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7 "Don't Do's in Brochure Designing"

2010-08-27T22:59:00.000-07:00

Print brochures are still a powerful marketing tool when used properly. A well-designed brochure can educate potential clients on your offerings and encourage them to take action to become a paying customer.
The key phrase? Well designed. If you don’t design your brochure correctly, you risk missing out on all the benefits of brochure design. Here are 7 mistakes you need to avoid when making your brochure.

Not using color—Don’t be cheap. Black and white brochures simply aren’t professional. Color is absolutely worth the investment. It’s more vibrant and enticing. It brings your brochure to life and grabs the attention of the reader.
Using too many images and too much copy—Brochures are typically fairly small, either single fold or tri-fold. You don’t have a ton of room, but if you use your design and words effectively, you’ll get your message across loud and clear. One of the worst things you can do is go overboard by using too many images and long blocks of copy. Leave some white space. Give everything space to breathe.
Not allowing for print bleed—Make sure you extend the graphics a little past the edge of the brochure so you can be sure the ink completely fills the page. Otherwise, you risk having the ink not reach the side and ending up with a tacky white border. This looks cheap and unprofessional, and that’s not a good look for any company.
Choosing cheap brochure paper—Speaking of “cheap”, using flimsy, cheap paper for your brochure can yield disastrous results. Thicker paper adds a professional touch to your brochure and gives people a good impression of your business.
Not having a call to action—The purpose of a brochure is to get people interested enough in taking the next step to learning more about your products or services and to become a customer. That’s why having a call to action is so important. It tells the reader the next step he needs to take, and it takes your brochure from “actionless” to results-driven.
Neglecting proofreading the content—In many cases, a brochure is the first chance you get to make a good impression with a prospect. If your brochure is full of typos, illogical sentences, and other mistakes, that first impression will be a bad one. It will be bad enough that it drives people away from doing business with you.
Not looking at the final proof—Before you tell the printer to print up your batch of brochures, make sure you look at the final paper proof carefully. This lets you double check for bleed and errors while getting a true feel for what your brochure will look like.

Carefully Choosing an SEO firm

2010-08-26T00:17:00.000-07:00

With tons of SEO companies out there it can be confusing on which one to pick. A company will always tell you that they are the ones equipped for the job . Unfortunately, That is not the case ( or I should say "NOT" everyone is suited to tailor your needs). With that said here are some steps to help you choose the best firm for your company

Step 1) The best way to hire best SEO company is to get "YOURSELF" familiar with SEO/SEM. If you are well versed with these technologies, it won't be hard for you to select expert SEO Company. Search engine optimization is not a rocket science. The entire focus of search engine optimization is to target right set of keywords for your business. If you are offering website design services, then you must focus on various keywords such as “web design, website design, and various others. You can study traffic pertaining to various keywords by visiting Google Keyword Suggestion Tool.

Step 2: ALWAYS! ask for client references from your SEO Consultant you are planning to hire. This will help you evaluate effectiveness of their SEO services. By all means contact there clients that worked with the firm you are looking to hire this will only save you time and headaches.

Step 3: Verify references provided by your SEO Firm. Never go for any SEO company which does not provide you genuine contact details of their clients.

Step 4: Check for the rankings which any SEO Specialist Firm has delivered for its client. Check and verify the rankings yourself to perceive whether those SEO rankings are genuine or not.

Step 5: Any SEO Company you are planning to hire must tell you forefront about the marketing techniques which would be used to promote your business. SEO optimization and marketing is not just about link building. It has evolved into a new marketing technology which incorporates various marketing platforms such as social media optimization, social networking, Pr promotion, etc etc.

These are some of the basic steps which can help you select best SEO company for your business website. Search engine optimization will help your business to generate more clicks and leads from potential clients.

OUTSOURCE REVOLUTION

2010-08-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

The internet has totally revolutionized the entire business world to such an extent that every business man whether new or existing one wants to exploit internet's incredible potential to his or her advantage. Building a professionally designed and maintained website is generally considered the first step in increasing business exposure on the internet. It constitutes one of the cost-effective e-commerce solutions which help businesses grow, reach and impress new potential customers online.
Hiring an affordable and cheap website design seems to be a better option when it comes to build a professional looking website fulfilling all your business requirements, both now and in future. Thus an affordable web design service can help customers to a great extent to get a quality website uploaded with all its important marketing features and wonderful website designs Rain Maker Creative Studios is an affordable web design company based in Makati Philipines, offering afforgable website design, website development, website redesigning, website maintenance, web hosting and web marketing and search engine optimization services for small to medium sized business customers. We are committed to build high quality, visually attractive, easy-to-navigate and affordable web designs which can hold visitors attention fast, load quickly and communicate effectively to the targeted audience. Our unique web design and development skills increase our customers web presence successively.
Benefits of Professional Web Design: -
Expert and skilled web designers from website design company help you build technically sound websites and beat competition from other web design companies.
Incorporation of advance online marketing techniques matching individual business requirements along with professional web design guarantees an increase in web traffic and sales.
Online businesses can get maximum flexibility through quality web site design services.
At Rain Maker Creative, we build websites which are high on usability and navigation thereby increasing its chance of generating sales.
Hiring a cheap web design company will help the customer save both money and time.

