Most people know the value in having good business cards – it’s often the first impression people have of your business when you meet them in person. Picture this, you’ve met someone in person, and told them all about your great business and how you offer premium services and quality products. Then you hand them a less-than-amazing business card on thin paper. The picture you’ve painted doesn’t match the card you’re handing out to represent your company, so the pitch you’ve just made falls short. The fix for this scenario is pretty easy, make sure your cards match the kind of business you want to present.

Great business cards aren’t a fix for less than stellar products and services, of course. But they can represent the kind of company you know you have, and sell people on the fact that they need to remember you and get in touch with you later. MOO cards offer a great opportunity to give that lasting impression you’re looking for because they offer quality printing and nice, thick paper that gives the impression of quality.

Printfinity

The really unique thing about MOO cards though, is something they call Printfinity – you can have a different back design for each card in your pack. This is a great option for people that want to showcase products, portfolio items, or pictures but can’t choose just 1 to use. It gives your cards another visual element, which is also important when trying to stand out from the other cards out there. And when marketing and success in business is all about standing out, this is a great opportunity to do just that.

Print Options

MOO offers different sizes of cards, allowing you to get the traditional size or a mini card that’s half the size. Mini cards are always fun to receive and seem more special because they’re different than the rest. You can also get postcards, greeting cards, stickers, and labels. Tons of options for many of your print marketing needs!

MOO has a bunch of templates to choose from, or you can upload your own design to print whatever you like, so there are many options for getting your very own MOO cards.

After hearing lots of talk about MOO cards, Snoack Studios recently ordered some traditional size cards and we couldn’t be happier with them! We used the front to list out our services, and added a bit of design style and fun on the different backs. Check out their site to see what they have to offer, we think you’ll be pleased with any products you do order.

Has anyone else ordered from MOO? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

As 2011 is drawing to a close, we’re thinking forward to the new year and what it might bring. At Snoack Studios we like to take this time to think about our goals for the next year and start implementing our plans on making it a most prosperous year.

So we would like to issue this challenge to you all as you’re thinking of your goals – what could you do in the new year to propel your business to new heights and expand in new ways? We have some ideas to get you started, keep reading and see how some of these might fit in with your plans.

Social Media

Social media is such a great place to start connecting with new people and trying new things. The power of these sites is that it allows you to expand your reach geographically and socially. Your friends help you make new friends which spreads the word about your business easier than you could on your own. If you’re already on Facebook and Twitter, maybe it’s time to look into Google+. There are also tons of professional and business-specific social media sites like LinkedIn and Referral Key. Jump on board the social media bandwagon and expand your influence.

Online Marketing

There are tons of ways to market your services online. Facebook provides a great avenue to advertise to specific and targeted groups of people. It’s also relatively inexpensive and pretty easy to get started with. Google is also a great place to advertise, you can reach people locally, deciding how much you want to spend and for how long you want your campaigns to run. There are other places to market your services online, look into possibilities and try something new.

Shake It up

Maybe you’ve already tried some of those things, so maybe it’s time to try something new! Think about what’s best for your business and your audience. Have you tried:

• Participating in Groupon, Living Social or another coupon site
• Networking in your community
• Partnering with another complementary business
• Teaching a class or hosting a webinar for your company

It’s going to be different for each business, so think what’s best for you and your company. But definitely try something new! Step out of the box and your comfort zone and reach new heights this year. What are your plans for the new year and new things to try?

Cheers to a wonderful and prosperous year for you and your business!

It’s that time of year again – time to order your holiday cards with Snoack Studios! We would love to create cards for your family or your business that are funny, clever, professional, cute, beautiful or serious. Everyone’s style is different and we’ll help you come up with an original design that fits in with your needs and what you want to say. Our holiday cards can be any style, but our focus is always on a quality design which will be geared toward your audience, something that will catch their eye! We can assist with the printing as well, getting you all set and ready to go.  We’ll help make your holiday cards fun again!

Why order a custom holiday card design?

For your business

Holiday cards are a great way to thank your customers and colleagues for a wonderful year. They will appreciate that you took the time to think of them in this busy time. It’s also another marketing opportunity for your company, and a chance to really shine! You can show some personality and a little more fun that you normally would with your other marketing materials. Put together a silly picture of your staff, a collage of all the events you threw or attended that year, showcase some of your great projects, etc. You can also really have some fun with it and create a puzzle, a folding ornament, or a crossword puzzle. People enjoy extra special holiday cards and will hopefully think of you the next time they need services that you offer.

