Category: Graphic Design

Print Advertisement is Good Advertisement

Print Advertisement is Good AdvertisementPrint Advertisement is Good Advertisement, You know why? It puts something physical into the customers’ hands that tell them about your product or services. I’m sure you know this, but do you know that most of the time your print advertising goes into the trash without being looked at. Matter of fact, to see any results from your printing efforts you want to circulate your printed material 3 times to the same audience. These are things I want to make sure you know as business owners that your money is valuable, and to know that it’s almost valuable enough to spend it, just to throw it away. Let me explain!

Advertising By Throwing Money Away

You are probably saying this guy is out of his @%#!@ mind! The truth is, how many times did you apply for a job, not to hear anything from that respective employer. Resumes are your personal printed advertisement, and if it doesn’t appease the needs of whoever is running the HR Department, then you get the trash can. Same Concept! You put a lot of time and energy into your resume and you want to be consistent and almost unbearable, that you cause a response. The thing is that you are not speaking; it is your marketing materials that are speaking for you. So don’t stress if you don’t get a response, because you’ve already made the first step, by making yourself visible. Send out a second wave of marketing materials. Chances are these are going to get thrown away as well. That’s okay! You have just modeled persistency. This time send out a third wave, and it is most likely, there still will be some materials thrown in the trash, but most likely, someone will see your consistency, and persistency, that they will at least inquire about your services. By this time, you might have sent out about 1000 pieces of material, and you might get 8-10 responses with the probability of 2 to 3 customers. 1 Customer should be able to cover your investment, and the other 2 are just cherries on the cake.

Knowing When To Advertise

As a business owner, you should always have business cards on hand, readily accessible and available. You might be in situations where you have 30 seconds to sell yourself, and hand out your literature. *Side Note* Make sure you exchange information; don’t just put the ball in their court to call you. Be Proactive. If you have their information, then you can follow up with them. Secondly, when advertising yourself through print materials, you have to know what print materials would be suitable for your potential customers. You can have your business name printed on anything for any reason whatsoever, but that doesn’t mean you should. You have to know your avenues. If you have a work truck, then invest the money into getting some vinyl done to advertise your name and your services, this will pay for itself, and it’s great advertisement, because people like to read while they drive. If you have coupons and specials, then it would probably be a good idea to saturate the local area with your coupons, either by mail marketing or hire a team of individuals, like some neighborhood kids to go through the area with you and to give door to door flyers. Any way that you choose, be creative. The thing is know that if you have a concept for your business, then you need to advertise it in order to make it work. Don’t just advertise on Social media or your website, but advertise through print marketing. Take responsibility for your success.

Conclusion

Get with your graphic designer, hopefully you have one on hand, and explain to them what you want, and they will create some incredible print advertising for you. If you don’t have a graphic designer that you can call on to do your work for you, then I suggest you get one. A good graphic designer will make your business look professional, experienced, and trustworthy. If you are serious about your business, don’t just throw something together and do it yourself, because I promise you, it won’t drive the customer base that you want. Invest in your business, and be willing to get the right graphics for your marketing material that will stimulate a potential customer’s interest.

God Bless!

Do My Graphics Compliment or Compromise My Content?

Do My Graphics Compliment or Compromise My Content?One question you should ask yourself when putting your website together is, “Do my graphics compliment or compromise my content?” Compliment vs. Compromise in the world of web design will effect what Google Analytics describes as “Bounce Rate.” Your Bounce Rate is how long a visitor visits your website. If your graphics compliment your content and your content compliments your graphics, then most likely visitors are going to visit your website longer. Granted, if your graphics have nothing to do with your content, or they’re just not innovative or cutting edge, then most likely that potential customer that you worked to get to come to your website will, “Bounce!” I’m going to talk about these two very important roles that should co-exist in the life of your website.

1. Professional and Relevant Content Writing

The content on your website should be standardized by the leading specialist in your certain field. So suppose you owned a carpet cleaning company, your research for your content writing would be on companies such as Stanley Steemer and Chem-Dry. You want to study what your top competitor is doing in order to write your content. You don’t want to be totally out in left field while your top competitor is steadily gaining new clients. The reason why your top competitor is your top competitor is because they have a formula that works. So as you begin to write your content, you want to use the same buzz words that the competitor is using, and ultimately these buzz words should double as your keywords to help with your search engine optimization. There’s nothing new under the sun, and there’s no business that hasn’t already been done or thought of. Your services are probably going to be very similar to what your competitor is offering, so study their work.

2. Graphics That Adhere Your Content

When you’re communicating the look and feel of your website to your web developer, they should have enough common sense and knowledge in graphic design to find or create pictures that are relevant to your topics or services. Not only do you want relevant graphics, but you want your graphics to act as an adhesive, tying the two together to create a marriage between content and graphics. Without graphics on website, your content would look like one long run-on sentence. This would work, if people were information first. Unfortunately, people have short attention spans, and like dogs, we need to see the shiny object in order for us to run towards it. Instead of this being a problem, this is part of the solution, because it gives you and your web developer the opportunity to be creative. We were created to create, we have divine revelation, and creative integrity written into our DNA, so use it. Be as creative as possible, without being overwhelming. The same way that you study the competitors website for content, see how they are using their graphics to marry their content, so not only does the content tell the story, but the graphic speaks as well. There should be no reason why your website should look and feel like it stepped out of the 1990’s. With evolving software like Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, your web developer should be able to create some graphics that separate you from the competition. You and your competition should be running a leg to leg race. Don’t allow the competition to have the upper hand, study their work once again, and then be innovative and unique in your approach. As long as you have dreams and ambitions for the success of your business, then your ideas should come by the handful. Don’t think because you are not an artist or a graphic designer that you don’t know what you want. Sketch out some ideas, verbalize it, and a good graphic designer will be able to capture your vision, and supply you with a physical copy of your idea.

God Bless!

Ramirez Creative Solutions