There are many steps involved in starting a business, but an important one that is often overlooked, is business cards. Although business cards are common, they add a personal touch and can make a statement on those looking for your business. They are a small part of your company that you can leave behind wherever you go. You never know just who may be seeking your services.
All Types of Businesses Can Benefit From Business Cards
Business cards are more important for a small business than for a larger corporation. Specific skilled trades such as, graphic designers, consultants, or housecleaning services, don’t always rely on a large body of customers, but depend more on a few local clients. These clients provide references to friends and other contacts to allow your business to grow.
The other business type that benefits the most from business cards is Internet-based businesses. It’s important to remember that when people leave your website, they generally forget that you exist, so your responsibility is to remind them. Having a business card can keep you, your business, products, and services in the minds of your future clients. You have a better chance of having them use your services or passing your information on to someone else, if they have a convenient way of contacting you.
Highlight Your Company’s Best Attributes
A clean slate is sometimes the best way to introduce yourself. With a business card, you can accentuate all of your best qualities, similar to a tiny resumé or personal advertisement. Business cards allow you to present yourself or business in a more formal and credible light. The traditions of business easily recognize business cards like an identity.
Business cards come in all different forms and can be very simple or full of creativity, but since business cards are so common, creativity is important. It’s better to set yourself apart from your competition and a creative business card is a great way to do so. Business cards are meant to leave an impression, so that later, your company will be thought of when products or services are needed. The more creative your business card is, the more likely it is that you will be remembered.
Promoting Your Business With Ease
If you would want to promote your business and perhaps establish your name in the local area, drop off your business cards in stores and boutiques where your clientele is accessible. This is a small gesture that easily links you to a potential network. You can be up-to-date with the new trends and business activities.
Many stores also offer discounts and freebies to those people who give them their business cards. Other companies use collected business cards to survey the audience that they attract. Knowing this information, it is easier to appeal to specific target markets. You can use this tactic for your business as well.
Business cards should be handy at all times so you can share them with people who might be interested in your products or services. As an entrepreneur, you should never leave home without one!
Contributor: Joe Witte
Add a spark to your corporate identity and boost your online presence.
- Add a Blog to your website
Have an open discussion online about your company and the products and services you provide. Blogging is a fun and affordable way to have direct involvement with your clients. It allows you to offer advice, news, or promotions about your company on a regular basis. A blog also exhibits you and your business as the expert in your field, boosting your credibility and confidence with potential and existing customers. Blogging can open the door for feedback and discussion between you and your clients. By providing an open forum, you can gauge your company’s performance and your customer’s wants or needs.
- Email Signature
Let your clients know who you are and what company you represent. Sign all of your outgoing email messages with your name and company logo. A graphic signature will immediately be attached and included inside all of your outgoing emails. Ditch your boring text signature, and send a visual reminder about your brand with every outgoing message.
- Email Marketing Template
Impress current and potential customers, by sending a professionally designed email message. By establishing your brand in the valuable real estate of your customer’s inbox, you can cheaply and effectively advertise your business and build brand awareness to already pre-qualified customers. Unlike a blog, your customers don’t need to search to find out about your company, the news comes right to them!
- Post Card
Update current or former clients of what your business is up to. If you have a new product or service that you are promoting, no one will know about it unless you inform them of your updates. A branded post card is an excellent way to show off your identity and bring in more business by making sure your clients know of your new ideas. Not only will a postcard enforce your branded identity, it can be an affordable sales and promotional tool.
- Electronic Brochure
An electronic brochure is a great way to grab a client’s attention. Sending your clients an electronic version of your print brochure reminds them of your business’ unique services or products. It’s a great informational tool, which can also contain hyperlinks right to your webpage. This way, customers will always know how to find you.
Contributor: Joe Witte
As I get myself ready to exhibit at the upcoming NYC Real Estate Expo (www.nycrealestateexpo.com) on October 30th, I am reminded of the following trade show tips.
- Set clear goals for your trade show participation
What do you want to get out of it? Do you expect to sell a particular amount of inventory at the trade show, or expect to become known to a certain number of wholesale suppliers? Are you focusing on promotion or hoping to launch a new product? You can have more than one goal, of course, but the point is that you need to be clear about what your participation in the trade show is going to achieve.
- Plan your exhibit in terms of your audience
Who is it that you’re targeting with your trade show display? Retail customers? Wholesale buyers? Other businesses in your industry? Different audiences “shop” trade shows differently, and have different needs.
