Check out the Gate Fold Brochure PFL printed for Watkins to help spread the word. This piece featured an enticing coupon offer, while also solidifying Watkins’ existing 30 year brand recognition as an industry leader in their community.

 Following the campaign, Watkins noticed a significant increase in both service calls and web traffic – and the company plans to take advantage of Direct Mail’s excellent ROI again soon.

 If you’d like to hear about what Direct Mail can do for your business, call PFL today!

Know Your Audience. You can’t be everything to everyone, so stop trying. Take what you are good at, passionate about and what your business is built on, and use that to guide you to those who you can help the most. When customers find out how useful and helpful your product or service is, they have no need to go anywhere else.
Remember, you can’t be everything to everyone. Every hear of a dentist/gun repair/yoga studio? Me neither.

Be Interesting. No one can accuse GaGa of being boring or overly mainstream. Take a tip from the Lady, and create your own flavor, stance and commit to it. Just because you wrote something about your industry that YOU like in a whitepaper or on your website, don’t confuse that with compelling, pertinent content that has mass appeal. Customers, or more importantly, potential customers don’t tolerate dull content or lame topics. Use what you know, and what you know well, and teach someone something. Be daring. Be useful.

Be Recognizable. No matter how many times you hear her name, GaGa is instantly recognizable, no matter where.
Within your industry or market, do people know you? Is your brand strong enough or known well enough to be the go-to business?
To be the known commodity is a rare, useful and difficult position to attain, but all businesses should strive to be known. Be known for a stellar product, service or culture. Maybe even be known as the best. Because when your customers view you as a commodity, or the same as “that other company”, you have no leverage, and they will decide if you are the right solution, and usually do it by not using you enough, or at all. 

What this boils down to is believing in your brand, and your strength as a company. I doubt Lady GaGa is unsure of who she is, what her ‘brand’ represents when she steps on stage, or dons another wacky outfit, to sold out crowds and millions of paying fans everywhere. Now go figure out what your own meat dress is.

DePuy Spring Creek’s brochure design appeals to the fly fisherman in all of us. Showcasing pictures of breathtaking scenery and epic fly fishing, the DePuy’s brochure was designed to stand out in a display rack at hotels, visitor centers, restaurants and other travel destinations around Yellowstone National Park. The designers expertly used natural colors to immediately put you at ease as you open the brochure and plan your next fishing adventure.

Visit our Featured Brochure page to see a more comprehensive review of the brochure printing we did for DePuy Spring Creek.

The professional photography on the cover of this brochure is outstanding.

Sweetwater’s catalog is targeted at high-end fly-fishing enthusiasts who travel the globe in search of incredible fish. Some of the featured travel packages in the catalog include Mongolia, British Columbia, Alaska, Brazil and more. The catalog design, paper and printing all speak to this high-end target as well. From the reverse text on a black background, to the heavy-weight paper, this catalog printing looks and feels top-notch.

A special note should be made on the fantastic images and photos they used. The catalog was printed in standard 4-color process (CMYK) and everything just pops off the page. We applaud Sweetwater and their designer for creating such a stunning catalog. We have been printing catalogs and other materials (brochures, postcards and more) for Sweetwater Travel for the past several years. We feel privileged that they continue to choose us to do their catalog printing!

Vist our Featured Catalog Printing page to see what we did for Sweetwater Travel Company.

Now if we could just figure out how to train the dogs to answer the phones…

 Case in point: Kimberly, one of our wonderful TSR’s (technical service reps) here at PrintingForLess.com was working with a potential customer earlier this week who had some concerns about working with an online printer (they have always used a local printer in the past). Specifically, this potential customer was concerned that Kimberly would not be able to effectively communicate the customer’s needs to our bindery – they needed some level of comfort that Kimberly actually had a relationship with the people that are printing, folding and shipping the piece. So what did Kimberly do? She grabbed a Flip video camera, shot a quick video tour of PFL, making sure to point out her near vicinity to and open communication with our bindery, then posted the video to YouTube and sent the link to her potential customer:

This took all of 15 minutes of Kimberly’s day to help remove any fear and uncertainty that her customer had. After Kimberly sent the video, she received this reply:

“Thanks for the video – that was an awesome idea!  Now I can put a face with the voice, which is always nice.  It was good to see your facilities and I can share with my team once we move forward with the laminated books.”

 Video is playing an ever increasing role as the internet continues to mature. The power of instant video is amazing – and it is in incredible customer service tool. If you’re not yet using video and the internet with your business, you might start to think about how you too can leverage it to deliver a better customer experience.

From the Print Council’s Yes Print! series, it states “nearly one-third of consumers say they rely on three or more different channels (online, in-store, print catalogs, mobile devices, customer service reps) from the time they start researching products and services to when they complete their purchase.” [Amercian Business Media]
When I read this, I couldn’t agree more–personally, I use all of these channels to decide when, what and where I will purchase something, especially a big ticket item or service. Gone are the days of the one-hit wonder ads, and today’s customers are savvier than ever, requiring multiple avenues of communication and marketing. Think integrated. Think mixed.

So get out there and reach your customers, by every channel possible. Make each one work together, not just stand alone. It is what your customers want from you.

1)      Talkers – find people who will talk about you (ex: fans, volunteers, customers, bloggers, influencers). Hint: these aren’t always your best customers.

2)      Topics – give people a reason to talk (ex: special offer, great service, cool product, silliness, neat ad, new feature). Make sure to create something that is portable, repeatable, and emotional.

3)      Tools – help the message spread faster and farther (ex: tell-a-friend form, viral email, blogs, handouts, samples, message boards, online communities).

4)      Taking Part – join the conversation by letting your staff surf and reply to comments, post on blogs, join discussions, answer emails, and offer personal service.

5)      Tracking – measure and understand what people are saying by searching blogs, reading message boards, listening to feedback, and using advanced measurement tools.

WOM marketing really is about wowing your prospects and customers with something totally fresh and unexpected, something so remarkable that they just can’t help but tell others.

One of the most famous viral marketing campaigns ever is the BlendTec ‘Will it Blend’ marketing campaign where they created a series of videos showcasing the company blending a variety of unusual things – rakes, golf balls, phones, iPods, laser pointers, and really anything else you could think of. The campaign highlighted the power and durability of their blenders, while simultaneously entertaining its viewers. Talk about remarkable.  

So, what is unique about your company? How can you create something worth spreading, and what tools will you use to help it spread. Remember, you don’t have to nail it on your first try. Nobody knows what will work. Andy Sernovitz recommends planting 1,000 seeds – he says one of them is bound to bloom. Learn more

 If my experience in customer service here at PrintingForLess.com has taught me anything it is that referrals are the life-blood of small to medium businesses.  As much as 40% of our own new customers are a product of a referral.  This is the way to success for small to medium businesses and a step toward climbing out of the economic downturn.

 John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing, has come up with an immense idea that will allow individuals and small business owners around the country to take the matter of economic stimulus into their own hands.

 The idea is Make a Referral Week: A Small Business Stimulus Program.  It is a simple yet brilliant idea focused on driving referrals to small businesses around the country.  This event will take place March 9-13, 2009 and has a goal of 1000 referred leads to 1000 small businesses.  This virtual event will also feature daily education programs provided by a variety of marketing experts.  Individuals are encouraged to make at least one referral during the week and then record the details of the referral on http://www.makeareferralweek.com/.

 You can click on the image below to find out more about referral week and to make your pledge to participate.

 I am excited to participate in this event and thrilled about a week devoted to supporting the back-bone of the American economy, small-businesses.  We can make a difference.