how to create awareness for business

[aloysiuschia]

Hi all,

I started my design and printing business 1 month back, i tried advertisting in forums but no much response.

I will be advertisting in papers and doing mass email/sms.

Can anyone advise any other ways to help promote my business?

Thanks in advance

Warmest regards,
Aloysius

[ukdesigner]

when you say design and print business what type?

No disrespect but if you're designing then surely you have some marketing experience as that is what design is all about. If that's the case you need to be more aware than the general person off the street on how to attract new business. You're gonna come unstuck if you don't know the basics.

[aloysiuschia]

when you say design and print business what type?

No disrespect but if you're designing then surely you have some marketing experience as that is what design is all about. If that's the case you need to be more aware than the general person off the street on how to attract new business. You're gonna come unstuck if you don't know the basics.

Hi thanks for the reply, Design as in graphic design services. I have no experience in designing but my partner does. Im more onto the printing side.

[ukdesigner]

can you elaborate a bit more about the printing side. I'm interested.

[Benjftsai]

Awareness is a concept. The action is what you learn from the concept

[nimrod_0]

Hi all,

I started my design and printing business 1 month back, i tried advertisting in forums but no much response.

I will be advertisting in papers and doing mass email/sms.

Can anyone advise any other ways to help promote my business?

Thanks in advance

Warmest regards,
Aloysius

Make sure you've identified your target market and are working on them. Ask yourself who is most likely to need your services. Advertise in publications that those people read and in places that they frequent. Blitzing people who have no need for design and printing services is a waste of your time and money.

[Strong Eagle]

You need to join some advertising, design, and marketing groups, and start meeting people from the larger companies. Most will not take small jobs and will make referrals to you.

[sundaymorningstaple]

In fact, blitzing people can result in a lot of negativity about your company as well. There are lots of people out there who don't like "blitzing" especially when it is in the form of SMS's and eMail campaigns. I immediately put them on my no buy list regardless of the quality of the product, as I don't like being bombarded by spam so I end up recommending to my friends that they look elsewhere. You might have a good product, but as pointed out, ensure that you target the right bunch of people cause the wrong type can actually harm you in the long run.

[ukdesigner]

The best way to get new business is networking and word-of-mouth. Also getting to know other design companies is another good way.

I have to disagree with sms about email campaigns. I think he is very out of touch and good co-ordinated and targeted campaigns will work well. SMS may well bin it but he wouldn't be your target audience anyway. You're after the marketing departments of companies and whilst he may not recommend you who cares anyway. Sorry sms but you're out on a limb here. In fact, if he knew someone in the marketing field their ears may well prick up if they heard about a new dynamic company out there. The industry (small companies that is) is a small world and some businesses rely on the stuff the big people don't want.

When you started did you have a plan as to who to target? Did you talk to existing customers about other work that they want to outsource? Existing clients are always a good lead in. They both know you and also you can offer some kind of discount off their next job for every 'proper' recommendation.

You now need to know how to market yourself properly. You may be good at print and your partner good at design but if you can't market yourself then you're gonna come unstuck.

I would also recommend you stay away from some of networking groups. The ones I've checked out all seem a bit of a con. Badly organised, badly timed and expensive. The only winner of these are the organisers.

[aloysiuschia]

The best way to get new business is networking and word-of-mouth. Also getting to know other design companies is another good way.

I have to disagree with sms about email campaigns. I think he is very out of touch and good co-ordinated and targeted campaigns will work well. SMS may well bin it but he wouldn't be your target audience anyway. You're after the marketing departments of companies and whilst he may not recommend you who cares anyway. Sorry sms but you're out on a limb here. In fact, if he knew someone in the marketing field their ears may well prick up if they heard about a new dynamic company out there. The industry (small companies that is) is a small world and some businesses rely on the stuff the big people don't want.

When you started did you have a plan as to who to target? Did you talk to existing customers about other work that they want to outsource? Existing clients are always a good lead in. They both know you and also you can offer some kind of discount off their next job for every 'proper' recommendation.

You now need to know how to market yourself properly. You may be good at print and your partner good at design but if you can't market yourself then you're gonna come unstuck.

I would also recommend you stay away from some of networking groups. The ones I've checked out all seem a bit of a con. Badly organised, badly timed and expensive. The only winner of these are the organisers.

Thanks for the reply and other bros here.
I got to agree with what you have mentioned. I planned my targeted audience already and will be emailing them soon.

[sundaymorningstaple]

ukdesigner,

I might be out on a limb, but let me ask you one question.

Do you read ALL the email spam you receive? Or is most of it already on a filter to get rid of it? It would seem that the majority of companies do not "target" their email campaigns. How do you do that? Do you verify each and every email address you bought from the email marketeer? Looking at the wide variety of email I get that doesn't even remotely resemble what I might be interested in, I don't see how I'm 'that' far out on the limb. I will admit I'm up the tree though!

[Plavt]

All the spam I receive at my yahoo address finds its way in to the bin without being read. I find it especially annoying that a good deal come repeatedly from the same people.

[nimrod_0]

Hi all,

I started my design and printing business 1 month back, i tried advertisting in forums but no much response.

I will be advertisting in papers and doing mass email/sms.

Can anyone advise any other ways to help promote my business?

Thanks in advance

Warmest regards,
Aloysius

The oz 2 designs Blog might provide you with some good ideas.

[ukdesigner]

Carefully targeted emails are 'qualified' first. Its like when you qualify your employees. A decent company wouldn't send you stuff about marketing. You're in HR. What's the point.

Regarding the spam I receive unless it's got a .ru or yahoo ending I do glance it. I have filters naturally that detects what's spam and what's not. I clear it everyday. Now and again there's something that catches my eye and I review it. Luckily I have a specific filter which stops emails sending back whether an email has been read. I hate that shit.

I must say you're sometimes wrong and in this case you are. Email marketing campaigns are readily used today and whilst most can be considered spam some are genuine businesses looking to attract new business. In a world that moves faster than you can take a dump, in marketing you have to be both innovative and forward thinking. Small businesses don't have tens of thousands of dollars to throw at marketing campaigns and eshots are a cost-effective way of getting your message out. Look how people here moan about flyers in their postbox. So if you can't do flyers, or eshots and don't have the budget to do newspaper adverts then what's left? Web advertising? That'll only get you so far. The radio stations rip you off here with production charges and plenty more. It's made even more difficult because the people bitch so much about advertising yet if you wittled it down as to how they'd get new business they'd be stuck!

[sundaymorningstaple]

Therein lies my problem. I'm not an impulse buyer. Never have been. I refuse to go shopping with my wife (many hours). My wife refuses to go shopping with me (couple of minutes). $500 worth of groceries takes 45 minutes start to finish. I know what I want, if I want something else I research what I'm looking for. Behind the times? Probably. But I know what doesn't work for me. Some, like yourself, it does. Obviously I can't speak for the majority nor the minority. I can only speak for myself. If the sender isn't in my address book or I'm expecting mail from a specific source, I don't open it. It's an old habit born in the days of crappy virus protection and I've never changed. If you tried targeting me, you would just lose your money. I believe Plavt & SE, for the most part concur as well. But, as PT Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute" and as long as those types are out there, you are in good shape as curiosity wins out for a lot of 'em.