Promote With Postcards

Postcards have been consistently one of the more popular collectibles and used as promotional materials. More and more business owners are turning to color postcards as a good way of promoting their products and services. This is simply because postcards don’t have to be opened. It won’t get lumped in with all the mail envelopes that people usually toss without opening.

Business owners can’t afford to make mistakes when it to comes to their promotional materials. They spend a considerable amount of money in it so they would want them to bring greater sales and profits to their business. Thus, if the postcard reveals a glossy, professional attractive picture, the recipient will likely look at the picture and turn it over to see who sent it. Then before putting it aside they might think of visiting your store on their next shopping spree.

If you do not have an idea on how to design and create your own postcards asking the help of professional printers can help in creating attention-grabbing and effective postcards. These professionals have experience in advertising and printing so they can give advice on how to go about with your postcard printing.

But what should you look for professional printers? First off, understand that reputable printers have time frames in completing their jobs. So ask the printer that you are considering how long it would take for them to finish your project. Have some guarantee from them about the work that will be carried out. Also, know the exact price that you will pay as often there are discounts for large print jobs. This can save you a lot of money so ask the print shop about this. Ask also for a sample of how the finished product will look like for your approval before the entire order is processed.

Printing services are increasingly becoming more affordable these days. With new technologies used in printing, each print job costs cheaper as production volume increases. The speed of turnaround time has also increased with modern printing machines. Most printing companies can print hundreds and even thousands of pages every hour. Additionally, with the selection of printing techniques available today, whichever technology you use you will find that these printing services will meet your printing needs. It is just a matter of finding the right printing service for your print job.

Thus, to create an arty promotional material for more effective business advertising, turning to the professionals is a good idea. If you want to earn more profits always remember your business purpose – that is to sell your goods and services. With your people-pleasing postcards, your prospects can easily be reminded of your store.

Flying High with Flyers

The season, the weather, the style, the geographical condition and the mood of the people are all factors that affect the advertising outlay today. You will find that a lot of business owners spend twenty or thirty percent of their receipt in advertising. In order to give your business a start, as a business man you must shut your eyes to advertising expenditures and consider only the growth that advertising will bring as long as other conditions are equal.  

For a more economical way of promoting a business you can consider using the marketing ability of flyers. Flyers are full page ads that are distributed directly to your potential customers. You can always do the flyer yourself or have them done professionally. You can put them in bookstores, coffee shops or wherever you think possible customers might hang out. Here are a few things you need to consider to get your flyer noticed and remembered.

First off, include your picture. People often like to connect with other visually. If you have your picture included in the flyer, readers may feel welcomed and at ease with contacting you. A colored picture is great yet a black and white is fine, too.

Second, use headlines that can hook your prospects to make some action. Give them a reason to read the flyer and show them benefits. You only have three seconds to accomplish this. If you are looking for a specific target market, find out the words or phrases that grab their attention. If you are unsure of what to write experiment with several to see what works until you get the response that you want.

Third, let your prospects know that they can easily purchase the product. Show them how they can order online, by phone or through fax. Let them know when they can expect to receive the product. Better yet, offer them a URL link to get more information.

Fourth, include testimonials that appear authentic. A two or three-line quote with initials, last name and a state are oftentimes not perceived as authentic. Thus, to make the testimonials authentic you can use the line “visit my web site for additional testimonials” and include live links to contact these people.

Fifth, wherever you go carry at least twenty-five or more flyers with you in a plastic sealed folder. This will protect your flyers from getting wet or crumpled and keeps them fresh. You can also place a piece of cardboard in front and in back for stiffness.

Lastly, do not stop at one try. You must follow-up. After several exposures, chances are you have already created interest.

Honest vs Labored Advertising

When you receive a letter from a friend you want the letter to mirror the exact thoughts and feeling of your friend at the moment he wrote it. You prefer sincerity to an artificial effort to disguise or color his sentiments. Just so with a newspaper article, a magazine tale, a novel or an advertisement. Honesty and spontaneity must be there before the attention of a reader will be thoroughly captured.

This is the fundamental virtue of an advertisement. When it is not spontaneous it is labored and artificial, therefore ineffective and when it is not natural it is mechanical and unattractive. An honest outright effort that rides rough over the rules of spelling and grammar is more effective by far than the elegant production, faultless in grammar and expression, but pretentious and artificial in effect.

