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. 

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

The Power of a Handwritten Thank You Note and How it Will Help Your Business

Not Just a Thing of the Past

Handwritten thank you notes are not just a thing of the past. While you might not see many these days, the cards you do send or receive will mean more than you’d ever think. Handwritten notes are a powerful way to send a message to a customer to thank them for doing business with your company. They don’t actually take that long to write, and your company will stand out amongst others because of the 5 extra minutes you took to write the note.

Why don’t many companies send handwritten Thank You Notes?

The Psychology Behind Colors in Your Marketing Materials