Infographics are Captivating…Fun to Read…More Likely to be Shared

First things first: an infographic is a collection of data presented in a visually appealing manner. When done right they’re captivating, fun to read, and are more likely to get shared.

Here’s why you should utilize them in your content marketing:

They’re Compelling
People love facts. Things like:

Honey is the only food that will not rot—it can remain edible for over 3,000 years.

The hair on a polar bear is not white, but clear. They reflect light so they appear white.

Researchers have determined that most people are happiest at 7:26 PM on Saturday night.

These factoids—and those presented in your infographic—are attention grabbing. They literally catch people’s eyes and enhance the value and appeal of your content. As humans, we are better at quickly interpreting visual information over words. People are more likely to retain information presented in infographics (supposedly, people only retain 20% of what they read). And since 2010, searches for infographics have increased by 800%—that’s love.

Presents a lot of Content
Infographics are snackable content—something we can munch on between meals. They’re accessible, scannable and easily understood. They force you to cut the fluff and present the meat of the subject in a visually appealing way. Face it, people are lazy. And visual content is easier to take in than written content.

Boosts Traffic
Sharable content can only be a positive for your business’s website. And tasty tidbits like infographics are constantly being circulated—if done well. Infographics are commonly referred to as link bait (content within a website designed specifically to encourage people to link to your website). If people link back to your infographic, you’ll likely get a boost in rankings from search engines.

But don’t misunderstand us, you can’t simply toss a couple of stats on an image and call it good. Quality infographics worth sharing take careful planning and time. So if design isn’t in your wheelhouse, hire someone who’s experienced with design or illustration to ensure that your infographic is picture perfect.

Shows Thought Leadership
They say you don’t fully understand something until you can explain it simply to someone else. And we agree (with whoever “they” is). And infographics highlight your knowledge of a subject to potential clients. They show that you have an expert understanding within your field and make you stand out amongst competition.

NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.

3 Key Points to Know When Using Social Media

Social media marketing is all the rage these days. The barrier to entry is extremely low (no money required–just create a free account!), so it seems like a straightforward win for your company.

Because it’s so easy to get started, few people think through their social media strategy and whether it’s really helping them. Here are three things to know before you start using social media for your business.

1. It’s Hard to Measure
While some highly focused social media campaigns have measurable ROI, the vast majority are investments in relationship building. And when those investments pay off, it will be difficult to draw a line back to social media.

2. It Isn’t Free
While Facebook doesn’t demand any money to create an account, don’t fall into the trap of thinking it doesn’t cost you anything. The time spent maintaining your social media accounts is time that isn’t spent on your other, measurable marketing efforts.

3. It’s About Your Brand
When your competitors’ products are available online with the click of a button, your brand is what differentiates you. If you have a vibrant social media presence where you take the time to interact with your customers, your company will stand out.

At the end of the day, social media is meant to build trust. And while it’s hard to measure, being trusted is the biggest prerequisite to customers buying what you’re selling. So, while social media may not be for all businesses, many companies have found success in putting these tools in their marketing mix.

NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.

Marketing Is A Battle Of Minds!

What we mean is that marketing happens in your customer’s heads. If you can influence how people perceive your company and your brand in order to sell more effectively, you’ve succeeded as a marketer.

But it’s not just your company that exists in people’s minds. The whole industry your business operates in (or is breaking into) has a set of expectations, impressions and assumptions that you can’t directly control.

With these barriers in mind, what’s the best way to get into your customer’s minds and dominate your industry?

Be the Leader of Your Niche
The easiest way to define how your company appears in the market is by being the first one in a given industry. If you’re the first person playing the game, you can easily decide what the game is, and why you’re the best person to address the customer’s needs.

But most of us don’t have that luxury. Instead, we’re competing established brands and big companies who have bigger marketing budgets to spend than we do.

In other words, since you can’t embrace “brute force” marketing to outspend your competitors (and they’ve already established a place in the customer’s minds), you’ve got to be smarter with your marketing.

And that means you have to define what makes your company unique.

Compare and Contrast
Having established models to compare yourself to can be a blessing in disguise. Instead of using marketing to compete directly with your competitors on their terms, figure out a way to define yourself against them.

In other words, if you’re selling a new brand of detergent that’s in direct competition with the market leader, don’t advertise yourself in the market leader’s terms.

If the detergent market leader says, “We make clothes bright and colorful,” it’s not a good strategy to say “We make clothes even brighter and more colorful than brand X,” because brand X already has that idea captive in your market’s mind.

Instead, say something completely different. Pick a unique strength: “We’re the detergent for busy parents who just need to get laundry done,” or “We’re the fastest clean in town.”

