Manhasset Minuteman Press

All companies can benefit from developing a consistent brand image. The brand definition and features may encompass everything from logos to color palettes to fonts, but it must be maintained consistently across marketing collateral, presentations, correspondence, and proposals. Your brand image may even influence your office décor, if you have logos or product photos as part of your furnishings. Keeping everything in sync is difficult, especially as time passes and the company grows or expands its product line. Here are a few tips to help you keep your brand elements consistent. 1. Develop a logo. In the long run, it pays to have a professionally created company or brand logo as the centerpiece of your company's identity. A custom logo doesn't have to be expensive, but it should be simple, eye-catching, and unique. Unless you're a graphic artist or you already have a great one on staff, work with a designer for logo creation. While there are libraries of standar

As the year draws to a close, many companies are preparing to review and develop their marketing plans for 2014. A solid marketing plan will articulate a vision for the company in the new year, including how the group is going to expand and what the revenue goals should be. Developing a solid plan requires quite a bit of forethought and planning. Here are the three steps that businesses should use to get themselves prepared for the upcoming year. 1. Determine where the company is going It's not enough to simply say that the company is going to make a certain amount of money in the upcoming year. A good marketing plan will determine what markets, geographical areas, and populations the business can expand into and how that will affect revenue. There should also be estimations about how much the company is depending upon past customers returning and what percentage can realistically be expected to spend again. 2. See how the company is going to get there This will enc

In today's ultra-competitive business landscape, your company is likely spending a good deal of money to generate leads and prospects for your products and services. Hopefully, these efforts are generating quality leads for your business. But what happens once those leads do contact you? You already know how important it is to follow up with your leads. But did you realize how important the "need for speed" really is? Here are some eye-opening statistics to drive home the point: Studies show that waiting more than five minutes to contact a lead after they have contacted you the first time results in a 46% lower qualification rate. Waiting another five minutes results in a 23% lower conversion rate. If you wait more than an hour to contact a lead, you're seven times less likely to convert them to a sale. In this instance, speed really does make a difference. This study suggests that by simply calling a new prospect within a minute of lead generation,

In today's ultra-competitive business landscape, your company is likely spending a good deal of money to generate leads and prospects for your products and services. Hopefully, these efforts are generating quality leads for your business. But what happens once those leads do contact you? You already know how important it is to follow up with your leads. But did you realize how important the "need for speed" really is? Here are some eye-opening statistics to drive home the point: Studies show that waiting more than five minutes to contact a lead after they have contacted you the first time results in a 46% lower qualification rate. Waiting another five minutes results in a 23% lower conversion rate. If you wait more than an hour to contact a lead, you're seven times less likely to convert them to a sale. In this instance, speed really does make a difference. This study suggests that by simply calling a new prospect within a minute of lead generation,

You know all about the importance of setting personal and business goals, but what about setting goals for your advertising? Such goals are also important to the success of your sales and marketing efforts. The three traditional goals of advertising are to inform, persuade, and remind. However, you should add one more goal to that list, especially if you run a small or medium-sized business. That goal is to break even on the cost of running your ad. If the ad makes money immediately, that's a bonus. Why just break even? Your strategy should be to create an ongoing relationship, not just a one-time transaction. You want to build a base -- a growing list of customers who come back to buy over and over again. Long-term growth and stability are the keys, not just one-time, short-term gains. "The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time." - Henry Ford Advertising your business is important. Advertising your b

There's something undeniably different about this time of year -- an almost palatable sense of wonder, excitement, joy, and possibility not always seen in our everyday routine. Amid the hustle and bustle of shopping, planning, and reconnecting with family and friends, we often find ourselves thinking back to seasons past -- and forward to the future with renewed energy and hope. For a few weeks each December, we're willing to suspend disbelief and imagine the possibility of what we cannot see. New York Sun writer Francis Church shared his thoughts on this very subject more than a century ago. "The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see," Church wrote. "Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world." Church addressed his commentary to Virginia O'Hanlon, an eight-year-old girl who had posed a very simple question: Is there a Santa Claus? While intended

