Category: Sales & Marketing

Brochures are one of the most commonly used materials of various businesses to advertise or market their products to potential clients aside from pull up banners and roller banners. There are different types of brochures available. It’s important that companies are aware of these and that they understand their functions to ensure that they serve their purpose. Here are six of the most popular types of brochures to use in your business.

1. Respond to Queries

This type of brochure is used for potential customers who already know about your business. They may have learned about it through a marketing campaign, advertisement, social media, etc. These people already know about your company and they are interested in the products or services that you offer. The content of respond to queries brochures must talk about all the reasons or facts that would encourage people to do business with you. This is where all your sales strategy must be included.

1. Leave Behinds

If you have a personal meeting with prospective customers, this is the type of brochure that you will give them, as the term suggests. Since you most probably already explained to them everything they need to know about your business and what you offer, the brochure must contain a summary of what you have explained. Include information or details that may be hard to remember so they have a reference. This is also where you can add a comparison between you and other competitors to show why they should choose you.

1. Handouts

If you don’t have a physical place where people can get your brochures or you are giving it to people who you didn’t have a meeting with, this type of brochure is one of your options. Handouts must catch the attention of people and they should be inviting enough to make people read them from cover to cover, thus making them know about you. Everything should be well thought out, from the images and text to the paper to use for the brochure printing. The quality of the paper and ink used for brochure printing must stand out. The same is true when printing other marketing materials like leaflet printing, flyer printing, and business card printing.

1. Sales Support Tool

Sales people use this brochure as a support when making their pitch. Key elements that correspond with what the sales person is explaining are included in this brochure. It doesn’t have to be detailed or too complex, as the sales person will talk about the information that needs to be given to the customers. This brochure will serve as a guide for them to make it easier to follow what the sales person is discussing.

1. Direct Mail

Like handouts, the people to whom you will be sending this brochure do not have the initial interest in getting your products or services. These are called cold prospects. Instead of handing them out personally, this brochure is sent via direct mail. The content and presentation must also be carefully thought out, to make the recipient feel interested in reading what’s inside and learning what you have to offer.

1. Point of Sale

This type of brochure is placed somewhere that can be easily spotted by people. These brochures are common in banks, and various commercial establishments. They give a preview of the products or services offered by the company but they do not contain all the information. Potential clients will then get more information from the company’s representatives or customer support to learn more about their business.

These are the most common types of brochures used in businesses. Determine which of them best fits the purpose in your own case – to ensure that you will benefit from it.

Pop up banners are extremely useful when it comes to advertising. Potential buyers can come forward and have a closer look at information about your company and products. If the information presented in the banner is not enough, they can call the company or visit the website, if the contact details are also presented in the banner.

Writing information on a banner is not enough. It has to stand out. When placed next to the banners made by other companies, people have to make a choice. They won’t have enough time to look at every single available banner. Therefore, a banner that stands out right from the get go will most likely get more attention.

1. Banner size

Choosing a size that is different from traditional orientations will provide a surprise. It will be noticed easily, and people will be curious about what is written on it. A slightly bigger banner or one that has a unique shape will surely catch attention.

1. Have a call to action

The goal is, that after seeing the banner, people will be tempted to call the company for more information, or visit the website. Therefore, it helps to have a call to action on the banner. The most often used phrase is “Call us”. Avoid using it since people will most likely feel bored with it. Be original. Play with words.

1. Colour choice

Whether you are using pull up banners or pop up banners, colour plays an important role. Using too many colours is not a good idea since it can be very distracting. Focus on the message. If anything, the colour has to highlight the message and not distract people’s attention.

1. Animation

This might be an extra expense, but it could be worth it. You might have seen banners where there is fake confetti falling. Others have moving characters that are totally inviting. If used the right way, animation could be the oomph factor that you are looking for to convince more people to buy your products.

It takes time to think about the content of Pop up Banners. It is important that you come up with something interesting. Competition in advertising is a lot tougher these days, so try to be creative when using a pop up banner or roller banner, or people will find it boring.

