• Name, Title
• Company Name
• Best Phone
• Fax or E-Fax
• Email
• Website
• Company Logo
• Address (if you need to)

Yeah, yeah, yeah…That’s not what this post is about.  I want to help make your business cards a little more memorable and useful to those who receive it.  After all, your business card is probably the most important form of print material there is.

First, lets outline some key design features.  Take all the business cards you have compiled over the last couple years, lay them on the table, look at them all at once for 30 seconds, then note which ones your remembered.  Some key differences between the ones you remembered and the ones you didn’t might be:

• Pop of color:  Those cards that had a lot of white space with a pop of a bright red, blue, or whatever color usually get remembered.
• Background color:  Most business cards have a white background.  If you use a darker, solid color like black with text that pops and is still easy to read, your card will be more memorable than most.
• Orientation: Although personally I’m not a big fan, cards that are vertically oriented tend to get remembered more than those with the standard horizontal orientation.
• Text Orientation: Everyone uses horizontal text.  If you, or a graphic designer you work with can integrate angled text onto your business card while still keeping it pleasing to the eye, go for it!
• Double Sided:  Why keep the backside of your card blank?  It doesn’t cost much more to print on both sides (at least with TC), so I say, do it!  You don’t want to jam too much information onto a one sided card, so if you need more room, go to the back.
• Your Brand: No matter what else you choose, be sure to remain cohesive with your companies brand.
• Creative Design Elements:  I’ve seen some really creative cards (like these) that are sure to be remembered by all.  My only hesitation with some of these cards is their ease of storage.  If they can still co-mingle will your standard business card storage, all the better.  If some of the design elements make them hard to hold onto, I worry they will get lost once the hype is gone.

Now that we have some of the creative design techniques covered, how about we delve into some more useful content for your business card.

• Social Media:  If you use social media well, you most certainly need to get that information on your card.  Such a valuable marketing medium needs to be exposed to potential new ‘likes’ or ‘followers’ whenever possible.
• QR Codes:  This is a fantastic way to use QR Codes.  I hate when people put them on websites, it’s silly.  They are made for print marketing.  Place one on the back of your business card so that when it’s scanned it takes people to a specific landing page on your website.  Very, very beneficial.
• Testimonials: People love to see businesses that come with testimonials.  It makes them feel ‘safer’ when deciding to work with you.
• Coupons/Referrals:  No matter what your business, coupons are loved by all!  Not only do they love saving money, but you bet they are going to hold onto the card.  You can also promote any kind of referral rewards program that your company offers.
• Services:  If your business can get general sounding in nature, it doesn’t hurt to be specific about some of your services.  You don’t want people to call someone else over you because they didn’t realize you could help them.
• Directions: When you have a physical location that customers need to visit, making sure they can find it is always a plus.  Even consider GPS coordinates since most people use navigation systems today.
• Tagline: Great taglines need to be promoted.  If they are memorable, then they need to be on your business card.

Keep in mind, while all these ideas are great, don’t go trying to do every last one of them on your next card.  Too much information is just as bad as not enough.  You don’t want to frustrate potential clients.  Pick the most important elements and use them.  You could even print a couple difference versions and see which ones get the best response.

Hope this helps bring some creativity to your business cards!

In writing this blog post, I hope to enlighten you on some of the most important print material you will need for your small business.   The list below outlines those basic documents.  Every business is going to need ‘industry specific’ documents in addition to this list.  Take the time yourself to make these items, or contact a marketing/design firm for assistance.

The design or ‘look’ of your print material will, without a doubt, have an impact on your clients decision making process.  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard potential customers say, ‘Look at these two business cards.  Which company would you want to work with?’  Keep that in mind when you are working to compile these documents for your company.  Saving a couple extra bucks by doing it yourself could lose you more business in the long run.

• Business Cards
• Brochure/Flyer about your company/services
• New Client Packets
• Invoice/Sales Slips
• Letterhead
• Envelopes
• Presentation Folder
• System of Letters: Welcome, Thank You, Referrals, Recommendation Request

Those are just some of the basic, must-have items.  You need also to keep in mind that it is very important to have a consistent design theme throughout all of them.  This is referred to as a ‘brand’.  If each piece looks different, you are going to give an impression that is only memorable in a negative way.  Avoid that and keep your brand/design cohesive.