Suppose you are advertising—say spring over-coats. Hold up the coat. Look it over. Feel its texture, its linings — run your hands in its pockets and note its cut and finish. And its price is very low. All these points are flashed on your mind and you make mental notes. You cross-question the salesmen about the styles of spring overcoats-which are likely to be popular. You go back to your desk full of overcoat information, and bursting with this intelligence, you proceed to fix up an ad on spring overcoats.

This information will help a lot in organizing the content that you will include in your poster, brochure or flyer. You could consider talking about the spring coat in your marketing material as you would in a conversation with a customer. Provide them with the details quickly and easily and if he likes to laugh, a short joke or story may help you in your sale. Short, snappy, and catchy sentences are the sentences that strike readers. Thus, clean, artistic outline cuts, full of action to harmonize with the text, should be used. Pictures would also help enhance the material. A picture of a well dressed man wearing the coat can help to wonderfully emphasize the points you desire to bring out.

Thus, a neat cut, complete selling scheme has advantage over over-designed ones. From start to finish it is carefully thought and carried out. How much better is it than the usual whitewash of advertising which simply brings people in only to be disgusted with the unpreparedness of things? So, to be a successful business man, make sure you use ads that are neat, fresh and not overlarge with crisp, convincing text.

Building Catalog Advertising

The principal prop of most businesses in marketing their products and services is the catalog. Of course, its preparation and creation is a matter of more than passing care and study. If your business is to create a saleable catalog, you must analyze first the good points of your business. You must write down all the important information and study catalog design over and over again, adding a fresh thought from time to time, eliminating an unnecessary paragraph or sentence and presenting the facts desired to complete the catalog.

Understand that the foundation of a good catalog is the idea. The idea is the basis of the advertisement. It is the prime and primeval requisites of ads. Without the idea nothing can be stated. Remember that the better the idea the better the statements and the stronger the advertisement. Thus, is it important to study, absorb, and think out the ideas carefully. Words are the vehicles of ideas and when you are able to conceptualize a good idea you may as well be able to use creative and appealing words.

Ideas may consist of facts related to the business together with out-side thoughts – thoughts that have indirect bearing to the business. Ideas come from many sources. You pick up a newspaper and your brain receives a score or more of ideas. You pick up a book and the author’s ideas are tincturing your mind. And when you come in contact with other people and you are at once inoculated with their thoughts. Thus, a mind that is trained in ad writing can study a business and pick out the best advertising phase and the best set of ideas. So as a business owner seeking to create an effective catalog, you should study your readers with great consideration. Advertising, in a sense, may be defined as the influence of mind over mind, thus, the psychological element in advertising is the most important one.

After devising the idea, you are now ready to write out your catalog. Your first draft may be satisfactory, the second better but still not up to your expectation, and the third is near perfection and the fourth and fifth feels that you are ready for the printing press. At this point, it is vital to emphasize the importance of giving the catalog a good printer. Keep in mind that a poorly printed catalog is a poor salesman – it misrepresents instead of represents. Thus, aim for a printer that offers a dignified, business-like and impressive printing.

After having gone through with producing your stunning catalog, you are now ready to put your ad to the test. This is the time you will know whether your idea and creativity works.

Business Stationery

Business Stationery is meant for commercial and official correspondence and usage. It can range from paper products like letterheads, business cards, notes, labels, memos, computer sheets, typewriter stationery, checks and forms to other items like pens, folders, writing pads, clips, adhesives, tapes and highlighters.

Most of the Business Stationery is ordered in basic and subdued colors like white, cream, gray or light blue. In some cases, where Business Stationery might need to reflect aggressiveness or brightness depending on its line of work, it could be procured in other colors also. It is for the business head to decide what kind of impression needs to be conveyed through its stationery. No doubt it is a very important decision, because this mode of communication would be sent to almost all business associates. One also needs to be clear beforehand as to what stationery requirements are there in the business, and what quantity needs to be ordered.

The quality of stationery items and its prints should be of good standard since it also reflects the company's image. The paper used for stationery should be of firm strength and its size should be easy to handle. Before printing the stationery, write down the information, like name, address, phone numbers, logo and so forth, that needs to be put on the stationery.  Sometimes you need to print some notifications due to legal requirements, depending on what is the line of business. For the placement of information, one can get hold of ready-made templates available for letterheads, envelopes and business cards, or have the stationery designed by professional consultants especially for your business needs.

