How to Deal with an Unhappy Customer

No matter how hard you try, not all clients will be happy. No entrepreneur wants his or her customers to be unhappy. Not to mention that it's bad for business. Customers are human beings. Responding to angry, disgruntled and frustrated customers can be very stressful, especially over the phone. However, this is precisely the time when businesses have a golden opportunity to shine.

Listen - It's easy to truly care about them. And once you truly care about them, it's a lot easier to solve their problem. Unhappy customers can be a goldmine for how you can improve your product or service. Listen to them, and see it as a gift. When there is a problem, the first thing you should do is listen and understand what happened from the customer's perspective. Then ask the customer exactly what would make him or her happy.

Apologize - Ask yourself what you would really want in their situation. It's far more constructive to be empathetic and agreeable with customers. Apologize for and explain the situation, issue a refund (if applicable), and offer an additional benefit for sticking with you. Begin with "I'm sorry," then move to "How can we make this up to you?" You'll not only make that person happy, but you'll also learn how to improve.

Learn - When you calm the customer down, you can also potentially learn from them. Prepare to help, ask questions, and convey personal caring. The vast majority of customer complaints are legitimate, so this should always be your first assumption. Writing information down will ensure that you’ve accurately documented the situation, help you find solutions, avoid having the customer repeat themselves, and make it easier to relate the event to others if needed.

The customer may not always be right, but you should always make it right. Remain cool and try your best to problem solve. As always, remember us here at Marketink. Get Faster and More Reliable Printing, Banners and Large Graphics. Call us if you need us: 877.990.1616

source: http://www.inc.com/welcome.html?destination=http://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/17-ways-to-deal-with-unhappy-customers.html

Large Format Printing Ideas To Make Any Business POP!

It's the new year, you have your inventory ordered and staffing arranged, but have you given a thought to the visual experience that each customer will have when they enter your shop? Have you transformed your retail space to draw customers in and give them the complete experience—the ultimate, visual WOW? The holidays are over but during the season, we picked up a few tips that you can use all year long to spice up your businesses empty spaces. Here's a few tips to really make your store POP!:

Transform Window Spaces
Obviously the outside of your store is what visitors see first—whether it's your building architecture, the brand sign, or the window front. While the crowds of people are moving past your store, entice them to stop in and learn about your brand and products with irresistible window graphics and messaging! A vibrant, creative display covering your whole window can add an extra stream of people through your doors.

The Walls are Your Canvas!

Now that your window display has motivated passers-by to stop and and check out your wares, have you given any thought to livening up the store by adding color, graphics, or messaging to your walls? Probably not. Just think, that empty wall is your canvas to do with as you wish! Advertise sales! Or maybe just a colorful, patterned design to add some pizzaz to your place, and encourage patrons to linger a bit longer. Printed decals make it easy—no more paint cans, brushes, or stencils. NO MORE MESS! Your wall is your oyster… do whatever you wish to it and decorate it to your heart's content. Make it shine! It's all about the customer experience, and good design increases the chance that customers will return to your store.

Effectively Use Floor Space
When it comes to "floor space," you're probably thinking about the logistics regarding clothing racks and displays. While this is definitely important, you can also think of floor space as the empty area that is available for you to use to enhance your customer's experience. Perhaps you could use it to add color to your storefront, advertise holiday sales, or for way-finding around your store. One of my favorite examples of a brand effectively using floor space was L.L. Bean's floor graphics depicting a pond and trail. The trail led throughout the mall with a description that read "Follow me to L.L. Bean." With people's inherent reaction to following signs, floor graphics could be a valuable marketing tool for your store —an effective tactic for toy stores and other children's retailers.

Draw Attention to your signs using LED backlights

If you're looking for a way to make your storefront really SHINE compared the others on the strip, an LED backlit sign would do the trick. The light box remains installed on your storefront, while the bright, shiny banner can be changed whenever you want! Just think of the possibilities—your store could BEAM  and add a BRILLIANT aura to the location.

Use SkyBanner Systems to Utilize Ceiling Space

Use a SkyBanner system to shout out your latest sale or marketing promotion making your brand literally shout over the rest. There is also the potential to generate extra advertising revenue by letting the brands you carry advertise in your spaces. Put that empty ceiling space to work, whether it's through holiday greetings or advertisements. Either way, it's win-win for you!

Remember, these examples are holiday advertisements, but just because the holidays are over, doesn't mean you can't sell like it's the holidays all year round! Marketink is here to help you do just that. We offer plenty of large format printing options and are here to help you decide what's best for you. visit http://www.marketinkgroup.com for more information. 

6 Unique Holiday Greeting Card Ideas for Your Company

It’s that time of year again when everyone is getting ready to jingle bell rock out of Q4 and into Q1 of the new year. Amongst all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, don’t forget to send out those anticipated greeting cards to your beloved clients and all of the people who help make your business a success! Stand out in the stack by taking inspiration from these awesome ideas from around the web.

