Cheap promotional advertising
Unless you've built the better mousetrap, it can be hard to keep a business purring along at a good clip; everything from competition to recession to increased taxes (drat!) can conspire to drag down your bottom line. For those of us who don't have the world beating a path to our doors, it makes since to advertise. But we can't all afford Madison Avenue, so what are mere mortals to do?
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We're glad you asked. While our plan may not win a Clio (that's the advertising industry version of the Oscar, for you philistines), we've put together a few ideas that can help put the ring back into your cash register. All you need are a few fliers, a bunch of great business cards, some custom address labels and, if you're daring, a few hundred custom printed lanyards.
Fire up the ol' printer
While they may not have the panache of a custom lanyard, fliers are inexpensive and easy to make: design and print them on your computer system, and all you need to pay for is paper and ink. The design you create is up to you and your muse; it can be anything from a basic shouter like BIG SALE! to a cunningly-devised broadsheet stuffed with enough clip art, text, and declarations to sink the Titanic. Whatever you decide to use, just be sure it makes people more aware of your business than they already are, without turning them off to it.
Hire up a new printer
While those clever folks at Avery address labels have gotten together with all the major printer manufacturers to provide all kinds of label and document blanks, including those for business cards, it can save a lot of aggravation just to order yours from a professional printer. Not only can they provide you with business cards, but many can also print up a batch of personalized return address labels for your mailings. If nothing else, you can have the satisfaction of seeing your firm's address and name printed snazzily on every piece of mail you post, as well as on every cardboard rectangle you hand out, send out by mail, or "accidentally" leave in a restaurant. Now, imagine seeing your smiling face on each one! If you've got a little more money to spend and don't mind being considered vain by some people, photo business cards are a great way to get your business on other people's minds. Of course, if yours is the kind of face to scare small children and make nuns cross to the other side of the street when they see you coming, then the photo option may not be for you.
A new type of printing altogether
We've all seen people wearing lanyards to carry around things like whistles and corporate ID, and some of us (like high school coaches and that rapidly proliferating human subspecies, Homo sapiens officerworkerus) may even have worn them. These handy items, as it turns out, are a great and inexpensive way to promote a business. Dozens of companies can create specialized printed lanyards complete with your business name, logo, or slogan for less than a dollar each, even for high-quality dye-sublimation lanyards with nifty metal and plastic doodads to hang stuff off of. They're great for giveaways, especially at trade shows and craft fairs. You may be required to buy hundreds at a time, but they'll go fast if they're freebies. Everyone loves something that's both useful and on the house!
Published with permission (FCDMInc)
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