Planning your Marketing and Planning What you Print
Fall is a good time to review the results of the current years sales and marketing strategy and weigh it against past years efforts. It is also a good time to plan for the year to come and develop a strategy to achieve your goals.
Marketing refers to all of the processes and activities associated with promoting the sale of products or services, with focus on acquiring new customers and satisfying existing ones. While marketing plans for medium and large businesses can be very formal and based on extensive research and analysis, most small businesses and organizations use a simpler approach that often is defined by the amount of resources---money and people--available to carry it out.

If you are in business, you have developed areas of expertise that other people are interested in. For example, you know how to differentiate your product or service from your competitors--why what you are offering is superior and worthy of consideration. That becomes the basis for a checklist of what should be considered before making a purchase, and that type of information is valuable to others.
If you have been in business for a while you may have several areas of expertise that you can share and many options for getting the word out. An informational brochure and a periodic newsletter are two commonly used and relatively inexpensive methods. Others are writing a column for a local newspaper or sending a post card as part of a direct mail marketing campaign. A more ambitious method is to hold a seminar or demonstration on an informational topic or offer a presentation as a public speaker for community groups. Writing a blog is a new and increasingly popular method.
For subject matter, use topics that help your target audience with their problems.

A recent survey of small business owners conducted by the Hewlett-Packard Company revealed that very few felt confident about their marketing efforts. Almost half (46%) claimed not to have any general marketing expertise, 60% said they could be doing a better job as marketers, and only 18% felt confident about creating their own marketing material.
If this describes you, then take note; we can help. Many of our small business customers routinely turn to us for help with developing a promotional campaign, creating a logo and graphic identity and writing sales-related copy. Because we have worked with so many companies over the years, we have developed a sensitivity for what works. Using a series of probing questions, we will guide you through the process of determining who your target audience is and how to reach them.
For more information or to make an initial appointment for a consultation call Dan Linn, General Manager at 303-320-4855 or email dan@bcprintinginc.com.

What is a multi-channel promotion?
Multi-channel refers to using more than one promotion method simultaneously for a message on a single topic. Multi-channel can be very effective, especially when the messages in one channel are referenced in the other and are integrated. Use one constant and simple theme that offers a variety of response options.
Here are some examples of multi-channel marketing;
1. Sending an e-mail timed to arrive at the same time as a mailed catalog.
2. Inviting customers and prospects to visit a web site to print a coupon to use in a retail store.
3. Adding a URL or QR code to sales collateral with an invitation to visit the web site, register, and receive something in exchange.

No Matter the size of your business or organization, it needs to have a budget for promotions. Pick a time period---we recommend quarterly,semi-annually or yearly--and commit both a sum of money and some time for a designated person to manage the promotional effort. It takes both a budget and someone to manage the budget to ensure a successful promotion.
Promotions don't have to cost a lot of money or take a lot of time. A simple way to start is by targeting your best customers and introducing them to products or services you offer that they may not be using. Here are seven ideas for promoting on a budget.
1.Send a monthly informational newsletter.
2.Highlight the specific products and services that represent what you do best.
3.Follow up a purchase with an additional offer.
4.Target past customers.
5.Put a sticker with teaser copy on an outbound envelope.
6.Offer a guarantee.
7.Self Promote.
Regardless of the size of your budget, it is important to continuously promote your business. For over 11 years we have been helping businesses, organizations and individuals with promotions to customers and prospects. To brainstorm promotional ideas to help your business or to get started with your promotion contact Dan at 303-320-4855 or email dan@bcprintinginc.com. We're ready to help.

I believe the current debate between whether traditional direct mail or e-mail is best for marketing purposes is obscuring what is really most important--the content.

Until what you say in your marketing communications has value to your customers and prospects and is well-presented, then how you get it to them is irrelevant.
There are two parts to delivering meaningful content;the words themselves and how they are presented graphically. Writing that is full of cliches, grammatical errors, misspellings and punctuation errors calls attention to the writing itself rather than the meaning. Likewise, ordinary or commonplace design wastes the opportunity to draw the reader in and may even confuse the reader.

We understand that budgets may be tight, providing the temptation to save money by do-it-yourself content preparation. If this is your situation, may we suggest that you budget enough to have us review your work. Sometimes the simplest of changes can make a significant difference in the impression you'll make on your readers.

A very useful tool for any writer is a swipe file, a place to collect examples of effective writing that comes to your attention.
A swipe file can contain anything you want it to---headlines,introductory paragraphs,body copy,guarantees,interesting phrases or slogans,display ads,direct mail marketing pieces,e-mail messages,graphics, photos--anything that might serve as a future idea starter. It is a good idea to organize your swipe file into subsections to make searching for ideas easier, and to base it on hard copy rather than digital files.
Look for material for your swipe file in anything you come across that is sales-related. Instead of tossing direct mail marketing pieces unopened, take a look and see if there is anything suitable for your swipe file. Likewise for e-mail advertising messages. The more you view and collect, the more useful your swipe file will become.
Keep in mind that the purpose of a swipe file is to generate ideas, not to plagiarize. Your goal is to adapt the information in your swipe file to your own needs, not to copy it outright.