Re-evaluate Your Time Management Skills

 

Time management is something we all strive to improve.

When you think you have it down to a science, a big project comes along and stretches us. But we all know that time management is the key to being successful.  

These tips will help you re-evaluate your time management skills in case you have been bombarded by stress.

Delegate. Okay, we said it. Delegation is key but make sure you give the job to the right person so you don’t feel like you have to micromanage them.

Don’t multitask. It feels like we are being more productive, and people often applaud it but don’t fall into the trap of multitasking. Studies show we are actually less productive when we spread our attention among several projects. Instead, make a list of things you need to do and cross them off as you go. That way, you won’t forget a project, but you can get it off your mind right away.

Deal with stress positively. We all get stressed out at times, but it’s how we handle it that counts. Exercise helps us deal with stress in a positive way. Other ways to deal with stress: meditate, call up a friend, listen to a podcast, get outside in nature, and write in a journal.

Set both short- and long-term goals. Your goals should be measurable, specific, relevant, and time-based. For example, if your goal is to get a raise in six months, figure out the specific steps you will need to achieve in order to do this. Then tackle it head-on.

Don’t overbook your calendar. Make sure that not every second of every day is taken. You will need some downtime, as well as time for phone calls and meetings that pop up. This will help you stay on track and not get discouraged when you can’t stick to the actual schedule.

Get up early. Most successful people start their day with a little extra time in the morning. Just getting up half an hour earlier will help you be more productive throughout your day.

Take regular breaks. Schedule these in so you are sure to take them. This ensures you don’t get distracted and helps you push on when you are tempted to look at your phone. Just 10 or 15 minutes is all it takes. You can get something to drink, go for a walk, check your phone, or talk with a coworker or friend.

Say no sometimes. When people ask you to do something, if possible, examine your schedule and workload first. Don’t just take on new assignments that you don’t have to. This also applies to get-togethers as well. If you are busy, don’t feel bad telling someone you are not able to go right now. But be sure to follow up with them later when you are free.

Don’t procrastinate. This is a good rule for both the office and in your personal life. Procrastination causes unneeded stress. We tend to procrastinate when we are overwhelmed or bored. Whatever the case, try to overcome it by making yourself start right away on a task.

Be realistic in how long a task takes. If you have a task to schedule, make sure you accurately estimate the time it takes to accomplish it. Will it take an hour to write that speech? Or will it take a week? Be realistic so you can stay on track.

Time management is something we can all work on daily. It’s important to keep honing those skills because we won’t be successful if we don’t. When you work with us, we will keep you on track with our on-time delivery and great products. Contact us today to get started! 516-561-1468 or FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS GO TO: www.printcafeli.com

The Power of Storytelling in Marketing

Storytelling has been around for ages.

To this day, people love stories. It unites people while stimulating imagination and passion. Although often seen as a fun pastime, stories usually have a purpose, such as sharing a message, conveying a moral, or telling history. 

Humanize the business

One sometimes overlooked use of stories is within business marketing campaigns.

Stories can be especially moving in the marketing world. Storytelling humanizes the brand, which is beneficial because people like buying from other people. The more you can humanize the brand, the better. 

Stories to remember 

Storytelling is also useful for remembrance.

People tend to remember stories better than they do statistics. Sometimes, being remembered is half the battle. After all, the marketing world is saturated with numerous businesses vying for attention. “Brands that tell more sell more.” Storytelling is a unique way to stand out. Stories take on different formats depending on their purpose. 

What is storytelling in marketing? 

Marketing in storytelling has a couple of unique features. 

Storytelling in marketing is… 

• Combining information with a narrative. It takes skill to effortfully combine relevant information into a story. But that’s exactly what great storytelling marketing strategies do. They effortlessly combine the facts with the story.
• Your brand: storytelling elevates your brand. Your brand in itself is already meant to humanize your business and give customers an idea to attach themselves. Storytelling will help you achieve this.
• About your customers. Your customers are at the heart of every story. Your main character resembles your ideal customer. The better the characters resemble your customers, the more effective your storytelling will be.
• Emotional and engaging. Stories are fun. Stories are emotional. Don’t shy away from these key components because it’s a marketing campaign. If you can add emotionality and engagement to your story, the better the story will be. Commercials that generate a chuckle or a tear are the ones that are the most memorable and impactful. 

