Effective Postcard Marketing for Just About Any Size Business

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Postcard marketing is the easiest way to spread information to a number of people. Postcards can be sent, handed out in person, left behind in public places - or even mailed. With all of the distribution techniques available, it is easy to see which could be the most effective for your business. Below are five tips to ensure that your postcard marketing lives up to its highest potential.

Interesting, Die Cut Shapes - Die cut shapes are perhaps the best way to get instant attention of just about anybody. They allow you to instantly make an impression, and enable you to show off your creative side. This is also the easiest way to draw your reader in, and then show how you are best equipped to handle their needs.

Interesting Brand Colors - Make sure that the colors you choose are in line with your company's overall branding. Choosing colors that are too mismatched will lead to a disjointed postcard, and ruin brand recognition. All colors should be the same. From your postcard to your website, to your brochure.

Casual but Enticing Copy - Make sure that the copy is casual in tone. Save the corporate marketing speak for other marketing materials. By having a casual tone, you are better able to relate to your prospect, and speak on the level they are most comfortable with. Also, try and consider having pictures to compliment your copy. This will help in getting your message across much more easily.

Call To Action - Make sure that the call to action is at the end of your copy. The copy should be simple, easy and to the point. It should also be concise and motivate the reader to instantly take action on what they are reading. Try to look at your competitors to see what they are doing, and see what you like and don't like.

In-depth Tracking - Make sure that the tracking system you choose to use is effective. You can track each postcard's design effectiveness by assigning a certain code to each. Then when someone calls or visits your business, they must reference the code in order to receive a special incentive such as a discount. This will help in streamlining your marketing efforts, and also help in seeing what is the most effective route for contacting your customer.

When you are done, be sure to ask for feedback. This is perhaps the most important part to just about any marketing campaign. Feedback from trusted friends, family and coworkers is best to ensure that your campaign is the most effective it can be.

Melanie Turner is a Business student at Columbia University and employee at 1800 Postcards. She has also been a Researcher at Deloitte Consulting where she worked with expert marketing teams on Fortune 500 clients. As a growing expert in the field of marketing, Melanie aims to provide insights and resources to Small Businesses.

She has worked with top agencies in brochure design projects for Fortune 500 clients. Brochures are a great marketing tool and there will be more articles to come about how to use them effectively for your business.

View the original article here

Can You Make Money From Selling Wholesale Clothes?

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The simple answer is yes! There are many ways to sell clothing. You can sell them at a clothing store, gift shop or even a second hand store. One exceptionally popular and surefire way of selling clothing is online especially when one is trying to move boxes of wholesale clothes. It is actually a good way to earn money, given how a large number of people nowadays are increasingly using online resources to shop for a variety of things including clothing.

Why clothes?

As just about everyone knows, there is a huge market for clothing. And while it is a given that we all have our own styles and preferences when it comes to clothing, it cannot be denied that most of us would grab the chance to score great discounts on fashion apparel.

Some of the more popular clothing lines are manufactured by large companies. Many of these big name companies produce very attractive clothing that prompts people to splurge and not worry about the costs. For these large companies, making a profit is not a problem however, for a startup company or even a mid-sized one, there might be some challenges. In this case, the not-so large clothing company relies on a wholesale clothing manufacturer to provide high-quality clothing that can be sold at prices that appeal to target customers.

Defining wholesale fashion clothing

Now when you think of wholesale, what comes to mind? Store sales? You guessed right. Many companies that sell wholesale clothes have their own list of buzzwords. Just about everyone can say one time or another that they have seen a sign reading "BLOWOUT WHOLESALE" or "WHOLESALE LIQUIDATION." So what does wholesale actually mean? You can explain it in a variety of ways but basically it is reselling new and/or used goods. A lot of times wholesalers or distributors buy in bulk and sell it for a higher price for what they bought it for resulting in profit. For example, at a larger corporate store like "XYZ Wholesalers" you can buy in bulk to save money; whereas if you were to buy the same quantity at a single family owned store, you most likely will pay more for the same item. This same concept applies to wholesale clothing. You can buy wholesale clothes from manufacturers in bulk at a discount and adjust prices accordingly to make profit.

Buying in bulk is really up to your sales or purchasing team. Managing relationships and purchases with manufacturers is how you get hold of these types of wholesale discounts. Also, many manufacturers and businesses may give rebates that you can take advantage of depending on the amount of buying that you do with them. This is seen not upfront but in the end and result in a rebate similar to a bonus for doing "X" amount of business or sales with them.

One thing is for sure, building relationships and buying from these smaller manufacturers instead of larger ones will help you get very good wholesale discounts and rebates. This is how you can make money selling wholesale clothing.

Ryan Garcia writes for LAwholesaleOutlet.com, a clothing wholesaler offering high quality products for boutiques and wholesale clothes.

View the original article here

Flyer Printing: Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Flyers are a great way to bring instant attention to just about any cause, product or service. Due to their size, they can instantly allow you to explain your brand while also giving you the ability to blanket an entire region. However, many flyer marketing campaigns fall short in many ways. Below are the top five points to keep in mind before you execute your flyer marketing.

Visually Unappealing - Avoid this mistake by adding light and dark colors. Using light and dark colors adds instant visual appeal to your artwork. It also gives an added dimension to your postcard and can allow you to highlight certain aspects of your postcard. For example, you can highlight customer reviews in a yellow highlighted background. Or, you can use color to accent certain words in your company messaging to drive home your business' advantages.

Unoriginal Shape - Although die-cut is always preferred to the standard postcard size, die-cuts actually tend to be more expensive. They should be more significant than the standard square but also stand out from the crowd. As a result, try rounding corners on your postcard - sometimes it's the simplest touches of uniqueness that go the furthest. Also, if you must have a die-cut shape, consider asking the printer if they have any older die-cuts that you might be able to use. This will not only help in your marketing efforts, but also help in saving money.

No Call to Action - This is perhaps the most important mistake not to make. Be sure to have a strong call to action that will seek to motivate the reader to call, email, visit or buy in your place of business. Just be sure your call to action is easily traceable so that you may better understand how successful your campaign is. For example, if it is simply to have people visit your website, be sure you can easily track what postcard is where. That way you can easily determine what postcard-marketing tactic works best. Is it the time of day? Specific location? Or is it perhaps the distribution method?

Flyers are perhaps the best way to secure attention of just about anyone. Just be sure to avoid these mistakes and you are well on your way to marketing success. Also, be sure to ask friends family and coworkers what they think. This will help in just about all of your marketing initiatives.

Melanie Turner is a Business student at Columbia University and employee at 1800 Postcards. She has also been a Researcher at Deloitte Consulting where she worked with expert marketing teams on Fortune 500 clients. As a growing expert in the field of marketing, Melanie aims to provide insights and resources to Small Businesses.

She has worked with top agencies in brochure design projects for Fortune 500 clients. Brochures are a great marketing tool and there will be more articles to come about how to use them effectively for your business.

View the original article here