Print Helps You Reach Your Target Market

Print is Tangible. Publications, brochures, posters and other types of printed materials are physical items. These items can stay in offices or homes for months or even years after they are received.
Print is Credible. Like the feeling you get when you see The New York Times or your favorite magazine on the rack, there is something to be said about the feeling of legitimacy that comes from print. You are able to put the printed piece down and comeback at any time to resume your reading. And print requires “real estate”. As marketers, we like this! A  printed piece placed on the corner of a desk will be there day after day until it is picked back up to be viewed.

Print Establishes Your Brand. Printed publications and other branded materials is an excellent way to establish your brand. It allows you to bring the aesthetic qualities of font, colors, images and texture that helps to establish brand recognition.

Print Helps You Reach Your Target Market.  The design and placement of your company ads in publications, newspapers and magazines can help you reach your target audience, whether it be a niche market or the general public. By leveraging the data of demographics, you are able to strategically place your brand in the right place at the right time, in front of the right audience.

Print Can Be More Engaging. When a customer or prospect reads a printed material, they are more engaged for a longer period of time. On average, a consumer spend 43 minutes reading a magazine.

Less Print, Is More For You. With more companies taking their marketing efforts online, the old has become new again as print becomes the new trend. But this isn’t your parents’ world of print communications! Marketers have more information and data to make calculated decisions about content, consumption, consumers, and collateral types. Customers’ and prospects’ email inboxes are overflowing with unsolicited ads and non-worthy news, most of which is largely ignored. With this in mind, designing and sharing a great printed marketing piece should be high on your list of strategic marketing initiatives.

Print and a website presence should go hand and hand. Let Bounce help you today!

www.bouncemarketing.org | 386-734-9600

Business Cards Show that You Are a Professional!

1.  Business cards give people the ability to follow up

When you meet someone and develop that instant rapport you want to give them a chance to follow up with you instantly without having to reach for a pen or their phone.

If left with no other choice do not hesitate to hand over your phone to the other person and have him type in his contact details and vice versa.

Another option is to use phone apps that allow the gadgets to exchange contact information.

Although these options are available to many there will always be instances where you meet someone who may not have all of these technological things on them or isn’t comfortable using them.

This is why nothing can still replace the business card in encouraging people to follow up with you.

2.  Business cards show that you are a professional

The littlest things we do send out the biggest messages.

Something as simple as a business card is indicative that you took the time to actually put your information in a card. This immediately separates you from 99% of the other men out there who may be students like you or are out there seeking a job like yourself.

3.  Having a business card keeps one focused on the goal

In situations where one is trying to look for work it is not unusual to participate in a few networking events.

If you decide to go to events like these with a certain number of business cards on your person then you can immediately create a goal for yourself.

An example of a goal would be to make to distribute the 50 business cards that you brought along to the event. You can also create secondary goals such as collect at least 20 of others’ business cards or have at least 15 to 20 people express interest in following up with you.

If you decide to approach networking events in this manner then your business cards can serve as a reminder and keep you focused on the goal -which is to follow up with people regarding possible opportunities.

4.  Business cards can help make you referable

Business Card ExchangeA good business card will not only contain one’s name and contact details. It should also mention what that person’s skills are.

Having this extra detail can make all the difference because although the person that you initially give your business card may not know what to do with you and your skills, he may know someone in his network that has in need of someone like you.

It is good to remember that random encounters with different people happen all the time. And when they do, you always want to be prepared to take advantage of these meetings and the opportunities that could arise from them.

To me there is no such thing as luck.

Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.

In saying that make sure that you always have your business cards with you so when opportunity comes you are already prepared and you too may get “lucky” and find success.

www.bouncemarketing.org | 386-734-9600

Five Reasons Why the Old School Business Card Are Still Important

Here are five reasons why the old school business card are still important -- and why you should have a pocket full of them at all times.

1. Networking is about making genuine connections. Sending contact information via text or email on the spot is convenient but it is also extremely impersonal. Engaging in eye contact and actual conversation is how real relationships begin.

Two individuals with their heads buried in their phones typing away won’t create any kind of significant memory of the encounter. You can easily transfer the information from a business card to your mobile device after the conversation.

2. Email marketing, search engine optimization and paid media all do a great job of attracting leads and prospects, but they still aren’t as effective as an in-person meeting sealed with a handshake along with a business card exchange.

You can encounter a potential lead or contact at any time -- tradeshows, industry conferences, happy hour, airport lounges -- and arming yourself with business cards at all times will ensure that you never miss an opportunity to make a valuable business connection. Keep some in your pockets, wallet, money clip or laptop bag so the next time you encounter a prospect you are prepared.

3. When you meet someone that could potentially be a great prospect or connection, don’t you want him or her to walk away with a great first impression? A memorable business card does a lot more than just pass on an email address or phone number. Your goal is to make a memorable first impression.

Yes fancy cards, they cost more -- but think of how many unnecessary expenses you can cut to allocate funds for great business cards. Hold off on the ping pong table and espresso machine for the office and get some business cards that will make a great first impression.

