Getting the Most From your Marketing Materials

October 14, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Advertising

targeted-marketing
Wildfire Marketing Group asked:

Before you rush out to have 50,000 brochures printed and all of your company vehicles wrapped in vinyl, you need to take a minute to ensure that your marketing materials are going to deliver the results you are looking for. While achieving maximum results is probably something that you won’t be able to do without the help of an experienced marketing professional, there are several things that you can to improve your own results.

Have your marketing materials professionally designed. Even though you and your family and friends may love the new brochure that you designed in Microsoft Word, chances are that it is not going to be as effective as a brochure from a professional graphic designer . As a result your return on investment will be lower.

Have your printed marketing materials produced in full color. Full color printing has been shown to significantly increase response rates compared to any other combination of colors and can be surprisingly affordable for even the smallest of businesses. Another benefit is that it makes your company appear larger and more established while improving your credibility.

Include a call to action in all of your marketing materials. The most beautifully designed brochure will deliver poor results if it doesn’t clearly tell your prospect what they need to do. Do you want them to call you? To visit your web site? To send you something? Tell them exactly what you want and when you want it and your results will improve dramatically.

Include your URL on all of your marketing materials. From your business cards to your vehicles and everything in between, your URL needs to be easily accessible in order to open up another opportunity to expose your company to your prospects and clients.

Ensure that your company’s image stands out from your competitors. No matter how much you love your biggest competitor’s color scheme or style of advertising, copying it will not work for you. Small businesses often try to emulate other companies with the mindset of ” if it works for them it will work for me ” which is not true and will hurt your business in the long run.

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Getting the Most From your Marketing Materials Department of Labor

June 2, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Advertising

worker-advocates3
Wildfire Marketing Group asked:

Before you rush out to have 50,000 brochures printed and all of your company vehicles wrapped in vinyl, you need to take a minute to ensure that your marketing materials are going to deliver the results you are looking for. While achieving maximum results is probably something that you won’t be able to do without the help of an experienced marketing professional, there are several things that you can to improve your own results.

Have your marketing materials professionally designed. Even though you and your family and friends may love the new brochure that you designed in Microsoft Word, chances are that it is not going to be as effective as a brochure from a professional graphic designer . As a result your return on investment will be lower.

Have your printed marketing materials produced in full color. Full color printing has been shown to significantly increase response rates compared to any other combination of colors and can be surprisingly affordable for even the smallest of businesses. Another benefit is that it makes your company appear larger and more established while improving your credibility.

Include a call to action in all of your marketing materials. The most beautifully designed brochure will deliver poor results if it doesn’t clearly tell your prospect what they need to do. Do you want them to call you? To visit your web site? To send you something? Tell them exactly what you want and when you want it and your results will improve dramatically.

Include your URL on all of your marketing materials. From your business cards to your vehicles and everything in between, your URL needs to be easily accessible in order to open up another opportunity to expose your company to your prospects and clients.

Ensure that your company’s image stands out from your competitors. No matter how much you love your biggest competitor’s color scheme or style of advertising, copying it will not work for you. Small businesses often try to emulate other companies with the mindset of ” if it works for them it will work for me ” which is not true and will hurt your business in the long run.

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The Building Blocks of Effective Marketing

May 6, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Marketing

Wildfire Marketing Group asked:


Whether you’re starting a new business or attempting to grow an existing one, it’s easy to spin your wheels when it comes to effective marketing. Often times, business owners will try to make a big splash by running a large ad in a local newspaper or a television commercial during the most expensive time slot. While these will probably be seen, they probably won’t have much impact because there is often no repetition. The business owner runs them once (or a few times) and then simply stops with the conclusion that advertising doesn’t work. In order to achieve results from any form of advertising, you need repetition of your message. This has always been true, but it’s even more important with the number of marketing messages that today’s consumers are presented each day.

If you’re ready to start marketing your business, begin with the basic building blocks to form your foundation and grow from there.

Network — many networking events can be found in just about any city or town. If you, like most business owners, are short on time, focus on the ones that are during the evening hours. In many cases, these events are free, so the only cost is your time. Networking is a great way to make face to face contact with prospects without the distractions you would normally face during the work day. All you need is a handful of business cards, a winning smile and a great attitude.

Business cards — Obviously, you’ll need them for networking and sales calls. Don’t forget all the other ways you can distribute them. Business cards a an easy and inexpensive way to generate exposure for your business.

Direct mail — You don’t need to mail to a list of 50,000 for direct mail to be effective, you just need to be consistent. You can have 1,000 postcards printed, affix postage and labels yourself, and mail out 50 or 100 to the same targeted list each week. As you begin to generate revenue from this, you can increase the size of your mailing list.

Web site — If you don’t have a web site, you are wrong. Plain and simple. Web sites aren’t just for e commerce, nor are they just for large companies. These days, people use the internet for comparing companies and without a web site, you’re out of the running. You don’t need all of the bells and whistles, but you do need an effective and professional web site.

There you have it. The basic building blocks you’ll need to effectively market your business. With these blocks in place, you can begin to add additional things, such as search engine optimization, television and radio advertising, or billboards. The idea is to build a foundation, and as you achieve results, add more to your marketing campaign.



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