Archive for the ‘Offline Marketing’ Category

Postcard Printing: Full Color Postcard Printing

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

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by Jacques Di Salvia

Bright vibrant color postcards are a proven marketing tool to reach out to your prospective customers and influence them into buying your products and services. This is the most cost-effective medium to communicate with your customer and to keep them updated with relevant information. Postcards have been used as marketing tools for ages, but with the advancement of printing technologies, full color postcards have gradually replaced black and white postcards.

Full color postcards make an instant impact in the mind of the customers because of its eye catching and appealing design. In these days, customers are time starved and do not have the time to go through lengthy texts. Postcards offer higher readability than multi-page brochures, booklet, or catalogue and more cost effective. The simple format and the design entice the customer to glance through a postcard in shortest possible time while comprehending the message.

Printing postcards in full color is usually done on an offset press. But as today’s marketers prefer a more personalized approach to their marketing campaigns to make it even more effective, digital printing is slowly gaining edge over offset. Thanks to the dynamic features like “variable data printing,” digital printing techniques can make each postcard personalized and unique.

By seeing your postcard on a monitor during the design stage gives you an actual view of what the original print will look like. By adding metallic or fluorescent colors it will make your postcard more eye-catching.

The ultimate look of the final printed postcard will rely on which type of stock that you choose and it will show in the quality of the postcard too. A gloss, matte or pearl finish, are just a few of the choices available and depend totally on the design of your postcard. Also, special effects can be used when printing your postcards to give emphasis to text or images by applying UV or special effect varnish.

It is possible to print any number of postcards depending on your requirement and budget. However it is recommended to print larger quantities in offset and small quantities in digital press for cost advantage.

Full color postcard will certainly ensure maximum reach and effectiveness of your promotional campaign by giving an insight of the products and services your company offers without consuming precious time of your potential customers.

Most promotional materials received in the mail usually goes straight into the garbage, based on statistics. But, by marketing with full color postcards you eliminate that concern because people are most likely to remember something that is vibrant and with colorful designs. They will help in turning your potential client base into loyal and long-term customers and in meeting your company’s revenue target.

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Search Engine Marketing - What is Social Marketing?

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

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by Terry Stanfield

Social marketing is a new form of advertising that is just starting to become popular. Often social marketing is a favorite of small businesses because it is virtually free although in order to use it to drive traffic to a website the company still needs to use traditional search engine marketing and search engine optimization techniques. It is build around the idea of link strategies and using personal networking to drive website traffic. Before the widespread use of social networking sites social marketing really wasn’t a viable option for most mainstream businesses but now the popularity of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook has made social networking and social marketing very popular. Link strategies that are often used in social marketing involve creating free accounts on these popular social networking sites and then using search engine marketing techniques to increase traffic and network with others who interested in the same topics or with customers. Using search engine optimization to create search engine marketing content on your social networking profile pages can help get your profile listed in search engine results pages and you can use search engine marketing articles to help gain readers and friends across the net.

This type of marketing isn’t just limited to using sites like MySpace and Facebook. You can use search engine marketing and search engine optimization to socially market your blog as well. Many companies these days prefer having blogs to having traditional websites because blogs are much more accessible to people and make people feel like they have a personal connection with the company. Blogging is hugely popular. Many popular blog sites are free so you can set up a free blog to be the front page of your web page and you can put links throughout the blog that lead to other pages on your web page so that your readers can find your other search engine marketing articles and information or buy your products. The best link strategies for blogs involve taking the time to form alliances with other bloggers. Blogging networks have huge followings and many times if you join a blog network or go to the blogs of people who share your interest or sell complementary products you can leave comments on that person’s blog that link back to your own site.

Even though that type of advertising can be a little time consuming it’s a great way to use search engine marketing to reach your target audience for free. Blogging communities also usually link to one another’s blogs which means that you can use your networking contacts to help you publicize your website. Social marketing can be tricky though because it’s more than just using search engine marketing, link strategies and SEO. There are a lot of social networking etiquette rules that need to be observed and if you don’t follow protocol you could be ostracized. When you’re using social networking you should never just post links to your website on other people’s blogs, that’s considered spamming. Take the time to read other blogs and leave relevant comments. Usually then you will be allowed to post a link to your own website.

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