Top Ten Reasons to Print

In light of my previous blogs I wanted to go back to basics to run through the different benefits that print can bring to a business, often businesses produce business cards because they feel it is the thing to do or they produce a leaflet when they desperately need more business, however print can offer much more than this, here are my top ten reasons –

1) Help to win new business – of course this is the obvious one, print can be used in various guises to help win new clients - flyers, leaflets and brochures are the obvious examples. This is the main reason why most of my clients come to me ‘because they want more business’

2) Help to retain existing business – often a missed opportunity as it costs 7 times as much to win new business as it does to retain an existing client, print can help by keeping you in contact with your customers, why not send them a newsletter to keep the contact or offer them a loyalty card.

3) Help to maximise your existing clients – a combination of the first 2 points, you can use a variety of methods to up sell to your current clients, they are already hot leads so maximise these first with exclusive offers via a flyer or a voucher for another product or service.

4) Help to maintain your brand – by keeping a consistent image throughout your marketing you can increase the awareness of your brand, print plays a big part from your business cards to your letterheads and brochures your image needs to be one of consistency or you will cause confusion

5) Provide information – whether you just want to tell your clients you are moving premises or you have a brand new product to launch print can help in the communication process by updating your contacts either via a letter or by a leaflet.

6) Reduce missed appointments – this is more of an issue in certain sectors such as the medical and beauty industries, by using appointment cards and sending out reminders you can help reduce missed appointments – great for dentists, hair salons and beauty therapists.

7) Promote events – maybe you are having an open day or launching a new product, either way print is a great way of both promoting the initial event through brochures and leaflets and also staying in touch via letterheads.

8) Find out information – create a customer survey to see how you are viewed or maybe produce a market research document to test the market, these are both valid reasons to produce printed literature which can be filled in and returned for data capture.

9) Provide a point of contact – how will people know how to contact you after you have left the meeting? business cards have the primary purpose of providing contact details, if you have nothing to leave then the chances are you’ll be forgotten!

10) Because some people like it – Not everybody likes to receive information via email or to be pointed to websites, print is still popular as some people just like to hold something in their hands. Mmm matt laminated….

So print has a number of uses and they are not limited to the above, if you have a business and have a message to get out or a target to reach then let us know and we will be full of useful ideas.

Have you seen #BeMyGuest on Twitter? It's a great new idea via @EmilyCagle to help develop new relationships and create mutual Blogs, if anybody is interested in mutual blogging then please let me know. Full details are available at http://bit.ly/bemyguest

One for all, all for one?

One of the key questions I ask any business that comes to see me is - Who is your target market? (or something along those lines) - Unfortunately too many businesses actually haven't thought this through, sorry I take that back - they have thought it through but just not specifically enough. The common answer is something like 'well everybody really' or 'all businesses'. Now as someone involved in marketing this makes my job rather difficult, you see it is very hard to produce any type of marketing that simply targets everyone, if you see any campaign be it a TV ad or magazine piece, they all appeal specifically in some way (by age, sex, class etc).

The associated hurdle to overcome with clients is the fear that they may exclude someone; this is a common fear for many small businesses as they feel their marketing should encompass everyone. The danger with this is that it becomes unfocussed and untargeted, the result is an unclear, mixed message that attracts very few. By simply addressing a section of your target audience with a specific piece of marketing you will instantly increase your return on investment as, if done correctly, it will focus on their concerns and engage with them.

Each section of any market place differs from the next, small businesses have different buying needs to a corporate, young females buy differently to older males, I could go on, the essence is you need to look at each piece of marketing differently, everything from the colour schemes to fonts to images make a difference.

Some examples of work done to market more specifically (it is not as hard as you may think) are below –

- 2 sets of business cards for an estate agent – 1 for residential and 1 for commercial

- A flyer for a plumber targeting only boiler installs

- A leaflet for a language translator aimed only at schools

- Stationery for a photographer – 1 for weddings and 1 for portraits

Perception is key in all marketing, by having wedding specific stationery the Photographer appears to specialise in that field and so the customer perception will be different to that of someone who does a bit of everything and may indeed make the difference on the sale.

So next time you decide to do some marketing just bear in mind that by trying to be all to everyone you may become very little to very few.