5 Things to Talk About in Your Email Marketing

I resell an amazing email marketing system that I customize for each client. They can get a branded template without the advertising at the bottom like those other email marketing services. You know who I’m talking about 😉

Clients get very excited about the system, I make the template, get them all set up and then they don’t use it. I started seeing this trend so I asked a few of them what was going on. They all said, “I know I need to reach out to my clients on a regular basis but I don’t know what to say.”

I know it can be tough to talk about our companies and ourselves but we all have something to talk about. I actually create an editorial calendar for my email newsletters and blog. I have to admit I don’t always stick to the schedule but I do stick to the topics.

One thing I find my clients like are tips on marketing and design. They find them very helpful and usually share the newsletter with someone else. I do keep them relevant to what I do but I try to put myself in their shoes to see what they would be interested in and actually take a few minutes to read.

Presenting interesting and relevant information is imperative to subscriber retention, and beyond that, the transformation of prospects into customers. Here are some ideas on how to get the writing flowing:

1. Answer a question: I’m sure you get questions from clients that you end up answering over and over. Use your newsletter to answer the questions that pop up and get to all your clients at once.
2. Give a tip: If you have a business that lends itself to tips/tricks then pick one of your favorites and write about it.
3. Industry update: You may be in an industry that has updates that you can share with your clients. For instance, a PC Tech can write about the latest software, hardware or even new viruses we should watch out for.
4. Discounts and Specials: If you sell a product, email newsletters can be a great way to get the word out about specials and discounts. Studies show that people do respond to sales incentives received via email.
5. Ask for feedback: Include a survey or a link to a place where customers and prospects can leave comments about your company, your website, the industry, your email marketing campaigns, or whatever topic you wish to learn about.

Ultimately, there is no reason why you can’t send out a consistent email marketing campaign, even if you initially feel you have nothing to say.

Rather than fall into the motto of “if you have nothing to say, don’t write,” come up with something to write…but be sure that it’s interesting and relevant to both your business and your subscribers.

4 ideas to improve your web presence and generate more website traffic…

1 – Email Marketing

Email marketing is a highly effective and inexpensive way to reach your target market directly – they won’t visit your web site every day, but they will check their email. And we can tell who has opened the email or deleted it or clicked on any of the links.

Get in touch to find out how we can get an email marketing program up and running for you.

2 – Search Engine Optimization

How searchable is your website? Are your keywords up to date & do they describe your business well? We can make sure that your website contains all the relevant keywords, that you are registered with the top search engines and that you are using Google webmaster tools like site map & analytics. You can even advertise on Google from as little as 1p per keyword!

Get in touch to find out how we can help improve your websites visibility.

3 – Update your homepage

Sounds obvious doesn’t it?…. but it is very common for websites to have little or no changing content on their homepage. The homepage is your window to the world, many visitors will arrive and leave without visiting any of your other pages so make sure that your most important messages are clearly visible and that the content changes regularly. Also, it may be time to give your site a facelift to make it more visually appealing to visitors.

Get in touch to find out about ideas to improve your homepage.

4 – Start a blog

Should you blog?….. absolutely! If you have an opinion on your industry and want to generate debate while at the same time increase your website’s value, and make yourself more visible to search engines… a business blog could be the answer.

Get in touch to find out more about setting up a blog.

Logo Contests

Wow, what a brilliant idea. I really need a new mechanic; I think I’ll run a contest where some local service centers can work on my car for free, then I’ll pick the one who did the best job, pay them what I think it’s worth, and let them use my name as their customer on all their advertising. Meanwhile, the rest of them can add the experience to their resumes, even though they don’t get paid. Everyone wins!!

If your a business owner and you think you are going to bring the best ideas to the top by offering $100 to people participating in a contest to design your company logo, I’m sorry to tell you but the opposite is true. People looking to be the best of the best don’t set foot into design contests because it goes against the basic heart of good logo development.

