How to Turn Marketing Posters into Keepsakes

Posters can be a highly effective marketing element for your business.  Posters are usually displayed in prominent areas in public and private business locations.  If it is well-designed, posters can not only bring in new customers, but become a keepsake for your new and existing customers.

If you are a business that uses posters, consider creating one outside the box of normal poster design.  Try to use these techniques to make your poster a keepsake for your customers or other collectors.

Special Occasions

Why not make a special occasion a keepsake?  The recent inauguration of President Obama spurned a wide variety of keepsakes for people of all ages, gender, and color to remember the occasion.  You can do the same for a special occasion for your business or any other important local or historic event.  Design a poster with the event in mind, marking the date, and be sure to prominently display your business information.

Prominent Figures

You can also make a keepsake promotional poster with a celebrity or other famous figure.  Be sure to obtain the rights to use the person’s image if they are alive.  If you want to use an existing photo be sure to get the rights to that as well.  Presidents, famous celebrities, or even local celebrities may make a great keepsake poster.

Special Artist Commissions

If you are a contact with an artist, or have leads through other contacts, try to license or commission a special painting, photo, or other design from them.  People love to collect artistic prints such as those found on stamps, posters, and other items they can display.  With a special commission, your poster can go from a simple promotion to a collector’s item.

Great Design

Of course, you don’t need a special occasion, celebrity, or artist to create a keepsake poster.  A poster with a great design can become a keepsake simply because of its artistic value.  What makes a special design a keepsake?  Color, shape, theme, design, fonts – all these go into making a poster work.

Poster design is an art form.  With the help of a creative team, and possibly from other prominent celebrities or artists, your next poster can be a keepsake seen on the walls of many customers.

When Should You Hire a Graphic Designer?

Promoting your company is a full-time business.  The choices you make on your marketing materials are a key element in the success of your promotional efforts.  Are you willing to do it yourself or should you hire a graphic designer to create the best possible marketing materials?

Why Do It Yourself?

Many times, a business owner or entrepreneur is a creative type who thrives on developing ideas and learning new things.  An entrepreneur with a creative mind and time on his hands can learn the important elements of graphic design for brochures, booklets, or even websites, and do it all and save a bundle of money in the process.

There are also many marketing material templates that make creating business cards, websites, letterhead, and even logos simple and cost effective.  And computer programs make creating marketing materials easy and fun.

Sometimes, it is a money factor.  Experienced and graphic designers in demand can cost a good portion of your advertising budget.  Many times business owners do it themselves to save what little marketing budget they have.

When to Enlist the Help of a Graphic Designer

However, when you need that special edge that you cannot get with templates, and cannot find with your own creativity, it is time to bring in a trained and experienced graphic designer.  Graphic designers are well-versed in style, color, theme, mood, message, and a host of other important factors that should be included in an effective marketing design.

Templates can be effective, but they only go so far to bring out the individuality of a business.  And oftentimes popular designs are overused, putting your business card in the league of “copycat.”

In addition, many business owners and entrepreneurs simply do not have the time to develop marketing materials on their own.  Hiring a graphic designer gives them the time they need to continue developing their business.

Although a graphic designer will cost an initial outlay of money, it may be well worth it in the sales results.  If your marketing materials sizzle and attract customers, isn’t that worth the cost of hiring a graphic designer?  Your graphic designer will work with you to create a logo, design, or other factor that presents your business in the best light.

Take special consideration for your marketing materials.  Your business needs to be recognized.  A good graphic designer can create the look your business needs for the recognition it deserves.

3 Places to Distribute Your Marketing Materials

Your marketing budget should go to good use.  When you purchase marketing materials for distribution to potential customers, you don’t want them sitting in a closet in the supply room.  Where are good places to distribute your marketing materials to target clients and customers?

Conventions – Conventions are the best places to find targeted customers for your marketing materials.  Since conventions are themed by specific industry, holiday, or event, you can find a plethora of potential customers to give your marketing materials.  Even if you’re a local business in a larger city, conventions occur almost on a weekly basis.

