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Archive for March, 2010

Turbo-Charge Your Sales Leads With A Two Dollar Fishbowl

Posted 18 Mar 2010 — by EclecticD
Category Marketing Momentum

Grow Your Business With A $2 Fish Bowl. One of the most effective, yet inexpensive methods for growing your network of potential business is with a fish bowl lead generation strategy. Here’s how it works…

If you have a brick & mortar store, place a fish bowl at the checkout counter.

If you don’t, use this at your next trade show or networking event when you display at a booth or table.

Set out a fish bowl and offer an attractive prize (for example, a gift card to Starbuck’s or an large capacity flash drive) in exchange for your prospect’s business card. By collecting business cards, you’ll increase your list for your direct mail campaign and have a steady stream of leads to follow up and share your services with.

Collecting a business card is more effective than a Guestbook sign-up sheet because it eliminates the need to decipher anyone’s handwriting. Plus, you’ll have all of the information you need to effectively market to them. In exchange, you also create goodwill in the potential customer’s mind by giving away something of value for free.

To those that don’t win, you have the opportunity to share with them via email that they didn’t win this time, but there’s always next time (just make sure you indeed have a next time scheduled with a valuable offer).

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Tags: how to, low cost marketing, marketing ideas, marketing strategies

Using Color To Convey Meaning, Feeling & Action

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Posted 14 Mar 2010 — by EclecticD
Category Design Within Reach

Have you ever walked into a sunny, bright kitchen after a long, hard night and instantly received a burst of energy? Even if only for a moment, providing enough momentum to get you over to the coffee machine? Well, that’s no coincidence because color is more than just a combination of light or ink, it has the ability to affect mood and communicate meaning.

There are important considerations to keep in mind when selecting colors for your marketing pieces. Factors like geographic location and cultural traditions can play a part in the non-verbal communication of your color choices (for example, in the U.S. white is associated weddings, whereas in some Eastern cultures, it’s the color for mourning and funerals).

Our reactions to color are most often subtle, but can sometimes be more vocal. And while it’s not neccessary to obsess over the choice between aqua and sea foam green for your next promotional piece, here’s a quick overview of common Western color associations to keep in mind…

communicating with colors Yellows – Cheerful, Energetic, Playful, Summertime, Sunshine, Light, Warmth, Hope, Happy Times

Oranges – Pleasant Appetite, Sunset, Glowing, Friendly, Inviting

Reds – Exciting, Alert, Hot, Physical Rush, Arousal, Daring, Bold, Sexy, Commands Attention & Action

Browns – Down to Earth, Substance, Durability, Security

Greens – Environmentally-Friendly, Natural, Refreshing, Soothing, Healing also associated with Money/Revenue

Blues – Cool, Dependable, Inspires Confidence, Peaceful, Rested, Serene, Techno/Gadgets, Informational

Purples – Royalty, Elegance, Sensuality, Spirituality, Creativity, Mystery

Black – Strong, Classic, Mysterious, Dark/Sci-Fi, Elegant

Whites- Purity, Innocence, Cleanliness, Stark, Minimalist, Stoic, Sterile

These are generalities, of course, but its important to note that much of our association with color is instinctive and socialized, we essentially are hard-wired to feel a certain way based on colors’ non-verbal cues. If you’d like to learn more about communicating with color, there’s a great resource available by Pantone. Check it out on Amazon…

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Small Business Basics: How To Choose A Power-Pulling Domain Name

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Posted 10 Mar 2010 — by EclecticD
Category Small Business Basics

The benefits of a dedicated domain name for small business owners are enormous. Not only does it increase your company’s credibility, offer a convenient point of reference for your products and services and reduce your marketing and advertising costs, but it also provides your potential customers with an easy access point to your company 24/7, totally at their convenience.

Just imagine having to field a customer inquiry at three am? You would be a hot mess if you had to do it yourself, but your trusty marketing machine, also known as, your website is happy to do it for you…never needing a toilet break or asking for extra vacation days.

Having a dedicated website is one of the most cost-effective business strategies available to small business owners today. So choosing the right business name is critical to your success.

Choose a domain name that is short, succinct, and easy to remember. The fewer words the better.
Choose a website that is easy to spell. And if your budget allows, register the common misspellings of your domain name as well. For example, since the whole “I before E, except after C” trips most people up when spelling, if I were to register the domain “weirdo.com” Not only would I register the correct spelling “w-e-i-r-d-o,” I would also register “ w-i-e-r-d-o.com” as well, to make sure that I capture all of the traffic intended for my site even if a potential customer misspells my domain name.
Avoid the word “and” in your name if at all possible. If the word is essential to your name, then be sure to also register it using the ampersand “&” as well because folks are likely to use both when typing your website address.
Make your domain name easy to say. You want it to have the sticky-ness of a television jingle that you just can’t get out of your head. This will also maximize its viral potential.