Stories can be found in all shapes and sizes. 

• Stories can be written. Written stories are found in articles, blogs and books
• Stories can be spoken. Spoken stories are at presentations and pitch panels.
• Stories can be in an audio format such as within a podcast
• Stories can be digital. Digital stories are in videos, animations, interactive stories, and games. 

The medium in which you tell your story is important because how the story is told adds to the meaning of the story. 

How to tell compelling stories

Practice

Great storytelling takes practice.

Effectively combining your company into a story that is compelling and coherent is challenging. It takes time, patience, and practice to develop the skill. Just remember that, like everything, practice yields improvement.

With storytelling, the best way to improve is by doing. However, having a good foundation is helpful. 

Remember your basic storytelling outline:

• The introduction sets the scene and gets the audience wanting more.
• The rising action is where the conflict is set up and built. Tension and suspense are created. 
• The climax is the most exciting part of the story. The tension that has been rising bursts and the conflict emerges.
• In the falling action, things settle down and go back to normal.
• The conclusion. Every story needs a conclusion. In marketing, it is generally best if the ending is a happy one. Usually, happiness is created from your product or service. Here is the best part to include a call-to-action where you encourage the potential client to buy from your business. 

The characters 

A great story has great characters.

In marketing, the best characters are relatable. The more your potential customers relate to the characters in your story, the more they can empathize with the character’s problems. The prospective client will then see your company as a means to fix their problems. 

Try implementing new strategies, such as storytelling, to your marketing campaign to complement the new year.  Contact us today to get started! 516-561-1468 or FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS GO TO: www.printcafeli.com

 

Elevate Your Marketing Campaign with Postcards!

 

Happy New Year! How crazy it’s already 2022! How was your 2021 marketing strategy? Whether splendid or slightly lacking, any marketing strategy has room for improvement.

In the new year, try incorporating (or reincorporating) direct mail marketing strategies. This long-standing proven method, with added new technology, is a perfect way to hit the ground running in 2022.

And the best part? It can start with a simple postcard.

The Many Benefits of Postcards

Postcards are highly effective.

Did you know that 86% of customers take the time to read through their mail? Due to postcards’ higher visibility, you can expect a higher response rate than any other marketing medium, along with a 70% higher brand recall.

This translates into a high return on investment.

Every $167 spent translates into about $2000 in goods sold. That’s a great investment! Increase your benefits by incorporating a fantastic postcard design. 

The Postcard Design

The postcard design is important and should complement your message and marketing strategy. Here are a few aspects of postcard design to keep in mind.

The material is part of the design, and it reflects on your company.  For example, if environmentalism is essential to your company, share that value with your customers by using recycled material. Or, if you want to send a message of quality, then use heavier material. If your postcards are high quality, then your customers will believe your products and/or services to be high quality as well. 

The size of the postcard is important too. Average-sized postcards are great and effective, but more oversized postcards will stand out due to their inherently larger nature. Try giving the 6-inch by 11-inch postcards a try. 

The two main finishes are glossy or matte. A glossy finish portrays elegance, while matte seems more professional.

A well-thought-out headline is important! You want the headline to sum up your main idea while prompting the customer to keep reading.

A call-to-action prompts the potential client to react in response to the postcard. Examples include requesting that the customer call, visit the store, explore the website, or like/follow social media.

Call-to-actions are most effective when there is a deadline associated with them. Therefore, many companies find it beneficial to offer limited-time deals. Along with driving customer interaction and sales, a call-to-action will help you determine the effectiveness of your postcard campaign for future use. 

Developing a Plan

According to Benjamin Franklin, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Set yourself up for success by planning your postcard campaign.