Say you run a wedding photography business.  You should rent a booth at every wedding themed convention in your city to get your marketing materials and brand in the hands of potential buyers.  By offering discounts to convention attendees, you can also increase your business.

Bring your marketing materials to national conventions as well.  If your company has a national marketing strategy, you should research all conventions that pertain to your industry and budget to get your brand in the hands of more customers.  National conventions usually occur in larger cities, so use the time wisely there to distribute marketing materials to other researched businesses and customers.

Fairs & Festivals – Every summer produces county and state fairs in every state.  And year-round, you may find other popular festivals where larges masses congregate.  These are great places for branding your business and getting marketing materials to people.  Sponsor an exhibit at the county fair and make sure you have plenty of marketing materials handy for passers-by, and remember that people love free stuff at festivals.  Make sure you talk to organizers to get a table set up with your brand name to give everyone.

Cross-Promote – Through simple joint ventures with other businesses, you can get marketing materials to a wider and newer set of customers.  Find a business that complements yours.  Set up a way for you to cross-promote each other’s business by having free marketing materials for customers, and by giving special discounts for their customers to visit you (and vice versa).

Finding ways to distribute your marketing materials is easy.  All it takes is a little creativity and ingenuity to find the right places with the right number of customers.  Get your brand out there and you will soon find that new customers will take notice.

4 Design Ideas to Make Your Business Cards Pop

Your business card is one of the most versatile and most used networking tools.  Each time you meet someone and talk about your business, politely hand them your card so they have a way to remember the conversation and contact you.

However, with the advent of home computer printing, there is an overabundance of plain and boring business cards, most of which get tossed when the receiver cleans his pockets.  What can you do to make your business card stand out and still deliver a clear message?

Nowadays, graphic design and printing companies have the technology to design and produce a multitude of creative business cards.  If you choose to spend the extra time and money on a creatively designed business card, people will take notice – and you could end up acquiring more business because of it.

Here are just four creative ideas that are affordable and can make your business card “pop” out and in a potential customer’s hand:

• Plasticize – Why go with flimsy cardstock that will fade, tear and wear out?  Create a business card printed on durable plastic in any color, including clear or opaque.  Plastic business cards have the same dimensions and thickness of regular cards and can easily be slipped into a wallet or purse.  However, they give the receiver a strong impression and a reason to take a second look.

• Out Of Shape – 99% of business cards are 3.5 X 2 inches with square corners.  Why not have your card stand out with a different shape?  Even simple rounded corners or oval shape can give your business card a stand out.  Or why not go 4 X 1.5 inches?  Changing the shape of your business card makes you look different from the rest of the crowd.

• Skip The Print – One growing trend in creative business cards is stencil cutting your info or logo through the card.  Make sure the cardstock is durable.  However, with a creative and eye-catching stencil design people take notice.

• Colorize – One of the most affordable ways to make your business card pop is the use of color.  A colorfully designed logo or even a full photo printed to the edges of the card is attractive and noticeable.

Remember, you want your business card to stand out and be memorable.  Don’t go overboard on a creative design that looks snazzy, but is not practical for the receiver to carry or store.  When you provide some dazzle on your business card, expect the returns with calls to your business.

How Do You Know When It’s Time to Rebrand?

In the comedy industry, if you have to explain a joke, it wasn’t very funny.  How does this adage translate to the corporate world, and more importantly, your branding strategy?

Are You Explaining Your Brand?

The first, most obvious, sign that you need to rebrand is if you find yourself consistently having to explain or make excuses for your logo and slogans to your target audience.  This means that there is a disconnect between the message you are trying to convey and the one your potential customers are receiving.

Has Your Target Client Base Lost Attention?

Rebranding is also necessary when it is clear that you are no longer reaching your target audience.  A good example of this would be the trials and tribulations of the now defunct Oldsmobile brand.  By the late eighties, they obtained a reputation of being a vehicle for an older person.  While a healthy debate could be generated about whether or not rejecting that mantle was a mistake, the fact was that they wanted to reach the youth market.  This was not possible with their image in the marketplace.  Subsequently, in the early nineties, they rebranded with a “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile” ad campaign, along with a slick and contemporary logo.