This “Evidence of the holiday season" holiday card has a clean execution and positive impact is . A gentle connection to Law (the "evidence" pun), and a positive holiday message makes the whole thing work.

3D isn’t just for the movies. Bring your companies holiday card to life with a 3D message and a pair of 3D glasses! It’s surely one that no one will forget.

Speaking of 3D how about literally transforming your card into a 3D holiday card? This law firm actually won several “most creative business holiday card” last year!

Simple and sophisticated. Nike’s holiday card from 2012 is very simple and boldly draws your attention right where they want your eye to go, to their logo.

This holiday card was created via some fancy photography. It requires a little more labor but the outcome is well worth it! You could make a variety of these using different messages as well.

This one we just had to save for last because it’s so cool!

The pieces of this card are not a puzzle, rather they are cut outs that make a usable tree ornament when you put them all together! This is something that can be used for years to come and is a great way to show you care.

We hope these ideas have got your brain going. At Marketink we offer free 20 minute brainstorming sessions to help you expand your ideas and create the best marketing materials for your company.

Click here to schedule yours now!

5 Tips for Making the Best Holiday Mailers this Season

The holidays are a special time. If you have not yet started planning a direct mail marketing campaign, you have best be getting a move on! The holidays are a great time for you to do some promotional activities for your brand and product offering. They’re also a time when customers are really looking to purchase items. Thus, it’s important to make sure that you get a fair share of that holiday market.

Before you start sending out the usual holiday postcards and catalogues, it is important to note that you are not the only company who will be sending out mailers to their prospective clients. Other companies would also like to promote their products and/or services and secure their share of the holiday market. That being said, it is important to make your direct mail package stand out. Here are a few ways you can achieve terrific holiday direct mailers.

Holiday Design
Enlist the help of a few elves from a commercial printing company. They can greatly help in terms of design to make your mailer look appropriate for the occasion. Also, they offer a variety of services that speed up the packaging process and ensure that your mailer has all the right components just in time for the holidays.

Dimensional Mailers
As stated earlier, yours won’t be the only company that will be sending out direct mail to clients. When your potential client finds a stack of ad mailers in his mailbox, their tendency is unfortunately to just chuck it out. But if your mailer has bulk or is three-dimensional, your customer will be curious about what it is. That’s the opening you need. Dimensional mailers naturally cost more but the profits they generate make them worth it. Most direct mail companies offer holiday discounts which could greatly help you in terms of costs.

Promotions
Attract them with discounts, freebies or special deals. Create a sense of anticipation by adding special contest prizes which they can win if they avail of your product or service.

Reward Your Loyal Customers
Tis the season for giving. Reward your loyal customers with discounts, freebies or exclusive deals. For example, if you have a customer who purchased an mp3 player last year, offer them a huge discount on this year’s latest model. If you sell clothing, offer a discount on your most popular pieces or on next season’s collection. This will make your customers feel valued and will ensure that they will be your clients for a long time. These can also help bring back clients who looked elsewhere last year. 

QR Codes
The advent of QR codes present many retail possibilities. You can instruct your printing co. to include QR codes in your mailer representing a free small product that your clients can claim when they scan and send it to you. You can also arrange a scavenger hunt with these QR codes. Have your clients scan as many QR codes as possible. When they rack up a certain number of points, reward them with prizes which may include freebies, discounts, tickets, etc. This will make shopping more fun and exciting for your customer base.

Here at Marketink we are happy to provide you with free 20 minute marketing consultations. If you’re looking for some help brainstorming, feel free to schedule your appointment. http://www.marketinkgroup.com Happy holidays!

7 Personalized Gifts That Your Clients Will LOVE

Having a hard time figuring out what to buy everyone on your list this holiday season?  Want your gifts to be unique and special?  Whether you’re buying something for your clients or your employees, we have compiled a list of some personalized gifts at varying price points that you can truly make your own.

Say goodbye to those impersonal gift cards or email blasts and say hello to these one of a kind options:

