3 Marketing Trends To Make Your Business More Competitive

While individuals brainstorm their New Year’s Resolutions, we’re dreaming up how to make businesses better in 2013. Perhaps your company has a great product line but little marketing to spread the word. Or maybe you need to work on your relationships with customers.

Whatever changes you sense are due for your business in 2013, the projected marketing trends for the New Year can make you more competitive. Keep reading for a few suggestions on 2013’s top marketing trends and how to make them work for your business.

At Your Service
Your consumers are finally coming into their own. The ability to voice complaints about major brands on social media or price shop online, demonstrates that consumers now have more power than ever. Instead of dealing with minor or major annoyances about the brands they do business with, consumers can simply move on to another provider.

Make sure that customers never abandon you for something your business can control. Customer service is your chance to develop long-term relationships with loyal customers.

Provide extraordinary customer service and your customers will be far less likely to leave you. Treat customer care as an afterthought, however, and you’ll soon be one too.

Pleased and Pandering
You don’t have to pander to your prospects to persuade them with your marketing. But in 2013 developing technologies makes personalized marketing a must instead of a bonus. Set your company apart with marketing materials that show prospects they’re worth the extra investment.

Develop direct mail pieces that take advantage of customer data. Subtly show that your business and your prospects are perfect for one another by using their personalized information and copy that emphasizes what you have in common.

For example, a baker might mail a piece about a “wedding cake” as an anniversary gift. Save money by only sending the piece to households with married couples.

Upward Mobility
Social media drives sales—mostly it gives happy customers a mouthpiece to recommend their favorite brands to friends. We saw that trend play out this past year.

But 2013 will be the year of mobile commerce. The amount of money consumers spend via their smartphones will absolutely skyrocket in 2013. Take advantage with an upwardly mobile marketing plan.

Create marketing materials that reach prospects at multiple points, then drive them to your mobile website. Print QR codes on your mail pieces, any signs where pedestrians will have access to them and even your business cards.

You don’t have to be a trendy business to develop marketing that’s on-trend in 2013. Prep now—before your competitors do—so that 2013 will be as profitable as December is merry.

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.

Where They Land Makes All The Difference

Generating visitors to your website can be a challenge. But with the use of landing pages, you’ll be able to direct your prospects to specific products and services you want them to focus on. Landing pages can be used effectively if you employ search engine optimization, send direct mail or purchase online advertising as part of your marketing strategy. Remember the more specific your landing page content, the more revenue you’ll be able to generate. If you’re not sure how to set up an awesome landing page, here are some tips to get you started.

Getting Them Hooked
We all know what first impressions can be vital to whether or not you land a customer. You only have a limited amount of time to capture your audience’s attention before they decide whether or not they want to move on. A good landing page starts with a good ad and URL that drives them to your website. So whether you’re using a direct mail piece, ad in your newsletter or an online ad, you have to get prospects interested to actually click to the landing page. Once they’re on the page, give them something inviting to look at. A video can be incredibly effective in keeping visitors on the page.

Reeling Them In
Once your visitors are at the landing page, it should be clear to them what you want them to do, and consistent with the message as to why they clicked there in the first place. Remember your goal of the page in the first place. Are you trying to sell a product, get prospect contact information or get an appointment? You should have one call to action that’s easy to do. If visitors are filling out a form, for instance, give them only the fields that you really need. Sometimes it’s only an email address. There should be limited navigation on the initial page until the visitors complete the initial call to action. The response page can direct them to other actions that may be of interest.

Keeping It Fresh
Like all marketing materials, you have to keep landing pages updated. Depending on your marketing strategy, you could have literally hundreds of landing pages. Don’t let that scare you away from using landing pages. Start with one to see if it’s effective for your business model. Landing pages are great because you know exactly how many people visit a specific page on your site and you can track conversions. Plus, you can make adjustments mid campaign if the page isn’t getting clicks. Remember that the more you know about your effectiveness, the better you can do in the future to ultimately gain more customers.

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.

Your Direct Mail Piece Can Become Trash or Treasure?

