Small Business Marketing Ideas - Direct Mail Is Still King For Marketing Your Businesses

As a small business owner, we know that we need to keep a good eye on our budgets. Over the recent few years businesses are pushing online traffic as their primary way of marketing their small business. While this is a great thing to do, many then forget about offline marketing via direct mail to their prospects and existing customers.

Direct mail has always had the highest response rate of any media used in the marketing mix and should not be ignored or discarded.

Direct mail can be much more personalized than any form of email or other online marketing. When your customer gets a personalized letter or postcard with their name on it, they feel like you care about them. Just adding "Dear Jane," at the beginning of your sales letter will increase the chances of them reading it and feeling like you wrote it directly to them. Even if they know that it was a mail merge, sub-consciously they feel like you sent it just to them.

So what are the best ways to use direct mail as another tool in your marketing mix?

Personalized sales letters are a great way to grab the attention of new prospects. Send them a letter introducing yourself and your products. The first letter can be very casual. Tell a little about yourself and why you are with the company or if you are the owner, that's even better. Tell them why you started the company and what your purpose is. This makes the prospect get to know you before they have even met you. Remember people buy from who they know, like and trust. You are building trust at this point.

One of the best things to do after mailing this type of letter is to give it a few days and follow up with a phone call. You aren't making a cold call any more. You are now just following up to make sure they got your letter. This will easily open the doors for a conversation and even a sales meeting.

Postcards are also a great tool to add to your marketing mix. You can get personalized postcards done that still have a note to the prospect with their name on it. Postcards are also a great way to follow up with existing clients. Send them a birthday card, or any other holiday card. You can use great systems to automate the process so the cards are automatically sent out but still have that personal touch to them. This will endear you to your customers and they will keep you in their minds.

Let's say that you are in a business complex with other businesses that cater to the same types of clients. You could get together with the other business owners in the complex and create your own community coupon packs. This would be similar to card decks or Val-Pak marketing but it's designed just for the businesses in your area. You could have them printed up and then mail them to the neighborhoods in your surrounding area. This is very targeted and the cost of this marketing program would be split between all the participating businesses. You each only have to pay a small amount to get your marketing out to your target market in your local area.

As you can see, direct marketing can be a great way to market your small business. It can not only be one more tool to add to your marketing mix but it also will produce higher responses than other more generic marketing and advertising if it is done correctly. So not matter what you are doing to market your business, direct mail should be just one more thing to add to your small business marketing mix.

Visit Algarve - Stay in a Luxury Villa and Make the Most Out of Your Well-Deserved Vacation

The ever-increasing pace of life has made it even more stressful to make a living nowadays. The problems and pressures of holding a job while maintaining a healthy personal life is relatively harder now and this can eventually take a toll on our health.

Indeed, keeping-up with the rat-race is more grueling than ever. A record number of people have been applying for welfare cards and folks have been hocking their extra stuff for extra money. In fact, pawnshops in the U.S. are one of the few businesses doing brisk business right now.

Indeed, people have been forced to make a few lifestyle changes to cope with financial hardship. One of these adaptations to modern life is learning to cut-back on the usage of fuel and the decreased demand has let the price of crude oil fall back down to almost normal levels. If you're one of those overworked folks that have been seeing too much of your cubicle and desperately need a break then this is wonderful news.

The price of aviation fuel fell with the lowering of crude oil and airline tickets aren't at ridiculous rates anymore. Going out to see the world is the best way to release all that pent-up stress and pressure you culled toiling away in the office.

Soaking up the sun and playing around in the surf in some distant, exotic locale is the ultimate vacation for most people. Sure, there may be local beaches accessible by car, but not having to share your breathing space and the ambiance with noisy, obnoxious drunks makes paying extra for air fare to travel to an isolated tropical paradise is well worth the money.

Renting a private villa in the Algarve located on the southern tip of the beautiful and historical country of Portugal sounds like something that will set you back half a year's worth of pay, but prices for the smaller-sized ones are quite reasonable considering they offer you a stunning view of one of the Iberian Peninsula's most breathtaking panoramas.

This has made the Algarve a favorite vacation spot for British tourists since the 60's. The safety and pleasant Mediterranean weather and Portugal's membership in the European Union has also made it a current vacation and retirement place for Northern Europeans like Germans, Scandinavians and Dutch who own most of the luxury villas in the Algarve.

Independence Day Promotional Prints for a Small Clothing Business

A small clothing business must be able to come up with promotional prints that cover the theme of the Independence Day celebration. This is to gain more clients and attract more people to purchase of specific products offered at a certain clothing store. Furthermore, people will think that clothes promoted on the timely promotional prints are the latest fashion trend during a specific occasion. Here are a few of the effective printed materials used to promote a small clothing business, during the celebration of the 4th of July.

Personalizing Business Cards

The clothing store owners can create personalized business cards to be given out to potential and existing clients. The printed cards must be aligned with a specific holiday or occasion so that people will be more interested in accepting the business cards, and keeping them for future use. Moreover, business cards can also serve as greeting cards. A small clothing store can extend its Independence Day greetings to its clients through the printed business cards.

Creating Flyers and Brochures

Flyer printing and brochure creation are some of the effective methods used by various industries and businesses in promoting products and services. A small clothing business can make use of flyer prints to introduce new products and promotional items. Designing flyers, in line with the 4th of July celebration, can attract more people to avail of the latest offers provided by a small clothing store.