The goal is to at least get their attention and let them know more about your company. Once they understand your brand, it will be easier to retain their loyalty, encourage them to purchase your products or services, and build strong and long-lasting customer relationships which are mutually beneficial.

I have two good size dogs (both greater than 50 pounds.) I installed an invisible fence to give them some room to run without hurting themselves.

An invisible fence shocks (via the collar) the dogs when they get too close to the fence. It is not  a harmful shock, just enough to let them know the boundaries.

Yesterday, I wanted to take the dogs for a walk and removed their collars so they could leave the yard. Neither dog wanted to leave the yard for fear of shock. I had to carry both of them across the fence line. One on the other side both had a great time.

How does this apply to marketing?

When to comes marketing many of us wear our marketing collar. When our marketing does not work, the shock we experience is lack of results, spending money, and wasting time. The collar limits what we might try; we say to ourselves, “after all I tried that and it didn’t work” or “what if it doesn’t work and I waste all this money (time)?”

I once had a roofing client and we were planning some marketing tactics. Every  tactic I suggest his response was the same, “I tried that and it didn’t work!” After the 10^th suggestion I finally said, “these tactics have worked for thousands of companies but they don’t work for you, what is the one thing they have in common?”

He thought for a moment and said, “me!”

This gentleman was never trained is marketing and he made several fundamental mistakes that, if corrected, could have a big impact on his business. But his invisible fence would not allow him to try something different. His yard was pretty small and his company was suffering.

What is your invisible fence? Is it spending money on marketing or on marketing coaching? Is it trying something you never tried before? Is it fear of failing or not knowing who to trust? What is the shock you feel: shame for failing, embarrassment for not knowing, fear of being taken advantage of or not being in control?

Marketing can be easy and fun when you know what you are doing. And it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money because you can do it yourself. It is not that hard.

Let’s remove your collar or at least provide you the opportunity to remove the collar and learn a proven  marketing system that works to generate more leads, convert more leads to customers, get customer to buy more, sell value – not price, make more money, learn how to build a website that generates leads, learn dozens of up sell, down sell and cross sell strategies that your competition does not know or use, learn how to put your follow-up on auto pilot and so much more – all at your own pace.

Article Contributed by Keith Elton

When I started my first business – I needed to keep costs as low as possible. The reality was, I simply couldn’t afford expensive or wide-reaching professional advertising campaigns. But I still needed to get more customers. With little money coming in, I was stuck thinking of ways to grow my business without breaking the bank. Thankfully some of these tips helped me get off the ground without spending much money at all.

Local networking events

I used to ignore these – but I was making a huge mistake. Not only are they a great place to meet like-minded business people, there a huge marketplace for your startup. Make sure you print up tons of business cards and other promotional material. Hand it out liberally. Tell everyone about your business.

When I started going to local networking events – I started seeing people I’d met come to me with business opportunities. The best thing about most of these events is – they’re totally free. You’re missing a great opportunity to spread the word about your business if you ignore these events.

Social Media

Social media is huge in business marketing. In this day and age – you’d struggle to get by without it. I was reluctant to fully make the most of social media in the beginning – I thought it was just for friends and family. The reality is, NOT having an active social media presence for your business says something negative about what you’ve got to offer.

Staying in touch with both existing and potential customers has never been easier. When people start to like you on social media, they’re telling their friends about it. That’s viral marketing juice which was hard to come by before social media – and you need it to make your business a success.

Contests and competitions

These can be tied in to your social media accounts to give followers something extra – or they can be standalone. You don’t have to give away much – but people love to take part in competitions even if they hadn’t really heard about your business before. When I started running a few small-scale contests – I noticed some of the losers popping into my store more often just because they’d become more aware of what I had to offer.

Charity fundraisers

Charity fundraisers are one of the best ways of becoming an active and valued member of your local community. You get increased publicity and get to help a charity in the process – it’s win-win.

Refer-a-friend schemes

Another way of getting people talking about you and your business is to recruit all your existing customers as casual salespeople. In fact, I noticed this scheme helped me more than some direct sales campaigns. I gave existing customers an incentive (a discount on their next purchase) if they brought me a new customer. This not only got me more customers from word-of-mouth – but I even made a profit on the discounted item I was selling to the existing customer. They actually came back quicker themselves – so it was another win-win situation for my business.