If your business is looking for a creative way to increase name recognition and drive business, while at the same time giving back to your community and contributing to the common good, here are a few rewarding ideas to try: Distribute exclusive coupons for customers who bring a canned food donation to support the local food shelf. Post flyers at local organizations and sponsor a unique donation drive, such as "coats for kids" or "toys for tots." Team with a local shelter, hospital, or church to organize a giving tree, and encourage customers to take a tag and donate items to those in need. Find ways to encourage customers to participate in your goodwill efforts. For example, you could run a campaign such as "10 percent of all sales in December will be donated to XYZ charity." Create name recognition by volunteering as a team at local non-profit organizations and by sponsoring local charitable events. The holidays may be right around the corn

In social psychology, reciprocity refers to the natural human tendency to want to return a favor -- to give back after someone has shown generosity to you. You've no doubt experienced such times in your own life, when you've felt such a sense of appreciation for a kindness done that you felt inclined to respond in kind. That's what reciprocity is all about. Giving to Give -- and Build Relationships Of course, there is another type of reciprocity -- one born more from a sense of obligation than appreciation. But that first type (the one inspired by an act of generosity) offers a far more valuable return on the good deed done. Why? By inspiring feelings of goodwill, this type of reciprocity makes the recipient much more likely to return the favor willingly, rather than through a sense of duty. Why is this important to your overall business success? Because the person who reciprocates willingly will be much more likely to stick around to continue the relationship long-

These days, the Internet has asserted its ubiquity on everything from social media and e-commerce to the way consumers communicate and get information. That said, printing and paper-based marketing are still strong -- and that's not about to change anytime soon. In this context, it's either you adapt your ad copy to a mix of printing and digital or see your business fall by the wayside. We don't want that last part, do we? Here are a few key items to consider as you gradually reshuffle your mixture of print and electronic copy. Understand the cross-device reality The first thing to understand is the notion of "cross-device" reality. That means your ad content must be accessible and sharable across devices as diverse as personal computers, tablets, smartphones, and notebooks, as well as on the printed page. For example, if you produce a sales letter you plan to mail and make accessible online, make sure you also make it readable on mobile devices. Spe

When it comes to content marketing, you can try all the advertising, promotional, and PR ploys, but authenticity remains key. What is authenticity, you might ask? Simply stated, it means staying true to your business values: who you are, who you serve, and what you do. It may sound like a no-brainer, but very few companies are able to withstand internal pressures or external turbulence without losing their authenticity, according to a recent study. How to apply authenticity It all starts from the top, so set a vision that your company's personnel understand, embrace, and can implement. Then ensure that your "authenticity" motto aligns with your business goals, so you can clearly demonstrate to stakeholders such as investors and lenders that you have a growth strategy in place. Here's how to do that: Be real Sounds easy, right? But you'd be surprised how many companies lose their operational soul, delve into every sector deemed profitable, or adopt stra

If your business is planning to rebrand itself (whether through a name change, a new logo, a business merger, or some other means), remember the name and/or logo is not the only thing that changes. Rebranding can be a large-scale operation that involves effort from multiple departments. While your to-do list may seem endless, here are a few of the top items to consider to ensure your rebranding process runs smoothly: Create a list of all printed collateral that needs to be updated (such as letterhead, envelopes, business cards, flyers, brochures, labels, forms, notepads, and packaging). Give us a call anytime if you have questions about turnaround times, company colors, logo changes, quantity purchase discounts, or anything else related to your printing needs. Update your trade show booth, banners, posters, giveaways, company pens, name-tags, and other trade show related materials. Keep customers in the loop by mailing "we're changing our name" postcards, includi

In his classic poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Robert Frost speaks of taking a moment to watch the snow collect on the trees along a dark lane, presumably on his way to somewhere important. He closes with these lines: The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. As business professionals, we all struggle at times with similar feelings, conflicts, and doubts. We may want to stop for a moment in the middle of a busy day to enjoy a mental break, but in the back of our minds (or even the front sometimes), we can't shake the nagging sense that we should be focusing instead on the work that lies ahead. Like the narrator in Frost's poem, we, too, have promises we must keep -- commitments we've made to customers, vendors, employees, colleagues, family members, and friends. That can often mean long days, sleepless nights, and not a lot of extra time to w