Every day you go to your mailbox to see it you have mail. As you hover over the trashcan to sort, how do you decide what piece you’ll read and what piece will fall through your hands to its demise?

While direct mail is an effective tool in your marketing campaign, there are some easy ways to foil your efforts. Here are a few tips to keep your mail out of the recycle bin.

Wrong Time/Wrong Audience
First, you must understand your target audience. Second, you must find a way to obtain their mailing address. If you’re planning to purchase a list, look to your current customers as a source for demographic and psychographic information. Current customers are also more likely to respond to direct mail, so consider a campaign for repeat business. Timing is everything. Having the offer in the right hands at the right time is critical. Direct mail campaigns fail, even with qualified lists when they are launched at the wrong time.

Focus on the Offer
The whole purpose of direct mail is to get people to do something. For businesses, that usually means purchasing something from you.  Focus on the big stuff. When people glance at your mailing, they’re looking for what you’re selling and the deal you’re making to sell it. So make it good! Make it fast! And make it clear! Doubt fills trashcans.

Poor Design
The quickest way to get a person to look at your direct mail is by having a clean design. Conversely, the quickest way to get them to toss it is to have a design with no purpose. Here is where you want to call in the professionals who can create the perfect piece for your needs.

Tracking Results
How will you know whether your direct mail campaign was successful unless you include a way to track it? What do you want the customer to do?  Remember, the very objective of sending a DM piece is to generate a response.  You want the customer to call you, visit you, make an appointment or whatever else you may want them to do. Therefore, within your DM piece, clearly and concisely point out what you want the customer to do, when you want them to do it and the benefits of doing so quickly.

To sum it up…in direct mail, when people sort your mail, they’re quick. They’re brutal. And if you don’t instantly capture their attention, your direct mail becomes landfill!  Remember, you’re writing for a reader who is standing over a trash can.

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.

Utilizing the Holidays for Marketing Opportunities

Memorial Day is just a few days away, marking the unofficial start of summer. Many of you will spend the much-needed, long weekend over the grill, at the beach or at your favorite outdoor retreat. Some will be remembering loved ones and those that served to give us the freedoms we have today. However, Memorial Day can also be a reminder to find unique ways to market your business. Here are a few ways to utilize holidays in your marketing plan.

Everyone likes a deal.
Two things come to mind to observe a holiday: spending time with family around a table filled with food and great sales at your favorite retail outlets. Choose a holiday and send a direct mail piece highlighting a special to drive more traffic to your business during your slow times.

Just say thank you.
Thank you is such an easy thing to say yet it is not said enough. Your customers appreciate knowing they’re appreciated. There are a number of ways to say thank you such as a handwritten note, a postcard or even a small gift. It doesn’t even have to be a holiday to appreciate your customers, but Memorial Day is a great time to remind them they’re important.

Add some spice to your website.
If you visit Google often, you have probably noticed that the logo changes to mark special occasions. You can add some holiday flare to your website to put people in a festive mood.

Claim a holiday and make it yours.
If there’s a day on the calendar, chances are there’s a wacky observance. More than likely you can find one or two to tie in with your business objectives. Many of these holidays are fun and can offer great ideas for marketing promotions to keep your customers engaged in your business.

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.

Celebrate National Postcard Week

April showers bring May flowers, and hopefully a postcard in your mailbox. That’s the hope of organizers of the annual National Postcard Week, which is celebrated the first week of May.

While the holiday celebrates postcard collecting, this is a great time of year for your business to consider a direct mail campaign. Here are a few things to consider when planning a direct mail piece:

Postcards are meant to be eye catching. You have only a few seconds to catch the recipient’s attention as they rifle through their bills and other mail. Don’t forget to design both sides of the card since you won’t know which side will appear face up.

Keep your message simple. You only have so much space on a postcard so don’t try and fill it up with a bunch of text. Give your customers only the necessary information with a call to action. Make sure to keep your design and message consistent with the brand of your company.

Postcards are still one of the most effective marketing tools to reach a specific target market at an affordable price. Work with your local print company to design a postcard that will work best for your marketing goal.

And during this holiday, don’t forget to send a personal postcard to a friend.

- 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.