Feeds:
Posts
Comments

E-Commerce Website Mistakes To Avoid

May 7, 2012 by customprintnowblog

Custom Print Now works with a lot of non-profit organizations to help them generate money for their causes. One of the main things we set up is their donation site where people can donate money directly off the website. People are usually already fearful of putting their information and credit card number online so you want to make sure the process is seamless. If something takes too long to load or they have to re-enter something, this may turn them off never to use your site again. Below are some other  e-commerce mistakes you want to avoid when creating your site.

E-Commerce Sites

  • Your site is too complicated. If you asking your customer to take more than 5 steps then you are over complicating things. You should have a welcome page with cart selection, billing information, payment module, and a thank you page.
  • Your site is moving too slow. This will cause people to get concerned and most likely turn people away. Make sure that you don’t have too many plug-ins that are slowing your site down.
  • Your site doesn’t performs bad on certain browsers. Never assume someone is using Google Chrome because that is all everyone in your company uses. Make sure to test your site on several web browsers to ensure everything is formatted correctly and there is no issues with entering data.

The best thing to do is test your e-commerce site in many different atmospheres before making it go live. And if you notice a problem, let the customer know that your team is handling and it will be fixed soon. You want to make sure people feel comfortable enough to come to your website and enter their personal information. What other tips would you add to the list above?

Photo courtesy of flickr

Posted in Business Solutions | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Benefits of On-Demand Printing

April 16, 2012 by customprintnowblog

Custom Print Now offers its clients on-demand printing. This is a great way to save money and have control over your inventory. You can determine what marketing materials go where and the amount with just a click of a button. This not only benefits companies looking to market, but also writers. Our services allow you to print books as they are purchased, so you don’t have to deal with finding storage space or printing too many books. Below are some other benefits you can get from on-demand printing.

  • On-Demand PrintingQuickly print one or many pieces efficiently and affordably. The process of preparing files for digital printing is automated and does not require lengthy procedures like color separating or generating plates and screens.
  • Reduce waste and storage costs associated with outdated materials. With digital printing, less wastes are produced in terms of ink, paper, chemicals and set up materials.
  • Produce unique short-run projects to test marketing messages.  Digital printing allows you  to easily and economically print one or many pieces on demand. Order as little or as much as you need, precisely when you need it.

With Custom Print Now’s offerings you create online product templates for all your printed materials, and with a few clicks, you, your employees and your affiliates can produce and send professional printed material without leaving their computer. We develop a custom solution that works in any hardware or software environment, without expensive implementation or training. Users simply need a browser and Internet connection.

How do you handle the majority of your print jobs for your business?

Photo courtesy of flickr

Posted in Web-To-Print | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

3 Ways To Show Your Customers You Appreciate Them

April 2, 2012 by customprintnowblog

There is never a wrong time to show your customers how much you appreciate their business. When was the last time you took the time to acknowledge your customers without wanting to get a sale from them? Showing appreciating is essential for building long lasting relationships with you customers. Below are 3 ways that you can show your customers how much you appreciate them and help build a stronger relationship.

  1. Give away helpful advice in your e-mail newsletter, as well as on your Twitter and Facebook pages. Provide information that will better your customers’ lives. Anticipate customers’ questions and concerns and offer useful information to educate and guide them. Find out what kind of information they would like more of and provide it. This is definitely a win-win situation because they are receiving information to help improve their business and you are stay at “top of mind” for them.
  2. thank youReward you customers via coupons, gifts or special insight on new products or services.  You can use your e-mail communications to offer coupons that stimulate business and give cash-strapped customers a break. Another idea is to offer a small branded gift as part of a promotion. Give customers something that helps them remember your brand.
  3. Hold a customer appreciation event in your store or office. It could be a free seminar, early-bird sale, special access to new products, or a get-together with entertainment. Promote your event on your social media platforms and e-newsletter that you send our periodically.

Showing customers you care should be an ongoing communications effort–not a once-a-year occasion. Create a plan for how often you will touch your customers aside from sending them promotions or selling them your products and services. This will help ensure that your company doesn’t forget to show your customers appreciation. What other tips would you add to the list?

Photo courtesy of flickr

Posted in Business Solutions | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Optimizing Video for B2B Marketing

March 19, 2012 by customprintnowblog

A large part of inbound marketing is publishing a lot of content and optimizing that content so it gets found in search engines. Many times when people hear the word content they automatically assume it only means written words and leave our video. This is a big mistake, it’s very important that you optimize your videos that you place on platforms such as YouTube. Below are some tips that will help you optimize your B2B videos and help you rank higher on searches.

  • Just like on-page SEO for web pages, you need to optimize the basic text information describing your videos which includes the titles and descriptions. Your video’s title should contain a keyword phrase for which your business wants to get found. Keep in mind that titles should be no longer that 66 characters.
  • Video SEOThe description can be 2-3 sentences or more, and it should also contain keywords and variations of keywords. Including a link early on in the description is a good idea so the reader will see it immediately before moving on to something else.
  • You should include at least 5-7 relevant keywords as tags for your video. Using tags will associate your video with other similarly tagged videos, which will allow your video to be shown as a “related video.” This will help you gain more exposure and possible lead to more views.
  • Get as many people to view your video in a short amount of time as possible. YouTube prefers to show visitors popular videos because they are almost always better quality videos, so it’s important to get your numbers up quickly. Make sure to post your video on your blog, Facebook page, put a link on Twitter and LinkedIn as well.
  • Higher ratings and more comments are also indications of higher quality and more interesting videos, so it’s helpful to generate as many ‘thumbs up’ ratings and comments as you can for SEO purposes. Encourage your fans to check out your video via your blog and social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or LinkedIn.

