360 Graphic Solutions

San Antonio Graphic Design

210.710.7258

Create a Sizzling Brochure

By Leave a Comment

Brochures are one of the most diverse marketing mediumsCustomized brochures are one of the best ways to bolster business, large or small. Brochures are one of the most diverse marketing mediums available since they are suited to a wide variety of situations. They serve as an interactive guide when explaining products and services, and point out key features and benefits to the customer. Since brochures are relatively inexpensive, they represent the perfect pitch when operating on a smaller budget.

3 quick and practical tips that can boost your brochure and help you promote your business more effectively:

1. Avoid stock photos  –Make your brochure personal! Stock images are recognizable with today tech savvy consumers. Use images unique to your company, that will illustrate your companies services or products. Even though we live in the era of Internet marketing and long-distance business relationships, we all value a touch of personal contact. So take a deep breath, leave that stock photo behind and go for a professional picture of yourself instead. Note: Avoid filling your brochure with staff photos. Unfortunately, valued staff members may change over time and will out-date and limited the life span of your brochure.

2. Shrink the copy –Your business brochure should provide your prospective customer or client with a quick overview of who you are and what your company can do for them – “quick” is a keyword here. You do not need to provide a complete list of your qualifications and expertise. The potential customer will not have the time to read through a whole narrative of your company – so keep it short and focused. Include key benefits and information about your company, but leave some information out to discuss when you actually meet them face-to-face.

3. Include a call-to-action – Calls-to-action are a tactful and effective way to wrap it all up, and prompt the targeted audience into the desired “action”. This will maximize the impact and effectiviness of your business brochure.

Need to create a customized brochure, or refresh and update your curent advertising and marketing materials? Contact 360GS today.

 

Is Every Door Mail Marketing Right for Your Business?

By Leave a Comment

The Least Expensive Direct Mail Program Available, but is EDDM Right for Your Business? 

MailboxLast year the USPS launched Every Door Direct Mail, or EDDM, which offers businesses an inexpensive, un-targeted direct mail advertising option. USPS did an awesome advertising campaign to attract small business owners, and it does deliver to “every door” as promised. But now that some of the newness has worn off and the kinks have been worked out, is it a great marketing option for your individual business or marketing goals?

What Is EDDM?

According to BizReport, up to 85% of customers will come from a 5-mile radius from the point of business or event.

With that in mind, Every Door Direct Mail is a way to deliver direct mail to every door in a given area and saturate the businesses and/or residents in surrounding region. This is very similar in comparison to traditional postcard mailings that use an “occupancy” or “current resident” mailing list, that offers no specific demographic choices. With EDDM, there are three (3) general demographics to work with – age, income level and household size, but you cannot be very specific in targeting your audience with this criteria. You select a zip code or a specific postal route, and you “mail”to each and every address in that selected area. Another substantial difference from traditional direct mail marketing is that EDDM is hand-delivered to each individual post office based on the postal routes chosen.

What’s The Benefit?

Cost. Plain and simple. The USPS offers EDDM for as a low as 17.5¢ per piece. That’s less than half the price of Bulk Mail, and less than a third of the price of a First Class stamp. If you’re looking to blanket an area with your advertisement, and you’re not particularly concerned about only delivering to targeted groups, a fifty percent cost savings may suddenly make direct mail an affordable and viable option for you. Also, even the smallest EDDM postcard–with its larger size and having no mailing panel, offers substantial space for you to relay your advertising message or company information.

What’s The Catch?

USPS does have some requirements if you want to take advantage of EDDM. The biggest one is you have to take your mailing to the local post office yourself. This may be difficult if you are covering an area out of towns or even, out of state. Fortunately, USPS does offer shipping options, for an additional cost.

There are additional requirements for the size and format for the mail piece, and how the pieces need to be bundled  and labeled, when you drop them off. This isn’t as strict as with traditional direct mail marketing, but it can be time consuming.

Another obstacle in working with EDDM, is in dealing with the individual post offices and postal clerks themselves. Unfortunately, the USPS has never been totally “user friendly” for direct mail marketing and working with EDDM is not different. EDDM is still a fairly new program, not all of the postal staff are trained on USPS EDDM requirements and your card can be challenged on every drop off trip.

If you do feel intimidated by all of these requirements, you can still take advantage of the savings of EDDM. There are a number of direct mail printers or marketing companies who offer EDDM services. They know the formatting requirements, and will make sure your mailings are compliant and delivered to the post office. Often the costs associated with these services are still low enough where your business is saving money over using Bulk Mail.

Is EDDM Right for your Company?

Every business owner would like to cut costs in half. But that doesn’t mean EDDM is right for every business. If your business targets a very specific customer base, EDDM may not be for you. For an example, a lawn or tree trimming service probably wouldn’t want to send to every address in an area if a large percentage of households are apartments or condominiums where the residents aren’t responsible for mowing the lawn or trimming the trees.

However, consumer based businesses that offer special promotions, are particularly well suited for EDDM, such as:

  • Auto Mechanics
  • Carpet Cleaning
  • Car Washes
  • Computer Repair
  • Dental Offices
  • Dry Cleaning
  • Fitness
  • General Retail
  • Lawn Care
  • Restaurants
  • Real Estate
  • House Cleaning
  • Insurance Agencies
  • Pest Control
  • Security Services
  • Pharmacies
  • Barber Shops, Salons And Spas
  • Tax Prep
  • Urgent Care
  • Veterinarians

Not every advertising tactic is ideally suited for every business, but there are quality options available, ones that can be customized to meet your marketing needs. Contact 360GS, to explore Every Door Direct Mailing and if it is good choice for you.