Also, consider the type of ‘material’ you are using to print these documents.  Quality print material can make all the difference.  What pound paper, the finish, color or black and white, etc. all matter in the world of visual communications. You may have to pay a little extra to get a nicer foundation, but that’s what your entire business is built on so you better make it a strong one!

Remember, BE A SHOW OFF!  To get clients you need to be more than good at what you do, you need to present yourself in a professional manner so new clients are willing to move forward with your company, and so repeat clients keep coming back for more.

If you missed any of our blog posts from January, you can view them here: Importance of Lead Tracking; Kicking off 2012′s Marketing Events; and Setting Goals.

Now it’s time to work on marketing, and put your lead tracking mechanisms to work for you.  Have your backup plan ready if the results aren’t as they should be after 3-6 months.

If you have any questions throughout the year, please don’t hesitate to contact us here at TC.  We would love to help answer any questions, or even provide you with some affordable consulting advice to really kick that marketing plan into high gear.

In the months that come, we will be posting on topics such as: important print material for your business, positioning your company, appreciating your current clients, unique selling propositions, and much more.

Stay tuned, and Happy Marketing!

In most cases, this data can be very easy to compile.  Have the office secretary keep a tally sheet next to the phone and ask the simple question, ‘How did you hear about us?’, with each new call.  This will tell you where people are seeing your business information – yellowbook, drive by everyday on the way to work, someone referred them, website, Google, etc.  It will also tell you where your marketing dollars are best spent.

Now, tracking leads can also get a little more complicated when it comes to website analytics, seo, social media, blog ROI and things of that nature, and when you business is ready to grow to that level, consulting a marketing firm may be your best option.

Let’s get back to the who, what, when, where and why of lead tracking.  Attaching this data to your new leads will enable you to see your typical consumer in a whole new, more profitable light. Now, don’t go asking all these questions during the first phone call, relationship marketing is needed to help build this profile for each consumer.  This is where most businesses lag.  Each consumer is unique and needs to be treated as such.

WHO: age, gender, income level, education, salary

WHAT: specific service/product they were looking for, do they need other services/products

WHEN: why did they call now, time of day they contact you, time of day they opened your emails, frequency they need your services

WHERE: where do they live (some business is very local, some is countrywide),where did they find your information (print, or internet)

WHY: why do they need your help/product, for them or is it a gift

Being able to describe your consumer with such great detail enables you to market more precisely, therefore creating a better return on your marketing investment.

Email TC at kim.bartells@gmail.com for some basic, free forms to help you start tracking leads successfully.  Starting with a strong foundation in lead tracking and nurturing is going to help expand your business year in and year out.

Not sure where to start?  Email TC – kim.bartells@gmail.com – and we will send you our free calendar of events forms for both your database of current clients and general marketing efforts.

Once you have these forms in hand, sit down and start brainstorming.  Write down, not only the marketing efforts that you would like to try, but also the marketing efforts that have failed in the past.  You can learn a lot from failure, and it can make you become more creative when brainstorming new strategies.

Next, start working on creating these marketing ‘events’ now.  Have them ready to go long before you plan on implementing them.  This will allow you time to process and possibly improve upon each marketing occurrence.  Last minute, thrown together marketing usually is not worth the money, or time spent.

A very useful tip that TC recommends and sets up for their clients:  a Google calendar specifically for their marketing.  Reminders are emailed when tasks need to be completed at set intervals.  CRM tools can be extremely useful as well, but are a little more complicated to implement.

Get started, and feel free to call, or email us if you have any questions along the way.  We would love to help make 2012 a great year for your small business.  Don’t forget to email us for our free Calendar of Events forms!

Your goals need to be attainable, yet challenging, and we need to outline them in detail.

Say you want to increase sales by 10%.  That’s a great goal, but it’s way too general.  Lets get specific about it.

What sales do you want to increase – up-sells? repeat customers? new customers? cross sells?  What will the breakdown be between each category of sales – 3% up-sells, 5% repeat customers, 2% new customers, 0% cross sells?

How do you plan to generate those new sales – email marketing? cold calls? print advertisements? social media? video marketing? relationship marketing?

It’s important to not only be specific about your goals, but to outline how you plan on reaching them.  Maybe you were hoping that you could increase sales simply by implementing an email marketing campaign.  Three months into it you may not be on track with meeting your goals, and because you don’t have a back-up plan, you just give up and hope for the best when you sit down with your accountant at the end of the year.  Hey, you tried, right?