4. A business card is a physical object that a potential prospect leaves the encounter with. Your brand stays with them.

If you meet a prospect and exchange email addresses and phone numbers you each walk away with another contact on your mobile phone -- it ends there. If you hand over a creative business card that makes a great impression that person is likely to show it to other people -- putting you and your brand in front of additional prospects.

5. Have you ever had someone write his or her contact information on a cocktail napkin and hand it over to you? How about someone that had a mobile phone with a dead battery? It isn’t the most professional approach.

If you met two individuals and one was scrambling to find a pen and something to write on and the other person simply pulled out a business card, who would you want to do business with? Showing that you are prepared at all times is a great indicator that you are professional.

www.bouncemarketing.org | 386-734-9600

Print marketing should go hand-in-hand with a web presence as well!

Just like when you are developing any other marketing strategy, start by deciding what you want to do with your print campaign. Do you want to build awareness? Do you want to increase sales? What are your overall business objectives right now, and how can print be used to meet those goals? Go ahead and write everything down, from increasing social media engagement to gathering leads or building your list of email prospects. Yes, print can do that too.

Print you can hold in your hands. You see, touch and feel it, which studies have shown can make your brand more memorable. This is because customers are able to physically connect with your brand. To heighten this, think outside of the standard printer paper box!

Print marketing should go hand-in-hand with a web presence as well!

www.bouncemarketing.org

| 386-734-9600

Print is an Effective Tool for Delivering Your Message to Your Audiences

As technology continues to develop—and change the way we do business—many have considered print a dead medium and online marketing the wave of the future. Nevertheless, the print industry is far from dead; in fact, print marketing has only continued to grow and evolve alongside the upsurge of new technology.

Direct mail continues to be used heavily, with a 43% share of total local retail advertising. And, according to a Pitney Bowes survey, 76% of small businesses say their ideal marketing strategy encompasses a combination of both print and digital communication.

There are many reasons why print is (and will remain) an effective tool for delivering your message to your audiences.

Variable Printing

Although variable printing is by no means a new process, consumers have been using it with more frequency as advancements in printing technology have lowered the cost. Variable printing allows you to uniquely customize each piece of media by changing certain elements from piece to piece, taking advantage of the power of complex personalization.

Social networking has become an integral part of the way entrepreneurs reach their customers, but the idea of networking has been around much longer than Facebook and Twitter. After all, what's a business card if not a social medium? When you hand a potential customer or business relation a business card, you're making a social connection with that person and giving them the means to do the same with you.

Social media can also be fully integrated with any print marketing strategy or campaign. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a business card from a serious entrepreneur without his or her Facebook address, Twitter address, or other social networking URL printed on it. (Slightly over half of respondents to a Nielsen survey said they used a social media advertising campaign in conjunction with print media.)

You still need to develop an effective print strategy that will put your brand in the spotlight and excite your audience. If you use the same, boring print materials as everyone else, you will have a hard time making your mark.

Get creative, put some real thought and effort into your print marketing collateral, and make use of all the tools and technologies available to you.

www.bouncemarketing.org | 386-734-9600

A Well-Designed Logo Can Contribute to Business Success,

Logos are a critical aspect of business marketing. As the company's major graphical representation, a logo anchors a company's brand and becomes the single most visible manifestation of the company within the target market. For this reason, a well-designed logo is an essential part of any company's overall marketing strategy.

Purpose
Business logos are intended to be the "face" of a company: They are graphical displays of a company's unique identity, and through colors and fonts and images they provide essential information about a company that allows customers to identify with the company's core brand. Logos are also a shorthand way of referring to the company in advertising and marketing materials; they also provide an anchor point for the various fonts, colors and design choices in all other business marketing materials.

Brand Identity
Logos are the chief visual component of a company's overall brand identity. The logo appears on stationery, websites, business cards and advertising. For that reason, a well-designed logo can contribute to business success, while a substandard logo can imply amateurishness and turn off potential customers. However, a logo should cohere well with other aspects of a company's visual presentation: No logo, however well designed, can look good when surrounded by contradictory graphical elements or inconsistent fonts. This is why a logo is the basic unit of a larger brand identity that includes company fonts, colors and document-design guidelines.

www.bouncemarketing.org | 386-734-9600

There Is Always A Need For Business Cards

Everything we do in business today is digital -- sending mail, signing contracts, attending meetings, even networking. The business card is one thing that digital will not fully replace anytime soon.

Here are five reasons why the old school business card is still important -- and why you should have a pocket full of them at all times.

1. Swapping contact information digitally is impersonal.
2. They are an effective direct marketing tools.
3. A business card is the first impression of your brand.
4. Creative business cards get shared -- continuing to market for you.
5. Business cards show you are prepared.

Fear not. Conversations will still end with, “Let me give you my business card,” at least for a little longer.

www.bouncemarketing.org | 386-734-9600