Set SMART goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. 

Set a budget. Don’t break the bank, but invest enough to see results. 

It’s important to be aware of the static and dynamic postcard costs. Static costs don’t change, while dynamic costs depend on the number of postcards you decide to send. The more postcards you send, the overall cost per card is lowered. Static postcard costs include copywriting and design, while dynamic costs include printing services and postage fees. 

Sending the Postcards

Next, you need to decide where you are sending these postcards. 

• Send the postcards to existing customers. Given that they already have shopped at your business before, these postcards would mainly promote another sale.
• Create or rent a new mailing list. This strategy will reach new customers, generating new business. When you create or rent this new mailing list, ideally, you’re going to try to find households within your target market demographic.
• Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM): In this strategy, you mail a postcard to every household within a geographic area. Sometimes specific demographics congregate in neighborhood clusters. If you can identify your target market within a neighborhood, this strategy is useful. If your business is close to a certain neighborhood, it may be helpful to let the locals know about you, and they may love your business out of proximity convenience. 

Repeat!

Send follow-up postcards.

Potential clients need to hear your company’s message about seven times before they decide to buy. The more familiar your business becomes to the customers, the better off you are. In marketing, familiarity generates sales because people are drawn to the familiar.    Contact us today to get started! 516-561-1468 or FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS GO TO: www.printcafeli.com

 

Do Millennials Still Buy Print? [With Statistics]

 By Haidan Dong

Print has been around for hundreds of years (arguably even thousands), but with the rise of new digital technology, many print professionals are concerned about the future of print demand. A new demographic is moving into the market. They’re Millennials, the generation that reached adulthood between 2000 and 2010. They are estimated to have a buying power of $1 trillion by 2020, when they will make up a third of the American population. Despite having grown up in a time when smartphones and social media were still rare, the Millennial generation is now a major user of digital media and it readily embraces technology. This begs the question: do Millennials still buy print? The answer will affect the future of the printing industry.

Let’s take a look at the data.

Do Millennials read printed books?

To begin, we first looked at how Millennials feel about traditional printed books (as opposed to ebooks or audiobooks). Neil Howe, who coined the term “Millennials”, cites the following numbers in his article Millennials: A Generation Of Page-Turners:

• 92% of college students prefer reading print material to digital material
• If the cost of the print and digital copy of a leisure book were the same, 80% would pick the paper version
• Young adults are no more likely than their elders to read digital books exclusively (around 6%)

So we know that Millennials are still buying print in the form of books, but what about their relationship to print in advertising? With Millennials becoming 50% of the world’s workforce by 2020, they’ll be making key buying decisions for businesses. Would they still invest in print advertising? Let’s look at the results of print marketing to Millennials.

Do Millennials respond well to print advertising?

There have been a number of studies on the Millennial’s relationship with print advertising, but they have all come to a similar conclusion. Take, for example, the Quad Graphics customer focus study Millennials: An Emerging Consumer Powerhouse. The study found that Millennials like to “hold print in their hands, read it, smell it, use it to link to a video or coupon, save it, take it to the store with them, and share it with friends.” Furthermore, they pay attention to print, as shown in the following graph from their report:

The next chart tells even more. Here are the types of ads that Millennials ignore:

It may not come as a surprise to you that Millennials pay attention to direct mail. After all, USPS published a study that found that Millennials were actually more likely to engage with direct mail than non-Millennials. The graph below was taken from their study:

In addition, the same study found that:

• 50% of Millennials ignore digital ads but only 15% ignore direct mail
• 90% of Millennials think direct mail advertising is reliable
• 57% have made purchases based on direct mail offers
• 87% of Millennials like receiving direct mail

Why?

These findings had researchers asking the next question to better understand the relationship between Millennials and print. Why do members of this tech-savvy generation still prefer paperback books and glossy brochures snail mailed to their homes?

