Creative Marketing | Martin Print Blog

May 08, 2013

STRAPPED FOR CASH?
How to Improve Your Small Business Results Without Blowing a Tiny Budget

“I wish I could concentrate more on growing my business. But I just don’t have the funds for it. A big shame, really. I don’t suppose there’s much I can do about it.”

Oh dear.
I could see that Gloomy Graham was unlikely to provide much merriment and laughter today down at Smokey Joe’s Small Business Bar.

To be honest, when I’d first walked through those doors and caught a quick glimpse of his long face, I made a clumsy attempt to walk right back out again.
But it was too late. He’d already spotted me.
Hitting my head on the door and yelping like an animal probably didn’t help my effort to slip out undetected.
Gloomy Graham insisted on waving me over so that I could buy him a drink and listen to his tales of business woe.
I sometimes wonder why I ever bother coming to this place…

“It’s so frustrating,” he grumbled in his typically less-than-uplifting manner.
“I look around and I see everybody else happily moving forward and expanding their businesses by pouring more and more money into them. But I just can’t compete with that at the moment.
I don’t have that kind of budget. It looks like I’ll just have to keep plodding on and hope that things pick up eventually.”

That last sentence almost made me choke on my Fizzy Watermelon Surprise.
The very idea of Gloomy Graham ever actually hoping for something positive seemed a bit of a far-fetched prospect to me.

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Posted In Business Clinic, Creative Marketing, Customer Care, Entrepreneur Zone, Finance In Focus, Marketing Secrets, Offline Marketing, Online Marketing, Print and Design, Promotional Material, Social Media Marketing, Starting a New Business

May 06, 2013

NFC FAQ
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About
Those Amazing New NFC Cards But Were Afraid to Ask…

I lost my voice today.

I was hoping that some kind-hearted members of the Martin Print team may have shown some sympathy, and perhaps even fetched me a hot drink or two to help ease my burning throat.
They all know that I’m trapped here alone in my office, croaking helplessly away to myself, and unable to even answer the telephone.

But no.
Every time somebody wanders past my door, I attempt to wave frantically at them or throw something soft in their direction in a desperate bid to grab their attention.
But it never works. Not even when I panicked and accidentally threw my chair at Old Bert.
No, everyone is always far too immersed in their own conversations which usually revolve around how particularly quiet and peaceful it is today.
Nice.

However, even a lost voice can’t dampen my enthusiasm too much this week, as I’m thrilled to report that the incredible new NFC Cards are now rolling into production right here at Martin Print H.Q.

These wonderful new Cards deliver an extra digital dimension to your savvy Small Business marketing, and can be used in all kinds of deeply funky and highly functional ways.

I’ve been excitedly babbling on about this dramatic new digitally-enhanced development in custom-crafted Cards to everyone I’ve bumped into over the last few days in all kinds of places – here in the office, down at Smokey Joe’s Small Business Bar, even whilst waiting patiently in the queue down at the Sweet Pastry Shop.
Nobody was safe from my bubbling buoyancy.
Well, until I finally lost my voice and just ended up croaking into people’s faces and scaring them away.

Since that unfortunate moment, my burning throat has made it difficult to answer all the burning questions on new NFC Cards that continue to pour in from every direction.
I did briefly consider handcuffing myself to Old Bert so that he could handle all the queries on my behalf.
But I eventually decided that it would make far more sense to compile an ultimate list of the most frequently asked questions on NFC Cards right here on the Martin Print Blog!

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Posted In Archives, Business Clinic, Creative Marketing, Entrepreneur Zone, Marketing Secrets, May 2013, Mobile Phones/Smartphones, Newsdesk, NFC Business Cards, Offline Marketing, Online Marketing, Print and Design, Promotional Material, Social Media Marketing, Technology & The Web

April 30, 2013

OUT OF STOCK
Why You Need to Think Ahead and Replenish
Your Small Business Marketing Supplies in Time…

“Sorry, I’m completely out of those.”