You need to write out specific objectives, time frames and back-up options you can implement if things don’t go as planned.

This brings up the topic of accountability.  If there is no one holding you accountable when it comes to reaching these goals, do you think you will be more, or less likely to succeed?  Find a friend, or business partner you can trust to hold you accountable to your goals.  That doesn’t mean you can’t have a month where you are off the mark a little, it just means there is someone there to talk to you about how you are going to fix it for the next month.

A lot of these tasks can be time consuming and frustrating if you’re not sure which direction to go.  Consider working with a marketing consultant like TC who can sit down with you, outline your goals, help you track your progress and hold not only you, but themselves accountable when goals aren’t met.  Consultants exist because they can increase your businesses bottom line by  more than enough to justify their cost.

In the next week or so, get out a pen and paper and write down some simple goals.  Hang it somewhere you will see it everyday.  Once a week, check your progress.

The idea of checking your progress brings up the importance of lead tracking.  Where are the leads coming from?  What marketing efforts are working better than others?  We will discuss the importance of tracking in our next post and will be providing you with FREE FORMS to help you accomplish the task.

Until then, happy goal setting!

Some things that may have been on your goal sheet:
• Consistent marketing plan
• Building a presence on social media sites
• Create more organized business systems
• Find ways to reduce spending while still maintaining sales
• Update website more often
• Stay in contact with past clients
• Get an email newsletter going

I could go on.  The reality is…these are hefty goals for a small business to handle on their own, all in one year.  Most small business owners are the sales department, marketing department, accountant, social media guru, and web designer.  However, there are only so many hours in the day, and just ‘running the business’ takes up most of them.

This year be a little easier on yourself.  The above list is too overwhelming.  Pick ONE or TWO items off that list and focus solely on them.  Once they are complete, then you can move on to others.  Think quality over quantity.

My recommendation: Look first at your budget from last year.  What were you spending money on that worked? Failed? Didn’t even use?  Trim back as much as you can, then apply the difference to your chosen area(s) of focus.  Whether that means hiring a company to help, buying a nicer system to speed up processing, or testing out a completely new service.

As small business owners we need to learn from our mistakes.  Looking back over our budget can sometimes be the best teacher.  Be sure not to waste those important lessons.  Whether you realize it or not, you spent a lot of money on them.

Wishing everyone a prosperous and efficient 2012!

Below are some tips on how to improve your ads and descriptions so as to generate more interest and more leads.

• Great Headline.  Take your time on this.  A great headline is what makes someone read the rest of the ad.  Without it, great body copy won’t even matter.  Be creative and drive people to read further by using their emotions.

• Copy that’s short and sweet.  This isn’t the time to go into details.  Say the best highlights of your product or service that you know customers are in need of.  Details can be on a website, or can be explained when you get them on the phone.  After all, that’s the end goal of an ad, right?  Drive calls to you and/or traffic to your website.

• White space.  Don’t clutter an ad with every single service you offer (or every single feature a home offers).  Pick one and market only that one item per ad.  Then, use creative imagery and leave some white space.  It’s easier on the eyes and, therefore, more appealing to read.

• For Realtors – Listing Descriptions: First, you’re not writing about every upgrade in the last 10 years.  You want to paint a picture of what life could be like if they bought the house.  Pick 5 of the best features, and write only about them. We all know the Dining Room is off the Kitchen.

In addition to your website, these links should also be on your email signature, business cards & other marketing material.

It’s really easy, guys…

Insert the picture on your site and then just copy and paste the link that directs them to your individual account pages.  Literally, it takes 10 seconds.  If you want to get more advanced, you can insert the code for a Facebook Badge or code that shows your recent twitter posts.

Any increase to a somewhat free marketing avenue will greatly help your business.  In 2011, it should be a must for all.

What’s even more telling, though…their customers HATE IT!  But, why?  I believe this is because people buy the ‘name’ not necessarily the coffee.  They want everyone to know they are drinking Starbucks.  For Starbucks to forget this major principle is mystifying.  They have created a story about their coffee that their customers believe and want to share.  This story has enabled them to charge more per cup of coffee than most others.  You can’t forget that, Starbucks!  People aren’t just buying your coffee because it tastes great, they are buying it for its image.

Interesting lesson in marketing for any business…It’s not just about the product, it’s about the story behind the product and the image it paints in the customers mind.