Because of Neuroscience

The science behind print helps us understand why. Canada Post published a fascinating scientific study behind how the brain reacts to print. They found that it requires 21% less cognitive effort to process printed direct mail than digital media. Hence, it is also processed quicker. Together, these factors make printed materials more persuasive and therefore likely to drive behavior. In fact, 23% of Millennials say they bought or ordered something as a result of receiving direct mail in the last 12 months, as reported by Royal Mail MarketReach.

Because of Trust

Another reason is simply that as a society we tend to trust print more, and that Millennials are no exception. MarketingSherpa’s Customer Satisfaction Research Study found that US internet users still trust print ads more than any other type of advertising (see graph below).

It’s therefore little wonder why Millennials love print, and why most of the population does too, even in the age of digital advertising.

Yes, Millennials still buy print, and will keep buying print.

Based on numerous studies, it is evident that Millennials still buy print and continue to be influenced by print. As they gradually make up more of the workforce, they will likely translate their positive views on print media into purchasing decisions. The demand for print is here to stay, at least for another generation. Contact us today to get started! 516-561-1468 or FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS GO TO: www.printcafeli.com

Is Your Marketing a Work of Art? 

Why You Need a Professional Designer

 

Do you marvel at beautiful artwork? Are you dazzled by the use of exquisite colors? And are you perplexed as to how images are chosen for certain marketing efforts?

That’s the job of a graphic designer.

Designers have training in choosing colors and images; they make the ordinary a work of art. 

Why You Need a Graphic Designer

Even if you have ideas of what you want, a graphic designer can bring that vision to life. That’s why it’s best to leave the execution to the experts.

Graphic designers know the rules and how to break them to create a compelling message.

They are trained in color, form, line, shape, size, space, and texture. And the principles they must learn have to do with: balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, proportion, and rhythm.

Graphic designers adhere to the principles of design.

These basic principles achieve effective composition in creating balance and stability for the work. Most of us haven’t been trained this extensively, and that’s why we lean on the experts.

Graphic designers help with your professional image.

And that’s why we are here to help you improve your image and marketing materials.

Working with a graphic designer is fun and can be a great time to brainstorm together and come up with something that hasn’t been done before.

Designers are artists and have wonderful ideas. Our graphic designers are ready with fresh ideas and new artwork that will surely dazzle your eyes and help your business image improve.  Contact us today to get started! 516-561-1468 or FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS GO TO: www.printcafeli.com

      5 Easy Ways to Refresh a Brand Using Print

Brands and their logos help consumers navigate to their favorite products and services. Restaurants, nail salons, car repair shops, and plumbers all use their logos to stay visible, reminding the market to think of them. Over time, logos and mascot characters take on a life of their own. Sometimes, brand owners become reluctant to make changes out of fear that customers won’t recognize them, keeping them from refreshing and modernizing their look. This is a great time to remind them that a new year brings new possibilities!

Remember that a brand refresh is not the same as a rebranding project. With a refresh, the name remains the same - you simply make subtle updates like new shades of existing colors or a more modern, cleaner font. Forbes magazine tells us that “a brand refresh is critical to maintaining and even earning relevancy in the market.” They suggest that the age of the current brand assets might start the conversation; it is the changing tastes of consumers and the market that should drive the marketing programs. Refreshing lets a company re-examine its assets to ensure they have the best sizes, proportions, and formats that allow the marketing team to engage in the best way for new market conditions. 

To start, look at these common assets to help customers build a brand refresh that will work for them:

1. Business Cards: The test often used by consultants is to ask everyone in a meeting to put their business cards on the table. It is common to find that everyone working for a company has a different version. Logos, typefaces, and the position of vital contact details may change over the years, but no program was in place to ensure that everyone carried updated cards. Help your customers standardize how they look to their clients with a dash of panache. Suggest a refresh that uses textures, finishes, and even card weight to change how clients perceive that essential business card.
   
   
2. Signs: If the signs aren’t kept up to date, they become like wallpaper. They are in the background but not contributing to the forward momentum of the business. Signs at the front door and throughout a shop are the essential visual elements that guide customers on their buying journey. For restaurants, it may be their association with well-known food and alcohol brands. Car shops may want to focus on partnerships with their key brand partners, while other shops will want to spotlight products and services created inside their building.
   
