non-profit organizations, especially promotional events or services the organization offers. Producing a large number of small signs to distribute around town is a relatively low cost way to get in front of a large audience. Be sure that the physical location of the organization or event has a good permanent sign as well as a display of the promotional signs for best results. Pair a brochure printing marketing campaign with the sign distribution to maximize exposure.
Press Releases – Issuing a press release is one of the most efficient ways to communicate the message of your non-profit organization. Press releases can always be re-used in brochure printing.
Invite the Press – Let your local newspaper and news stations know about an upcoming event along with the ways that your organization helps the community, and invite them to come. Give them “backstage” access. For the best results, combine an invitation to the press with a special spotlight on several specific testimonials during your event and in the publicity beforehand. Use quotes from the resulting news stories in future brochure printing materials.
Radio Interviews – Contact local radio stations, especially morning shows, to see about featuring your spokesperson as a guest on their program. This is another great way to get your message in front of a large audience of people on their way to or getting ready for work/school.
Write Newspaper Articles – Local or free newspapers may be willing to publish stories submitted by your organization written on topics related to your non-profit organization. This is best done on a regular basis to help build a connection between readers and your organization.
Brochures – Brochure printing is one of the longest standing methods for marketing non-profit organizations. Brochures can be printed for consistent, informational exposure, and kept on hand to distribute throughout the year. Brochures can also be printed for special events or seasons when your services are most needed. Separate brochures may be needed for donors and beneficiaries to illustrate services available or services that require funding.
Flyers – Flyers can be used in some of the same informational capacities as brochures for events or service awareness. Leave a stack of flyers (or brochures) with related organizations or businesses who are willing to partner with you.
Posters – Posters are great for displaying in medical clinics, pharmacies, grocery stores, libraries, etc to maintain public awareness.
One final tip: If you are printing large quantities of marketing materials (such as over a couple hundred), use a reputable online printing company. This will always save you money while providing excellent results, making your non-profit organization look that much more appealing to potential donors and volunteers.
With the ever-increasing use of texting, instant messaging, email and other forms of modern communication, it may be easy to overlook grammatical errors in marketing materials such as brochures. However, business marketing is not the place to become lax in the correct use of language. In fact, an effective marketing message depends on the ability to communicate intelligently and confidently with consumers.
Use Correct Grammar
Brochure printing is a valuable marketing tool. Small yet informative, many people will keep color brochures handy for reference when making a decision related to the brochure topic. Incorporating informative and persuasive copy is the key to a successful marketing brochure. Informative and persuasive copy relies on the correct use of grammar to make a favorable impression on a reader who is developing their opinion of your business. Seemingly insignificant mistakes in grammar can adversely affect a reader’s opinion of your business and your ability to meet their needs.
Build Credibility
Your brochure’s information should build credibility with consumers in your business’s abilities to meet their needs. Use testimonial examples to demonstrate how consumers will benefit from using your product as opposed to the competition’s product. Build up the idea that your business is the best answer to the customer’s needs throughout the entire brochure. Consider what objections might be raised and preempt them with the facts supporting your superior product.
Include Calls to Action
Throughout your brochure, it’s important to insert various calls to action that lead the customer to contact your business. Rather than include every possible piece of information a customer may need, try to create curiosity and a desire to find out more. Keep the pages of your brochure neat and attractive by using one easy to read font throughout the body text and one for the headings. Make sure the alignment is orderly and consistent. Place a note on how customers can contact you every one or two pages. A well written brochure will have the majority of readers wanting to know your contact information, by website, telephone or email. Give them plenty of ways to reach you!
For this brochure printing project, and those printed marketing projects in the future, keep in mind the importance of correct grammar and customer testimonials as a way to build your credibility and create curiosity with consumers.
Filed under: Printing Help, brochures, flyers, marketing | Tags: brochure printing, design
When it comes to marketing, many companies rely on one or two media like TV and Internet to communicate with customers. But there are plenty of customers that don’t use these types of media or who downright resent companies that get in the way of their leisure pleasure. To create a balanced marketing campaign, you need to use multiple venues to reach customers and prospects. A Web site is important to a marketing plan, but so are magazine ads, postcards, brochures, billboards and other more “traditional” (read: non-techie) marketing materials.
As much as people are on the computer, they still like to have something concrete in their hands when they’re doing business with you. If a company can’t send me a print brochure and a business card, that makes me think it’s not legit and I won’t do business with them. Also, people like the portability of brochures – it can be stashed in a purse to be read later and it doesn’t need any kind of electricity or battery power to run it. Basically, traditional marketing materials are just easier and more convenient to digest at the customer’s leisure.
To help you in your marketing endeavor, I’d like to share 8 tips for writing brochures that will help your brochure catch prospects’ attention and make them your customers.
1. Place a compelling headline and/or photo on the front panel. Too many brochure covers just have a company’s boring logo or the company name on it. That’s not enough to motivate someone to pick up your brochure. Give the reader a benefit or a solution that you know he’s looking for. It’s even better if you have a photo of that benefit or solution to show that you’ve got the goods.
2. Answer your reader’s questions. When deciding what info to include, ask yourself what a new customer would want to know about your business. Write out all the questions and the answers to those questions, and then just delete the questions when you lay out your brochure. A FAQ isn’t a bad idea, but a brochure full of FAQs is not appealing.