1. Picture Puzzles –  Young, old and in between everyone loves puzzles! They offer hours of fun and boost brain power and logic.  You can purchase your picture puzzles for beginners with only 20 pieces or up to 300 pieces to really challenge your clients. Give your clients a puzzle to remember you by! Use your logo or a bright memorable picture in the puzzle.  Picture puzzles can also be framed and transformed into beautiful wall art.Use your personal photos or hand-made design to make it truly unique!
2. Custom Coffee Mugs – Grab a gourmet bag of your favorite coffee beans and pair it with a custom coffee mug that you designed.  Old and young alike can design mugs with their original artwork, photograph or funny saying.  Great for tea and hot cocoa drinkers as well, just swap the coffee for organic loose tea or rich hot chocolate.
3. Mouse Pads – Custom made mouse pads are personal gifts that you can present to colleagues and clients.  They are inexpensive and also make terrific stocking stuffers! Since computers are used everyday, it’s a great way to get your message in front of them and remind them daily of who you are are what you do!
4. Personalized Apparel – Who doesn’t like getting a new hat or a t-shirt? If you’re planning to give out some personalized apparel, make sure your logo is subtle. You don’t want to send the message that you want them to advertise for you, rather you want them to have something fashionable and fun.
5. Photo Buttons – If you have more clients than you can count or you are a teacher who wants to surprise her students with a little something special, photo buttons are just the thing!  They say “I’m thinking of you” without doing major damage to your holiday spending budget. Whether they are traditional pin back buttons, mirrors, key chains or coasters, they are fun and can also serve as decorations for your gift boxes.  Another great idea is to add photo button coasters to a gourmet basket or mirror buttons to a spa basket.
6. Personalized notepads – Small gifts can be the perfect add-on to gift baskets or paired with an engraved pen and stationery.  Personalized notepads are just the thing to add a personal touch to complete a package.  Great extras for teachers and your employees.
7. Calendar– Probably everyone you know has gotten a calendar for Hanukkah or Christmas at some point in their lives.  It’s a great gift to ring in the New Year.  Make them funny or festive.  Great for home or office.

With the holidays fast approaching, we hope these 7 personalized gifts make your shopping fast and easy.  Clients and co-workers will appreciate the time and effort put into each and every one.  Remember to send us photos of your customized creations and happy shopping!

http://www.marketinkgroup.com

Is Print Marketing Still Important?

What we couldn’t have possibly imagined just a decade ago has become a reality: everything has moved online. We shop online, we do our banking online, we play online, and we even socialize online. In addition, research shows that when making buying decisions, the first place people go to for researching their options is the Internet.

Which brings up the question, if everything takes place online these days, and especially if you’re an online business, should you still use printed marketing materials such as brochures as part of your marketing strategy?



Why printed marketing materials are still valuable
The short answer is yes. Marketing is never about just one medium. It’s always a mistake to focus on just one aspect of marketing and to neglect the others. A good marketing campaign utilizes many different mediums to generate many different leads, then nurtures them until they are ready to become customers.
So, while “online” is really hot these days, the physical world still exists, and there are enough potential customers who, after the initial online research, expect to see printed material. These people typically find it difficult to trust a business if it’s completely virtual. They need to know that you have a physical address, a phone number, and that they can see a brochure or other types of printed material before they commit to you.
If you ignore these consumers, you have just lost a segment of the population that could have been interested in your solution.
No doubt, when you plan your marketing budget, you need to pay special attention to online components, including your Web site, your blog and your social media accounts. Ideally, you want to have a great logo, and you want your logo to appear on all online venues (main site, blog header, Twitter background etc.)
To keep your brand highly unique and identifiable, you should also have the same logo appear on your business cards and on any printed marketing materials such as brochures and flyers.



How to create an effective brochure
Now that we’ve established the importance of brochures and of other printed marketing materials, here are a few handy tips for writing and designing an effective brochure:
1. Make it visually appealing. Design is extremely important when it comes to brochures. If the design is boring or cluttered, people won’t bother to read your text. Look for a small business graphic designer who has a lot of experience and can show you samples of their previous work. Better yet, make sure they have positive testimonials on their site, or on a third party site.
2. Focus on benefits rather than on features. Prospects don’t care about your product’s features. They want you to answer the question, “what’s in it for me?” and your brochure needs to be able to answer that question, or it will be tossed!
3. Keep it short. Do you really need a 10-page brochure? Generally, short, catchy brochures with a large font and a clean design are better than long, tiresome, technical brochures.
4. Make it personal. Write your brochure in a direct, conversational tone – as if you are talking with a person face to face. The more personal and direct your tone is, the easier it will be for prospects to connect with your message.
5. Include a call for action. Every marketing material should include a call for action, and this is true for brochures as well. A call for action can be as simple as ending your brochure with the sentence “Need ____? Call today” and your phone number. The idea is to present the pain, your business as the solution, and to encourage the prospect to take immediate action by calling you.
6. Get it printed right. Align yourself with a print partner that understands your needs and goals and that is willing to work with you to help you achieve them by providing with you with professional knowledge and great quality yet cost effective printing options. 
Whether you have a physical location or fully operate online, your small business marketing strategy should include online marketing materials AND printed marketing materials. This combination will make sure you don’t neglect an important segment of your potential market.

