Holidays abound throughout the calendar year, and if your business is only taking advantage of the Christmas holiday season to send greeting cards, then you are missing many opportunities!  Take out your calendar and use other holiday opportunities to reach out to current and potential customers.

There are a few guidelines, however, to ensure you avoid alienating customers during holidays. Although holiday cards should feature your company’s name and logo, you don’t want customers to view your business as using these holidays just to advertise and send them junk mail. You want your greeting cards to remain tasteful, like your business, so customers enjoy receiving these holiday greetings.

• Don’t Sound Like a Commercial – It’s important to use the holiday as an opportunity to wish your current and potential customers good wishes without peppering the sentiment with your company’s name. For instance, writing a 4^th of July message might read, “We wish you a spectacular 4^th of July filled with fireworks, family and fun! Sincerely, Morris Landscaping.” You don’t need to include a company bio and repeatedly insert your company’s name. Less is more when writing holiday cards.

• Individualize Your Greeting Cards – Although most businesses will buy holiday cards in bulk, taking the time to individualize the cards will go a long way with your customers. Obviously, if you have a large mailing list consisting of hundreds or thousands of current and potential customers, choose a select group that you really want to reach out to, whether it’s a new customer or established one. That way, you help promote loyalty among your customers and will impress them because no matter how large your customer base gets, you still remember individual customers.

• Choose Stylish Greeting Cards – Setting a budget for sending holiday cards is expected, but don’t choose a holiday card just because it’s a great deal. Instead, choose the most stylish holiday card that complements your company’s brand and style within your pre-determined budget. This might even mean ordering semi-custom holiday cards, but the end result will be worth it when you get the positive feedback from new and old customers alike.

When you’re sending holiday cards, remember to keep the tone neutral, especially when sending holiday cards during the Christmas season. It’s important to send a general message of “season’s greetings” because this type of message has universal appeal.

Although the economic climate this past year has been a struggle for both consumers and businesses trying to stay afloat, 2011 bodes well, according to newly published reports and several economic changes occurring in 2011.  These reports are good news for businesses and should help lead America to economic recovery.

Proposed Tax Cuts Means More Spending Money

The government instituted tax cuts for 2011, including a cut in employees’ Social Security taxes, meaning consumers will be taking home more money in each paycheck this coming year. More money in consumers’ pockets typically promotes a rise in consumer spending, benefits businesses, and helps the economy recover more swiftly. According to economists, consumers are boosting their spending habits at a faster pace now than compared to the past four years.

Venture Capitalists Have Money to Invest

Although the venture capital dried up like Death Valley after the 2007 financial crisis, a survey conducted by the National Venture Capital Association with the Dow Jones VentureSource claims that venture capitalists will focus their funds in 2011 on tech start-ups. The survey also shows that venture capitalists are positive about economic growth overall, with 51 percent expecting investments to increase for 2011. When investors are willing to back new businesses, this often helps propel economic growth, meaning 2011 is looking up for many industries.

Consumer and Investment Spending Set to Increase

The 2011 economy is set to support increased consumer and investment spending, meaning businesses will benefit from both. The sectors predicted to explode in 2011 include digital and internet media aimed at the consumer, including cloud computing. Stocks are also on the rise, which promotes active investment from both brokers and individual investors, which also helps boost a sagging economy.

How Businesses Benefit

Businesses that take advantage of all the positive changes will likely see growth in 2011. The tax cuts and increased consumer spending, coupled with venture capitalist interest and higher stock prices, should help boost the economy in 2011 – which will help existing grow as well.

Remembering that consumers are starting to spend more, focusing your printed marketing materials on attracting budget-conscious consumers will help grow your business in 2011.

The first step towards advertising your business is to create marketing materials to promote your business. Once this is done, however, what is the next step towards distributing them to the right places for maximum exposure? Here are the top three places to hand out your marketing materials.

Industry Conventions

Attend as many industry conventions that relate to your business that come to your surrounding area, as well as a few national conventions. Industry conventions are perfect for handing out marketing materials because your target demographic will be attending since most conventions are arranged to attract like-minded customers to like-minded businesses.

For example, if you operate a catering business, you’ll want to sign up for hospitality conventions, as well as wedding conventions, because all of those people attending will likely need a caterer at some point. You can also make valuable contacts with other vendors who might complement your business.

You should always be armed with plenty of marketing materials, even at national conventions, because you never know who might need your services or be able to recommend them to a friend who happens to live in your business location. It’s also a great way to expand your clientele base if your business can operate electronically and serve clients remotely.