Five simple words that can conjure up crushing disappointment and even deep disapproval.

I’m fairly confident that every smart Small Business owner strives to keep an eye on the ball when it comes to replenishing stocks and goods in plenty of time.

But do we sometimes overlook the importance of replenishing our crucial marketing products – such as Business Cards and Brochures – before our supplies completely run out, leaving everyone high and dry?
Failing to keep up to date with a healthy supply of marketing tools could well result in several potential clients and business connections waving goodbye forever instead of jumping aboard with you and making solid plans for the future…

I was prompted to write this Blog article after a frankly ridiculous encounter with a fellow entrepreneur yesterday.
Sharp Simon had invited me round to his brand new computer store which opened up to the public just last week.
I’d been looking forward to popping in for a visit, seeing how Sharp Simon was getting on, and maybe even stocking up on a few new hi-tech upgrades for Martin Print.

It turned out to be a complete waste of time.
Sharp Simon’s new store was a surprisingly spacious building which had the capacity to house a treasure trove of tempting technological goodies.
Unfortunately, every inch of the store was completely empty. Not one gadget or device in sight. Not as much as a single memory stick.

“Ah, I know what you’re thinking!” said Sharp Simon, as I looked around the utterly barren store in jaw-dropping disbelief.
“I did have quite a few things in here last week, but I sold them all. I haven’t had time to re-stock just yet. Still, I can order pretty much anything you need! Just let me know what you’re after!”

It took me a while to gather my composure. I felt as if I’d been knocked sideways by this unexpected and slightly awkward situation.
“Right…” I began. “Well, it’s difficult, Simon. I kind of wanted to browse the stuff that you were selling before I made a decision. Never mind. Perhaps you can give me one of your brochures, and I’ll take a look at it back at my office?
“Oh, and you may as well give me a business card too. I’ll put it in my wallet and give you a call later.”

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Posted In Brochures & Catalogues, Business Cards, Business Clinic, Creative Marketing, Customer Care, Entrepreneur Zone, Flyers/Leaflets, Marketing Secrets, Offline Marketing, Print and Design, Promotional Material

April 29, 2013

THE TOP TEN LIST
OF THE BEST EVER TOP TEN LISTS!
Why Your Small Business Customers
are Attracted to Numbered Content

Here are four points that I was considering this lunchtime on my way to the Sweet Pastry shop.

1) The experts say that Content is King.
If your small business is hoping to reach out and connect with a wider audience, then it certainly pays to produce new and original content on Websites, Blogs, and Social Media channels.
But how do we go about cooking up and dishing out fresh content on such a regular basis?

2) Could it be that the good old-fashioned Numbered List may well provide a useful springboard for cracking new material?

3) Why are people so attracted to lists anyway? Why do lists seem to have more pulling power than the usual servings of standard prose?

4) Why is it always me that gets sent to the Sweet Pastry shop?

We may never unearth the answer to that last question.
I’ve been trying to work that one out for years.
But it was whilst I was browsing my daily list of Sweet Pastry requests from the rest of the Martin Print team that I began to ponder the hidden value of the Numbered List.

It’s such a simple and well-loved little format which can come in handy for all sorts of different types of content creation.
For example, a well-crafted list can be used for;

1) Quickly describing the benefits and selling points of your products and services on your business website.

2) Engaging your readers and potential future customers with an easily accessible Blog article, or Guest Post, or Email, or Forum Message, or indeed any suitable slice of online content.

3) Creating a fun or informative status update on Social Media which is guaranteed to intrigue your readership into exploring further.

4) Highlighting important points for your potential clients to consider in professionally produced marketing material such as Brochures and Catalogues.

But why exactly is the Numbered List packed with so much power in the first place?
Simple lists of Top Tens and Top Reasons and Top Bests and Top Worsts surely can’t be anyway near as insightful and informative as well-written articles which are made up of proper sentences and paragraphs, can they?

