Businesses large and small are looking to get the most out of their marketing budgets. Here are 5 ideas you could consider to get more from own marketing activity.
Electronic stationery
For some businesses, recipe printed letterheads are no longer required to maintain communications with their customers or suppliers. We’re not saying letterheads are dead – but with print costs and postage costs increasing it makes sense to send letters and invoices electronically.
Without losing the professional image that you get with branded headed paper you could have your letterhead design converted into a Word template that you can save as a PDF and email for a significantly reduced cost to sending in the post.
Email Marketing
Keep in touch with your existing contacts and grow your network. Email marketing is an effective way to keep in touch with your network of contacts to remind them of your service. It’s important to remind them that you are there but also a good opportunity to tell them something new.
We recommend MailChimp as a cost-effective way of managing your Email Marketing. It is important that your message is targeted and that you keep it simple. Any don’t forget to make it easy to share your message through social media or email to help grow your network.
Printing in bulk
Not always an easy one to do but better planning of your printed activity will allow cost savings by printing similar jobs together. A good example of this is printing business cards which if you have a few names can be more cost effective if printed at the same time.
There are also some printing operations that are emerging that offer reduced rates for printing your job full colour instead of a special colour. This can offer savings because the printer doesn’t have to change the printing press from CMYK to special colours between jobs.
Digital Print
Digital printing refers to the type of printing operation used versus the more traditional method of Litho printing. Read more about the difference here. Digital Printing lends itself to smaller quantities from 1-1000 depending on the physical size of the job. Costs are generally saved here in set up of the print because there isn’t a need for printing plates to be produced and changed over.
The quality of digital print is almost equal to Litho print and if you use a supplier with an HP Indigo printing press the difference is very difficult to recognise. Digital print is a great option if your message or marketing material changes regularly. You can print in smaller amounts and your marketing can be more personal because every item can be different.
Hootesuite for Social Media
Using Social Media to promote your service or product to a wider audience is a must in today’s society. The main point many users of social media is the time it takes to manage all of the different interactions.
If you’re not using Hootesuite or a similar platform to manage your social media then definitely take a look. It allows you to manage all your interactions on Twitter, no rx Linkedin, Facebook and Google+ all through one interface allowing you to market your business more effectively and save time.
More ideas?
The ideas listed above are just a few tips to get you started. Do you have any other simple ideas that businesses could use to get more out of their marketing budget?