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Don’t Underestimate The Power Of Old School Marketing

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Any good business has to keep up with technology to survive. You won’t get anywhere these days without a good website and social media presence but they aren’t the be all and end all. Too many companies are directing all of their resources toward newer, more technologically focused marketing techniques and neglecting all the old school ones. While you do need to be up to date, some of the tried and tested marketing strategies are still just as effective as they always were. They’re also usually a lot cheaper so it makes sense to use them. If you think that these marketing techniques are obsolete, think again.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
Photo by Tomás Del Coro from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (Sign Spinning 2017) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Trade Shows

Getting out there and meeting potential customers face to face is always a bonus. It gives them the chance to get a sense of who you are as a business and people are more likely to put their trust in somebody that they’ve met personally. A trade show is a great way to get thousands of potential customers in one place and show off your products. There’s going to be a hell of a lot of competition out there so you need to make sure that you’ve got great trade show displays that will catch people’s attention. There’s no way that people can visit every stall that’s there so you’ve got to make yours stand out. It’s also worth applying early so you can get the best position possible. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the best place to set up camp is right next to the entrance, people like to do a round before stopping anywhere so right at the entrance is actually one of the worst places. You’ll get way more foot traffic on the end of a row or in the corner somewhere.

Promotional Gifts

Everybody loves something for free so a good promotional gift goes a long way. It gives your company value and it’s a brilliant way to give people a taster of your products. It’s also a good way of encouraging people to buy other products in order to get the promotional gift. If you don’t believe me, just think about the toys that you get in a McDonald’s happy meal or in boxes of cereal. Kids are constantly hassling their parents to buy that stuff just to get the gift. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive and if you’re getting them in bulk, it’ll be even cheaper.

Sign Spinning

When people walk past signs and billboards in the street the conversion rate is pretty small. Half the time they’ll just get ignored. Sign spinning is a pretty cheesy way of advertising but studies have shown that it does actually work. The spectacle draws people in and then they’ll read the information on the sign as they watch. It doesn’t work everywhere but if you pick a busy promenade that gets a lot of foot traffic then you’re likely to see some good returns on it with very little investment.

Always keep up to date with technology but don’t underestimate the power of old school marketing techniques.

The Reasons Why Video Marketing is So Powerful

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales ArticleMany businesses don’t consider the power of video marketing because of the huge costs involved when it comes to video production. However, video marketing has been proven to be so powerful these days that even the smaller businesses that don’t have video production in their budgets are now jumping on the bandwagon. Businesses in all industries are now faced with high competition regardless of the niche, so it’s important for any business to compete with even better marketing strategies to have a chance of surviving – and that’s where video marketing comes into play. If you’re considering video production as your next marketing ploy, look at some of the below reasons why video marketing is so powerful.

Videos Boost Conversions

It has been proven that videos help boost conversions and sales. The figure differs between different industries, but there are reports that suggest a simple landing page video production has boosted conversions by a massive 80% – something that just can’t be ignored in the world of online marketing.

Excellent ROI Prospects

Many businesses overlook video production for their marketing ploys simply because they think it’s too expensive. No one can deny that the cost is often eye-watering, but given the fact a ROI is mostly guaranteed, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be considered. Yes, video production could cost thousands or even more, but the returns on offer are limitless.

Viral Boosting Opportunities

All it takes is one video to get shared once for it to get shared hundreds of thousands of times. Granted, it takes a cracking idea to get onto that sort of level, but there’s no reason to suggest that it won’t happen for your business if you do it well.

Videos Build Trust

If your customers don’t trust your brand, you’re not going to have a brand that lasts. Therefore, it’s paramount you try and build trust from the get-go so your potential customers aren’t going to go elsewhere. Videos help businesses add a touch of human appeal to their brand, and that’s extremely important when building relationships.

Search Engines Crave Low Bounce Rates

If your website has a high bounce rate, search engines are going to penalize your pages because they think there’s obviously a reason why your visitors are leaving your pages quickly. By taking advantage of video marketing, it means your visitors are instantly attracted to the video and they’re going to stay on the site longer. This will, in turn, provide you with a lower bounce rate and you will be well rewarded with better SERPs in the long run. Contact a company like ClickIntelligence.com if you want to build links to help towards your SEO efforts.