We entrepreneurs want to do everything personally. This often includes menial tasks that can cost us money. Sure, we get the satisfaction of doing it ourselves, but that satisfaction comes at the cost of profit. Broken faucet? We're on the job! But the time spent fixing that plumbing is time we didn't spend on the business, and that lost time could have earned us far more than what we saved by doing the job ourselves. Making money is rarely about saving it. It's largely about getting more out of every second of every day. When people talk about the richest people in the world, they don't just talk about their net worth. Instead, they talk about how much money they make per second or per hour. That's because deep down, we all know that life is a marathon, not a sprint. It's about making proper use of our time so we make more money per hour. So how can we accomplish more in less time? Here are five ideas to get you started. 1. Focus on the Jobs Tha

Before we start, let's get one thing clear. This post is not about the copies we make for you on our copy machines. It's about the copy (text) that appears on your website and in your promotional materials. No matter what type of business you run, copy affects every part of your business. It's the cornerstone of your marketing, and it affects the executive team, the HR department, and every aspect of the organization. How? To answer that question, let's first take a look at what copy is and what it is not. Copywriting is the act of producing written text (copy). It's not the same as "copyright," which refers to one's legal right to produce and publish content. Wikipedia explains copywriting as "writing copy (text) for the purpose of advertising or marketing. The copy is meant to persuade someone to buy a product or influence their beliefs." That second part is especially important because it's the key differentiator between su

We entrepreneurs want to do everything personally. This often includes menial tasks that can cost us money. Sure, we get the satisfaction of doing it ourselves, but that satisfaction comes at the cost of profit. Broken faucet? We're on the job! But the time spent fixing that plumbing is time we didn't spend on the business, and that lost time could have earned us far more than what we saved by doing the job ourselves. Making money is rarely about saving it. It's largely about getting more out of every second of every day. When people talk about the richest people in the world, they don't just talk about their net worth. Instead, they talk about how much money they make per second or per hour. That's because deep down, we all know that life is a marathon, not a sprint. It's about making proper use of our time so we make more money per hour. So how can we accomplish more in less time? Here are five ideas to get you started. 1. Focus on the Jobs Tha

When it comes to content marketing, you can try all the advertising, promotional, and PR ploys, but authenticity remains key. What is authenticity, you might ask? Simply stated, it means staying true to your business values: who you are, who you serve, and what you do. It may sound like a no-brainer, but very few companies are able to withstand internal pressures or external turbulence without losing their authenticity, according to a recent study. How to apply authenticity It all starts from the top, so set a vision that your company's personnel understand, embrace, and can implement. Then ensure that your "authenticity" motto aligns with your business goals, so you can clearly demonstrate to stakeholders such as investors and lenders that you have a growth strategy in place. Here's how to do that: Be real Sounds easy, right? But you'd be surprised how many companies lose their operational soul, delve into every sector deemed profitable, or adopt stra

What benefit is a guarantee if nobody knows about it? Not only does a guarantee show confidence in your products and offer peace of mind to customers, but it may also give potential customers added incentive to purchase your product over another. A guarantee can be printed as a standalone certificate, added to a label, or included on all types of business signage, flyers, business stationery, receipts, marketing materials, website, email signatures, product packaging, yellow pages ad, and more. Here are a few tips when promoting a guarantee: Compare your guarantee to your competition. If your competitors don't offer a guarantee, this is an extra reason to promote your guarantee heavily. Create a unique tagline or slogan that focuses on your company's strengths, such as: "Hassle-Free Returns" or "Receive your lunch order within 30 minutes or it's free." Clearly explain your guarantee terms. For example: "We provide a hassle-free, money-back

In today's competitive business market, a 10 percent off coupon is rarely enough enticement to convince customers to purchase from you versus your competitor. Here are a few creative ideas to spice up your coupons: Offer something for free or a "buy one-get one" on a popular item. Customers love these types of deals, and they are a great way to entice people into your business. Design your coupons as an "admit one" type of event ticket to save on an exclusive list of items. Provide a coupon for a free bonus item or valuable upgrade. For example, purchase a haircut and receive a free shampoo and style. Provide a cash value discount rather than a percentage off (such as $10 off a $30 purchase), since a dollar amount is perceived as more valuable because it feels like cash. Offer a discount on a complementary product or service to convince the customer to buy other products they hadn't intended to purchase. Provide discounts for specific groups, such

