Tag Archives: Printing Company New York

Trade Show Signage A Few Good Tips:

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Do you ever feel like your company is a small fish in the big pond at trade shows? Don’t worry if you don’t have tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend for a trade show exhibit. Spending large amounts of money doesn’t guarantee you will stand out at a trade show. You can distinguish your company at a tradeshow and make a profit while spending less money. With a little ingenuity on your behalf and some of the following ideas, your trade show will be a success.

Tips:  Preparing For a Trade Show

Leave enough time as possible to prepare your signage: All too often do people wait until the last minute to get their trade show signage together.  Try to plan at least a month ahead of time to allocate an appropriate budget and proper specifications. When laying out your trade show booth, draw a mockup of the floor plan. It is important to consider table, chair, and drape placement when deciding sign placement. Another consideration should be foot traffic. Where are most of the trade show visitors going to be entering, exiting and standing in your booth? Although it’s important that our signs have a big impact, we don’t want to overcrowd an area and make an uncomfortable environment.

Do research on both the show and who will be in attendance: Although many of us want to express our creativity and uniqueness, make sure you research beforehand. A little subtlety goes a long way in creating a large impact and drawing the most amount of foot traffic to a booth. Here are some tips on how to research the show and the attendees when planning your trade show signage:

  • Promotional signs should be large and straight to the point.
  • List of services signs should be bright and clean looking.
  • Backdrops should stand out and grab the audience’s attention.
  • Many companies opt for interactive signage – Play a game and win, Spin and win, Take a picture in front

Although interactive signage is unique and effective when used properly, be cognizant of your audience.  If you have a prospect with whom you’ve been in contact for months that shows up at the show, don’t have them wait on a face painting line in order to talk to you!

Preparing for a trade show can be less stressful when you plan properly.  Effective planning includes allotting enough time (usually at least a month), researching the trade show, researching the audience, and using captivating visual signage.  Spending an exorbitant amount of money is not necessary to have successful trade show signage.

If you or your company needs large format signage for an up coming event and need a little help please feel free to contact East Coast Graphics, Inc. we are always happy to help.

East Coast Graphics, Inc.
Thomas Glenn
631.231.9300 xt.11
info@EcoastGraphics.com
631.231.9300 xt. 11

Recent Studies Show Direct Mail Is Still Effective But That We Need To Be Creative (Creativity Counts!)

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In an annual survey conducted by Exact Target on effective media channels, the results came back rather surprising to most, but not to all. This survey is probably one of the most un- biased reports completed in recent years, especially considering that it was written by an email marketing provider. Here’s a direct quote from this report:

“Still wondering about the best channels through which to deliver your messages when you’re trying to boost your bottom line? Consumers are more likely to purchase based on messages they receive through traditional media. In this year’s study, we included direct mail, television commercials and infomercials as channels through which consumers may have been directly influenced to make a purchase.

The research shows: Direct mail has directly influenced more consumers to purchase than any other channel. “76% of consumers have been directly influenced to purchase products through direct mail.”

Some of the findings from this report were the statement that email is obviously very popular, but only 15% of people like to receive marketing messages via this channel! This confirms our view that email is more of a communication medium and not ideal for ‘push marketing’ purposes.

So you ask yourself this question? I have been sending out direct mail (postcards, catalogs, flyers, brochures) pieces for years only to see a decline in response rates. Yes, you are right! Response rates have hit all time lows in direct mail, but “why” we ask? The all holy answer is: We are too set in our “old school” ways declares Thomas Glenn, VP of Business Development for East Coast Graphics (www.EcoastGraphics.com) of New York. The idea that the more we send out, the more we will reap in rewards is not true anymore!

The truth, as stated earlier in this article, is that “direct mail” is still the MOST effective marketing channel today! But direct mail and print is changing, just like everything else we have grown accustomed to in this world. “It is more important today than ever that direct mail campaigns be integrated with multichannel online campaigns,” declares Thomas Glenn.

Two Tips to Increase Direct Mail Response Rates
1: Targeting a specific audience: Targeting is the forgotten secret to really high response rates. Look to send out different messages to different audience sectors. It’s just TOO hard to create one compelling copy that suits everybody. You are better off sending out four different pieces than one “one size fits all” printed mailing piece.

2: Be creative and different: Send out pieces that catch your audience’s attention. Way too often I come home to open my mailbox only to find a sea of white #10 envelopes says Glenn. Be different think “out of the box.” Think of a good commercial you saw on TV during the Super Bowl or a great radio commercial you heard on the way to work. You would probably agree with me, that 9 times out of 10 those advertisements were imbedded in your head because they were different but clever in their own little way. This is how you and your company should be approaching your direct mail. Don’t be afraid to be creative or different in your direct mail. Use oversized postcards, catalogs with catchy images on the cover or an envelope with a lot of bright color to help grab people’s eyes. Make your logo and website address easily visible. Remember you want your direct mail piece to stand out from that “sea of white #10 envelopes!” Even if the intended audience does not act on that offer at that time, make your brand be remembered just like that Super Bowl commercial!