If you would like to discuss in more detail your ideas about this or other print marketing materials please call us at 866.245.6723, our team at Marketink is ready to brainstorm with you and help you produce great print collateral to fit within you marketing strategy and budget.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: http://www.designleap.net/blog/2010/04/importance-printed-marketing-material.html

5 Thanksgiving Marketing Tips to Wow Your Clients

Thanksgiving represents one of the most crucial marketing seasons of the year. You’re trying to cash in on the upcoming holiday season by promoting Black Friday sales, Cyber Monday sales, and this year we’ve got Small Business Saturday too. To complicate things, all of your competitors (at least, those worth their weight) are ramping up their own Thanksgiving marketing efforts so you have to anticipate their moves in order to beat them at their own game. Your goal is to craft creative marketing ideas that will help you stand out, get noticed and reel in a hefty return on investment this Turkey Day. Here are five Thanksgiving marketing tips that will help you do just that.

1. Send calendars to your customers

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the end … of the year. Many people buy calendars for the upcoming New Year while they’re out holiday shopping for friends and family. Head them off at the pass by printing and distributing your calendars before Thanksgiving. If you can design a calendar that strikes a chord with your customer base, you’ll be positioned to market to your customers each and every day all year long. What better investment could you ask for?

2. Launch a cross-promotion with a nearby business

See if complementary and non-competing businesses are interested in partnering with you on a creative cross-promotion. Theaters, restaurants and hotels are all great promo partners; but if you’re creative you can find a way to partner with just about any business there is. A grocer might offer discount Christmas tree print coupons from a tree farm to anyone who purchases a turkey, for example.

3. Bring people together, host a Thanksgiving event

Whether it’s a publicity stunt or a charitable turkey dinner, hosting a Thanksgiving event is one of the best marketing strategies on the planet. If you can show potential customers a good time or give back to the community that gives to you, then you can earn free press and a loyal customer base that will make yours a happy Thanksgiving for years to come. Promote your event by printing postcards, posters, flyers and banners.

4. Start marketing as soon as your finish your Halloween candy

The early bird gets the warm isn’t just an old adage or contemporary cliché, it’s a true statement. When it comes to branding, repetition is key. You can’t simply say you have something on sale once and expect potential customers to remember it weeks down the road (even if your offer is phenomenal). Combine these two concepts and you know that if you want to turn a profit from your Thanksgiving marketing, you have to start early and maintain momentum through the holiday season. Start right after Halloween don’t let up until the eve of Thanksgiving (or morning, if your local paper delivers on Thanksgiving and you can print flyers) for best results.

5. Don’t skimp on marketing materials

Customers equate the quality of your products and services with the quality of your marketing materials. If you print a cheap and flimsy desktop postcard, your products will appear cheap and flimsy. If you print a professional postcard, however, using state-of-the-art printing presses with quality inks on high-quality paper, your postcard will transfer that aura of quality to your products and services, and you’ll yield a higher return on investment. Gobble, gobble! Let us know what creative ways you’re marketing to your clients in a comment below and please do feel free to share, we’re very THANKFUL to have you here!

13 Really Cool Examples of Outdoor Advertising

Billboards are the most common form of outdoor advertising. Large and prominently placed, ad agencies are continually thinking of new and innovative ways to use them to grab the attention and imagination of their target audience. The following brilliantly creative examples of billboard design do exactly that. Which is your favorite?

Unlocking the Code - QR Code Success for Marketers

A QR code is basically a barcode in a square shape. (Without bars, ironically). It is scanned by a smartphone. It could direct someone to a website, an image, a text message or, even, a phone number. (That’s totally up to the QR code’s creator). For marketers, a QR code allows you to get smartphone users to call you without forcing them to actually type in a phone number or URL.

QR codes reduce friction.

How Popular Are They, Really?

Hello (INSERT NAME) Variable Data Printing Will Get YOU Results

What is "Variable Data Printing"?

Variable data printing (also known as one-to-one marketing or personalized printing) offers customized, targeted encounters with prospective customers, placing a powerful marketing tool into the hands of even small organizations. VDP has been shown to dramatically increase response rates while reducing overall printing costs (due to shorter, more targeted print runs as opposed to traditional "shotgun" campaigns).

It is an ideal solution for

Why Macklemore Understands the Art of Commercial Printing

–For his new album, The Heist,  the hip-hop artist Macklemore wanted to provide his fans with more than just an average cd and case. He wanted the listener to have something tangible and outstanding instead of something to load up and throw away. In this video, he explains his desire to package his music in a unique and modern look. Not only does this set him apart as an artist, but as an entrepreneur this is an excellently designed concept. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htfwq7EK2-A

How To Measure the Success of Your Direct Mailer Marketing Efforts

If you send out 1500 direct mailers to potential customers, you need ways of knowing how many of them interacted with your direct mail in some way, and how many made purchases because of your campaign. That way, you can make adjustments to your future direct mailer campaigns and enjoy increased sales. Here are some tips on how to measure your direct mailer marketing efforts.