Even better if you can directly contrast yourself with your competitor: “We’re like X detergent, but fast.” One-up your benefits with theirs: “Our customers understand it’s not about just being bright and colorful; it’s about that wonderful detergent smell.” The market that values smell over appearance will identify with your product and might make the switch.

This strategy works for anyone in a competitive market—whether you’re trying to clean clothes, sell cars or get people to come to your movie theater.

Don’t forget that at the end of the day, marketing is a battle of the minds. It’s more effective to carve out a space in your customer’s mind than to compete for a space your competitors already own.

NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.

3 Marketing Campaign Tips – Simple…Concrete…Surprising

Imagine you’re brainstorming the copy for your next direct mail piece or marketing campaign. Your team comes up with what seems like a great idea for your campaign, then you send out the mail piece and it flops completely. It doesn’t connect with customers and the response rate is abysmal.

Obviously, if this happened to you, you’d be discouraged. But even more, you’d probably just be confused. Why did the message you so carefully crafted flop with your audience? It was so persuasive! You spent so much time on it! What gives?

The truth is that making your messages stick with your audience doesn’t have to be some mysterious hit-or-miss art. There are techniques and ways to make sure that your message lands with your target market. We’ll share three with you.

Keep it Simple
The biggest problem with most marketing messages is that they’re written by the experts. And unfortunately, that means that they get written at an expert-level, instead of writing in a way that the audience can understand.

Keeping your messages simple is hugely important. Since you’re the expert in your field, you understand why your product’s minute features make it excel over the competition–but your customers probably don’t care. They want to know the important basics, not the gritty details. Make sure your message doesn’t go over their heads.

Stay Concrete
The best way to get someone to understand your message is by making it concrete. Instead of talking in statistics and abstraction, give an example.

For instance, you can sell your mirror cleaner by getting technical: “Use our foam aerosol, non-ammoniated cleaning spray for a wholesome clean surface!” Or you can tell it concretely: “Imagine seeing your face more clearly than you ever have before–and without any annoying streaks.” Getting concrete is more compelling—especially to a non-expert.

Be Surprising
The best marketing messages avoid clichés and puffery. Today’s customers have heard the generic marketing messages so often that they don’t even register with them anymore. If you want your campaign to make an impact, you need to do something unexpected.

For instance, if you’re trying to convince your audience to avoid driving when they’re over-tired, this message might do the trick: Driving while sleep-impaired is ten times worse than driving drunk.

That statistic works because it surprises us—and most importantly, is actually true, according to MythBusters.

So remember next time you design a marketing campaign, make sure your messages are simple, concrete and surprising.br

NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.

Going Above and Beyond…..Aim To Surprise Your Customer!

Imagine having to put together a list of your company’s values. What are a few things that differentiate your company and services? In fact, get out a piece of paper. Write down five different areas in which your company strives for excellence.

Got them? Great! Take a look at your list. Is customer service one of your top five?

If it is, you’re not alone. A study by Bain & Company found that 80% of companies believe they deliver a “superior experience” for their customers. Unfortunately, the same study revealed only 8% of those companies’ customers would say the same thing about the companies. Why the disconnect?

What Makes Customer Service Excellent?
Here’s why many companies overestimate how great their customer service is: they aren’t talking about the same thing customers are talking about when they say “customer service.”

Many companies pay lip service to the idea of excellent customer service. But their customer service consists of things like making sure a package arrives at the promised time. They answer their phones promptly to help customers. Their prices are fair and their phone operators are pleasant. If you walk into their building, the front desk staff smiles at you.

But that’s not what today’s customers consider good customer service. That’s the bare minimum. That’s expected.

Aim to Surprise Your Customers
Want to have great customer service? Surprise your customer.

Get them to say, “wow.” When something negative happens that isn’t your company’s fault, be generous and fix it. When someone posts a complaint on Twitter about your brand, refund his or her purchase—even if they didn’t try to bring it to your attention.

Good customer service isn’t about the basics—it’s going above and beyond and making your customer surprised. It’s making the customer feel right even when they aren’t—and when you don’t really need to.

Good customer service isn’t just a smile. You should aim to surprise the most irate customer with your generosity.

And pretty soon, the irate customers dwindle, and you’re left with satisfied customers—customers who trust you, and don’t feel like they need to complain. Customers who tell their friends about the cool thing you did to help them even though you didn’t need to.

Good customer service is about surprising your customers every day. If you’re aiming for excellence, aim to surprise.

NJC Printing provides quality digital and offset printing to businesses in St. Louis, Missouri and throughout the Midwest. Please visit our website at www.NJCPrint.com to learn more about us or to Request An Estimate.