Make no mistake: the data revolution is upon us and has, perhaps, affected no industry more than the wonderful world of marketing. Your average marketer now has access to huge volumes of information about who their customers are, how they're behaving, what their thoughts are on certain issues and more - all of which can quickly prove overwhelming. It's important to look at the big data phenomenon for what it is, however: an opportunity. It's a very real chance that marketers have to realign their efforts and create the type of powerful customer experience that creates a loyal army of brand advocates.

It's ironic, really. The lists that we struggle to be removed from are also the same lists our companies strive to obtain. The truth is, for many businesses, targeted mailing lists are the bread and butter of their marketing efforts. Being able to create niche-marketing materials and then putting those materials into the right hands is essential to a company’s survival.

Not all mailing lists are created equal, though. Understanding the different types of mailing lists is critical in maximizing the return on your investment of content and quality marketing materials.

Converting prospects into clients is often a difficult and expensive process. Sales reps can spend weeks, months, even years trying to get a prospective client converted into a buyer. A large part of that process involves face time between the sales rep and the prospect in an attempt to forge a relationship built on trust. Seldom does that face-to-face meeting end in a solid sale.

Sales reps hate leaving a prospect without a signed contract, and the days of hardline sales techniques are long gone. So, how do your reps keep the conversation going and the interest building when they’re away? The answer is simple: put high-quality, effective print sales collateral in their hot, little hands.

Any kind of marketing in an economy that is still sluggishly recovering is not easy. But if you think marketing a profitable business is tough, imagine how hard it is for a non-profit that is completely dependent on donations. Dreams4Kids is one such non-profit that succeeds primarily with email marketing. Their motto is "replacing charity with opportunity," and they do just that by stimulating participation and community involvement.

You have many options available to market and advertise your company. The key is to establish a consistent brand and message that captures the attention of as many potential customers as possible. An integral part of your brand messaging, whether in and around your office/store or at an outside venue such as a trade show, should be well-designed banners and posters.

"Marketing automation" is more than just a buzzword - it is a very real practice that is empowering marketers around the world to accomplish more than ever in a shorter amount of time. At its core, marketing automation is a term used to describe a set of software, technologies, and other platforms that automate marketing on certain channels. These can include e-mail, social media, websites, and more. The idea is that by automating certain repetitive tasks that, while hugely important are also time-consuming, you unlock a host of additional benefits that can't be ignored.

• Can be done in a way that modernizes.
• When Print It Plus creates a carbonless form, we can also create a fillable PDF to be used on your website or for electronic distribution.
• Often companies need the carbonless form as a paper trail… especially for trades people (plumbers, electricians, etc.) to go out with their sales people and/or technicians

If you’ve ever worked a boring booth at a trade show, you’ve most likely been the victim of the “avoiders.” Those passers-by who liken you to Medusa and refuse to look your way for fear of being turned to stone. You notice them by the way they engage actively with booth 1145, take a quick glance at your booth with that lonely poster and brochure, and then, hurriedly walk past you with their eyes carefully averted. After enough of these avoiders, you may start to wish you had some of those smiley-faced, squishy stress-balls to throw at them.

Carbonless forms

• Can be done in a way that modernizes.
• When Print It Plus creates a carbonless form, we can also create a fillable PDF to be used on your website or for electronic distribution.
• Often companies need the carbonless form as a paper trail… especially for trades people (plumbers, electricians, etc.) to go out with their sales people and/or technicians

Recently, a prospective client said they wanted to get customers’ attention through non-traditional marketing using printed products. Who knew that in 2016, the printed word would be considered “non-traditional?” Non-traditional? We’re saying this about a medium that was developed back in the 1400’s by Johannes Gutenberg! While Webster’s (of dictionary fame) mind might be little blown by this reference, when you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Make no mistake about it: a business is more important than any one person. A successful business is truly the sum of its parts. It's a collection of people all working together to form a cohesive whole, helping the business as an entity move forward into the future and accomplish the goals that it has outlined for itself at the same time. Finding the right people to fill the right positions is one important step towards achieving this environment, but it is exactly that – one part. An element that is just as important (but one that far too many business owners fail to pay attention to until it's far too late) comes from the idea that your employees also have to actually enjoy working with one another if your business is going to succeed the way you want it to.

Kids and cats seem to have this well figured out. We’ve all seen or experienced first-hand the joy that kids and cats take in taking an “ordinary box” and making that product packaging into the most exciting plaything of all time. What they are instinctively telling us, without truly understanding for themselves, is this: if the packaging sparks the imagination, it almost doesn’t matter what’s inside.

So now we understand the importance of creating and then following a well-designed yearly marketing plan for your business, as discussed in the 1st blog of this three part series. In this 2nd part of our 3-part blog we give structure to your marketing plan. An unstructured marketing plan will invariably cost your company a fortune as you spend money in areas that are not giving the return on investment needed while not allocating enough funds in areas that could yield much more fruit.

The first thing you need to do is decide on your budget. And the most important aspect of deciding on your budget is: be realistic, but do not be too tight. You may have grand marketing plans for the new year, but if you don’t have the budget set correctly, you will run out of money for marketing long before 2016 ends.

As 2015 draws to a close and we look back and assess the results in our business, we are also looking forward into next year. By this time you should already have your preliminary business and marketing plans for 2016 in place. Of course that is often much easier said than done. But, even if you have your plans in place, having a checklist to make sure you have not missed anything is always a good thing to have.