- Messages to Remember
Whether your goal is brand-building or sales-making, everyone on your trade show team should know how to answer any attendee’s questions. Here are six phrases to eliminate and six to adopt — to help create winning relationships from trade show contacts. (Source: Incomm Center for Trade Show Research)
- Phrases to avoid:
- I don’t know.
- We don’t do that.
- Just a minute. I’ll be with you.
- Our policy is…
- No.
- You have to call…
- Phrases to adopt:
- Let me find out for you.
- Let me see how we can help.
- Are you able to wait for a minute so I can find someone to help you?
- In most instances we can…
- We may not be able to, but I will be happy
to find out.
- We recommend, or we suggest you…
- Explode Your Leads With Dynamite Sticky Handouts
One of the very best ways to make sure your trade show booth handouts don’t get thrown away but will stick is to put an offer or coupon of some kind in them. Coupons that a person can use after the trade show event practically guarantee your handouts won’t get thrown away. After all, your customers will want to use the coupons! (Source: Patty Stripes)
- Create a Booth that Makes Visitors Feel Comfortable
Make it easy for booth visitors to enter your space and obtain the information they desire. Many booths are designed as barriers with tables between you and your potential customers. A U-shaped trade show space removes the barriers between booth operator and visitor and encourages exchange. If visitors are comfortable and want to enter your booth, it is more likely they’ll listen to your sales pitch and your show will generate better success.
- Whom To Send
When choosing booth staff, keep in mind personalities. Someone who interacts well with strangers, has a high energy level, is articulate, outgoing, and knows how to dress and act professionally is going to benefit your company’s image. Send your best “people people,” not your best engineers or product managers. While anyone staffing your booth should have adequate knowledge of your product, knowledge is of little value if your representatives won’t take the initiative and talk to visitors. The bottom line is that dress and professional appearance in your booth staffers will outshine the physical appearance of your booth any day.
- According to trade show industry resources, up to 80% of trade show leads aren’t followed up.
- Organize leads while still at the trade show.
- Start tracking contacts and leads as you get them.
- Start the follow-up process as soon as you get back to the office.
- Have a follow-up “summit” in your office to review leads.
- Make the first follow-up.
- Do what you’ve promised – immediately.
- Add all your new leads and contacts to your company’s mailing list and contact management system.
- Follow up again
Obviously, taking your business to “where things are moving” starts with some kind of company site. The question is—How do you use this site? Or, even more pressing, How do you leverage the vastness of the web to bring people back to your valuable little corner?
Whist there are a myriad of different strategies and this topic has been discussed on numerous blogs in much depth, let’s close in on leveraging Social Networking. I don’t think the argument needs to be made for interaction within these communities, but just in case, Christopher Carfi, an expert at building trust with the customer explained:
“Deceptively simple, online social networks contain great power. They change the online space from one of static web pages and stale marketing messages to a live, vibrant network of connected individuals who share their abilities, expertise and interests.”
Originally posted on The Social Customer Manifesto
Heads up: ‘Social Networking’ is the big broad general term. However, there are distinct differences between social networks, social bookmarking, social news, social media, blogs, and micro-blogging sites. (I know, that’s a lot! More on these later.)
GETTING STARTED:
Before you or your employees unleash your efforts and dive headfirst into the “social sphere” you need to set some boundaries and define a few things:
WHO YOU ARE:
- Know the image you are projecting (literally and metaphorically).
- Come up with a slogan or catch phrase and stick to it.
- If you don’t own a URL yet, make sure you get one before you start your campaign so you can have everyone spreading the exact same links
Realize that you are climbing the “branding hill”. Consistency is key!
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE:
OK, here is where you’ll need to understand the difference between all the ‘socials’ involved in Social Networking. Here’s a brief glimpse at each:
- Social Networks: like MySpace or Facebook. Meet friends and show the world who you are.
- Social Bookmarking: like Magnolia or Del.icio.us (or related recommendation system Stumble Upon), share your bookmarks with your friends and find what they like.
- Social News: like Digg or Reddit. Submit any type of content to be voted upon by other users.
- Social Media: like YouTube or Flickr. Share your videos or pictures and comment on others.
- Blogs: like Mashable (on social networking) or Technorati (on technology). Keep people informed by writing a post or article. Include visuals. Best online source for writing blogs is Skellie.
- Micro Blogging: like Twitter or Tumblr. Let people know what you’re doing, what you’re interested in, or whatever – sort of like an “away message” on instant messenger.