To learn more about how we can help you or your company with your direct mail needs.

Contact: Thomas Glenn Vice President Business Development
East Coast Graphics, Inc.
Telephone: 631.231.9300 xt.11
Hauppauge, NY 11788
www.ECoastGraphics.com
tom@EcoastGraphics.com

What’s Your Marketing ROI?

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Businesses are always looking for value and good returns on their marketing dollars. Yet in spite of all the new choices, getting a good ROI remains elusive. Newspaper, magazine, street, TV, radio and online promotions all struggle, with response rates typically under 0.1%, being one per thousand (see photo). Lotto payouts do better. Even email marketers have declining response rates, along with nasty legal and delivery issues.

What Works?

Well, we know that good copywriting, design and a superb offer can make a huge difference. A well crafted direct mail letter to a targeted house mailing list typically gets a 2.6% response, being significantly better than mass market advertising. But in any promotion, only a percentage of responses will turn into sales. To see what it means to your bottom line, use one of our ROI Calculators.

Clearly this is why business owners spend time shopping around to get the best design, printing and mailing rates. They know that getting a good ROI is still hard work and cost cutting appears the only option.

But this approach seldom helps sales leads or results. It just minimises the loss.

Poor response rates occur because our advertising and mailing campaigns (print and online), treats everyone the same. These campaigns are only relevant to a few… Today’s methods reflect a wasteful, highly inefficient process.

Better Targeting

One answer? Studies tell us that 93% of your sales will come from just 40% of your mailings. So, why waste time and money continuing to send stuff to that huge 60% chunk of people on your list who don’t buy?

The secret to efficient, high response marketing is in your customer database.

An expertly maintained database can tell you:

  • WHO you should communicate with
  • HOW you should communicate
  • WHEN you should communicate
  • WHAT to offer

Sort Out Your Data

Weed out unlikely prospects and find a subset of your customers that are most likely to respond to your marketing campaigns.  By targeting ONLY those most likely to respond, you’ll achieve about the same response, for a lower cost.

Then if you want to boost sales results, start introducing more relevancy into your messages. Yes, it does increase the per-piece cost, but you’ll find that by sending out fewer pieces (top 40% only), together with 2-5x higher response rates (i.e. 5-15% response) will more than cover everything, giving far more qualified sales leads.

A 50-100% ROI is now very achievable, showing a typical ROI before and after segmentation down to the top 40% or the ‘gold’ customers, plus the relevancy factors added in.

Where To Start?

It starts by working on your database. Some work you can do immediately, like having us check your address list against the latest NZ Post Change of Address Database. It’s known that 23% of households change in some way each year. At just 60c per entry, it will quickly pay for itself in the first mailing.

Follow this up with some old fashioned telemarketing and mailers, to gauge their interest and collect their email address. You’ll certainly need a better ‘system’ to enter this new data and to then manage it all – To help with segmenting, data mining, campaign management etc. Excel or the Outlook address book simply doesn’t cut it for this task.

CONTACT EAST COAST GRAPHICS TODAY TO LEARN MORE

Use Direct Mail to Build Your e-Mail List

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In many of today’s corporations, marketing channels such as e-mail, direct mail and other traditional media often exist in separate silos with each channel operating independently, sometimes even in conflict with the others. Some organizations do manage to maintain a consistent message across channels, but the individual channels often do little to support common goals.

1. Give prospects something to look forward to. A personalized e-mail sent before your drop creates anticipation by alerting your target audience to a direct mail offer on the way. Your prospects know to look for your piece and are more likely to recognize it when it arrives.

2. Provide another look, another chance and another response channel. With limited time offers, an e-mail sent after your drop can provide a brief reminder about your direct mail offer and the deadline, as well as give prospects a fast, easy way to respond.

3. Put personalized power into response rates. A recent Direct Marketing Association (DMA) study revealed that 42 percent of direct mail recipients prefer to respond online. Instead of a one-size-fits-all mail piece and business reply card, use customized direct mail to invite prospects to visit a personal URL, or PURL, such as www.johndoe.greatvendor.com. PURLs provide a personalized introduction to your company and a unique marketing message for each prospect.

4. Gather PURLs of wisdom. While visiting “their” PURL site, prospects can also be encouraged to complete a survey revealing their individual preferences, wants and needs or to opt-in for e-mail communications. This data allows marketers to craft the more precisely targeted offers and personalized communications that can lift your response rates in both traditional direct mail and e-mail marketing.

Then use e-mail to optimise your direct mail budget

A coordinated effort using direct mail and e-mail could help trim mailing budgets. Send an inexpensive postcard to alert clients or prospects that personalized offers and information are available and can be accessed electronically. Clients can then log in to a secure personal URL (PURL) to retrieve information or elect to receive the message by secure e-mail. Most will appreciate being given the choice too, knowing its a “greener” option.

CONTACT EAST COAST GRAPHICS TODAY TO GET STARTED