Forget about the fact that things like this water down design by letting anyone pretend they are a designer. Forget about the fact that its unethical to pay someone such a little fee for something that takes so much skill when done right. Forget about the fact that you’re insulting the REAL designers that could actually help you build your business. BUT think about the fact that what you’re doing is not helping your business, but in fact hurting it. You get what you pay for… Why even bother with a logo if you’re going to skimp on it? Your brand is your first impression to the customer, why chance it that the impression you make will be a bad one.

I’ve linked to some further reading that probably makes these points better than I do. most of these articles link to more articles on the topic.

• Just Creative Design
• David Airey – Logo design contest, bad for business
• No Spec Work!

Graphic design is a profession and professionals get paid for their work.

See AIGA.org to read a good article on how to hire a designer.

Who owns the Copyright?

A lot of clients ask me about copyright. It can be confusing and some designers treat copyright differently than others.

So let me walk you through a very simple scenario. You have a logo designed and you pay for it, so you own it, right? Well, not exactly. What you paid for was the right to use the artwork as your logo, but not for the copyright. Copyright law states that the creator of artwork, in this case, a logo, owns the copyright in it unless and until they transfer it in writing. To obtain those rights, you have to have a document which makes it either work for hire or which transfers all rights, title and interest in the work.

OK, OK I know this doesn’t sound right but that is the way the law is written. However, a designer can easily transfer the copyright to their client, and they should, with a simple “copyright transfer agreement.” This is something you should talk about with your designer if you don’t have one. If you are a client of Creative Intuition we include in our terms and conditions an automatic copyright transfer to our clients. So no need to worry if you are a client of ours, you own the copyright on work we’ve done for you.

However, fonts and photos are copyrighted and not to the designer but to the company that created them. These are not transferable. So if you have a corporate font in your logo that you want to use in other documents just go to MyFonts.com and purchase the one you need. For photographs, make sure that the designer has licensed the usage properly so that you can use the photo in a brochure as well as on your website or other marketing material. The photo will have to be licensed for each use separately.

This is just a simple example of copyright for a logo, if you want to learn more visit the US Copyright Office website. Speaking of web sites the copyright for a website is different. Click Here for a helpful article pertaining to web site copyright.

What Are the Benefits of Digital Printing?

In the hundreds of years since Gutenberg printed his first Bible, one thing has not changed in the printing business: Setup costs remained the same regardless of the quantity. The first copy costs almost as much as printing thousands. Twenty years of rapidly advancing technology have done little to change this fact—until now.

Modern digital-to-plate technology, digital presses and state-of-the-art laser printers have made it possible to produce small quantities of high-quality color products at prices everyone can afford. Aside from cost… there are a number of benefits to using Digital On-Demand Printing.

• Meeting tight deadlines… quick turn around times.
• Lower cost for short runs… use 4-color printing for quantities that aren’t cost-effective with traditional printing techniques.
• Reduce your print inventory and storage space… print only as much as you need and keep your documents on file electronically for future reprints — reduces waste and obsolete literature.
• Easy to update… changes and revisions are no problem — since files are stored electronically, they can be easily updated and revised. And, since you didn’t need to order a large volume initially, you overcome the problem with discarding outdated literature.
  Personalization… digital printing allow vendors to use your database to personalize information directly into each individual document.

Not all projects are a good fit for digital printing. Contact Creative Intuition to discuss the best printing options for your project.

Strengthening Customer Loyalty

Retaining customer loyalty is vital to the long-term success and profitability of your business. With changes in the marketplace, you need to work harder than ever to maintain a strong customer base. Improving customer loyalty is an essential element in customer retention.

It’s far more expensive to find new customers than to keep your current ones happy.

In fact, the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan predicts that just a 1% increase in customer loyalty results in a greater than 3% increase in market capitalization. Yet, attracting and retaining customers remains a challenge for even the most admired brands. Truly committing to customer retention is hard work but the ultimate payback in sustainable growth and profitability makes the effort more than worthwhile.