If you've been in your business for any length of time, you've probably fallen into a routine set of habits that take up parts of every day. The dictionary defines a habit as "an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary." Sound familiar? You probably arrive at your office a certain time every day, maybe turn off the alarm, turn on the lights, make coffee, power up the computer, check emails, and so on. Some of these habits are positive, and some are negatives you're trying to overcome. These habits are often random and don't require much thought or deliberate action. They blend into the day-to-day fabric of life. A ritual is something quite different than a habit. A ritual is deliberate (not random) and carries with it a deeper meaning. A ritual is an act carried out on purpose with full consciousness that has a real reason behind it. A parent reading to a child every night is a deliberate ritual t

Competition is a part of business life. Some would argue that competition forces businesses to strive to get better at what they do for the fear of losing customers to rivals. Losing a few customers periodically is inevitable. However, losing too many (especially your best customers) must be avoided at all costs. For most businesses, the top 20% of their customers account for 80% (or more) of their profits. While much thought and strategy typically go into bringing in new customers, not enough is spent on retaining existing customers. That's where the real gold lies. It may be a little uncomfortable to think that some of your best customers might be looking at making a change, but it's something you must consider if you want to avoid having it become a reality. Everyone talks about taking care of their customers, but in many instances that's a phrase not truly backed up with action. To build a fence around your customers and keep them far away from the prying arms o

Many businesses thrive on the expertise of their owners, operators, or managers. This is particularly true of small businesses, especially service businesses. A great way to increase your business volume and increase the perceived value of your products and services is to communicate your expertise within your community. What Is Content Marketing? A lot of people think content marketing is a new, revolutionary theory. Really, though, it's based on the age-old principles of customer service. As you know, your customers lack your expertise. Traditionally, customers would come to you for advice, just like you would go to your printer for advice. You would then give them the information they needed to buy the right products and services to solve their problems. As the provider of that information, you would also get the sale. The Internet changed that. Fewer people are willing to go into a store to get the information they need. They're more likely to go online and seek o

One of the toughest parts of marketing and advertising is discovering creative, new ways to promote your business. It can be hard and frustrating work. One way to tackle this problem is to look for reasons to run a promotional campaign. Holiday promotions are a great example of this strategy at work. Holidays are a perfect excuse to promote your business. There are the popular holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Small Business Saturday. There are even some not-so-popular holidays. Whatever the occasion, here are some ideas to start taking advantage of this powerful marketing opportunity. Create a Holiday Marketing Calendar We're all busy running our companies. Planning and creating a holiday theme promotion takes time. It's easy to put it aside for later, but we all know "later" may never come. One of the best ways to remind yourself and not let a holiday pass without promoting your business is to create a calendar specifically for

You may think guerrilla marketing is dead, but really it's evolved with the times. If you haven't done the same, then you need to take a leap forward to get the most impact from your marketing dollars. What is Guerrilla Marketing? Jay Conrad Levinson coined the term guerrilla marketing in 1984 with the release of his book, Guerrilla Advertising. In military terms, guerrilla refers to an unconventional form of warfare used by armed civilians, often against a force with superior numbers and weaponry. It relies on surprise, sabotage, and the ability to hide among a crowd. Guerrilla marketing is a take on advertising that uses similar tactics to gain attention. The primary advantage of guerrilla marketing is its ability to increase a marketer's impact using less costly resources than traditional advertising. It relies on high energy, imagination, and ingenuity. The idea is to take your customers by surprise, make a lasting impression, and create the kind of buzz that

Marketing fads come and go. Marketers today have a bewildering array of choices never seen before. Consequently, busy business owners don't always know who to listen to in order to find what is working most effectively right now. Everyone can claim their systems and tools are the secret to a never-ending stream of prospects and customers. Is Direct Mail Worth Exploring For Your Business? Have you noticed that many of the Internet companies (like Google, among others) have been increasingly turning to direct mail to advertise their services? The reason is that old school direct mail worked long before the Internet and has been working for smart marketing in businesses all along. It just happened not to be the flavor of the day, thereby not getting much attention. Now that the furor and publicity surrounding the "free" aspect of social media marketing has settled into the reality that free doesn't necessarily equal real customers, smart marketers are looking