   The good news is that signs are easy to produce and come in every size and shape you could need for indoor and outdoor locations. From window clings to wayfinding signs, you can build packages that allow a company to refresh their image in all the places they need visibility at one time so that the brand look becomes consistent.
   
   
3. EDDM: Mail is an effective way to spread news and engage customers. EDDM lets customers amplify their brand visibility by ZIP code, eliminating the need to buy lists. Instead, mail to ZIP codes that meet demographic requirements. It’s a great outreach to get your community’s local customers seeing your business in a fresh way.
   
   
4. Promotions: Create packages that link cards, notebooks, magnets, and other giveaways that keep the brand visible and celebrate the brand refresh. And, don’t forget the stickers and calendars to keep the brand visible year-round. Some customers may appreciate the option to create custom gift boxes for  the cards and promotional items, so don’t forget to mention the option.
   
   
5. Booklets and catalogs: For clients selling products and services, booklets and catalogs with refreshed branding can drive continuing sales. As much online shopping as people do, a handy desk reference for regularly purchased items and adjacent items is appreciated and used. 

Brand refreshes can be offered to every client in your book of business and advertised to prospects as a value-add you can bring to them.

           Contact us today to get started! 516-561-1468 or FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY              OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS GO TO: www.printcafeli.com

7 Things for Customers to Consider 

When Designing Packaging

Are you marketing Packaging to your customers? Here are 7 things that they might want to consider when designing their Packaging in order to give their respective brands the boost they so rightly deserve:

1. Does it stand out? There are a lot of products out there. And there are likely a lot of products similar to your customers’ products. Surely your customers are the best, but how will their shoppers know this? Your customers should make sure their packaging stands out on the shelf (or wherever it’s being sold) among its surroundings.
   
   
2. Who’s the buyer? Is the target market male? Female? Do they tend to be into sports, art, music, all of the above? These are all important things to consider when designing packaging. The design should appeal to your buyer.

1. Is it press-friendly? Think about it. Publicity is one of the number one marketing tools around. A few good write-ups in established publications (or on popular blogs) can result in huge spikes in the sales of a product, not to mention a brand’s credibility. Having packaging that photographs well and is appealing to online and print editors can be a critical factor in a product getting the press it deserves.
   
   
2. Does it meet legal requirements? A product’s packaging should inform the buyer of what’s inside. For example, the weight, materials used, ingredients (if food), where it was made, etc. are all key pieces of information sometimes required on a product’s packaging. Make sure your customers are also following the standards for the country in which they’re selling their product. Each country has them. As long as they’re being followed, your customers should be good to go.
   
   
3. Does it include instructions? If a product requires assembly, many customers will want to see at least a basic outline of how the product is assembled. It’s advantageous to your customer (the seller) if their product is easy to put together. If such is the case, this should be reflected on the package so your buyer knows that it’s user-friendly.
   
   
4. Does it protect the contents? Physical construction is super important because, of course, customers want their precious products to be protected. Your customers want to protect their awesome inventory in well-constructed, sturdy packaging that will hold up during shipping/transporting/handling. They’ll be grateful they did once their businesses start to see serious action.
   
   
5. Does it reflect your customers' brands? As far as packaging is concerned, this is probably the most critical when it comes to the long-term success of a business. Packaging should reflect the spirit of the brand and contain key things like the company logo, company colors, etc. Your customers should be thinking like a customer and considering what kinds of visual packaging characteristics are responsible for brand recognition. Think about it. With Apple, it’s the apple with the bite taken out of it, often coupled with an Avenir typeface and lots of clean white space. The colors yellow and red are often associated with fast food. You get the idea. And if your customers can establish a brand identity early on and use it consistently in their packaging, they’re in great shape! Contact us today to get started! 516-561-1468 or FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS GO TO:www.printcafeli.com