SURAHMIN BUSINESS

Now Is The Time For All Good Men And Women To Start Marketing!

In my almost forty years as a marketing professional and consultant, the one question that I’ve probably received the most is, “when is the right time to start marketing?” The answer is always – Right Now! Whether it is when business is booming or when business is in the tank, like now, the very best time to start your marketing campaign is today, this very minute. The reason is that for all companies, but especially small businesses, it takes months, sometimes years to develop a broad awareness of their company and product(s) in their market. Even large companies with budgets of millions cannot establish awareness within their market over night.

It is understandable if we realized that the human animal requires from seven to ten visual contacts before a cognitive recognition occurs. That means that you have to put your company name in front of a potential customer at least seven times before they recognize the name and remember it. That is part of the reason we use multifaceted marketing as a tool to effectively get our message out to our market. We want to have our message reach our market in several different ways over a long period of time, so that we have the best chance of getting in front of our potential customer as often as possible; at least seven times.

I’ve given you one good reason to start marketing right now, because it takes time to make contact with your potential customer. But there are other very good reasons to start now. A great analogy comes to mind: The Tortoise and the Hare.

Remember the story about the hare that ran so fast he never worried about winning a race. As a result he took many breaks along the way. His competitor, the tortoise, on the other hand, moved very slowly but never stopped. In the end, the hare found himself so far behind that no matter how fast he ran he couldn’t catch up.

Now ask yourself; do you want to be the tortoise or the hare? If winning is your objective, the question is rhetorical. The tortoise wins the race. In our case, the race is run with marketing. Especially during a recession companies cut back and reduce or stop their marketing efforts. For those few companies who stay the course and maintain their marketing effort, the rewards are substantial.

Greeting cards have become more popular. Why? Well, when you think of someone having a birthday, you make it a point to go the store and find that perfect card. You make it a point to find a stamp and mail that card. The greeting card industry is a 7.5 billion dollar business. It will never go away. It will just keep on growing, as long as we have birthdays to celebrate and holidays, it will never die.

Joe Girard is in the Guinness Book of World Records for selling the most cars. I bet you wonder, Wow!! What a salesman. Well, guess how he accomplished that goal? He used greeting cards to achieve his wealth and status.

He sold himself first, that he cared and was committed to helping you find what you were looking for.

Some salesman, well, let’s say, a lot, never contact you after the sale. If they do, it’s a boring letter that is duplicated. Not personal. Joe, new that to keep that customer and get referrals, he needed to stay in touch with them. Well, he realized that greeting cards were the perfect way. He would send them all year long. For Holidays, Birthday’s, Get Well, and just to say “hello”. He new that he had the means and way to let his customers know how he was doing and in return gain their trust and loyalty.

Sending a greeting card is the cheapest and most effective way of staying in touch. Whether you are a mechanic, attorney, dentist, florist, restaurant, coffee shop, or maybe you with Avon, Mary Kay, Argonne, Scents Candles, you should send greeting cards to keep your business alive.

Clients are the lifeblood of an organization which is why extending your brand should be an unending process. Advancing your business can also have a vital role in generating new clients. Applying customized promotional gifts provide you with an opportunity to relay your marketing message to the market. Promotional items are excellent selections because installing billboards or advertising in magazines can be extravagant.

Depending on the demands of your client, there is a wide range of products worth keeping in mind for your brand building efforts. Promotional advertising products cut across industries so you can be sure of finding the item that conforms to your company goals. However, with a variety of products to choose from, finding the right one that will address the necessities of your company can be an intimidating task. Here are some recommendations you need to address first before fixing on a product to ensure its effectiveness.

First of all, you need to check that the product you have in mind is apt for the affair you are holding. It is critical that promotional advertising products should suit the theme of the event. For example, if you are having a conference or a meeting, promotional pens or notepads will be the fitting material to distribute. Considering other items may mislead the customers and may not be potent in carrying the real message you want to impart to your clients.