Video marketing is excellent for those that can afford to go down that route. An 80% rise in conversions, better bounce rates, higher SERPs, and a helping hand to build trusting relationships are just some of the reasons why video marketing/production is one of the most powerful online tools there is.

How to Pick the Best Web Hosting Company

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Because a lot of thought, planning, and money goes into creating the perfect website for your business, you want to be sure it gets the traffic you are aiming for and that the website can handle everything that is thrown at it. This is where the web hosting company comes into play. The web host is the service that publishes your website so others will see it. It provides a company with the actual server space to store all its content and looks after the file maintenance involved in the site. It is easily the most important component in building your site.

So, before you just go ahead and randomly select the first web host that you find, you may want to take some time and use these tips that will help you pick the best web hosting company for your specific needs.

Keep the Three S’s in Mind

A simple way to go about picking a web host is to always keep the three S’s in mind. These S’s are security, support, and speed. Each of these plays an important role, and if even one of these is lagging, the entire site and the user experience will suffer. Each time you investigate a web host, you need to ask about the three S’s and get detailed specifics.

Of course, there is more to it than just the three S’s, these just happen to be the most important criteria to watch for.

Be Aware of Your Specific Needs

It’s also very important that you are aware of your specific needs. It’s hard to shop for a host when you don’t even know what you need. Give thought to the website you are building. If you want to use something simple like WordPress, how much web traffic you are expecting? If you need any sort of special software for the site, do you know what this is and how to get it? Certain hosts will cater to specific criteria, which will help you to narrow down your options and find that perfect fit.

How Reliable is the Server?

Web traffic is fickle in that it will only stick around and stay strong if the website performs smoothly and as it is intended. What this means is that you need a reliable server that can handle your traffic without needing to “time out”.

When speaking to a potential web host you want to ask about their “uptime”, this is the time the website will be up and running, and is reliable. When a website crashes, it’s not unusual to lose more than just traffic, you can also lose out on a large number of potential sales.

What Kind of Pricing is Offered

Budget should always be on your mind when shopping for a web host. You want to find a package that offers everything you need, doesn’t have any surprise costs built in, and fits your budget.

Picking a web hosting company isn’t something you want to rush through. It’s important to do your research, take a good look at your options, and make sure you weigh all the pros and cons before making a final decision.

3 Things To Know When Hiring A Web Hosting Firm

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There are many things to learn about operating in the online world, and some strategies are more successful than others. This doesn’t mean you should be any more or less hesitant to begin your time online because your customers will demand it long before you consider it a viable option. What matters is that you keep a solid understanding about how to best progress during this time. Not only will the following tips give you the best understanding of what to look for when hiring a web hosting firm, but they should also help you stop making bad choices when you’re unaware of all the implements a solid online strategy needs to work in the first place.

Reliability

Your firm simply needs to be as reliable as can be. Otherwise, there’s no doubt going to be plenty of issues regarding the way you firm looks to your audience. If you’re simply not online long enough for them to complete whatever they intended to on your website, you will look unprofessional, and worse, not worth doing business with. This will be all very well and good if your firm deserves this, as it can improve your service understanding. However, if this happens as a result of not being able to express your online medium because another service is failing you, that is a sad state of affairs. For this reason, reading reviews such as this A2 Hosting review before you buy can give you good insight into how well the service performs under pressure.

Support

How accessible are your web hosting agencies? Do they have 24/7 support, or are you reliant on their office times to help you out of a sticky spot if their services go down in the middle of the night? As you hope to be an engaging and wonderful platform for your customers to experience, you should also hope to be treated in the same way by the web hosting platform who are attempting to keep your good servicing upkeep by any methods they possibly can.