Decorative Prints

Decorative prints can include images, photos and texts related to the Independence Day. Posters, banners and wall graphics are some of the best decorative materials that can be used to decorate a small clothing store. The printed materials can include images and colors related to the American flag, fireworks display, and people celebrating the Independence Day. These posters can be preserved for a long time, and can be reused year after year.

Timely promotional prints like banners, posters, wall graphics, flyers, brochures and business cards can help a small clothing store gain more clients. Moreover, the clothing store business will be able to commemorate Independence Day, and encourage people to take part of the celebration through availing of promotional items related to the 4th of July.

Guidelines For Sending Business Christmas Cards

Whether you own a sole proprietorship or are the CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation, sending business Christmas cards can serve to boost your customer relations and ultimately improve your bottom line. About half of all businesses send holiday cards - sometimes with unintended negative consequences. Here are some guidelines to ensure that your thoughtful gesture will be interpreted in the best possible light.
Selecting the Right Card
Every business has an image it portrays, whether through its logo, its branding efforts, or its marketing plan. The design of business holiday cards you select should reinforce that image. If, for example, you are a stockbroker, a Wall Street winter scene might be appropriate. On the other hand, if you are a pediatric dentist, more whimsical greeting cards are in order. For most businesses, and elegant and tasteful card is always appropriate.
When it comes to choosing a greeting card company, there are many online sources for business Christmas cards. Make sure to choose one that is well established and has a track record of satisfying customers. The best online greeting card companies will send you sample cards upon request, and offer personalization, free coordinating foil-lined envelopes, and printed envelopes.
When ordering business holiday cards, keep in mind that not everyone celebrates Christmas. A card expressing “season’s greetings” or “warm holiday wishes” will prevent you from unintentionally offending those who aren’t of the Christian faith.
Sending Your Cards
In business, timing is everything. Although you have some leeway in sending business holiday cards, the rule of thumb is to send them between December 1 and December 15. If you’re a business-to-business company, keep in mind that many businesses close or have reduced hours during the holiday season, so make sure that your card arrives in advance of the holidays.
In order to send your holiday cards out in a timely fashion, make sure to order them early. Personalized business Christmas cards can take a few weeks to produce, so try and place your order by mid-October.
The Personalized Touch
The purpose of sending business greeting cards is to engender warm feelings in the recipient. That won’t happen if your Christmas cards have address labels and are run through a postage meter. Expend the extra effort and have someone on your staff (who has nice handwriting) address the envelopes by hand. In addition, use a postage stamp instead of a meter when applying postage.
In the same vein, although you should have your cards printed with the company’s name, the cards should also be signed by hand. The best approach is to have those who most closely work with the recipient sign the card by hand. If yours is a small enterprise, have a card signing party one afternoon, and have each person on your staff sign each card. This will go a long way towards making a positive impression on the recipient.
Be a Gracious Recipient
There’s little doubt that your company will also receive business holiday cards from your vendors and associates. Be a gracious recipient and display the cards in your workplace. It will not only bring a bit of holiday cheer to your office, but it will also please those who have a sent a card to you and see it displayed.

Reasons to Utilize Business Cards and Postcards

There are many brilliant uses of a href=http://www.uvcards.com/ target=’_blank’business cards/a and a href=http://www.uvcards.com/Postcards target=’_blank’postcards/a. By giving someone your business card you can quickly and easily give them all your communication information in a small form. Postcards are great because they let you to write a few lines about your whereabouts on one side. And on the other side there is a stunning photo of where you are to be found. These means of transferring information are very convenient, easy and valuable. They have many uses.br brOne use of a company certificate is when you see an associate, potential buyer, potential client, potential customer, or prospective employer . When you are not in the office with all your information at hand then you can just give them a contact information note. For example, if you are at a eating place with the family and a potential client approaches you then you can just take out your compact contact information. With your contact information all on one small piece of cardstock, you can keep it in your wallet or handbag and take it out when the chance comes around. They can be used when you are not at the office or at work but you need to handle a work matter. You can give them your information and then promptly return to taking pleasure in your leisure time. This is use of a company information note.br brOne use of a photo note is to tell of your encounters when you are away from home. If you go on a holiday or a company trip then you can tell your friends and relatives what is happening while you are not home. They are particularly effective because on the other side of the note is a photograph of where you are. If you are in shiny photo of Times Square or 30 Rock or Central Park. There are numerous choices obtainable. The main use of one of these notes is to tell others of your journeys. However, you may desire to buy a photo note to keep as a souvenir. Later you can take out the photo and recall your trip to the location in the photo. These notes can be a great memento for you. Also you can take home the photo notes and show them the place you went to to coworkers, family and friends. These are two uses of photo notes that may be useful.br brThere are many uses for both company communication information certificates and photo notes. Petite pieces of cardstock with your communication information on them can be handy when you are not in a work environment but work opportunity arises in your everyday life. In these scenarios you can just give the potential client or manager your information and then they can contact you at a later date. The transaction of information is quick and simple thanks to the small company certificates. Picture notes can be used in many ways. They are used to tell those you left behind of your adventures. They can also be used as souvenirs to keep for yourself or present to others. Both these things have many uses and can be very helpful.br