Social media sites are eager to answer your questions

Gotta question? Or maybe an answer? It seems more and more social media sites are listening. LinkedIn has long had a LinkedIn Answers feature, where people can ask business-related questions and get answers from experts in the community. Facebook added Facebook Questions late last year, and Quora, a relatively new kid on the block, is based entirely on questions and answers from members of its growing community.

Question and answer features provide an excellent opportunity for finding information and for setting yourself apart as an expert in your field. On Quora, for example, members can view questions based on topic, follow specific topics that interest them to see what others are asking, follow specific questions to see new answers as they appear, and rate answers, so the best answers work their way to the top of the heap. The Quora website is built on a structure similar to Wikipedia and uses moderators to ensure content is appropriate.

Starting out on any new social site can be a bit daunting. Before asking a new question on Quora, Facebook Questions, or a similar website, look for similar questions that have already been posted. With thousands of questions in place on virtually every topic under the sun, don't be surprised if your question has already been asked and answered. As you become more familiar with the site, start answering questions that fit your area of expertise. Engage with other users who share your interests, and stay involved.

For more information about Quora, visit http://www.quora.com. To learn more about Facebook Questions, visit http://www.facebook.com/questions/. And to join the conversation at LinkedIn, go to http://www.LinkedIn.com/answers/.

Marketing Ideas for Real Estate

There are so many ways to market Real Estate Companies, Agents and the properties you sell. Here are some ideas that are easy to implement and are sure to increase your exposure.


#1: Flyers & Brochures: Flyers can be an essential part of selling a house. You should always have them in a flyer box at the house so that people can pick up information about the property at any time. Brochures are a great tool for information about you, your company and what you can bring to the table as their real estate agent. It is also a great tool for the high-end properties that have more amenities and more to feature.

#2: Postcards: Postcards are a great way to get the word out about a property or to keep in touch with new leads or past clients. They keep you top of mind when someone is looking to buy or sell a property and can peak someone's interest that may see a home they like and want to buy even if they weren't even in the market for a home at the time.

#3: Banners: When you have an Open House, why not add a banner to get attention at the property? You can get a generic banner that says something like "Come on in - Open House Today" or "Come see your new home today at our Open House" or something along those lines. That way you can use it for all of your properties when you have an Open House.

#4: Door Hangers: This is one way that will get you noticed and can work the same ways as a postcard if not even better. We all notice when there is a door hanger on our door, they are pretty hard to miss. The best way to get them to notice especially for houses is to put some prices of properties "Just Sold" in their area, what owner wouldn't want to know their homes value? Then it will peak their interest and maybe they will be ready to buy or sell.

#5: QR Codes: Those are the barcodes that look like puzzle pieces that are popping up everywhere nowadays. I would recommend adding sign riders that have the barcode on it so people can get instant information on their mobile phone, add it to business cards, flyers, brochures, door hangers, banners, postcards and any other marketing materials that you have. It is a quick and easy way to get information about the house for the buyers who might be interested and to also get your contact information, which just might get you that sale!

Hall Letter Shop can help you with all your marketing materials and can help you find ways to maximize your selling potential with the right tools for your real estate business. Call us at 877-322-0773 to see how we can help you!

Marketing Ideas for Retail Businesses

There are many ways to market your retail business and increase your sales! Here are a few ideas to help you get started.

#1-Custom Tags & Labels: Stand out and brand all your merchandise! If you sell candy bars, have the wrapper label be customized with your name on it. If you sell clothes, have your own price tags made so everyone knows where it came from. If you sell other merchandise, get labels made to place on your merchandise so that the customer always remember where they got it from. These are just a few ideas, depending on your specific business, there may be many more ideas to brand your items.

#2-Banners: Have a banner made that you can post outside of your business to draw attention and lure customers to come in. Whether it is a grand opening or just to highlight specific merchandise, if the customer doesn't know you are there...they can't buy from you.

#3-Newsletters, Postcards & Brochures: Keep your customers informed with a mailed newsletter, postcard or brochure. It can give the sales information, new products, company news and anything else you want to share. It is a great way to keep you top of mind with your customers and have them coming back for more.

