Creating Buzz with Newsletters and Media Kits

Smart companies use newsletters to create buzz around their brand. Routinely sending target audiences pertinent materials has consistently proven its value in turning prospects into customers. Media kits, also known as press kits, are a great option for keeping your company in front of editors who work for publications or media outlets your prospects and customers follow.

Create a theme. Creative concepts can break through the clutter of information on the Internet. Theme-based newsletters and press kits are great attention grabbers that can help personify your company. Press kits must capture the spirit of the product, company, organization or event.  They need to contain timely, newsworthy material, appropriate for the publications that receive them. The same is true for creating newsletters or any print collateral. Always inform, not just dazzle.

Start small. Some new companies send out massive mailings of print materials – newsletters, flyers, media kits – without first establishing a relationship with the receiver. Wrong approach. First try small, more traditional methods such as a telephone call or a personal introduction so your prospects are more likely to read the material you send them later.

Get it right. Mass distribution of materials can be expensive and ineffective. If you inundate people with non-informative clutter it turns them away from what you really want them to know. Especially when distributing media kits, you need to focus on what you’re trying to accomplish and selectively send mailings to your target editors or reporters.  For smaller media outlets, a smaller packet or just a press release may work; for larger national media, individualized mailings are more appropriate.

Follow-up.  Follow-ups are just as important as the initial mailings. Experts agree that three days is the standard waiting time for a follow up call, unless breaking news or time-sensitive information is involved. Be ready to explain why your company should be profiled. And be patient – it can take time to build relationships. But the reward is a chance to keep the powers that be buzzing about your company or brand!

How often do you use newsletters and media kits to reach your audiences?

The Resurgence of Industry and Custom Print Magazines

It’s true. The rumblings within the industry say print magazines are making a big return. Even in this frenzied iPad era, custom print magazines and advertising in magazines in general are still proving to be a highly effective means of building a loyal following. As you continue to develop your business take note of how this print magazine revival can boost your company brand and help meet your goals.

Here’s how you can benefit from the print magazine return:

1. Print magazine ads drive readers to your website.

More than half of readers took action or had a more favorable opinion about the advertiser in response to magazine ads, according to recent Affinity Research.

2. Magazine advertising delivers consistent results. Studies show that print magazines boost other media’s effectiveness including online and mobile media. In addition, magazines deliver results more consistently throughout the purchase funnel than TV or the Internet.

3. The most desirable consumers read magazines.

Heavy magazine readers are likely to be among the highest spenders across most product categories. In consumer magazines, you want to highlight multiple ways to use your product to keep consumers enticed.

4. Magazine audiences are more potent than you think. The average monthly magazine influences approximately 60 percent of its audience within a month’s time, and the average weekly magazine accumulates nearly 80 percent of its audience in two weeks.

5. Custom print magazines really work. To get the full attention of your target audience use custom print magazines. They deliver your company’s message in a professional way and make you stand out from your competition. The original content from industry experts gives your readers valuable information and incentives not available elsewhere.

How do you plan to utilize the print magazine resurgence to further your business this year?

How Are You Using QR Codes in Your Print Campaigns?

Is your initial response to the title of this blog post, “What is my QR code”? Well, QR codes (or Quick Response codes) condense information into two dimensional op-art squares that connect offline media to online content via a smartphone. Also known as mobile tagging, QR codes act like URL references on offline media and other flat surfaces.

From magazines to product packaging, these little tags are popping up everywhere these days, and here how they can work for your business:

A QR code example. Trying scanning this with your mobile phone, what do you see?

Stay ahead of the curve

QR codes are fairly new in the market place, therefore this opens the opportunity for your business to capitalize on this growing trend and impress your clients. Not only can you use QR codes to attract new prospects, but they can also encourage users to spend more time with your print materials.

Attract the masses – mass media, that is

Attract prospects in locations that you might not consider marketing your products and services. Place QR codes on a broad range of print materials such as business cards, conference materials, store signage and windows, product packages and flyers.

Convert shoppers

Give prospects more relevant information when and where they want it. Research shows consumers prefer to get product and sales information via their smartphone when they’re in retail establishments rather than consult store personnel. Retailers can benefit by placing QR codes on products, shelving, circulars and signs to provide information that helps close the sale.

Make it easy

Your QR codes should link to a URL that is optimized for mobile viewing. Depending on who you are targeting, you may want to provide instructions on how to use QR codes since they are relatively new. Your QR codes should be at least one inch square and placed in an easily visible area.  Give people incentives for scanning your QR codes.

How are you using QR codes to market your business? Share your tips with us!

Top Print Advertising Tips To Use Now

Top Print Advertising Tips You Need to Be Using Now

We talk a lot about the importance of consistently implementing and strategically tracking your company’s print marketing strategies, but that is not all there is. In order to have a successful print marketing campaign, never underestimate the basics: attractiveness. Basically, it has to look good!