For your family

We all receive quite a few family holiday cards and it’s nice when you receive something that’s really different. Standard holiday cards don’t allow for many pictures and don’t always have the right look for your pictures and your family. They also don’t have a lot of space for customization or text. Custom cards allow you to do anything you like, creating the perfect look that will have all of your friends and family talking.

Lots of choices

There are so many different things to choose from for your cards. You can do a standard card folded at the top or the side, a tri-fold card, a postcard, or any other size you can think of. We can do just the front or the front and inside. We can also place a design on the envelope as well. The options are really limitless!

Get in touch with us today and we can help you decide what would work best for your company/family and price range. We look forward to working with you and creating some great holiday cards that you can really be proud of!

Many businesses follow the same marketing plan each year, although it’s always a great idea to incorporate new things every so often. Postcards are a great (new) idea to try, something that’s not really new but you might not have tried it before. They are considered a bit old-school, but there are lots of different ways to incorporate them into your marketing plans that could be a bit hit.

We’ll talk about some different ideas on how to use it, and hopefully give you a good starting point for including postcards in your next marketing idea.

Why postcards

As we mentioned above, it’s a great idea to change up your marketing plans every now and then, to see what works and what doesn’t work for your audience, geographic location, and your services. Everyone’s marketing plans will be different based on their needs. Using postcards is just another idea to change things up.

People aren’t  sending mail as much as they used to, so getting something in the mail feels even more special. Plus, something in the mail feels more sincere and heartfelt because it takes longer to put together and isn’t just an email, something we’re used to seeing everyday. Postcards can be quick and easy to put together though, and can give a more personal touch than a typical email.

Ideas on how to use it

There are tons of ways to use postcards other than the direct mail method, here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

• Send a thank you note to a client
• Give some of your best clients a coupon
• Thank your employees for a job well done
• Announce your updated website, and invite friends, family, colleagues, and clients to come see it

There are many printers out there that can get you started on some great postcards. Check out our Anniversary contest to win 100 postcards from NextDayFlyers.com, a postcard printing company.

Have you used postcards in your marketing plans? How has it worked for you?

*Thumbnail photo credit

Keeping in touch with clients and potential customers through email marketing is a great marketing technique and something your company should look into if you aren’t already utilizing it. The greatest reason that email marketing is beneficial is that it helps you to stay at the top of your customers’ minds.

Many people aren’t sure how to get started or what would be best for their company since there are so many different ideas out there. We’ll talk about some ideas today and give you all the info on getting started with it!

Why Use It

As I mentioned above, email marketing is so powerful because it puts you at the top of consumers’ minds, which is the best place to be when a purchasing decision is being made. The best thing you can do is to offer something of value with your emails and the people that receive them will in turn value your company. If you email once a month, you’ll be placing your name in front of a potential customer once a month and they’ll hopefully think of you when they go to purchase a product or service that you offer, simply because you reminded them that you’re there. Emails are also great because it’s easy to forward to a friend, track who opened it and customize. Also, people prefer different communications methods so it’s best to offer something for everyone.

Finding great content to send out is a key item in running successful email marketing campaigns. It’s best to tailor your emails to your specific audience, gearing the content, length and frequency to their tastes. People usually aren’t interested in reading lengthy articles through email, and they definitely won’t stay on your list if you don’t have something that they feel is valuable for them. So take some time in making these decisions and you’ll find that email marketing can be beneficial.

Email Services

There are many options out there for email services to use, you’ll want to choose one that suits your needs best. Snoack Studios offers an email program for our clients that’s flexible, customizable, and reasonable in price. But whichever service you use, make sure you find one that allows you to:

• customize your email template (or offers generic templates if that’s what works best for your budget)
• separate your list of emails into multiple groups
• track and analyze who opened the email, which links they clicked on, and other helpful information
• setup your emails quickly and easily, you’d be surprised how many popular email services are actually tough to use

Other Advice

When to send: There are different schools of thought on this debate, but I recommend you do what’s best for your audience. If you aren’t sure what’s best, do some testing of your own and find out what gets you the best open rates. At Snoack Studios, we send our email newsletter once a month, during the middle of the week, near the 1st of the month and that works out great for us.