Have You Outgrown Your Brand?

Rebranding is also often the side effect of a change in the business.  It is possible for a company to grow beyond its brand identity in the market place.  In this case, it is necessary to rebrand in order to reflect those changes.  The World Wrestling Federation is a very good example of this change.  For decades, they sold little else besides body slams.  Today, they are involved in sports entertainment, music, and publishing.  The old WWF brand was too narrow to reflect the company’s current structure.  After a complete rebranding, they now exist as the extremely successful World Wrestling Entertainment.  If rumors are to be believed, there will be a future rebranding where the word “wrestling” is removed from the name.

Has Your Business Stagnated?

Finally, a common source of rebranding is stagnation.  There may be nothing technically wrong with a business’s current brand identity, but after many years with the same image of trappings, it is impossible for the impact to be the same.  In this case, the rebranding is not as dramatic as in the previous two cases, but rather, the rebrand takes the form of “tweaks.”  This is especially true when the images and language that attract your target audience keeps changing.

Pepsi is an excellent example of this paradigm.  The Pepsi logo of today is dramatically different than the one of twenty years ago.  This is because they have branded themselves as the drink of the young.  The same images and slogans that would have garnered the attention of a young person twenty years ago would not register with the youth of today.  In recognition of this, the Pepsi brand is regularly re-evaluated and changed to reflect the current mores and norms of their youthful demographic.

Rebranding is always a tough decision, but these suggestions should provide you with food for thought regarding when a business may need to rebrand their image.

3 Ways to Use Postcards to Develop Customer Loyalty

One of the most targeted, effective, and overlooked practices in marketing is the power of the humble postcard.  It is an undeniable fact of business that it is easier to cultivate repeat buyers than it is to attract new customers.  While nobody will deny the importance of attracting new business, a small investment in communication can help to reinforce brand loyalty among those you have already called your customer.  To this end, a postcard goes a long way.

Postcards for Patronage

One of the best uses of a postcard is to thank your customer for their patronage.  Unlike an email, there is no chance that a postcard will wind up in their spam box and be deleted without being read.

This type of correspondence is most effective when it is personalized.  The use of the customer’s name makes the postcard seem less like typical junk mail, but more like honest communication.  A “thank you” postcard should go out less than a week after the client has enjoyed your service.

In order to extend the time that your postcard stays in the customer’s home, combine your note with an image that is either scenic or humorous.  In this case, it may wind up on the refrigerator for a period of time.  The bottom line is that a postcard sent to the customer soon after they have used your service will reinforce your company’s name in their consciousness and help build goodwill, as well as customer loyalty.

Postcards to Stimulate Repeat Business

Once you have thanked your customer for their business, this should not be the end of your mailing activities.  Postcards are can help to secure repeat business by using them to announce special offers, sales, rebates, or offer gifts to your customer.  For the most part, these offers are ones that will not be open to the general public.

For a brick and mortar establishment, the postcard could serve as a coupon.  This will give your client a reason to walk back into your shop.  An internet business can include a “coupon code” on the postcard that will be used to access the offer online.  This will leave the customer with the impression that they are being offered something exclusive and valuable.

Postcards that Remind Clients of Your Services

Depending upon your industry, postcards as reminders can be extremely effective as well.  If you provide a service, every few months, it makes sense to send the customer a reminder that they may need your services again.  For example, if you’re in the business of providing oil changes, it would be a good idea to send your customer a postcard every three months reminding them it is time to change their oil.  In the case of consumable products, like printer paper and vitamins, a postcard that arrives before the customer runs out often leads to a reorder. Combining the reminder with a special offer generally keeps customers coming back again and again.

How can the value of a postcard be quantified?  The cost of a post card: under a dollar.  A first class stamp: 44 cents.  Undying customer loyalty: priceless.