Try these tips from Marketing Minefield for your next campaign to engage your customers, and keep them coming back to you.

1. Use a simple layout

Don’t overcomplicate the advert – if it looks cluttered people won’t even attempt to understand what it’s about, they’ll simply turn over the page. Use one picture or image as opposed to many.

2. Focus on one proposition

Concentrate on transmitting one simple clear proposition. As Jay Lipe, president of Emerge Marketing in Minneapolis says “The more focused the message, the more impact.”

3. Use photographs instead of artwork drawings

Photographs can be likened to the real world and as a result they tend to resonate better than artwork – research suggests by as much as 26 percent.

4. Use color if possible

Without color your ad will not only be noticed less but people will also perceive it as being     bland before even reading it. You should never be afraid of color-remember you are competing against the uber-colorful digital world. So get creative!

What is the most effective and attractive print ad out now in your opinion? Share your comments with us!

How to Make Your Print Marketing Stand Out – Week 4

Week 4 – Measure Your Results

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is not evaluating the results of their print marketing campaigns. Going through the process of delivering your printed collateral without evaluating its effectiveness does not give you a benchmark for improvement on your next campaign. You may have delivered a message, but you may not have delivered the right message and you may have missed the opportunity to satisfy the needs of your audience.

Some marketers have the tendency to focus solely on ad response rate, and that again misses the bigger picture. Here are three great questions to ask your target market when evaluating the effectiveness of your print campaign (courtesy of Zoomerang.com):

• How Would You Rate Our Print Marketing Material? – Start with a broad question. Let your respondents give you an overall first impression of how they felt about your marketing material. You can easily filter or cross-tab to view comments and purchase intent by rating score.

• How Likely Would You Be To Purchase or Inquire About Our Product/Service Based Upon This Collateral? – This is a key question.  Your marketing brochure isn’t worth anything it if doesn’t convince people to actively seek out your product or service.  If the answers are resoundingly “yes” – way to go! If not, read through the open-end responses to understand why.

• Can We Send You Our Next Marketing Brochure? – To truly gauge the pulse of your respondents you need to know if they’d be open to receiving future mailings. If they are, you are doing something right. If they reply “no”, allow them in supply an open-ended response to tell you why.  These answers are worth their weight in gold for revamping your next attempt!

How have you evaluated your print marketing campaign success? We welcome your comments!

How to Make Your Print Marketing Stand Out – Week 3

Week 3 – Compare to Your Competition

Well-written copy is undeniably important for a successful print marketing campaign and it is an investment for any savvy entrepreneur.  As with any new investment, you need to do your research before embarking upon a new campaign, in order to avoid as many mistakes, and that starts with identifying your competition.

It is a good idea to evaluate a competition’s print marketing strategy before developing your own. While you should not copy your competition (as you maybe copying methods that do not work), you can gain an understanding of what your customers see and get out of printed materials.

Here’s how to use your competitor’s print marketing to get ahead:

Make a list of your competitors

This may seem like an obvious starting point, but listing who your competitors are will help you differentiate who your audience is and target the market from whom you are crafting your message.  Break your competitors down to direct and indirect competitors. Direct competition is any company that offers the same products and services to the exact same market you do. Indirect competition is any company that offers the same products and services to a different market than you do. Think of McDonald’s as an example. Burger King and McDonald’s are direct competitors because they are both fast food restaurants, but Whole Foods is an indirect competitor of McDonald’s, because it sells meals for purchase and grocery items that you can take home a create your own hamburgers and fries.

Join the group

Find a way to get on as many mailing lists of your competitors. This will help you judge benchmarks such as how your competitors are delivering their message and how memorable their copywriting is. Register for their newsletter, seasonal catalog and any other pieces they may distribute. If your company address is too obvious, use your home address when you register for their materials.

Use their weakness to create your uniqueness

Design an analysis sheet with the main points of comparison between you and each competitor. What are the strengths and weaknesses of all print collateral? Are they conveying messages that are engaging to their audience? Are they delivering the message as efficiently and quickly as possible and following up? If not, be sure that you can provide that product or service to your audience and capitalize on the missed opprtunity.

What other ways will you measure your competition print marketing? Share your comments with us below!

How to Make Your Print Marketing Stand Out – Week 2

Week 2 – Hire a Printing Company that Understands Brand Marketing

Would you purchase a car without a steering wheel? Sure, you could turn the ignition and use the pedals to make the car move. You could even use the gear shift to make the car go forward and backward. However, you will not be able to guide the car the way you would like.

This is the equivalent of working with a print company that does not understand brand marketing. Any professional printer can present a high-quality print marketing piece, but will they help you achieve the goals of your marketing campaign?

Here are some questions to ask a printer before beginning your marketing project:

Have you completed work for my industry before? A company that understands the nuances of your industry should be easier to work with. You won’t have to explain the language used specifically in your line of work and they may be able to offer insight to tactics that have worked and, more importantly, tactics that have not worked for their clients in the past.