What to talk about:  As I mentioned above, make it valuable for your subscribers, and this will include different things for each company. You can talk about upcoming specials, company news, resources your clients would enjoy, or pass along information that would help them.

How to build your list: I recommend starting with your current and past clients so you can reach out to them regularly and stay at the top of their mind. You can also add people you network with or others you meet but make sure you get their permission before you add them. It’s also a great idea to add a signup form anywhere you can, your website, facebook page, blog, etc.

How to make it your own: Customizing your email template is a great way to make your emails stand out and ensure that it follows your branding and looks like your company. Plain emails aren’t nearly as fun as nicely designed ones, so spend some time thinking about what would work best for your company. Snoack Studios can help you with a design that is custom and tailored to fit in with your needs, see some of our designs that we’ve done for other companies.

Avoid spam: The CAN-SPAM Act is a federal law that went into effect to control spam and regulate emails being sent out in mass quantities. Every email service has its own rules by they all abide by the CAN-SPAM Act so make sure to review the regulations and stay within the guidelines of it.

Email marketing can be really fun and very beneficial if you do it right. Build your list, customize your template and find the right service that matches your needs. Enjoy!

Wednesday Call Solutions is a webinar group, run by Pamela Bir and I, for business owners and professionals that are looking to learn more about social media, blogging, productivity, Microsoft Office, and more. The group holds two webinars per month on different topics that are relevant in today’s business world.

The second Wednesday of the month covers a social media related topic and the fourth Wednesday of the month covers a more general business topic, including things like Microsoft Office training, photo editing skills, and productivity techniques.

The Group

The group started last year but we’ve recently revamped the format and added a lot of cool things so I wanted to give the group a shout out to let you know what’s coming up so you don’t miss out!

Pamela Bir, owner of Your Computer Lady, and I started the group, and geared it towards business owners and working professionals. The webinars are discussion-based so everyone can participate and ask questions. Someone leads each class but we all learn together through participation and each other’s experiences. We decided to revamp a bit for the fall season, to add more value to the webinars and a bit more structure overall. But the same idea is present, with the same great organizers working to bring you great topics and conversation!

Webinar Topics

We’ve got a great list of topics for the fall and winter seasons that we think you’ll find interesting and relevant in the business world. You can see the upcoming webinar topics on our Facebook page under the Events tab. We add more regularly so make sure to like our Facebook Page to stay informed.

The webinars are run through GoToMeeting, a great software that allows everyone to hear each other on the call. We monitor sound on each call, making sure it doesn’t get too loud or have too much background noise so we can stay productive and informative for all. Sometimes all callers are muted but there is always a chat box where people can participate and ask questions.

The power in the group is that it’s not just a class, it’s a discussion. Business training is often expensive and hard to get to when it’s convenient for you. So our format allows you to connect from your home or office  computer so you don’t have to take time to drive to the class. If you can’t make a call during the live session, we record each webinar and make it available for those that subscribe.

How Do I Connect?

A monthly subscription, which includes both webinars for the month, is $20/monthly. You can pay through PayPal under the Webinar Signup tab on our Facebook Page. We’ll send a PayPal invoice each month so you don’t have to remember to keep signing up to stay connected. Each webinar is also available for $15 a piece.

GoToMeeting connection information for each webinar will be available on our Facebook Page under each event on the Events tab. Please check this early so you’re ready and prepared to log in. Each webinar starts on the 2nd or 4th Wednesday of the month (with the exception of some holiday weeks) at 10am Central Standard Time.

Join Us

We would love to have you participate in the group and help you grow as a business owner and working professional. We would also love to hear any feedback on the group, including topic ideas and questions regarding our upcoming topics, which will be answered on the call.

Hope to see you at our next webinar on Wednesday, September 14th to kick off our fall season. We’ll be discussing LinkedIn Search, see how using the search function on LinkedIn could help your networking and bring in more potential business!

Read more about WCS
See our Facebook Page
See our LinkedIn Group

See you there!