.com vs. .biz Now it’s likely that after you come up with a killer domain name, you find that it’s already been registered. But don’t be discouraged because you can easily get around this little hiccup by adding common extender phrases to your name like “the,” “my,” or the plural “s.” Try it out and see which has the best ring to it. Remember, we’re going for a name that’s easy to remember and easy to spell so those two rules trump any attempts to be clever.

If your dot-com is taken, you can also register the name using one of the next most popular extensions .net, .biz .info and .tv to name a few. “Dot-org” domains are typically reserved for non-profits so I would not recommend registering under a .org unless community service ambitions are in your future plans.

Once you’ve registered your domain name with a powerful registration and hosting solution, then it’s time to start marketing that puppy! Immediately set up your email account and put your branded email and website on ALL of your marketing materials. Even if your website is not up yet, you can create a simple landing page that says “coming soon” and include your contact information. Now get to work developing your site. Until next time, To Your Success!

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Tags: domain name, how to, small business marketing, website

Small Business Basics: The Pros & Cons Of Free Business Card Offers

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Posted 08 Mar 2010 — by EclecticD
Category Small Business Basics

pros and cons of something for nothiing Let’s talk about the pros and cons of those free business card offers that you see floating around the internet. We’ve all seen them and even being a Designer myself, I freely admit that I’ve been tempted too. When you’re first establishing yourself, the list of “to do’s” seems so long that being able to check off business cards as “Done” is reason enough to be tempted by the quick-fix a free business card offer provides.

Whether its the special offers for 100 free cards with hundred’s of templates to choose from to the more subtle offers that upsell you to death before you can even reach the checkout cart…the question becomes, is it really as a good a deal as it seems?

Well, before you hit the “add to cart” button there are a few considerations. We’ll take a look at some of them…

Before we do that, I first want to congratulate you on launching your new business. It takes a healthy dose of self-esteem and courage to disconnect from the proverbial rat race and hang out your shingle for business. You should be proud…heck, I’m proud of you.

Ok, so with that said let’s ask ourselves a few questions:

What is the image you want to present to the world about your business? It is very important to have a “calling card” for your business which is the purpose of your business card. You want to have a quick, efficient way to give someone your pertinent contact details including your name, location, telephone, web and email address. You also want to give the impression of professionalism so that a potential client has confidence in doing business with you. And a business card is the first step in setting this tone (after the handshake, that is).

So just imagine receiving a business card and when you flip it over, “get your free cards from fast-and-cheap-printing.com” is printed on the back? Would you think this person was a professional? Would you think the person was invested in their business? Would you think they were serious or this was a fly-by-night operation?

Ok, so say we upgrade a step and there’s no advertising printed on the back of the card. Now we must navigate the hundreds of pre-designed templates that the printer has to go with their business card offer for the low, low price of $4.99. So we spend an hour or so sifting through the selections and find one that fits the theme of our business, health and beauty for example. We’ve found a great one and are ready to add our contact info and rock and roll. But hold on for a moment…if you like the template so much, guess how many others like it too?

I once went to a networking event and gathered 6 different business cards from 6 different people with 6 different businesses all sporting the same business card template. That instantly diminished the impact of each of their businesses in my mind because now I have no visual reference for any of those businesses, they all become a blur in the sea of names and faces I met that evening.

Lastly, you have to be careful with cheap printing services because the print quality isn’t always the greatest. Always test out a small order with any online company you’re considering before you commit the full dollars for your marketing materials. So I guess that’s where a cheap and fast business card offer would come in handy. You could later use them as gift tags on a promo item or something.

So when making the final decision whether or not to go with a free business card offer, first decide what kind of impression you want your business to have? Professional? Garage Start-up? Do you want your business image to look like everyone else’s? What’s going to distinguish you from the sea of cards that may be in someone’s rolodex?

Now, for some, this may not matter much, it all depends on what you’re using them for, but if you plan for your business to stick around for the long haul (and we hope that you do) it’s best to go ahead and bite the bullet and put some time and effort in on the front end rather than going for the quick fix.

Even if you’re boot-strapping your start-up and can’t invest in a professional designer at first, use a distinctive font for your business name and go from there. You can access tons of free fonts from dafont.com to get started. And then later, as funds allow, have a logo professionally designed. Bite it off in chunks if need be…that’s perfectly okay. Just be sure to use quality as your benchmark. Until next time, To Your Success!

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Tags: cheap business cards, free business cards, small business marketing