#4-Flyers: Get the word out about your company with flyers. Whether you are having someone distribute flyers or put them in the bags of your customers, they are another way of getting the attention of the customer if you are promoting a sale or new products or just trying to get them back into the store.

#5-Scratch-off Promotions: Give out scratch off tickets with prizes to your customers, you can give away small items that will get them to come back for more whether it is a discount or an item from your store.

Those are just some of the many ways to promote your retail business! Call us at Hall Letter Shop at 877-322-0773 to find out how we can help with the above strategies or for any other ideas to help market your business!

Social media basics for busy business people

We've all heard about the importance of social networking, but what is social networking exactly? A social network focuses on building a group of people who share common interests and activities. In this case, we're talking about online social networking... the biggest free party in the world. Social networks make it easier for people to interact with each other. But social networking has a lot of outlets (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, LinkedIn), and it can become a time-intense process to effectively track, converse, monitor, and manage them.

But if social networking is so time intensive, why bother? Selling is selling. You can't get away from that. Social networking doesn't -- and shouldn't -- replace selling. Social networking is part of MARKETING. Selling and marketing are two sides of the same coin. And since coin is what we're trying to get in your pocket, we need to pay attention.

Small Business Magazine advises, "We all know how important word of mouth is, and social networking is like word of mouth on steroids. As a business, it's vital to tap into and join online conversations not only about your brand, but also those about your competitors, your industry, and your areas of expertise."

The social networking tools you choose depend on what you want to accomplish, how much time you can commit, and where your comfort level lies. To simplify things, I'm only going to stick with four basic social networking tools you might find helpful: Facebook, blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Facebook
Benefits: Great for keeping in touch with friends and far-flung family...now also used well for businesses.

How to use it: Create a Facebook page JUST for your business, then update it one to two times per week. Join in discussions about topics relevant to your business and customer base. A printer, for example, might join conversations about local area businesses and the chamber of commerce.

Blogs
Benefits: Terrific for your search engine optimization. A great way to let people know what is going on with your business. Somewhat more personal feeling than a standard website.

How to use it: Lots of great, free blogging tools are available. If you decide to start a blog, you should commit to posting at least one blog entry per week, to encourage repeat readership and maximize the SEO benefits.

Twitter
Benefits: Short and sweet. Allows people to follow you and get information that is up-to-date and content rich in short sentences.

How to use it: For Twitter, you'll want to post something fresh every day. Don't tweet about what you're doing at the moment. Instead, tweet links to helpful websites and articles people might find fascinating. Follow your competitors and customers on Twitter, and listen to what they're saying and doing.

LinkedIn
Benefits: A great business networking site. Easy and common sense.

How to use it: Add updates at least once per month. Join groups relevant to your business. And answer questions from other members.

Celebrating Your Company's Anniversary

We have a client who recently celebrated 15 years in business. Not that it matters, but 15 years is the average lifespan of a woodchuck. Being around for 15 years can be a big deal for small businesses and woodchucks.

It's important that your customers know about your longevity. People like doing business with companies that have been around for awhile. It makes them confident you know what you're doing. It's that competency thing you've heard so much about.

Sometimes, people are shy about getting older. My mother said her birthday is "just another day." When I'm 95, I'm going to celebrate every day as if it's my birthday. I'm going to let everyone know that I've made it another day, and I'm not going to be shy about it. Party like a rock star.

You shouldn't be shy about celebrating your business anniversary. It's an important event and will cost nowhere near what it costs to marry off your daughter. Given all the goodwill marketing you will receive, getting out the word is extremely inexpensive. We all like inexpensive.

Start with anniversary labels. Stock labels have been around for years. Stock labels look like stock labels. If you take marketing seriously, spend a few more pennies and get some custom made. Stick them on everything. Next year, they will be as passe as today's television network schedules.