Last but not least, the cost factor comes into play. Ask for quotes from multiple stationers and printers. It is a good idea to check references before placing your order. Since Business Stationery is something that can contribute toward building a distinct identity for the business, one needs to be extra careful while designing and ordering it. Most of the time, Business Stationery is the first contact with a prospective client or agency. Quality stationery can make a good impression for your business.

How to Save More in Postcard Printing

Sending postcards is pretty much part of our communications. No matter how technology advances, postcards will always be part of us. That fact we cannot deny.

Technology has also affected sending postcards. It has brought along e-postcards. With just a click of a mouse, you can now send postcards to many recipients all over the globe. It has made conveying message easier and faster.

Nonetheless, a great number of customers as well as businessmen is captivated and hooked in the traditional way of sending postcards. For them, it is still the warmest and the best approach in sending postcards.

Nothing compares to a postcard that can be touched, kept and cherished the way you want it. Unlike e-postcards, ordinary postcards creates a more personal approach and a more touching effect. The effort and the fondness cannot be overemphasized.

As we can observe, postcards old charisma is preserved. It uplifts our spirit and brightens even our dullest day. The effect is flagrant that even though in these modern times, lots of communications medium are available, people still stick with postcards.

Along with the growing postcard printing needs, comes the desire to save more. Thus, printing companies are now offering discount postcard printing. This will enable buyers and customers alike to get their bulk postcards order in a more affordable manner. This way, they will not be sacrificing the quality of their postcards at the same time they can save. This is the strategy of savvy customers these days. It is the same way as hitting two birds at one shot. Smart idea indeed!

A word of caution though must be applied. Be sure that your choice of postcard printing company will bolster your goals. In addition, said choice spells success or failure of your printing needs. Hence, you have to choose a reputable postcard printing company with a pool of skilled and knowledgeable workers.

Postcards must be pleasant to the senses. They are made to entertain, enlighten, comfort, care, advice, motivate and inform. Thus, your postcard printing preferences must be tantamount to extracting your postcard’s full color potential.

If there is a better choice, say quality and affordable printing services, why will you settle for less?

Indirect Advertising

I am reasonably certain that anyone reading this article is familiar with all the free online advertising methods such as the all-too familiar Sp-m emails, Classified Ads, FFA pages, Banners, Text Ads, Traffic Exchanges, Newsletters, Guaranteed Visitors, Paid to Read, Paid to Join, Link Swaps, Pop-ups, as well as many other types of 'In-Your-Face' advertising, some of which may have been dreamed up since this article was written.

What I would like you to consider is this: What do you think when you see this kind of stuff yourself? More to the point, what is your 'Frame of Mind' at that moment?

My guess is you think, "Here we go again..." and your shields go up. You pull up your waders and trudge on through, oblivious to the thousands of messages ricocheting off your armor as you collect a few more hits for your own website promotion or product offer.

With Millions of would be online Millionaires doing this hour after hour and day after day, is it any wonder that the Internet slows down to a crawl and even stops at times?

Now consider the "Frame of Mind" of a visitor that came looking for you to see what you are doing. Maybe even to ask a few questions and give you permission to email them. Does this sound like a more productive environment?

The online equivalent to this scene is being played out today and every day and you can participate for free. It is called 'Social Networking' and more information on this is easily found with your favorite search engine.

Imagine if you are no longer perceived as another 'Salesman' but as a "Fellow Business Person" with similar problems and often good ideas for their solutions. Much like Napoleon Hill wrote about in his world renown-book, "Think and Grow Rich", you could be a team member of a virtual Mastermind Group. Chamber of Commerce Mixers have been an example of this approach for years and have been very successful for some who get it. Now you can accomplish nearly the same thing for your home business from your own computer.

Keep in mind, this should not be just another place to plaster your links. The strongest relationships are formed by giving first. Do a mental inventory and come up with something you know or have that would help others more than yourself. Find a way to offer it with no strings attached, no signup or email address required, just give it freely. I know it sounds crazy in this dog-eat-dog world, but trust me it works.

Alright, now it is all up to you. Continue contributing to the degradation of Internet bandwidth with the huge numbers of attempts required (many not even reaching their target) to get a single response, or try something that builds future relationships with new friends that are truly interested in what you are doing and not just trying to sell you something.

