Monthly Archives: August 2013

Power of the Pen

The Power of a Pen

How you can harness pen power in your business…

When the ancient Egyptians first invented the pen it’s impossible to know whether they understood the influence its creation would have on the world. The pen’s ability to document and share information in a tidy format revolutionised our world as it has acted as a pillar of knowledge and played a key role in distributing important knowledge.

Fun fact: Pens are  mysterious little buggers! Have you ever experienced the moment where you needed a pen and they all just suddenly vanish from existence? We always need a pen and yet we can never find one.

Since the invention of the computer, the vast rise of the internet and the conquering of this new exciting space by apps like Twitter and Evernote, pens have seen an unfortunate decline. Handwritten letters have quickly been replaced by text messages and emails, and notepads are disappearing from your weekly meetings as iPads and Notebook computers pop up in their place.

But we believe the power of the pen is still alive and especially so when it comes to marketing your business. The decline of pens may even be an opportunity for the right business to take the market by storm, as the pen now has an aura of beauty and that personal touch around its use.

Pen idea: Consider that we only receive hand written items on birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions, it may be worth contemplating the effect a pen can have when trying to impress, influence or appease your customers.

The pen’s use as a marketing tool doesn’t have to stop there either, as when considered as a promotional item it is both affordable and very useful to the person who receives it. Research by the BPMA seems to agree with this as well, as they discovered 80% of people in receipt of a promotional pen will keep it for over 6 months! That’s an astonishing amount of time your brand can be placed in front of your target market and not something that should be underestimated.

So the power of pen is still there, it just needs a little thought and perhaps an extra bit of clever personalisation to really make a difference/work for you!

Business Card Tricks!

4 business card marketing tricks that really work!

There is no doubt that when it comes to direct marketing tools, business cards are number one. The ability to keep you fresh in a clients mind is second to none and when research shows that people are 90% more likely to work with someone they’ve met face to face, it’s obvious how important business cards really are.

With this in mind, more people than ever before are stocking up on business cards; but getting them into future client’s hands is also much harder. It’s all about getting a little creative and giving your client a reason to not only pick up your business card, but remember it (and you)!

Take a look below at a few of our own business card marketing tricks that really work!

Competition time… No we don’t mean a Facebook competition where everybody has to Like, Share and tell you how wonderful your profile picture is to enter! We mean a real competition, which takes place in the real day to day life of your future clients’ world.

For this, you’ll need a standard size glass fish bowl and a stack of your wonderful business cards. The idea is simple: ask people to drop their business cards into the bowl for a chance to win your services. This way you’ll end up with all the details of people interested in your business and hopefully they’ll take away a few of your cards at the same time.

Discount time… This marketing trick is all about utilising the reverse of your business card. The front will detail all your usual contact information, branding and logo and you can make excellent use of the reverse by displaying a discount code. This works wonders in keeping you placed firmly at the front of your client’s mind in several ways.

Firstly, it utilises the otherwise blank side of your card; secondly it may encourage them to contact you sooner if you add an expiration date, and lastly it means they’ll take extra care with your business card, more so than they would in usual circumstances.

Refer it! We use referral campaigns in marketing all the time so why don’t we use it with our business cards? Family and friends can be really useful referrers, all you need to do is split down your cards into 10s and 20s leaving a line on the reverse of your business card for the referrers name.

It also works well with clients who you’ve worked with before, so they can earn themselves discounts whilst helping you grow your business.

Your business card is a business magnet… If your fridge is like mine, then it’s absolutely covered in magnets of all shapes and sizes, some mementos of trips, some gifts and others just plain and simple freebies. We never seem to get rid of them and they stay on a fridge year after year.

Now you can create your very own magnetic business cards and hand them out to clients. They last longer than your standard business cards and have the advantage of being much more creative in your public placement than regular business cards.

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It’s also good to remember that business cards don’t just have to be about business. Magnetic business cards can be great for exchanging your details with your children’s friends’ parents for example. Plus, you never know who might see your business card stuck on someone’s fridge and what rewards you might reap one day.