How do you know which ones to target? It all depends on you and your business. If your product is music, like mine, then you probably won’t be spending much time on a business social network like LinkedIn Instead you might use one like ShareNow.com – the creators of Lifestyle Social Networking (my current employer) where you can participate in different communities based on common interests.
INTERACTION:
You are you – so maintain your you-ness! People don’t want a generic response, pretty sure they never did. They are done with corporate emails and packaged statements.
While it may be time consuming to actually communicate with people, Aaron Uhrmacher at Mashable tells us that “Social media platforms help facilitate conversations between individuals, not companies” – you are absolutely relished by your consumers.
Your goal is to establish a relationship here. You represent a company or product, but because you are still you people will take the time to listen. You need their trust or you will be written off to the spam pile. Once you’re in that pile it’s over.
The type of relationship you are looking to forge will give you an idea of what medium you will use to communicate (which will, in turn, shed light on the appropriate people within your business who should do the communicating.) Should you be putting up funny video responses to spread virally? Creating a fascinating blog? Running contests and promoting them with micro-blogging? Maybe you build a widget that can be embedded across the net… or eventually all of the above!
Don’t forget—be open and honest about who you are and what you do! Otherwise you will be found out. It’s inevitable!
PURPOSE:
Keep the bigger picture in mind! Your only investment here is time, but the fact remains that time is limited. Find the balance between infiltrating the entire internet to splash your link everywhere and only getting to know a select crowd on one or two communities. Maybe you split your task into a job for two or three people.
Using Social Networking to promote your business puts you directly in touch with your consumers. Have fun with it!
Contributor: Brad C. writes the Official Blog for ShareNow.com – the LifeStyle Social Networking community and spends most of his waking hours either riding his motorcycle or performing around Los Angeles
Are you a new business that is looking to create a website, brochure, or produce other forms of marketing materials? If you’re not, you should be and one important thing you will need is photos. Here are some tips.
- Endless Choices and Professional Quality
Amateur photos never look as nice as the professional ones. Consider red eyes on your models or problems with inconsistent focus. These are small errors that occur often, but with stock photos, you can have flawless images without the worry or the need to turn yourself into a photo editor. Stock photography offers anything you can imagine in a photograph with millions of choices. Many websites are available that offer stock photos. Photos.com, iStockphoto.com, Jupiter Images and Getty Images are just a few of the popular sites that are worth looking into. Logo Design Guru also offers free access to stock photos included in all of our web and brochure package options. It both makes the creative process easier and more convenient.
- Image Overuse
Stock photo sites do have a ton of variety, but keep in mind; if they are available to you, then they are available to everyone else as well. When using stock photos, you often run the risk of using repeats. Standing out is important, therefore if you see the same photo all the time, the power and effectiveness of the image is lost.
- Does Your Stock Photo Look Staged?
It’s true that people in general have very short attention spans and most of the time, plain text on a page is not going to keep someone’s interest. Photos nicely break up the space and draw more attention to the content, even if the image is something simple, such as a random, smiling person. These types of photos can work well, but beware of the obviously staged image. If an image is too generic, it is clear that it’s a stock photo. This staged look doesn’t appear natural and can give off a bad impression.
- Avoiding Copyright Infringement
Often people think that if an image appears on the web, it’s free for the taking. This is unfortunately not true at all. Similar to pieces of music or artwork, photographs are often copyrighted and snatching them up from someone else’s site is breaking the law and can have unpleasant consequences. Images from free sites may also be copyrighted and you may be using them unknowingly. Some photo companies use search software to track their images and can tell if you are using them illegally. Stock photography eliminates this fear. Once you purchase an image, you are purchasing the rights to use it as well. It does cost money, but it is an investment that is well worth it and is law abiding.
- Model Release Required
A great advantage of stock photo use is reducing the worry of model release. A model release is a signed form, which allows a photographer and the end user to have full permission to use a person’s likeness for marketing, advertising or artwork purposes. The law protects a person’s right to privacy, even when the person is in public eye. Most stock photo sites have taken care of this for you, so that once you purchase the photo, you have purchased that permission as well.
- Costs for Stock Photo Options
The option of stock photography is a great way of saving on marketing costs. Although hiring a photographer will give you more control over what you want, photographers can be very costly. Stock photos can vary in prices depending on how they are sold. Some sites offer monthly or yearly subscriptions and others can charge by individual photos or photo quality or size. Depending on how often your company requires photo use, you can play around with the options and settle on something that works best for you.
Contributor: Joe Witte