3. Tout benefits instead of features. Customers don’t care about features of your product or service; they want to know benefits – “What’s in it for me?” Answer that question in a list format or with some photos so that it’s clear what the customer will get out of using your product. If you aren’t sure what your benefits are, write down a feature and then add the words “which means that” to the end of it to get your benefit. For instance, “This car has a sophisticated airbag system … which means that … you and your kids will be safe in a collision.” That last part is the benefit – what you want to focus on in the brochure.
4. Write like you’re talking to a friend. Academic, formal, dry speak will not make a customer want to buy from you. Use the word “you” a lot to talk directly to the customer. This engages people and encourages them to read on to find out more of what you want to tell them.
5. Include a call to action. On the last panel of your brochure ask for that sale. Ask for the reader to call or visit your Web site to order. Ask the prospect to stop in your store. This is what your brochure has been leading up to, so don’t forget to blatantly tell the reader what you want her to do. And then give her the necessary info to do it. This means including your telephone number, Web site URL or address (and maybe even a small map) to your store. If you don’t tell people how to take the next move, they won’t take any move at all.
In this era of economic slow down, effective marketing technique determines the success of your business. With the recent internet boom there is a constant doubt about how useful would it be to promote your business using traditional methods of advertising using print media like newspapers , flyers , brochures , direct mails and other promotions. The recent survey from Okidata reveals that 91% of the small businesses still depend on the print media for all their promotional and marketing needs.
In this world of cut throat competition you have to make your mark by grabbing the attention of the public by making them aware of what sets you apart from the crowd. To make audiences aware of your unique selling proposition, you need to market aggressively using low cost printed material. About 72% of small business owners make use of their own computers and printers for creating printed material for advertising which include sending business proposals & promotional letters, flyers, brochures, marketing booklet, direct mails, advertisements in news papers and also presentations. Another important printed media used for business networking is exchanging of business cards. So let’s see how we can effectively use printed materials for promoting our products and services even during bear market:-
1. Get a Custom Logo & Business Cards
The first step to promote your business is coming up with a logo that instantly catches person’s eye and becomes synonym with your business. Be it Ronnie of McDonalds or “just do it!” The tag line of Nike has helped them in promoting their business. Search for a local artist or a design firm online; explain them about your business and what you had been looking for. To get a better deal you can ask the same graphic firm to come up with the design for your letter heads and business cards which will help you in getting a great discount along with the relevant stationary to promote your business.
Business card are a reflection of who you are, what you sell and when and where you can be contacted. Research reveals that more then 33% of the business alliances are established by the exchange of business cards. All the more reasons for getting your business cards printed quickly!
2. Direct Mail
Ever thought how useful a cheap expensive postcard can be in marketing your business? A witty saying, colorful graphics and an overview of your business with your phone number and business address should form the basic content of your postcard marketing strategy. Everyone loves receiving mails and the mail becomes more special if it has something great to offer. To promote business you can even provide small gifts to all those customers who visit your store with your promotional postcards which will surely make the customers look around and purchase other merchandise. Use bright colors and avoid using very small fonts to create good marketing postcards which will surely help in moving up your sales.
3. Get Published in Trade Journals & Organize Road Shows
So you want your company’s name to be in limelight and in people’s mind, contribute white papers and successful case studies to the leading trade journals subscribed by customers and other organizations. This is the best way to send the signal of your success across the masses.
Also come out with your newsletters and send them to your potential clients informing them about the new updates and new events that had been organized by your firm.You can further promote your business by sending your top officials as key speakers to some of the top conferences and trade fairs. Therefore by using some simple technique you can still end up increasing your revenue by using some efficient yet inexpensive promotional methods. You can even organize road shows and design attractive presentations to inform the clients about your business and success stories. Also try to rope in few of their past satisfied clients which will assist you further in getting more clients.
4. Brochures & Flyers
An excellent way to promote your business to the largest target audience, who are not even computer savvy, is by making use of flyers and brochures. Apply “Keep It Simple” rule while designing your brochures. A clean layout with product listing including some images and key features of each product and service which you have to offer should be placed in your brochure.Understand who would be your target audience and come up with the brochures material keeping customer in mind.
You have a very short time span from about 30 seconds to a maximum of three minutes to capture customer]s attention, so power pack your brochure with only relevant information. With the onset of digital printing it is all the more reason to get your flyers and brochures printed at a lesser cost per unit even if you want to get only a small quantity of brochures to be printed at first. So try marketing your services using inexpensive brochures in this time of economic slow down.
5. Marketing Booklets
So you had sent letters, followed up with brochures and attracted a customer finally to your store, the next marketing strategy would be to prepare a 6-8 page marketing booklet for increasing business to business and also business to consumer marketing. This booklet should include details of your product along with the relevant images and graphics, FAQ’s, case study and yes the last page of the booklet should contain testimonials from the successful customers which help in establishing your credibility. Vibrant, colorful and with useful information a marketing booklet helps in reaching out and winning more customers.
Print media is an effective way to promote your business when the world is experiencing the down swing in economy. Keep the AIDCA (Attract, Interest, Desire, Conviction & Action) philosophy in mind while designing your brochures, marketing booklets, newsletters and advertisements which will help you in generating sales even when the going gets tough.