Advertising Secrets

When I first got into the online advertising business, I was looking for the magical combination that would put my website into the top search engine rankings, catapult me to the forefront of the minds or individuals looking to buy my product, and generally make me rich beyond my wildest dreams!

After succeeding in the business for this long, I'm able to look back on my old self with this kind of thinking and shake my head.

If you're reading this article and you've come this far, you're probably looking for the magic answer yourself. You've probably read a few dozen or a few hundred articles just like this about pay-per-click advertising, maximizing return on investment, keyword stuffing, black-hat seo tactics, text-link banner exchanges, and the list goes on.

Well, I'm here to tell you that I have the one be all end all answer and I'm sharing it with the world!

The truth is that there is no magic secret to online advertising. No one method will generate the largest amount of income/exposure for every website or business imaginable - it's all a matter of trial and error, time and talent.

That's a pretty weak answer, I know. It would have been much cooler for me to tell you that buying tiny classified ads in your local paper was the key to success and riches. Well, I'm sorry. For the few of you that have been down this road before and are starting to get it, you'll hear a ring of truth in my words. The sooner you stop looking for a quick fix to make your message stick, the better.

For what it's worth, these are my thoughts.

1) The internet has only been alive for a few short years, and in that time it has changed dramatically many times over. Remember in 1995 when everyone first discovered the cool little animated envelope .gif that you would click on to send them email? Where was your online bill-pay, instant messaging, and dynamically generated page content then? And only a few short years later you can see how far we've come and use that as a measure for how far we can go.

The point is that the internet, like other forms of media, is a rapidly evolving monster. What works for online advertisers today might be completely ineffectual only a few months from now. That's why the best advertisers are constantly researching and creating their own unique marketing strategies. The trick is to find out what works for you, and to make sure that you revisit it from time to time to tune it up as the market changes.

2) You Have to Spend Money to Make Money.  It's a tired line, but it's that way because everyone says it. Don't be afraid to add fuel to your advertising fire and take it to another level. Try investing (note that I said investing and not spending) five, ten, or fifty thousand dollars in advertising. If you don't jump out a window the first time you do it, you may walk away with a big smile and a little pocket money!

The hard part about investing a big chunk of money is coming up with it in the first place. If you already have $50,000 laying around for advertising and are just looking for a place to put it, give me a call. If you're not that lucky, try looking at the Small Business Administration for ideas on how to get a small business loan.

If you don't want to go farther than your mailbox, examine some of those credit checks your bank keeps sending you in the mail. A lot of people take advantage of their fairly reasonable interest rates to fund projects.

3) Presentation is Key. You'll find that excellent writing skills and good marketing go hand in hand. As you improve on one, the other is bound to follow. Knowing how to write, and how to write well will give you an extraordinary advantage of the majority of individuals vying for your customers' attention. I don't know about you, but I get a lot of spam for people wanting to sell me their "good, cheap, A+ #1 $$$ rolex watch, discount Viagra, H0t s1utz, etc."

Needless to say, I have never purchased anything from them and most likely, neither have you. If you have, please drop me a line and let me know how it worked out. I'm always wondering how many of those are a scam.

The emails and circulars that I do purchase from come from GoDaddy, buy.com, Google and a host of other professional companies that take a few minutes to earn my trust with good punctuation, grammar, and quality content.

If you don't have a talent for writing (and you know who you are) you have two choices:

Get better - easier said than done. Like most things, writing is one part talent and nine parts hard work. Take some classes, do peer editing suggestions, or send it to me look over (first ten-thousand submissions only).

Or, get someone else to do it - leaving more time for you at the helm. I like this option not only because it's a time saver for me, but also because the work generally comes out better than anything I could have done. This article is an excellent example. I provided a detailed outline, some good anecdotes, and the strategies above and the copywriters at danifer.com did the rest. I made a deal with them to write the article for $149 and we share the syndication rights. Not bad for half an hour's work.

If you can't afford to hire a pro, be courteous to yourself and your audience by simply re-reading your work, running a spell check, and letting your wife/husband/friend/co-worker look it over. You'd be surprised at how many things invisible to you will stand out to a fresh set of eyes.

OK. That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned at howto advertise.net for more advice on how to get started with online advertising. Please remember though that how far you go is up to you. There is no substitute for your own work and effort in succeeding in this business.