Small Business Design Resources

Double Up: Online and Offline Marketing Techniques

We all know how important marketing strategies are to our small business design. Many of us are still learning the best ways to market our businesses without draining our bank accounts. Online marketing has been one of the best ways to get businesses out into the public eye. This is your website, your blog and all your social network accounts that drive that traffic towards your website. It’s fast, cheap and easy to change when necessary. But what about offline marketing techniques? Offline marketing often gets pushed to the back burner because of time constraints, lack of funding or just not knowing what to do. Let’s talk about some offline marketing strategies that are easy on time and finances.

Business Cards are the simplest offline marketing tools you can have for your business. You can get a lot of cards for very little cash. Make them unique and hand them out often. If you frequent a business, ask them if you can leave a couple on their counter and offer to take a few of their cards as well. Consider making your card double as a coupon. The backs of business cards are usually blank, but you can have a coupon for your services printed so the space goes un-wasted. You can also affix a magnet to the back and behold—people will see your logo every time they go to the refrigerator.

Local Fairs can be a great way to meet new clients. If your business is a good fit, consider renting a booth and spend a few hours marketing your small business to people in your community. You’ll get the chance to meet people that may have never known about your business and in return, you might find people providing services you could use as well. You can even talk to others who own small businesses and trade services, while helping promote each other.

Be a walking advertisement. Put your logo on everything. Make company shirts and wear them in public. Get large magnetic bumper stickers with your company information and website address and stick it to your car. Get pens with your company information and website and leave them when you sign in at the gym, sign credit card receipts or fill out paperwork at the doctor’s office. People will always use pens and love to get freebees, so carry a few on you at all times.

Online marketing and offline marketing are equally important for gaining new clients. So, make sure you log onto your social network sites, update your blog and get out there and physically promote your company within your community. Including a healthy mix of marketing strategies into your small business design will bring about the results you’ve been looking for.

Free Business Cards Design & Printing Giveaway

Congratulations to the following winners:

• Tom Grady
• Angela Petitt
• Elizabeth Idzi

And the Grand Prize Winner is: Naomi Gauldin

Thank you All for entering the giveaway. More giveaways to come.

Are you just starting your business and need business cards or you’ve been running your business for some time and need fresh ones? Well, either way you’re in luck because Design Leap a small business design company and Uprining an online printing company have joined this week from August 20, 2010 – August 27, 2010 to giveaway 500 business cards to 4 winners.

Giveaway prize:

All winners will receive business card printing services from Uprinting.

• 500 Premium Business Cards
• 2 x 3.5”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.75 x 3.5” (slim card)
• 14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
• Full Color Both Sides
• Free shipping within the US only.

Grand Prize:

In addition to business card printing, one winner will also have their business card designed by Design Leap.

To Enter: All you have to do is subscribe to our Small Business Design Newsletter via the form below.

Limited to US residents only 18 years old and above.

Winners will be randomly chosen throughout the week.

Is Printed Marketing Material Still Important?

What we couldn’t have possibly imagined just a decade ago has become a reality: everything has moved online. We shop online, we do our banking online, we play online, and we even socialize online. In addition, research shows that when making buying decisions, the first place people go to for researching their options is the Internet.

Which brings up the question, if everything takes place online these days, and especially if you’re an online business, should you still use printed marketing materials such as brochures as part of your marketing strategy?

Why printed marketing materials are still valuable

The short answer is yes. Marketing is never about just one medium. It’s always a mistake to focus on just one aspect of marketing and to neglect the others. A good marketing campaign utilizes many different mediums to generate many different leads, then nurtures them until they are ready to become customers.

So, while “online” is really hot these days, the physical world still exists, and there are enough potential customers who, after the initial online research, expect to see printed material. These people typically find it difficult to trust a business if it’s completely virtual. They need to know that you have a physical address, a phone number, and that they can see a brochure or other types of printed material before they commit to you.

If you ignore these consumers, you have just lost a segment of the population that could have been interested in your solution.

No doubt, when you plan your marketing budget, you need to pay special attention to online components, including your Web site, your blog and your social media accounts. Ideally, you want to have a great logo, and you want your logo to appear on all online venues (main site, blog header, Twitter background etc.)

To keep your brand highly unique and identifiable, you should also have the same logo appear on your business cards and on any printed marketing materials such as brochures and flyers.

How to create an effective brochure

Now that we’ve established the importance of brochures and of other printed marketing materials, here are a few handy tips for writing and designing an effective brochure:

1. Make it visually appealing. Design is extremely important when it comes to brochures. If the design is boring or cluttered, people won’t bother to read your text. Look for a small business graphic designer who has a lot of experience and can show you samples of their previous work. Better yet, make sure they have positive testimonials on their site, or on a third party site.

2. Focus on benefits rather than on features. Prospects don’t care about your product’s features. They want you to answer the question, “what’s in it for me?” and your brochure needs to be able to answer that question, or it will be tossed!

3. Keep it short. Do you really need a 10-page brochure? Generally, short, catchy brochures with a large font and a clean design are better than long, tiresome, technical brochures.

4. Make it personal. Write your brochure in a direct, conversational tone – as if you are talking with a person face to face. The more personal and direct your tone is, the easier it will be for prospects to connect with your message.

5. Include a call for action. Every marketing material should include a call for action, and this is true for brochures as well. A call for action can be as simple as ending your brochure with the sentence “Need ____? Call today” and your phone number. The idea is to present the pain, your business as the solution, and to encourage the prospect to take immediate action by calling you.

Whether you have a physical location or fully operate online, your small business marketing strategy should include online marketing materials AND printed marketing materials. This combination will make sure you don’t neglect an important segment of your potential market.