We hope that these tips are helpful in optimizing your B2B video. What other tips would you add to the list?

Photo courtesy of flickr

 

Posted in Marketing Solutions | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Creating a Strong Brand

March 5, 2012 by customprintnowblog

If you are a B2B or B2C company, you are still selling to a person at the end of the day. These 2 have a lot more similarities than most think. A CEO who buys from businesses is also the same person who shops for gadgets like iPads and iPods. Therefore making an emotional connection in both cases is vital for success. In order to create a strong brand you need to get in touch with your customer’s needs. Below are ways to connect with your customer on an emotional level with your brand.

Figure out how you can get your target audience interested. Find out what aspects of a product would make them a loyal buyer. You need to get into their minds and figure out their buying and loyalty habits. For some customers it may be an exclusive discount card or it could be customer service to another.

customer loyaltyCreate a survey to find out what the factors are for which they would think of before they want to purchase something. Find out how important it is that your company sales team follows-up with them. What types of communication do they prefer? This will save your company a lot of time and money trying to figure out which marketing channels to use.

Come up with ways by which you can keep reinforcing the decision of the consumer to purchase that particular product or brand. Study the marketing strategies of various other companies and see what helps to keep them up top. Try implementing them when it comes to your marketing strategies.

Create a brand ritual. These rituals actually help to build up loyalty. You need to make sure that the brand ritual you create is completely unique because millions of companies out there have brand rituals.

Make your current customers your cheerleaders. In order to make your brand name stronger you need to bring in a lot of clients. Use your resources wisely. Take advantage of video marketing, social media, and email marketing to gain exposure.

Would you say that most of your customers are loyal to your brand? If so, how did you get them to become a loyal customer?

Photo courtesy of flickr

Posted in Marketing Solutions | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

3 Social Media Tactics For Non-Profits

February 27, 2012 by customprintnowblog

The key to social media management for non-profits is getting your name seen by as many people as possible, having these people engage with your organization, and monitoring how your efforts are working. Below are 3 of the top social media management tips that you will want to incorporate into your strategy to attain success with your social media marketing efforts.

  1. Find the right people. Get a solid foundation of people whom you know have interest in your cause, will support it and help spread the word. You can find these people by searching social sites by keywords that relate to your mission and your brand, then follow or like them and engage them on the site to try to get them involved. A group of people with a common vision will feed off of each other and create a lot of buzz.
  2. social media for non-profitsMake all the different entities work seamlessly. Picture a website with its pages. You should think of Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and any other site you use as pages on your website, with each one linked to the other in as flowing a way as possible. Include links, badges, and cross-site promotion on every page. Don’t just stick to the main sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), branch out and adventure sites like Pinterest! This will be very successful if you are the only organization in your area of interest on the site. People will automatically connect with you as their main resource.
  3. Don’t make it all about the money. People are coming to your various pages for an experience, so you need to give that to them. You don’t want to make it all about the money because then people will be less hesitant to connect with your organization. I am not saying don’t ever ask for money; just don’t get too pushy about it. Remember, having 1000 people share your sight may bring in a lot more money overall than someone giving a one time donation of $1000 without spreading the word at all.

What other tactics would you add to the list above?

Photo courtesy of flickr

Posted in Business Solutions | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

5 Tactics To Get Your Prospect’s Attention

February 13, 2012 by customprintnowblog

The reality is you are not the only one approaching your prospect. There are many other people out there trying to attain their business as well and after hearing from a few sales reps the prospect is not very happy or welcoming. You can hear it in their tone; the only thing they want to do is get out of the conversations. This doesn’t mean that it’s a dead lead for you, below are some very helpful tips on how you can get the conversation started and grab their attention.

  1. Plan ahead and make sure to do some research. Be able to tell your prospect why your services/products can help with issues they are currently facing.
  2. Make it all about them. Once again, reinforce how you will be able to help their company. And then listen to what they have to say before continuing to talk. Make them feel like you have their best interest in mind and you want them to excel at their company.
  3. Sales TacticsMake sure you know his/her name and learn how to pronounce it correctly before giving them a call. Nothing is more annoying when someone addresses you by the wrong prefix or doesn’t know how to pronounce your name. If it’s an uncommon name, then this will definitely set you apart from your competitors and make your prospect feel like you really do care about them.
  4. If they don’t have time to talk and they are rushing on the phone. Immediately propose another day or time that you could get 5 minutes of their time. Try and get a solid date to follow up with them. Before the next call send them some material on your products/services. The best thing to send would be a case study or whitepaper that you could talk about in your call. It’s a great way to start a conversation and show off your company’s capabilities.
  5. Ask open-ended questions. This will help get your prospect talking, so you can find out more about their needs. And this is also a good way to see how interested your prospect is. You may find out that it’s not going to go anywhere, which is good to know early on, so you can spend your time on a lead that will go somewhere.

What other tips would you add to this list above?

Photo courtesy of flickr

Posted in Marketing Solutions | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Older Posts »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.