What other options may work better to promote my business? Can they offer alternative suggestions to your initial idea? This is not to say that you don’t have a sound marketing approach, but a good printing company should be able to help you build upon your marketing idea to strengthen your customer impact.

What has been your success with this type of print marketing? Has this company received any awards for its printing creations? Do they have any large corporations with repeat orders as their clients? Investigate the success of this company with your desired marketing communication method.

Corporate Graphics of America provides marketing expertise with beautiful custom printing. Want more information on how we can complete your print marketing project? Email us at sales@corpgraphicsinc.com today!

How to Make Your Print Marketing Stand Out – Week 1

We see them everyday – brochures, postcards, catalogs, door hangers and calendars. What is so special about these items? Better yet, what makes your company’s print materials stand out from your competition and get noticed by potential customers?

This month, we will outline the steps that you should take to ensure that your print marketing pieces make a positive impression on your client base. At the end of this blog series, you will be ready to formulate a strategy for your print marketing pieces and determine the success of your marketing campaign very easily.

Week 1 – Take a Look at Your Overall Brand Strategy

What are your goals for your company in the next month? What about the next six months? What about the next calendar year? Before you begin to work on a print marketing campaign, you have to determine your business goals in advance.

In addition to your business goals, be sure to also consider the following:

• What type of marketing does your target market notice most frequently? If you are working with existing clients and they respond well to print newsletters, you know what type of marketing to use. However, if you are looking to branch out to a new market (i.e. teenagers), you should take some time to research the methods of marketing to which they are most responsive.

• How will you present your message? Are you mailing postcards or will you be distributing the postcards in person on sales calls and business expos? Will your message be presented in stages from a series of different marketing pieces? It is important for your customers to understand how you are sharing information with them to generate the best response.

• What will a successful campaign look like? After deciding the best type of marketing piece to distribute and placing it into the marketplace, how will you know that your message was received? What will you gain from a successful campaign? Outline these goals before sending out print collateral, then wait for the response!

What has been a successful campaign for your business? Send us your comments!

Why Print Media is Essential to Your Marketing Strategy – Part 4 of 4

Week 4 – Understanding the Marketing Mix

We’ve come to the end of our monthly series, “Why Print Media is Essential to Your Marketing Strategy”. To close out our tips for success, we would like to introduce the marketing term, “the marketing mix”. This is comprised of the 4 Ps: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. When putting together a marketing piece, it is important to ensure that each of these elements are included and are easy for the consumer to identify. Here’s an example:

Sample: A menu for a new Thai restaurant is mailed to all households within a 5-mile radius of the establishment.

Product: What type of food is created at this restaurant? Is there wine? Dessert? What is the specialty here?

Price: What is the quality of the menu that was mailed? Is it inkjet paper or vibrant card stock? What about the quality of the graphics? Is the logo fuzzy or is it clear? Does it look like a professional designed the piece or does it look like it was created in a Word document? Also, are the menu prices listed?

Place: What’s the location of the restaurant? Is it in an upscale area? Is it located near a mall? Is it close to the interstate? What about the interior of the restaurant? Is it carryout only or dine-in?

Promotion: Are there any specials on menu items on Mondays? What about discounts off your total purchase price if you order appetizers and dessert? Is there a frequent diner program that you can sign up for? How often are you rewarded for your patronage?

A restaurant that understands their marketing mix can answer all of these questions by a menu alone. Think about your business…what would your marketing mix look like? Leave us with your comments!

Don’t forget, you can email us at sales@corpgraphicsinc.com for your complimentary Corporate Graphics of America calendar. This is your last week!

Direct Mail > Online Messaging for Generation Y

In a recent study of over 2500 U.S. and 2200 Canadian households, ICOM (a division of Epsilon Targeting) found that consumers in the 18-34 year-old demographic overwhelmingly prefered—by two to three times—to learn about marketing offers via postal mail and newspapers, rather than online sources such as social media sites.

Do you think this sounds like the opposite of what you would expect in this age group? While it may be shocking to hear, it’s good information to know when planning your marketing materials for 2011. It has never been possible to reach all of a business’ target markets through one medium, whether it be television, online, radio or print advertising. This is why having a presence in various mediums will help your business grow exponentially.

Here are some other great findings from the study:

• 62% of this age group prefer to receive personal care product offers coming in the mail versus 22% prefer online
• 66% prefer to see food product advertisements offline versus 23% for online offers
• 53% prefer to learn about Over-the-counter medicine via direct mail versus 21% online

• 36% of U.S. respondents, across all age groups, trust the mail more than email—up from 29% in 2008

If you are ready to create high-quality direct mail pieces for your business, contact Corporate Graphics of America today at 773-481-2100 or sales@corporategraphicsinc.com.