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Posted In Business Blogs, Business Clinic, Content Bombs, Creative Marketing, Email Campaigns, Entrepreneur Zone, Facebook, How-To's and Tutorials, Marketing Secrets, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Technology & The Web

April 25, 2013

GETTING DIRECT WITH YOUR MAIL
Why It Pays to Send a Powerful Post Card to Your Customer Base!

When was the last time that you sent out an attention-grabbing Post Card to your clients of today and tomorrow?
Why is it such an incredibly effective form of marketing, and how should you compose the perfect slice of promotional post?

I actually received no less than three Post Cards in the mail this morning, and it was these unexpected arrivals that prompted me to write this very Blog article.

One of them was a warm and welcoming communication from a fellow business, delivering a pretty enticing limited offer.
The design was simple, crisp, colourful, and compelling. It also had a witty touch that took me by surprise and made me smile.
Within half an hour, I’d contacted the business and taken advantage of the offer before I missed the window of opportunity.

By the way, if this was your business and you received a telephone call from me this morning, then I do apologise for the constant sneezing and vacuuming noises in the background.
Doris, our resident cleaner, has got a terrible cold at the moment. I did try and send her home today to rest and recover, but I don’t think she could hear me over the endless sneezing and vacuuming noises that were echoing around the corridors of Martin Print H.Q.

The second Post Card was a rather drab affair, to be honest.
It didn’t even try to look like a bright and friendly personal communication. It just looked like yet another piece of uninspired marketing which nobody really wanted to receive. In a nutshell, it looked just like everything else.
And, just like nearly everything else, it was quickly despatched to the office bin.

The third Post Card?
Well, that was just from Old Bert. He’s recently embarked on another exciting jet-setting adventure with his buddies from The Australian Grandmaster Caretakers Society.

His cheerful Post Card depicted an image of a supposedly ‘fascinating’ wheelbarrow.
On the back of the card, he’d scribbled me a quick note, reminding me to water the Swiss Cheese Plants in his office whilst he was away.

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Posted In Business Clinic, Creative Marketing, Customer Care, Entrepreneur Zone, How-To's and Tutorials, Marketing Secrets, Offline Marketing, Postcards, Print and Design, Promotional Material

April 23, 2013

THE PEAK OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Is Australian Social Networking on the Decline?

“Well, that’s it then. Looks like Facebook is on the way out. It didn’t take long for Australia to get bored with the whole idea, did it?
“Ah well. It’ll be interesting to see how we’re all going to waste our time in the future.”

I hadn’t really expected to hear this kind of talk when I popped into Smokey Joe’s Small Business Bar for a quiet drink.
In fact, I almost spat out my Fizzy Apple Cocktail in surprise.

Facebook on the way out? That couldn’t be right, could it?
I certainly hoped not.
I’d just come up with a couple of really funny status updates and images for later on this week.

“Yup, it’s all in there,” said Sharp Simon, slamming a few reports down on the bar as he joined me for a drink.
“Facebook, Twitter, everything really. We’re falling out of love with Social Media sites in general. The kids of today are getting particularly bored with it, which hardly bodes well for the future, does it?
“A pity, really. I’m kind of regretting spending all that money on Facebook advertising now. I didn’t realise it was all going to be over so quickly.”

Hmm.
So, is Social Media really falling out of fashion so soon?

I finished off my Fizzy Apple Cocktail, and thumbed through the reports on the bar.
There certainly seemed to be some grains of factual truth in the rumours of a decline in Social Media.
But maybe it’s just a matter of looking at the whole scene from the right perspective…

Information Services Group Experian has been conducting mind-bogglingly vast research into global internet habits, collecting data from 25 million internet subscribers worldwide – including no less than 3 million Australians.

Whilst the popularity of Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter might appear to have been increasing rapidly over the last few years, you might be surprised to learn that Australians are actually spending less time on these sites than we used to.