How about some thank you cards for loyal customers? People like thank you cards, and it's becoming a lost art. Thank you for being with us over the long haul. Here's a 10% discount for being loyal. We need you, and I hope you need us. It's a partnership we'd like to continue in the future. It's a better deal than Conan O'Brien got from NBC.

Testimonials. Nothing is better than testimonials. Print a simple brochure you can stuff into every envelope you mail. "A good belt keeps your pants up, and there's no better place to buy a belt than Ernie's Belt Shop." I'm a printer. A few years ago, I did a testimonial for a paper company. I got four orders from it. Testimonials work two ways. It's a gimme.

There are so many more ideas. We can work together to see what fits you. Give me a call. Shoot me an email...and happy anniversary.

Can you answer a few simple questions?

If I asked you, in an elevator, "Who buys your product or service?" could you tell me? Are you business to business? Business to consumer? What does your typical customer look like? What does your ideal customer look like? Who are your competitors? How are you different from them?

In a market saturated with choices, few companies have the luxury of customers coming to them because there is no place else to go. Unlike the post office, you aren't a monopoly. So knowing who you are going after, and what makes you different (and better), is pretty darn important.

Charen Smith writes, "Getting to know your market makes you aware of the individual peculiarities of the people that make up this particular sector." The more you know the people who buy what you sell, the more exactly you can market to them. The more exactly you market, the more "right" customers will come to you. So know your market... and your competition!

I'd Buy That for a Dollar

There are only two ways to make more money in any business: reduce costs and sell more products or services. There are lots of ways to "sell more," but the easiest way is to get more work from your existing customers.

80% of your business is typically repeat customers. But about 80% of most marketing campaigns focus on new business. Marketing campaigns that are heavily focused on bringing in new customers ignore the fabulous potential of what you already have: a viable relationship with your current customers.

One marketing method that is tried and true for reaching an existing customer base is the customer survey. It allows customers to voice their opinions, share their concerns, and see how much you truly care about what they have to say.

Creating a survey is a fairly straightforward process. Getting your customers to respond to it might require a little extra work. One way to boost your response rate is to include a little cash with the survey as a way of thanking customers for their replies.

That's right. I said cash. Send a dollar or two with each survey. Not "we'll pay you on completion" or "here's something worth a dollar." Let your customers open up the mailer and have a dollar bill fall out. You may be amazed at the return you get!

The benefits of a survey are well worth the cost. Remember you are sending this to your EXISTING customers. They already know you, and they will give you invaluble information about what they aren't buying from you... and WHY!

There are many ways to increase response with your direct mail. Give us a call at 877-322-0773 to discuss how we can increase yours!

Advertising that makes a lasting impression

There aren't many advertising options that make a lasting impression unless they are extremely clever or are in your face all the time so I thought I would focus on some of the things businesses could do that would make their business be remembered.

#1: Notepads: Everyone uses them for business or personal use or both. If your branding is on it, they will see your marketing message every time they look at it and even when they aren't specifically thinking about your business, it could possibly remind them that they needed to call you for your product or service.

#2: Mousepads: This will work the same way as the notepads. Another constant reminder that they need to call you for your products or services. Have you seen Hall Letter Shop's notepads that work as a mousepad. We think they are kind of clever and people seem to love the idea!


Those are just a couple ways! We have a 25% discount on our personalized notepads right now. If interested, call us at 877-322-0773.

What are the ways you leave a lasting impression with your advertising?

QR Codes - Uses for Retail Businesses

Part 2 of our uses for QR Codes will cover Retail businesses. There are many ways you can use QR Codes! For example, did you see Target's Toy Book this year? There were at least 3 QR Codes in the book that took the consumer to cute videos about each of the toys!

Here are some ways you can use QR Codes:

Marketing Materials:

Like Target, if you have a catalog or sheet with items, you can add QR Codes to it and send the customer right to that item on your website, to a video demonstration, to pictures of the item and more! If you have door hangers or postcards or even wall posters, you can also add QR Codes to that. If you have banners outside of your store, you can add a QR Code to it and potential customers can scan it while driving by to get more information, too. You can even add it to your signage!