Sponsor Booths at Local Festivals

Get your community behind your business by purchasing booth space at local festivals. Usually, these fees go towards the community itself or a worthwhile charity, either of which will endear you to the attendees. Festivals attract a wide variety of people, and you can easily hand out your marketing materials along with a coupon and even complementary product samples – which could garner a lot of positive publicity and new business.

Team Up With Other Businesses

Use contacts you make with other vendors at these conventions and festivals and create a team feeling, where complimentary businesses promote each other’s marketing materials to customers. If you team up with two other businesses, for example, your name gets recommended to two additional customer bases. By offering incentives and package deals to customers for using all three businesses, for example, your marketing materials will make it into the hands of more potential customers.

Don’t let your printed marketing materials gather dust! Get out there and hand out your marketing materials in places where your customers are most likely to frequent, and you’ll see your business increase.

Halfway through the year, have your marketing materials lived up to your expectations?  If the results have not been as stellar as you had hoped, try these three ideas to give your marketing materials new life.

• Have a Big Sale – Despite the slow signs of recovery, the soft economy won’t just disappear overnight. This is the time to take advantage of the recession by staging a giant sale using marketing materials. It’s still vital that you don’t position your sale as recession-inspired, but use the excuse of frugality to inspire old and new customers to shop your business. Your marketing materials should be positive and should not mention the recession specifically (because this isn’t being positive). Instead, list the great qualities of your product or service, as well as the big advantage customers have taking advantage of this incredible sale.

• Create or Update Your Website – Don’t let your website falter or become outdated. Most people check out businesses online, so seeing an updated, stylish and informative website increases your chances of securing new clientele for your business. We live in technologically-hyper times, and you need to jump on this bandwagon with both feet. Include your URL on all your marketing materials. You can include short pod casts on your website that inform clients about items related to your business and will help promote your business online. Social media is also taking off, so create a FaceBook page and get on Twitter and watch fans of your business accumulate. You might even develop a short DVD that is informative and entertaining, meaning customers will learn about your business in an innovative and memorable way.

• Spread a Little Sunshine – No matter how dismal the economy and state of the world seems to many people, marketing materials are trending to the positive. People want to see marketing materials that spread a little sunshine during dark times, instead of reminding them about reality. Choosing bold, happy colors and including an upbeat message will go a long way towards securing new business because you’re helping people be positive. When customers feel happy receiving your marketing materials, they are much more likely to continue that happy feeling by purchasing your product or service, which makes you happy too!

Although the recession is real and is affecting businesses everywhere, taking advantage of these three marketing strategies will help your business be recession-proof.

When you envision carbon paper, you’ll recall just how messy, wasteful, and time-consuming it can be.  Thankfully, with the development of carbonless NCR form printing, you now have many options at your fingertips to make your multiple-copy forms a breeze.

NCR forms uses chemically treated paper that easily transfers written or typed impressions from the top page to subsequent pages.  Multiple-copy forms are used frequently for invoices, statements, purchase orders, contracts, receipts, and many other business uses.  Here are some great options you can use for your business.

1. How Many Parts?

Your NCR form printing order can be performed from 2 parts up to 6 or more parts.  Typically, NCR form printing is done on 2 or 3 part.  It all depends on your business needs.  Do you need duplicate copies for your sales department, accounting department, and one for the customer?  Then 3 part NCR form printing will do you well.

2. Ink Options

You will find that single color ink jobs are less expensive.  However, you may want to add more colors to the top copy of your NCR form printing if that is the customer copy.  You can opt for multiple colors on the front page and single colors on subsequent parts which act as business department copies.

You might also consider double-sided printing.  On the back of the front page, you could include special instructions for the customer, maps, or all the “fine print.”

3. Binding Options

Do you want loose NCR forms or would you prefer that they are bound together?  You could opt to have your NCR form printing bound at the top edge that keeps your forms together, yet easy to dispense one at a time.  You might also consider a booklet form.  Booklet NCR form printing allows you to keep numbered copies together with a cover wrap to insert between forms with filling them out.  Booklet forms might be a good idea for receipts, invoices, or sales orders, etc.

4. Numbering

Numbering is important for forms such as invoices and purchase orders.  Keep your NCR form printing numbered sequentially.  You can provide the starting number to your printer so that your numbered forms continue without repetition.

NCR form printing is great for common form usage.  Remember the options you have with your NCR forms and get the most out of each NCR form printing order.