A topic that is of great interest to most businesses is how to get more people to buy their products or services. Three factors affect your ability to get more business - people, product and promotion.

Of the three, promotion has the ability to affect a business positively or negatively the fastest. Products and services in most industries today are very similar so there is little that is totally different from the competition. People are always key to a successful operation. If you have competent people working with you, you have a definite competitive advantage. If you have a good product and good people then it comes down to promotion. The business with the better promotion wins. But marketing and promotion is expensive, so how or where can you find the money to promote like you know you need to?

Maintaining a marketing budget can be tough. If you are not promoting yourself regularly - you are essentially "trying to sell a secret" and you are losing business. Having said that, when it comes to promotion, having the money to do so is obviously important.

Many businesses do not have a budget per se or worse have no marketing plan. At least when you have a plan there is a tendency to find the money to support the plan.

The definition of the word budget is the amount of money needed or available for a purpose. Your purpose is to get more customers. How much will it take to get the customers you need to take your business to the next level? I have found by experience, to generate sales, it takes more money and effort than you think.

How to Create a Marketing Budget For Sure Fire Growth

Marketing With QR Codes

Android and iphones smart phones are changing the way we market. These mobile devises give customers instant access to the Internet everywhere. On the move consumers can now find and seek out information about your business while at the beach, in their car or sitting at the park with no more than a cell phone. Potentially with GPS taking the customer right up to your door. There is a relative new technology that can tie printed media to electronic generating more sales for your business.

Surely you've noticed a QR code in a magazine, flyer, or at a trade show? QR codes are typically a square box that resemble a barcode that are designed to be scanned by a smart phone in order to reveal a web link or marketing message. The term QR means Quick Response and they effectively tie in printed media to the Internet. The Internet instantly makes any business a world wide business putting you (potentially) in front of millions of people. For a long time one of the cons about the Internet was how to get people to finding you. People have to know your web address or enough about you to do a search. A general search lists tens of your competitors along with you. You can bypass this by including a QR code which directs the customer or prospect directly to your web landing page, coupon offer or your tube video. What does this mean to you?

It means you can combine the target-ability and direct response of direct mail with the benefits of electronic to generate more sales. There are some tips you should know to using QR codes.

Let me ask you this, if there were no obstacles in your way what would your business look like in 2012? How much would your sales be? How would your business be operating? How much more time would you have to spend with your family? How would it look if everything were exactly like you wanted it?

To get where you want to go you have to have a plan. Sitting down and creating a Strategic Plan for your company will pull you mentally out of the day-to-day and help you to develop the overall "Big" picture for your business.

There was a wise man who once said in order to succeed you have to plan your work and work your plan. I have known people who spent more time planning where they were going on vacation than they spent planning their future. In this economy if you are not planning to succeed you are planning to fail.

The rest of this article covers the simple steps of putting together a Strategic Plan. A Strategic Plan is the "Big" picture for your business. If you want to have huge success in 2012 and beyond this could be one of the most important tools you can have.

I know that the practical side of you likes to save money. While the entrepreneur in you wants a little flash accented with professionalism, we have developed a product that will appeal to both sides of you. This product will help generate sales, build your corporate identity and give you a professional presentation of your products and services while being easy on your pocket book.

Any business that has a sales force, sells business-to-business, sells a product or service that is a larger ticket item or a product that has a potential of a repeat sale probably uses a pocket folder to put sales materials in. Let me ask you this - if you use pocket folders in your business would you like to know how to save 30 to 70 percent of the cost of printing them?

The new product we developed is called Tabbed Presentation File FoldersÒ. Traditionally pocket folders were used to keep sales materials together. They look great, have pockets to put stuff but can be expensive especially if you want a full color folder. You would also need to order quantities from 500 to 1000 to keep the cost per folder down. A full color folder could cost over $1.30 per depending on the quantity you order. As useful as pocket folders are there are a couple of problems with them:

• One, they will not fit in a standard file drawer. Which means your customer will take your materials and put the contents in a file folder and throw your $1.30 pocket folder away. Boom, your pretty pocket folder is done, in the trash and with it your money.

• Two, the cost of a pocket folder (especially full color) makes them impractical to print in quantities smaller than 1000 or 1500.

The solution is a Tabbed Presentation File FolderÒ. These folders are printed in full color on both sides. They have a tab where your company name and phone number is.

• These folders cost 30-70 percent less than a traditional pocket folder. Saving you a lot of money.    *To see an example of a Tabbed Presetentation File Folder click read more tab.
  

When was the last time you updated your corporate identity package? Is it time to update? Take the following test to get an idea if it is time to update and improve your materials and image.

1. Do your marketing materials, brochures, business cards, website etc. all have different looks?
2. Was it more than 3 years since you last updated your materials?
3. To save money are you handing customers things you printed from your office copier?

If you answered yes to the above questions it is time to update your materials. The lack of attention to your businesses image and appearance is costing you sales?

Graphic Designing Tips For Do-It-Your Self Design.

You worked hard to design your post card or brochure. It looks like a masterpiece on your computer monitor. You send it to your printer and it comes out difficult to read. Or you just can't seem to make the words to pop off the page.

The main impact of your piece comes from the words you use. Photos contribute to the impact of the piece but usually you will need the written word to communicate a message. Being able to simply read the words is a large part of the effectiveness of your piece. What affects readability? Font and type style are part of the answer. What font you choose can determine the overall readability and effectiveness of your piece. You also have to know that some fonts will look good on a computer monitor but will not have the same affect when printed, and vice versa. Another factor is that some fonts are compatible with each other and others are not. You do not usually want to have more 2 than different fonts on a piece, because it causes confusion for the eye travel and is difficult to read.

Balancing beauty with readability can be challenging. Below are some terms you need to know when designing your piece. Keep these things in mind as you choose a typeface and lay out the text on your next post card, brochure or flyer:

X-height. X-height refers to the size of a lowercase x in a given typeface. The larger the x-height, the denser the type will appear on the page, and the less readable it will tend to be.

Five Basic Elements to Increasing Your Advertising Results

When you advertise you want to, need to get a result, a return on investment. Your promotion money does not grow on trees. You want to make sure every ad dollar is effective. Getting someone to respond to an ad and do business with you is very similar to and is basically a sales process.

When a prospect first sees your post card or direct mail piece they are instantly trying to decide what you are selling and if they need or want your service or product. There is an inner conversation that takes place in your prospects' mind in the first 3 to 7 seconds when they see your ad.

Before I we get to the five elements you need in to make your ads effective let me ask you this. Do you feel that you have wasted money on advertising? What would your sales look like if you could improve your advertising effectiveness by 30%?

It is not complicated or a mysterious thing to make your advertising more effective. You need only to know five basic premises everything builds from there.

Is it time to zig?

If you are responsible for marketing and promoting your business the last few years you know that the marketing landscape is moving. When the economy crashed in the last few years back many business people cut back and put their eggs in the email marketing and Internet baskets. Everyone seemed to be doing it. Money got tight and the marketing herd moved to the free and easy watering hole. The result is that today it is very difficult to get an email message to an intended recipient, and then get it opened and read. And the amount of competition on the Internet will make you dizzy.

So in today’s economy how can your grow your business?

Well my friend if it is time for you to “zig” while the rest of the herd is  “zagging”!