Why is it important to improve customer loyalty?
We all know that the cost of finding new customers is much higher than the cost of growing existing accounts. The most effective way to control and reduce your marketing costs is to concentrate on developing existing business by strengthening customer relationships.

What’s the benefit of increased customer loyalty?
“Lifetime customer value” is a way of measuring how much your customers are worth to you over the length of time that you retain their business. Industry experience indicates that a number of benefits apply:

• A 5 % increase in customer retention could create a 125 % increase in profits.
• Extending customer lifecycles by 3 years could triple profits per customer.

What to Do

Understand Your Customers’ Business Needs
The real driving force behind a successful relationship is your ability to improve your customers’ business performance and give them the competitive edge. To do this, you need to understand their market challenges and determine how your products or services can improve their performance.

Increase Customer Contact
Strong customer relationships are built on continuing high-quality contact. Service oriented companies should maintain regular dialogue and create as many opportunities for contact as possible. These are some of the non-sales opportunities:

• Create your own seminar for clients and prospects.
• Invite customers to view Web seminars or other Web events.
• Use regular e-marketing to keep customers up to date with your latest relevant products and services.
• Arrange one-on-one regular meetings to obtain feedback from customers.

Enhance Relationships through Quality Service
Customers who are satisfied with the level and quality of service they receive are likely to continue buying from the same company.

Encourage Feedback
A key part of the relationship-building process is feedback. You need to understand where your performance is good and where you need to make improvements. You can use a variety of techniques to obtain feedback; here are a couple that work well:

• Customer satisfaction surveys
• Service review meetings

Build Community
Building community is part of a wider process of customer retention, but it can be used as an integral part of a customer loyalty program. Businesses are increasingly recognizing the potential benefits and setting up communities within their own Web Sites and blogs or other online communities such as LinkedIn.

A free newsletter is a cost-effective way to bring community members together. You can invite members to contribute material of common interest and add information of your own.

Move from Community to One-To-One Relationship
Building a community on your Web Site can help to strengthen customer loyalty by providing valuable information and benefits. But you need to take it one step further. Once you get an insight of what your clients really need or want then you can focus on marketing to them individually by offering tailored services to those needs and wants.

Express an Attitude of Gratitude
With budgets being tighter then every, it’s so important that you thank your customers for choosing to spend their dollars with you. This is the time of year when thanking customers for their loyalty is commonplace, so with everyone sending gifts and cards how do you stand out? Since you have already done the work above to get to know your customers, you should have a pretty good understanding of what your clients need or could use. Sending them something useful is more effective than just any chachka. Set a budget for yourself and then talk with a promotional product specialist, or a creative gift consultant. They can help you find just the right item to give. No matter what you give make sure that it carries your company brand.

Another option could include a well-designed company branded card. Either through an electronic card service or a traditional printed card, a simple hand written thank you can really make an impact and be cost effective for you. And don’t wait until December to mail it. Send it during the Thanks Giving season. What’s more appropriate than to give thanks to your customers during the month of November? Also, your card will get more attention because it won’t be lost in the December holiday communication.

Best

Creative Intuition

What is an EPS Vector file and why does my designer need it?

Usually, a logo is designed in a vector based program such as Adobe Illustrator. This file is editable by color size and has no background. It is ideal for handing off to any design professional and usually contains- certain color combinations that the company may have selected previously. When working with a printer or promotional products vendor or sign company they will most likely ask for your logo as an “EPS” or “vector file.” If you don’t have this file type you need to get it from the designer that created the original art. If that person is not available then your vendor will probably have to recreate your logo from scratch.
Other file formats such as JPG or TIF are not editbale or scalable. Altering one of these files will have detrimental effects on the quality of the finished product. As you can see from the samples below, there is no loss of quality when you scale and EPS file. If you attempted to scale a JPG file it will be blurry and distorted.

A company should always have the EPS file on backup or should know the designer responsible for the logo.

Note: If you don’t have software such as Adobe Illustrator you will not be able to open the file. That is OK your designer or printer vendor will have the ability to open it.