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Posted In April 2013, Archives, Business Clinic, Creative Marketing, Entrepreneur Zone, Facebook, Marketing Secrets, Newsdesk, Offline Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Technology & The Web, Twitter

April 15, 2013

GETTING SMARTER WITH BUSINESS EMAILS
Mobile Devices Are Officially
Taking Over Your Email Communications!

They’ve been slowly but surely expanding their presence in our personal and business lives. They’ve been changing the way that we conduct our business activity and connect with our customer base.
Now these Mobile Devices are officially set to overtake Desktop PCs in yet another crucial area.

By the end of 2013, a new report confidently predicts that more commercial emails will be opened and viewed on a mobile device – such as a Smartphone or a Tablet – than on a Desktop PC.

But what does this mean for your own email marketing campaigns and Small Business communications? And are you fully prepared for such a dramatic shift in the way that your clients view your email content?

The other day, down at the Sweet Pastry Shop, I was standing in the queue, waiting patiently for my turn to be served.
I suspected that it could be a while before my turn came around. The guy behind the counter seemed to be embroiled in an increasingly agitated discussion with a customer about the price of a Chocolate Walnut Strudel, and the debate showed no signs of reaching a swift, amicable conclusion.

To pass the time, I did what millions of other people would probably have done in this type of situation.
I pulled out my Smartphone, and checked for any half-interesting messages or notifications which might have popped up in the last ten minutes or so.

I was quite relieved to find four brand new emails which would hopefully hold my attention until this squabble had died down a little bit.
These emails weren’t directly related to my own print and design business. They were simply welcome slices of marketing content from fellow businesses which I would possibly find to be of some interest.

Actually, some of the subject lines sounded particularly compelling.

“THIS MIGHT BE THE MOST IMPORTANT EMAIL YOU’LL READ TODAY!”

“OPEN NOW FOR THE MOST INCREDIBLE DEAL IN 2,000 YEARS!”

“IF YOU DON’T READ THIS EMAIL, YOU ARE A COMPLETE IDIOT!”

Well, they’d certainly aroused my curiosity, which is always half the battle for these marketing emails.
But there was a problem.

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Posted In April 2013, Archives, Business Clinic, Creative Marketing, Customer Care, Email Campaigns, Email Marketing, Entrepreneur Zone, How-To's and Tutorials, Marketing Secrets, Mobile Phones/Smartphones, Newsdesk, Online Marketing, Technology & The Web

April 04, 2013

EXPENSIVELY GOOD VALUE
Why You and Your Business Customers Could
End Up Paying the Price for Cheap Bargains

Do you often find yourself battling against certain pesky business rivals who charge much less than you do for similar products or services?

How do they do it?
I’m sure that in many cases, it’s simply because they’re not offering or delivering the same levels of quality and excellence as your own business.

But it can be frustrating trying to get this message across to some potential customers who are keen to sniff out a bargain, and who are only ever interested in snapping something up at the lowest possible price.
Especially when you know that these supposed ‘bargains’ will end up costing the customer far more in the long-term…

It was a visit to Old Bert’s little office, just down the corridor, that got me thinking about this today.
I’d just popped in there to deliver his lunchtime sweet pastry, and I noticed for the first time that his office chair was beginning to look a little worn.
I suddenly realised that Old Bert had been using the same chair for years and years and years without a single complaint. I actually started to feel a little guilty, as I knew that I’d probably been through about 10 or 12 different chairs in the same period.
So, in a fit of spontaneous generosity, I offered to buy him a brand new one.

I was quite taken aback by his startling reaction to my offer.
“Get out of here with that kind of nonsense talk!” he bellowed.
“I’ve had this chair for twenty years, and I’ll keep it for twenty more! There’s nothing wrong with this chair! It was built to last, not like the sort of cheap rubbish that you keep buying for yourself! Get out of here! And give me that sweet pastry before you go!”

