A delightfully absurd take on everything from superheroes to office humor, twisted relationships, huggable animals, and more.
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An adroit mixture of everyday settings and extraordinary events.
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A compendium of strange-but-true recent events as reported in the legitimate press.
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The world of business and finance gets skewered, as Bottom Liners tackles subjects such as foreign takeovers, office policies, getting a raise, and the fast-paced world of Wall Street.
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A wry look at the absurdities of every day life.
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An easy way to make your images more interesting.
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Put Your Message In Their Hands
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Create a Personalized Information Hound
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Hang Tags Turn Lookers Into Buyers
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A Message From Bob Hamilton |
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The Touchstone
A poor man bought a used book and was flipping through the pages when he stumbled upon an intriguing hand-written note that told about the secret of a magical "touchstone." The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any metal into pure gold. The story explained that the touchstone was lying amongst thousands of other pebbles that looked alike, but the real stone would feel warm, while other stones are cold.
With nothing to lose, the man packed up his belongings and camped out at the seashore testing pebbles. Instead of picking up the same pebbles numerous times, the man decided to throw the cold pebbles into the sea. He spend days doing this, but none of the pebbles were the touchstone. He would pick up a pebble, feel it was cold, and threw it into the sea. Pick up another cold pebble and throw it into the sea.
After several weeks of touching pebbles, the man picked up a pebble that was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he’d done. He had formed such a habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when he finally came across the special stone, he tossed it away without a second thought.
Here’s the way I see it: Life is full of opportunities that we may miss out on because we become so wrapped up in our normal routine. Next time you are presented with an idea for a new opportunity, slow down and think it over. If you are too quick to throw them away, you could miss out on a real treasure that awaits your future.
If you’d like help creating marketing materials that are sure to warm customers up to your business, let us know! Our creative printed materials can help turn your ideas to gold.
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Marketing Tip |
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Direct Mail Marketing: Still In the Game
In today’s hectic world of busy meetings, e-mail overload, and nonstop sales calls, it can be refreshing to browse a creatively designed direct mail marketing piece at your own leisure.
Direct mail is one of the only forms of advertising that lets you precisely pinpoint your target audience and receive fast, measurable results. Unlike advertising in mass media such as radio or television, direct mail allows you to define precisely who you're speaking to and tailor your message accordingly. For example, if you own a snow removal service, you wouldn’t waste time or money targeting apartment tenants.
Budgeting is also easier with a direct mail campaign, since you can control the number of pieces you send out on campaigns. Not only do you know who received the mailing and how much each piece of cost you, you can also track how many responses came back. This information makes it easy to calculate the return on investment for your campaigns.
There are many types of direct mailing ideas to choose from. Here are a few popular examples:
- Postcards. They are a great miniature billboard and take only seconds to read. Your message is also exposed to an exponential amount of people as it travels through the mail and around your office. Postcards are also great for perforated coupons and loyal customer cards.
- Self-mailers. Self-mailers attract attention because they are quick to open, and they are convenient from a mailing perspective because they eliminate the need for envelopes and stuffing. Strong graphics and a powerful sales message make it difficult to ignore.
- Newsletters. Many customers look forward to receiving an upbeat newsletter filled with knowledgeable tips, tricks, and other relevant industry information. Newsletter direct mail is also a great way to build relationships with your customers and prospects.
- Invitations. Direct mailers are a great way to invite customers or prospects to upcoming open house celebrations, hands-on trainings, or even customer appreciation events.
- Announcements.
Use a direct mail piece to introduce new staff, announce new products or services, inform customers that your business is moving, etc.
- Creative packaging. Oversized or translucent envelopes will not only attract attention and stand apart in a pile of mail, but they are more likely to get opened and create a memorable impression for your business. Create more impact with a custom designed mailing label to promote your brand image.
In addition to creating front-of-mind awareness, direct marketing is also a great way to support your outside sales staff. Direct mail pieces are a great lead-in for many conversations that lead to sales.
If you need help creating your next direct mail campaign pieces, look no further. Our team of experts can help you along every step of the way to achieve direct marketing success. Turn to us for creative strategy and state-of-the-art print production. Our experienced staff is eager to exceed your expectations and provide the right solution for your next printed project.
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Tech Tips |
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Web Alerts Made Easy
In today’s busy world, we are constantly being bombarded with information from a variety of sources, making it difficult to sort out what is relevant or important to us. While you can track updates on the web manually, it is often very time consuming to monitor a variety of topics you are interested in.
There is a variety of free web services that track personalized information and news on the web quickly and securely, such as Trackle, Alerts.com, Yotify, Google Alerts, etc. After creating an account, you can customize the information you want to track, ranging from cheap airfare, blogs, health articles, job postings, RSS feeds, sports, news, etc.
Here are a few examples of customized information alerts you can receive: check if the value of your home is going up or down, stay on top of local events and concerts, receive the latest sports updates, or receive automatic birthday reminders, severe weather warnings, and notifications that your credit card has been paid, etc.
Users can either monitor the results of their searches on the web, or request automatic notification whenever there is
a match via e-mail, SMS, or text message.
If you’d like more information on printing tips and tricks, give us a call! Not only can we save you time by providing you with suggestions and examples for your next project, but together we will bring your ideas to life.
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Uncommon Product |
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Hang Tag Marketing Offers a Competitive Selling Advantage
With only seconds to impress your potential customers, your merchandising must speak your message clearly. Hang tag marketing is a great way to express a competitive selling message, often turning lookers into buyers.
What if you could have a sales person helping consumers understand the unique value of your products every step of their buying process? With hang tags, you have the opportunity to give prospects valuable product information without making them uncomfortable or pressured to buy.
In addition to offering additional product information, hang tags differentiate products and increase perceived value. While hang tags are typically associated with clothing retailers, they are great for nearly any type of products or packaging.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when creating hang tags:
- Utilize advertising real estate. Take advantage of both the front and back of your hang tag, providing the customers with more information about your products. However, remember to keep it simple with clear visuals, a strong message, and easy to read fonts.
- Highlight features. Hang tags are a great way to highlight product features, give directions (such as if products have multiple uses), explain your product guarantee, suggestions for care, etc.
- Pictures say a thousand words. Hang tags are designed to highlight your products and show what they will look like in use. Use high quality action photos that will help the customers envision themselves using your products.
- Reinforce your brand. Design hang tags as marketing pieces that match your company’s branding. Use corporate colors as well as your logo to effectively represent your brand.
- Impress with color. Full color printing grabs more attention and conveys higher quality to your customers.
- Create positive attention. Hang tag marketing should complement the product it is attached to. Though the tags should be noticeable and add value, they should not be an eyesore or a distraction.
- Don’t forget the hole. Leave space where the hole will be drilled. Cutting off an important word or image not only detracts from your company’s credibility, but it could also eliminate the perceived added value of hang tag marketing.
If you’d like help developing unique hang tag marketing ideas, stop by today. Our creative experts can help you create hang tags that will enhance your brand image and provide additional information about your products that your prospects and customers are sure to love.
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