Promoting your own company online is a great way to expand your audience, but you can only do so much on your own. Allowing and encouraging others to help you promote the company is a powerful way to expand your audience to include more people, reaching more potential customers. Setting yourself up for promotion is the key to making this happen. So the question is, how do you become more promotable, and encourage others to help you in this process? Today we’ll talk about several ideas to help you become more promotable which will hopefully increase your online audience and expand your business.

Create shareable content

Blogging is the greatest way to encourage people to continually visit your site and share your content repeatedly. Adding valuable and relevant content on your blog is also important, otherwise people won’t feel inclined to share it. Write about things that your clients and potential customers will find interesting, and they will most likely have friends that they want to share the great content with as well.

Add sharing buttons

Including sharing buttons on each blog post and on your website is a smart way to allow people to share your content quickly and easily. Making the process of sharing really simple and quick for your users is important for those that will click the like button on a post when they like it, but won’t make the effort to copy and paste the url on Facebook. You get the same effect from both types of promotion so allow people to share in the way they like best.

Be active on social media profiles

Make sure you have some active social media profiles for your company. You don’t need to be active in every social media application out there, but make sure you’re active in a few that are beneficial for you, ones that include your target audience. Interact on a weekly/daily basis to let users know that you’re actively involved. When people interact with your content, they are in turn promoting your social media profile, and your business.

Encourage comments and conversation

This is always tough to do, but it’s an important step in online promotion. The more people that comment on a Facebook status update, the more times you show up in their friends’ News Feeds, which in turn will result in more potential people coming by your profile to check it out. The more you can get your name out there the better! So find new ways to encourage comments on your social media profiles and blog posts.

Most of these ideas are simple and easy enough to do, but they are important steps in making sure that your company is promotable online. Create a great online community for your company and you’re setting yourself up for great success in business.

What’s your favorite way to encourage promotion online?

It’s common knowledge that a logo is a necessity for any business today. But many small business owners don’t know the process, time, and thought that goes into the creation of that powerful tool, and the impact it can have for your company. Someone once equated displaying a poorly designed site for your company the same as wearing pajamas to an interview for a new job. You wouldn’t want to appear unprofessional and nonchalant about what they think of you, and your company shouldn’t either. The same thought can be applied to your logo, it represents you in everything that you do, so you must put your best foot forward with it.

The Design Process

A logo is packed full of meaningful information, and much of it is communicated through color, layout, and typography. Because it’s such a meaningful piece, a designer must consider many factors. All of these factors are combined to make up a mark that communicates the very essence of your company. It must speak about:

• your company’s values and character
• what your industry is and what you sell or do
• who your target audience is
• and everything else that makes up your company

A logo isn’t something that can be whipped together, because you can’t package up all of those things into something meaningful without giving it ample time, thought and consideration about the best way to do so. We like to start with an information gathering and brainstorming process which helps to bring together ideas and inspiration to start from, and this isn’t something to rush through. Then, we sketch out tons of ideas until we’re satisfied and then bring it all on the computer. After deciding on the best fonts to use, the most appropriate colors to select and the best layouts to utilize, we have a complete and power-packed product to deliver.

Your Logo is Everywhere

This tiny piece of artwork is the cornerstone of every marketing piece you use. Think of everything that has your logo on it:

• your website
• business cards
• brochures
• employee manuals
• invoices
• letterhead
• faxes
• name tags, etc.

Everything that your company owns has your logo on it, because that’s what distinguishes your company and makes it yours. Therefore, your logo is often the first impression customers have of your company, by whatever medium they see it in, and they’ll use it to judge your services and the quality of your company. Making that impression count is important and imperative.

Quality Counts

We believe that quality counts and that every logo should have meaning and power for the company that it represents. We challenge your small business to not settle for something that isn’t top-notch. Every person that comes into contact with your company is a potential customer or a potential referral, don’t lose that opportunity with a subpar logo that turns them off. Choose quality and make sure your company shines.

Contact Snoack Studios to see what we can do for your company!

Growing your online circle isn’t a popularity contest. Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and email subscribers are all potential customers, so growing your database of people is a great way to grow your business and spread the word about your company. However, you don’t want just anyone on your list in order to be truly beneficial for your company. They need to be people that might be interested in your services, your target audience. You don’t just want to get a ton of people but you want quality people on your list. There are tons of ways to spread the word and promote your online profiles, but today we’ll focus on one awesome tip in particular.