2013 Marketing Trends

By Leave a Comment

img2013Having successful, meaningful, profitable marketing strategies is something that a lot of companies struggle to do. There is a very delicate balance between too much and too little when it comes to touch points with a consumer. It takes the right mix of talented, creative people who have a deeper knowledge of a product or service to be able to craft a message that will stick with customers.

Regardless of the size of your business, marketing does and can work. Here are some of the latest trends to follow:

  1. Mass markets are turning into niche markets. Consumers are ever-present in their buyer decision-making process. With access to all of the most advanced technologies, people know that options are endless and they won’t stop until they get what they want. In order to be profitable and maintain a competitive edge, businesses have to suit the needs of the individual consumer, or someone else will. Everything is customizable and it is the companies who have the most diverse, tailored products to offer that will appeal to an insatiable market.
  2. Mobile Marketing is taking us by storm. People are spending vastly increasing amounts of time on their smart phones and the percentage of phone carriers with a smart phone is surpassing 50 percent. Content and applications are getting richer and more interactive, pulling technology users into their phones and away from face-to-face interaction. In addition to QR codes and Facebook advertisements, companies are getting more involved in the mobile marketing process and embedding their message inside the most popular widely-used applications. Utilizing geolocation has also begun to offer the ability to hyper-target certain areas and hone in on particular markets to offer products that are literally steps away from the consumer. Marketers are making enticing deals harder and harder to pass up.
  3. Social media monitoring tools are getting serious usage. Gone are the days when marketing word of mouth meant a hand-written letter to a company from a disgruntled customer. Today, companies are able to watch, develop and change their brand in real time by using the latest and greatest monitoring tools. These tools are able to scour the Internet blogs and social media for brand mentions and conversations. They are able to respond to inquiries, dissatisfaction or praise on the spot and stay involved in every ad and all conversations regarding the image of their products.

What does this mean for your business?

It is true that varying levels of marketing are effective for organizations of different sizes. But these recent trends are here to stay and they reflect the age-old saying “customer is king.” The way to keep up with competition is by tailoring your product or service offerings, customizable to individual customers because they know that if you don’t, they can find it somewhere else. No matter how present you are in the social-sphere, it is always helpful to at least gain insight about your brand perception and keep customers satisfied and involved. Keeping a finger on this very important pulse could be easily achieved through social media monitoring. Stay on top of the relevant trends for your industry and do what you can to engage, surprise and deliver the very best. 

 Originally posted by C-leveled/Entrepreneur

Advertising Ideas for Small Businesses

By Leave a Comment

360GS You have just started your small business and the lack of customers is becoming a concern for you. The problem might lie on the quality of small business marketing ideas that you have. When you start your company, having an effective marketing strategy is very important because this is how you will promote your new brand to your customers.

 Do not expect that you will immediately create a buzz just because you have opened your new store in your local town. Rather, create your own buzz to capture the interest of the people around the area.

 Again, your marketing strategies are very important to the success of getting your brand known. There are hundreds of marketing ideas out there and you have to be smart in choosing which one will suit your business perfectly so you won’t waste money. Using free strategic internet marketing is also a good move as it is cost-effective and you can easily reach thousands of people in just a few minutes.

 If you are looking for some tips on how to start your marketing campaign, here are some of the easiest and effective marketing ideas that you can employ in your business:

 Advertise Small

 Don’t try to mimic advertising campaigns by big businesses because this will be too costly for you. Plus, you really don’t need to go all-out on your advertisements because you are just starting with it. You just find out how to use your small ads properly for it to convert to sales. A good example is putting an offer in your advertisement that will attract customers to try out your product or service.

 Offer the Best of Both Worlds

 Part of your marketing campaign should include offering different versions of the product or service you are selling. Although you have probably narrowed down to your target customers, offering a cheap and premium version of your product is one of the great small business marketing ideas that will help you gather customers in the start of your business. There are customers that are hesitant in paying more than a few dollars for a product that is new. There are customers who expect to get the best quality even if it is very cheap. On the other hand, there are customers that are willing to spend a lot as long as it is of quality. Since you want to cater to different segments, this will help you avoid losing potential customers and they all get to try out your product.

 Check Your Competition

 If you have competition in your area then you should research on what marketing strategies they are using. Analyze their marketing campaign and try to look for something that they are missing. Find a different way to market your products and services so you don’t go head to head with a business that has been operating for years.

 Keep Your Ads Short and Concise

 Shorter and direct to the point ads are proven to be more successful in attracting customers than the longer ones. This proves to be advantageous to you since you don’t need to write a lengthy ad anyway. Plus, it will be much more cost-effective on your part too.

With all these small business marketing ideas, you can now try thinking of different marketing strategies that you can do for your small business to flourish. Don’t forget to use the Interent to do some marketing too.

 

Tidbits & News

Our Location

360 Graphic Solutions
San Antonio, Texas

Call Now

210.710.7258