creative. print. marketing.

OPTIMIZE YOUR AUDIENCE

2012-01-25T20:40:00.000-08:00

After a short break nursing a fractured wrist, the Dream Team's blog is back with reckless abandon to help maximize your marketing efforts! We left off promising to increase response rates with your direct mailings, which can be done several ways. Here are a few of the most effective:

• Purchase an optimized mailing list targeting a specific audience most likely to purchase your product or service.
Jim's Rocking Chairs can find "new or expectant parents" within x amount of miles from his store for relatively low cost; a little creative thinking will qualify those leads by income level and gender to design mailing pieces directed at those most likely to be holding the wallet at that time!

• A study by Baylor University showed that incorporating a promotional product can increase response rates as much as 75%.
The free gift being sent is really the trojan horse of advertising; it should have your company logo and be functional with a high perceived value to supply hundreds of exposures to your brand in their home, office or car.
BTW- receivers of a promotional product are 62% more likely to do business with an advertiser! Source: Advertising Specialty Institute

• Ask website visitors to sign up for your "opt-in" e-mail list.
These provide the best response rates as users have already expressed an interest in your product or service. Now your goal should be to create compelling content that will draw more unique and repeat visitors to the home/sign up page.

• Follow up with a phone call!
Some of us still enjoy hearing a human voice pitch a product or service. If they received a postcard and e-mail advertisement followed by your friendly voice, it may be just enough brand recognition and perfect timing to get in the door. (Have your elevator pitch ready.)

NEXT TIME ON THE DREAM TEAM'S BLOG: How Steve Jobs revolutionized e-commerce and gave your print media new purpose in the process. Stay tuned!

PRODUCT PLACEMENT

2011-10-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

While Ford, Disney and AT&T pay big bucks for their products to be featured in movies and TV shows, research by the Advertising Specialty Institute concluded promotional products are on average the lowest cost-per-impression than ANY other form of advertising.
The average life of a custom product can be anywhere from five months to five years, providing thousands of impressions, or number of people exposed to your advertisement, per month. Custom calendars and personalized pens are effective and affordable handouts that linger around offices for a year then get tossed, but what logo'd items will create a long-lasting emotional connection, greatly increasing the ROI of your ad campaign?

Quality over quantity.
Rewarding your top 50 clients with an executive gift set often provides better results than spend the same amount on 5,000 budget pens.

Uniquely functional is in.
Knowing your audience is key. Teachers and students are using flash drives more than ever while hospital employees are often on the hunt for their lost retractable badge reel. What products does your target audience use on a daily basis?

Plan ahead.
While custom caps and tote bags receive the highest number of impressions-per-month, if your working the Miami trade show in August you may want to ditch the ruler you've handed out the last few years for personalized sandals or suntan lotion to save attendees a trip to the overpriced gift shop for the essentials they forgot at home.

Next time we will explore how demographic and psychographic variables help determine the most likely to purchase; from expectant parents to credit card holders with a new bank card issued, and how optimized lists can increase your direct mail response rates as much as 75% when paired with the right promotional product!

WEBONOMICS

2011-09-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

The internet has revolutionized business and advertising by connecting over 1.97 BILLION users worldwide, who all have a product, service or story to share. While traditional print, radio and television ads may have been the most efficient methods for reaching your larger audience in the past, having a user-friendly and visually stunning website may now be the most affordable and effective medium to promote your brand.
How will your business benefit from investing in an online marketing campaign?

• Have your product or service found among the 91 MILLION Google searches performed each day.

• Reach your target audience among 1.8 BILLION registered e-mails by optimizing demographic and psychographic data to procure lists for e-mail marketing.

• Interact daily with over 600 MILLION users on Facebook, generate a Fan base and drive traffic to your website.

• Integrate QR codes in your advertising and appeal to 45 MILLION smartphone users- and growing each year!

Launching your site is only the first step in developing a strong online presence. Being relevant to Googles Ranking Algorithm will require keyword research, search engine optimization and regularly updated content. By incorporating social media, print-to-web materials with Personalized URL's or custom flash drives with pre-loaded information will make your information even more accessible and help consistently drive traffic to your site.

Next week: the "write" promotional product makes all the difference!

A UNIQUE CALLING CARD GENERATES CONVERSATION

2011-08-23T23:27:00.000-07:00

Cards to present or exchange information date back to the 15th century. More than five hundred years later, business cards continue to be what is often the first opportunity to impress, alienate or engage the audience in your brand identity.
What will make yours memorable?

#1. Simplicity. Write bold, effective copy with contrasting colors that communicate what you do and how to contact you clearly and quickly.

#2. Get creative. Stand out among the stack with a custom design incorporating bright colors and spot UV, an embossed logo, or printing on plastic material.

Take a page from Lego whose employees hand out personalized mini-figures created in their likeness; is there a promotional product that would be a sure conversation starter for your business card?

Next week: everything you wanted to know about websites but were afraid to ask. (Well, almost everything.)

THE KEY TO AN EFFECTIVE LOGO: SIMPLICITY

2011-08-08T01:26:00.000-07:00

Apple's apple, the Nike swoosh and McDonald's double golden arches are all logos so simple they transcend the language barrier to communicate an instantly recognizable brand image. FedEx's creative use of bold fonts and tight kerning has won the "hidden arrow" over forty awards, so what will help your logo stand out?

Step 1: Research the competition.
What has and hasn't worked for others in your industry, and how will yours be different?

Step 2: Choose one or two defining brand colors.
How many four-color logos can you think of?

Step 3: Find an appropriate font.
Toys R' Us and IBM are both great examples of the perfect font to visually communicate what their brand is all about.

Remember that your logo is an investment; be prepared to spend anywhere from $200-$2,000 for a standard design. Be sure to join us next time when business cards meet big ideas!

MARKETING 101

2011-07-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

The first step in creating effective advertising is knowing:
a.) who your target audience is and b.) what motivates them to buy.

Is it price point, product feature or ease of online ordering that influences their decision?
Communicating why your product or service is better than the competitions is imperative to converting sales with your advertising. By analyzing demographic, psychographic and direct-response data it is now easier and more cost-effective than ever before to locate who is most likely to be in need of your product and what influences their purchasing habits.

Will the most cost-effective medium to reach your prospects be through drive time radio ads, web based marketing, promotional products or other means?
Understanding what media is most accessible and familiar to your audience is essential to developing a long-term ad campaign. Recognize consumer trends, embrace new technology and consider your own purchasing habits when designing a logo, preparing a direct mail piece or selecting a custom product to promote your brand.

See you next time when we discuss creating an effective logo!