As a small business owner, getting people to click the like, follow, or subscribe button can be a challenge at times. But a great way to entice people in is to give them something of value. Give them something that is relevant to your company and its services, something that will benefit them, and make them want to join your group of followers. It could be a pdf download with tips, a $10 off coupon, or access to a special page on your site that only fans can see. It can be something different for each of your different social media areas, but it’s a great way to show what you’re about and how your company can provide value to them.

For example, Snoack Studios provides a free pdf download when you sign up for our email newsletter. It’s something small, but we feel it provides some valuable information for business owners and professionals, and it’s relevant to our company. We promote it in the sidebar of our blog, on our Facebook page, and on our site where you can sign up for our email newsletter.

Make it valuable

I’ve seen this trick used quite a bit, although sometimes in a not-so-elegant way. Don’t make it spammy or cheesy, but give them something they can use. Resources, tips, tricks, or knowledge are great things to give away. They are free and simple to put together, but your potential customers will appreciate the gesture and in turn they will appreciate your company. If you’ve made it valuable for your target audience, and someone wants to download your freebie, chances are they might make a good customer for you.

Make it easy

The best thing you can do is to make it super simple for people to get. As soon as they sign up, there’s the download. Don’t make them jump through 5 hoops to get it, or wait a day, or anything like that. If they don’t get immediate satisfaction, or it doesn’t work out, they will likely be disappointed and that feeling will carry over to how they feel about your services.

Make it worth their while

Once they sign up for your email newsletter, or fan your Facebook page, keep the great stuff coming. You don’t have to continually give away great free stuff, but don’t fall flat either. Make them feel welcome, involved, and grateful that they signed up to get more information from you.

This trick isn’t new or revolutionary, but it does work well if you execute it properly. Growing your online circles is a great way to grow your business, so try this out today!

Have you used this before? How did it work for your company?

Defining your target audience is a step that should be taken early on when starting a business. In order to create any kind of marketing materials you must know who you’re planning to sell to and what would appeal to them. Only after coming up with these crucial things can you take steps to reach these people.

Defining a target audience is more than guessing who might be interested in your services. It’s about defining a specific person or group of people, getting detailed and specific so that you know their wants and needs and how your company fits in with those desires.

Define

Start the process by defining your “ideal customer.” In order to define your target audience you must carefully consider many different things, getting as specific as possible in order to best define who you want to reach. Sometimes the person you want to reach isn’t the person you are reaching, so think about who you want to target.

• What age is your ideal customer?
• Where do they live?
• What does this person like to do?
• What kinds of things appeal to them?

The more specific you can be with your “ideal customer” the better you can target them. Many businesses say that they want to appeal to everyone so that they don’t alienate anyone. However, when you have a poorly defined target audience (or try to appeal to everyone) you aren’t able to really appeal to anyone. As a small business you need to find your niche and own it. Only huge places like Target and can get away with appealing to the masses and do it well. Small businesses must find a target and market to them in order to really reach people.

Discover

Once you’ve defined who your target audience is, you have to use this information to think about how to appeal to them. Different marketing tactics work better for different age ranges, sexes, geographic regions, and social classes. This is why it helps to be specific. If you’re targeting young male teens in California who like to surf, you’ll use different methods than if you’re targeting 40 year old men in New York who own businesses.

Think about colors, typography, textures, and styles that may appeal to your target audience. Subtle changes to your style can change who you appeal to, so don’t think that you need to be really blatant in order to reach your target audience. Sometimes the addition of a faint curve or soft look can make your website look more feminine. So it’s best to think about your target audience and your company’s character to decide what will work best for you.

Revisit

Even after your company has been in existence for a while, it’s a good idea to revisit who your target audience is, and see if it still fits in with who you want to reach. Your services and products may shift focus over time, and thus your audience will shift too. Or, you may decide you want to sell a higher-end product, so your marketing tactics will need to change in order to reach a different type of person. Make sure you always know who you’re aiming to reach and how to best appeal to them. This is the best way to reach the most amount of people.

As you can see there’s a lot that goes into defining your target audience and it’s important to really know who these people are in order to really reach them. It’s a large part of any business and is crucial to the success of your marketing materials, your products and your business itself.