Leafleting

You might think your business is above some simple leafleting – but it can be a great way of getting to people who might not have heard of you before. If you’ve got a decent printer – you can make them yourself to quite a good standard. If you want to go door-to-door, it’s much cheaper than you might think. Another alternative is standing in a busy area and handing them out yourself. It’s a cheap and effective way to grow your business.

About the author

Keith Elton has years of experience helping people with their startup and business related questions. He also knows how important business education is, which is why he writes for a personal tuition blog.

Article Contributed by Maria Estrada

People have predicted that cards would become a staple in mobile, and eventually, web marketing as online content is being broken down into separate components and reassembled in the form of cards.

We are welcoming the era of personalized experiences at the palm of our hands. In the real world, cards are an integral part of our everyday lives. We have health cards, school IDs, credit cards, cheap business cards, etc. And with the internet’s incessant need for customization, it’s quite easy to see why cards are gaining more and more popularity.

What are Cards?

Cards are rectangles and squares with different images and text that serve as a bite-sized information medium.

We see cards all around us. We have grocery coupons, birthday cards, debit cards, cards games, and a whole lot more. From the print business card stock we hold to the online recipe cards we see, they are all of the same purposes: convey quick bursts of info.

Thus, designers conveniently incorporated a piece of our everyday life into our online experience, making it more intuitive.

How Do Cards Work?

Cards aggregate information from your browsing patterns into one immersive user experience. Some of this information include:

• Personal preferences. Take Google Now for example. It takes note of your interests and shows you cards related to them. These might come from your Google searches, emails, and other mobile apps.
• Geographical context. You may receive alerts based on your location. Some of the most common are weather updates and traffic flow.
• Social circles. Your browsing experience can also be affected by your friends’ online behavior and preferences. You can also receive recommendations based on what they like.

The Card UI Advantage

• Bite-sized Content

Cards make it easier for the reader to digest information since you can see the media in distinct sections. You won’t be seeing chunks of text, which are too stuffy and intimidating. You can even integrate gifs and audio files to break up your paragraphs without any issue.

Scannability is another important trait that cards have. According to research, internet users rarely read stuff online. Instead, they skim through articles and look for highlighted words, catchy headlines, and short lines of text.

• Pleasing Aesthetics

Card-based interfaces are more attractive for consumers due to their clean visuals. And since cards rely heavily on images, it successfully captures the viewer’s attention and draws the audience’s eyes to the design.

According to Kissmetrics, images not only add more life to your website, but they also increase conversion rates. People want to visualize the experience, and you can attribute this fact to the principle of showing, not telling.

• Tweakable Interfaces

Think of digital cards the same way you think of physical cards. They can be folded, turned over for more information, organized, sorted, and spread out. In the same way, we can make use of animations and visual effects to make the user experience more intuitive. Think of it as an affordable business cards alternative.

With visual cues, you can tell the user to ‘flip’ the card over to reveal more information or to swipe the card to continue reading. When done correctly, you can provide a perfect user experience for your customers.

• Scalability

According to Adobe, 38 percent of people will stop interacting with your page if the layout is unresponsive and wonky. This fact highlights the necessity for a crisp and responsive user interface, and the good news is that we now have cards to give us a solution.

Card UI’s are made to be scalable on different platforms. In fact, they are the best choice for responsiveness since they serve as containers that you can easily scale up or down, allowing us to recreate the same visuals across different platforms and devices. 

Takeaway 

The Card Interface craze is giving the online world an architectural evolution. Or should I say, revolution? You can even see card-based UI’s on different apps, like Tinder and even Microsoft!

They are the next big thing in media marketing and the latest playground for the creative minds behind digital content marketing. It is undeniable that cards are skyrocketing the digital marketing game, and there is just no stopping it. 

Author Bio

Maria Estrada is the business executive of PrintMeister AU, a print ads company. She likes to tinker with different photo manipulation software like Adobe Photoshop. In her free time, she blogs about her knowledge in various digital marketing and graphic design strategies.