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Posted In Business Clinic, Creative Marketing, Customer Care, Customer Rewards, Entrepreneur Zone, Finance In Focus, Marketing Secrets, Offline Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Weird & Wonderful

April 02, 2013

BUILDING A BETTER BUSINESS DATABASE
Unlocking the Power of Customer Information

Does your Small Business maintain an accurate and up-to-date Customer Database?
Are you taking advantage of the sophisticated benefits of Customer Relationship Management Software?

It’s surprising just how many Australian Small Businesses neglect this crucial area, despite the fact that building a better Business Database in the digital age is far, far easier than ever before…

When I cast my mind back to my very early days of business, I can remember that the wise words of my mentor were always echoing heavily in my mind.
He was a very odd bloke who lived at the top of a mountain and ate nothing but daffodils.
Come to think of it, he spoke in a particularly grating and annoying tone, so he was never really an ideal voice to have floating around in your head.
But still, he seemed to know what he was talking about.

“It costs up to ten times more to capture a new customer than it does to retain an existing client,” he would say, usually whilst chewing on a daffodil.
“So, look after your existing customer base, and treasure all the vital related information that you pick up along the way. It may well prove to be priceless in the future…”

I’m sure that every sensible entrepreneur already takes great care in looking after the interests of their existing clients.
But how much care do we take in looking after the information that we gather from our customers, and how can we use this data to everybody’s advantage?

Of course, back in those early days, maintaining an accurate customer database was a very messy and time-consuming business.
I could barely move around in my first office, as most of the space was taken up by giant sky-high filing cabinets in which I stored and maintained all the details of my business transactions.
All that information was right there at my fingertips…but there was never really anything useful that I could do with it, unless I took six months off work to sort through it all.

When I eventually took the opportunity to create and maintain a customer database on Commodore 64 floppy disks, I felt as if I was exploring a pioneering new age of office technology.
It felt so exciting at the time, and certainly saved on a fair bit of paper and office space. I even had room to swivel all the way round in my chair for the very first time.

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Posted In Business Clinic, Creative Marketing, Customer Care, Email Marketing, Entrepreneur Zone, Marketing Secrets, Online Marketing, Staff Management, Technology & The Web

March 26, 2013

COVER PHOTOS AND PROFILE PICS
How to Choose the Best Images for Your Social Media Business Pages

“Aaargh! The stupid thing keeps chopping my legs off!”

Hmm. I always get a bit worried when I hear this kind of thing coming from Old Bert’s new little office just down the corridor of Martin Print H.Q.
It tends to bring back memories of that awful accident he had last year with the nail gun and the solar powered bird sweeper.
It still makes wince in sympathy even now.

However, on this particular occasion, there was really no need for me to go barging into his office in blind panic with a first aid box and a folding medical bed.
It turns out that Old Bert was simply having a spot of bother with the dimensions of his new Facebook Cover Photo…

Our friendly resident caretaker has taken rather a shine to Facebook since Josh helped him to get up and running with a personal profile a little while ago.
After having just returned from The Bi-Annual Australian Grandmaster Caretakers Conference, Old Bert was keen to update his Timeline with an allegedly fascinating photograph taken at the event.

But he was dismayed to discover that his chosen image couldn’t really be squeezed into the unusual dimensions of the Facebook Cover Photo without giving the impression that he and his pals were all just disembodied heads.
In the end, he gave up and reverted back to his boring old Cover Photo of his favourite mole wrench…

Whether you’re using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or YouTube, choosing the right images for your Social Media Business pages can be a tricky business in itself.

Exactly what kind of images should we be using to proudly promote our products and services? What are the exact dimensions that we need to consider for every unique Social Media platform, and where are we supposed to find all these attention-grabbing images anyway?

Here are four top tips to help you cook up the perfect pictures for all your crucial Business Pages on Social Media…

CONTINUE READING

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Posted In Business Clinic, Creative Marketing, Entrepreneur Zone, Facebook, Google+, How-To's and Tutorials, Marketing Secrets, Online Marketing, Pinterest, Social Media Marketing, Twitter