Another crucial consideration you need to bear in mind when shopping for business promotional giveaways is your target audience. The corporate giveaway you are choosing should also be befitting for the market you intend to target. Consider executive pens or golf products if you want to focus on high profile market such as CEOs, directors, or managers. On the other hand, dispense on cheap promotional items such as key chains, caps, or recycled bags if your target customers belong to the low end market.

Although logo promotional merchandise can be distributed in a variety of ways, properly picking the item can make a difference between the success and failure of your campaign. This is also key in being able to make an impact on your target buyers. In increase your brand, you do not want to lose the trust of customers who will after all figure out how you will do in the market.

Promoting with giveaway key chains propose a lot of benefits for your business. Increasing your brand to prospective customers can be time consuming and costly. Promotional work is a decisive concern that you need to address if you want to lift exposure of your business. But using the conventional medium of advertising may not attain the goal that you desire for your business.

Expending on personalized key chains, on the other hand, can deliver considerable investments for your company. This will allow you to fixate on the more imperative aspects of your business. At the same time, they save you from the trial of having to worry about how much to allocate for advertising efforts. Although they require minimal investment, the potential output associated with capitalizing these items makes your investment worthwhile.

Nowadays, discharging brochures or pamphlets in strengthening your brand no longer makes sense. The money that you put in on general advertising will likely pour down the drain because potential customers would not even spend time reading the information on the material. Distributing a custom key chain is the better option because your intended recipient will be more interested in an item that is beneficial to them.

With customized key chains, you will never run out of promotional ideas with the wide array of items to elect from. So whether it’s a vinyl or silver key tag, the decisive thing is to find the item that is most applicable to your business. With plenty of options to choose from, meeting the right key holder for you is effortless. With your company name and logo imprinted on the item, you can foresee continuous buildup of your business.

An essential consideration is to check that the letters or colors of the key tag can be seen your target recipient. Adding an appealing message on the corporate gift can help take hold of the recognition of your customer. There is a myriad of suppliers extending logo imprinted key holders so pick the offer that suits your budget and of course advertising needs.

So let custom made key chains handle your promoting needs. Believe me, consuming on promotional gifts is the best setup that you can make for your business. The investment may be small but in the end you can look forward to getting excellent results. Drawing the profits of your decision at the soonest possible time is a feasible possibility.

While Business Shirts with a logo have been around for a long time, the general practice is to only put the logo on golf or polo shirts and leave the dress shirts alone.

Some say that displaying your logo on a dress shirt is a bit too tacky for the boardroom atmosphere. I disagree. A company is about business. Some companies have specific dress codes. What better dress code than to actually wear the company colors?

If you are trade-show bound, then wearing a business shirt with a logo is not only a good idea, it’s almost a requirement. Trade show attendees will meet hundreds of people. By the end of the day, names and faces blur. If while they are talking to you, they are also looking at your logo — you have greatly increased the odds that when it comes time for the follow up phone call, they will have an easier time of associating you and your face with the company, which of course increases the chances of a successful beginning to a new relationship.

Making the logo look good on a dress shirt can be harder to pull off, but very doable.

First consider your logo: Is it “busy” or “plain”? Putting a loud logo on a loud shirt is akin to wearing stripes with plaids (not that anyone wears stripes or plaids any more). Clashing colors doesn’t project the profession image that you are going for.

If you have flexibility with your company’s logo colors, you can easily arrange for combinations that work well together. If your company policy about the logo colors is stricter, then you are of course more restricted when it comes to shirt colors. If you are also wearing a tie, you need to be even more mindful that you present a neat professional appearance.

The option I prefer is a tone-on-tone approach. For example, If you logo is mostly blue, sew it on a blue shirt. Even if the thread matches exactly, you get a subtle almost embossed sort of look – very classy. A different shade of blue also has a softer look – your logo won’t jump off the shirt like a billboard, but will be visible in a very professional understated sort of way.

Wearing business shirts with your logo is just one way to leverage your advertising dollars and project a consistent and professional image.