Advice

How much advice is the firm offering you? Are they happy to give you solid and practical solutions for problems you may be experiencing, or do they leave you in the dust to figure it all out yourself? Depending on the level of experience you have with websites, this might be better off in either intense or limited quantities. Only you will know what works best for your firm, but you must be ready to communicate it. If the advice is an option which is covered by the cost of your usage, you may be able to negotiate a better price if you forgo this service, but don’t worry if this proposal is rejected. Keeping on top and happy about your internet servicing requires that you feel satisfied with the methods being taken to keep you online, and if you feel like the first you’re using is happy to explain to you their methods, you are more likely to feel happy and able in your commission.

With these tips, you’re sure to experience customer satisfaction.

How Can a Brochure Help Your Business

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The company brochure has a rich history. It’s been an affordable way for businesses to share information about their products and services for decades. Since the days when it first became possible to run off a few hundred brochures with pictures and a few well-chosen words to inspire prospective customers to part with their money, there’s been a use for this classic sales tool.

Let’s look a little deeper at how different kinds of brochures can help market your business, event or activity better than it’s done today.

The Promotional Brochure

The most basic use of a brochure is as a promotional tool to introduce a new prospective customer to the brand or company. In many cases, they’ve never heard of your company, but something has peaked their interest. Rather than look around your showroom not knowing what to consider first, being able to hand them a ready-made brochure is an excellent way to direct their initial interest in a productive way.

Staff can flip through the pages to highlight areas of interest for them based on asking a couple of initial questions to see what their needs are. With a brochure that’s organised into logical sections covering activities, history, product lines or another way that divides up the information so it makes sense, the staff can help move prospective customers forward in their decision-making process.

The Product Brochure

A product brochure features either a selection of your best-selling or latest releases. In some cases, a full catalogue is created which covers your entire product line, but this is less common now. When walking into a UK showroom, being able to find a brochure with some of the products available is a fast-track way to see what the business offers. As long as the sales staff know their products well, they can then greet the customer and augment whatever information is already provided in the product brochure once they know which item the customer is most interested in.

With cheap brochure printing, it’s even possible to come out with a monthly brochure printed as a limited run to provide information on the latest releases which is the reason many customers visit a retail shop in the first place. Print brochures take some of the initial workload off the sales staff too which allows them to direct their energies more effectively to close a sale more often.

If you’re planning on producing a monthly magazine style brochure, you’re likely going to need a lot of copies to distribute. This means that you’re going to have to research a brochure printing company who can handle high-quantity orders. One company known for this is print24 who can print in batches of up to 50,000. If this is something you know you’ll need, you can read more about the service on their brochure printing page.

The Trade Show Brochure

For businesses that go to the expense of renting a booth at an industry trade show, it’s critical that they have both informational and promotional products for attendees to take away. The list of possible items runs the gamut from branded t-shirts to coffee mugs to several brochures covering the various brands and product lines.

Grabbing the attention of people at a trade show isn’t easy. It requires great design to get the most out of the latest brochure printing to deliver an eye-catching handout that will get the person returning to the booth to follow up later. For businesses in the beauty market, having several print magazines covering beauty tips and a few of your select products added for good measure is a good way to go. Also, don’t skimp on the trade booth design which gets people into the booth in the first place.

Brochure vs. Magazine

It depends on what you wish to share with customers whether you should use magazine printing or get a brochure printed up. Magazines tend to include more glossy photos and a greater number of pages. The binding tends to be fixed with a magazine, whereas a brochure has a variety of available bindings that all work well.

When the material is going to be browsed together, then a spiral binding makes it easier to open it up at a page and keep it there for a longer look. A salesperson wanting to point out the benefits of a product or service is aided when the page stays open where they need it so they can focus on the customer.

Getting the Ordering Right

It’s important to consider the shelf life of the brochure before ordering. Will it be used to promote this month’s special offers, contain information relevant for the current quarter or provide some historical perspective to extend its relevance? You want to order enough copies so that you don’t run out, but not so many that an extremely topical brochure no longer has much relevance. Therefore, a balance must be struck between the size of the print run, how many brochures are expected to be required, and the shelf life or usefulness of the information contained therein. Doing so maximises the value that the business receives from each batch of printed brochures.

Brochures are very useful to a business. Any company that meets customers face-to-face or has a need to send out product or company information in the mail will certainly find a brochure helpful.