Packaging:

Do you have custom packaging or tags?  Adding a QR Codes to your packaging and tags can give the customers fast access to your website so they can buy more from you.

Items:

If you don't have custom packaging or tags, you could add a QR Code sticker to the bottom of an item so that the customer always remembers where they got it from and when they want more, all they have to do is scan the QR Code to order more! You could also add a QR Code sign next to an item that will send them to a demonstration video of that product or give them more details about how the item works.

Those are just a few ways you can use QR Codes for your retail business! Imagine what else you could do with them.

Don't have a brick and mortar store? Some of the solutions I mentioned will work for you, too!

Hall Letter Shop can help you implement QR Codes into your marketing. We also can help you with printing of packaging or tags, direct mail, door hangers and more! Call us at 877-322-0773.

7 ways printing can help you survive a zombie outbreak..

That got your attention, didn't it? And it illustrates a simple marketing truth: Be compelling. You could have the most amazing stuff to sell, but if you don't make it compelling to read, then you aren't going to get far.

Now, before you start wondering, "But what about the zombies?" don't worry. Here's the list I promised at the beginning of this column, along with some nuggets you might not have known about our printing firm:

7. A printed map will let you know where the zombie hangouts are, so they can be avoided. Invaluable for tourists in Washington, DC, so they can avoid the walking dead at the Capitol and White House! Did you know we can print maps?
 
6. Bright-colored packaging, with realistic imagery, advertising TV dinners for zombies will placate today's lazy, new age zombies, who are more interested in convenience than substance, when it comes to preparing their meals. Did you know we can print all types of packaging?
 
5. Printed direct mail pieces can alert citizens to a zombie outbreak, and how to respond to an encounter; sort of an abbreviated version of zombies for dummies. Did you know we can print YOUR manuals, self-help guides, direct mail pieces, and alerts?
 
4. A well-organized, web-to-print portal will allow you to stay inside and order your printing, and not be susceptible to roving zombies. Did you know you can log in to our website, order printing, and send us files without leaving your desk?
 
3. Printed signs can direct the zombies to walk back to their graves or into the ocean. Did you know we can print your signs, get your car graphics designed, and make sure people know where to go?
 
2. Bumper stickers can alert drivers to HONK IF YOU'RE A ZOMBIE. Did you know we can print bumper stickers, labels, and other sticky stuff?
 
1. Printed zombie masks for humans will fool the zombies, so they won't attack you for your flesh and brains! Did you know we are can help you with all your printing needs? No fooling.

Targeting "Me"

The single best sales strategy in the world is to find your best clients and ask them, "How do I get more clients like you?"

I was in a store last month chatting with the owner, and she said to me: "You're my ideal customer; how do I get more of you?" I thought about it for a moment and told her how I'd found her. We then sat down for a while and figured out how to target more 'me's'. (I am a printer and a salesperson after all!) I was able to buy her a mailing list for people in her demographic and do a series of direct mail pieces to people like me.

Because she asked her customer how to grow, her customer actually answered. So, talk to your customers!

By Jennifer Adelman

Don't Assume

Never assume your current clients know all you can do for them. The best way to get more business is to get more from existing customers. The only way you can do that is to keep telling them all that you do. One marketing strategy for this is to send out a printed piece that lists all the things you do followed by pieces that expand on each individual item. The way a printer might do this is to create a piece that talks about brochures, business cards, wide format printing, book binding, and so forth, with a short paragraph about each thing. This would then be followed with a postcard that talks more about each individual item.

This strategy works well for most businesses -- from lawn care to lawyers. Mowing, landscaping, xeriscaping, etc., followed by details of what each of those things is and why. Litigation, taxes, wills, etc., you get the picture.

Keep telling people about the things you do, and don't get frustrated if they don't seem to "get it" right away. No matter how many years I've been working with a printing client, I still get people walking in who say, "Oh, you do that? I had no idea!" It can be frustrating when you think you've gotten your message out...but that sentence is an opportunity for me to tell people about all my printing and marketing services...and it is an opportunity for you to tell people what you do, too.