If you are planning to get an affordable and cheap web site design then think no further! Rain Maker Creative Studios,is an experienced website design company that will provide you with professional help that can bring traffic to your site and generate sales as well. We are capable to serve businesses of any range in different industries.

Aligning Your site with Your content

2010-08-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

For your website to be called a success, apart from its web design your content that it hosts is also important. A well structured blog has the caliber to act as visitors’ pulling magnet for your website, provided its content has to be written with right keywords.
For the people who have just started the work of writing content may face confusion or difficulty at starting. Taking decisions regarding the topics and keywords to be used can seem not so difficult. But as time passes and you gain confidence for writing articles in professional manner, it becomes easier.
While taking up the task of writing the blog you may come across many thoughts which you had ignored at first instance but now you find it interesting from users’ perspective. The content has to be written keeping in consideration the topics which readers would like to read.
After the target audience has been decided you need to know what type of information they are actually looking for. Decide on the web design layout likewise and after that write the content which are in demand. Study the market beforehand, visit the blogs that are similar to yours read their content and see the presentation way. If they deal into products or services that are same as yours then you can get valuable tips from their website. As the sites that have already made up to the search engine rankings must have used SEO techniques that have been successful in pulling in the visitors.

Not Just Any Logo Design

2010-08-19T18:08:00.001-07:00

A business company is best remembered not only for its brand but also for its logo design. You will know that you have reached success if people can identify your company by just looking at your business logo. There so many factors to be considered in choosing the best and right representation for you. In choosing the best logo designer, consider the following guidelines:
A logo is the exact representation of your company, your product, and services you provide. It is a significant element for the success of your business. In choosing a designer you find out the designer's work history. Has that designer ever worked for a well-known company? The designer should also be well-informed of what the client needs. A graphics design company with an extensive portfolio will help you look at their previous works, and this can give you a better picture on how your own logo design will turn out.
Your budget should be also taken into consideration when choosing the best graphics designer company. Having a logo is quite expensive, especially for a small business venture. That is why many businesses go for the packages for its designing. Find a company that provides good quality at an affordable price. There are actually graphic artists who can provide a good design without costing you so much fortune. So, it is advisable to search widely and thoroughly.
A logo design company should also go with your company as you engage in other projects like making designs for your brochures and other graphic design publications. This will save you time in finding another graphic artist.
Find a company that assures you of good and quality craftsmanship. If the company does not give a money back guarantee, or an equivalent assurance of quality result, then it is better to look for another company. Customer satisfaction must be the main goal of the company you are choosing.
There are many logo designers and companies out there willing to do the task for you. The important thing you must remember in choosing a best design company is that that company can be trusted. The graphics artist may be your partner for the entire lifespan of your business, that is why you make sure that you can rely on your logo design producer in every project you are planning to undergo.

Your Marketing has to match your site

2010-08-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

True, the web allows you to use as many colors as you like, without extra charges. Different types of printing still charge per color of ink used and using more than 2 or 3 colors can get pretty expensive if you are small business. However the web allows you to use all the colors that you want, for free! Many business owners get excited about this. Their imagination runs wild trying to use every color they can think of throughout the site.instead of using 2 or 3 colors. Now, what happens they got so carried away with all the "freebies" that their site doesn't look like their materials. What happens now is it has now created a “disconnect” for clients who come to your site from a reference of another piece. For example let's use McDonald's,When we see their "Golden Arches logo" we remember red background and yellow arches right?.Now, we go to their site and we see yellow arches red and purple background with a touch of green..Wow! what a mess. This can very well happen to a business owner who doesn't match their materials with their site. Logos,business cards and brochures leave an everlasting impression on your potential client . They may think that the website belongs to a different company! It makes your visitor wonder if they’re in the right place. And that can make you lose their trust. A better way to use color online is to use the wider palette of colors available as secondary colors. If your printed materials are mostly blue and gold, that doesn’t mean that you have to use only blue and gold in your website – but they should be the main colors used. Adding in highlights of khaki or green can look very nice and add more visual interest to your website. But if you choose green to be your main color for your website, it will be confusing.
Also, make sure that the extra colors you choose fit in with your brand. Make sure they communicate the messages you want to send out about your business. In other words, don’t choose more colors just because you can. Make sure that there’s a solid design reason and the psychology behind the colors you’re adding to your palette makes sense.
Another way to add more color online is full-color photography. Stock photography is quite cheap and accessible to even the smallest businesses and can add a lot of pep and pizzazz to your tired color palette.
- Many entrepreneurs get bored with their designs, and use the web as an excuse to “mix it up”. If you’ve had your materials designed for a while, it’s not uncommon for you to be bored with them. No matter how innovative the design or how excited you were about it when it was created, this can happen. This boredom comes because you see your own marketing materials almost every day. Whether it comes from printing letters on your letterhead, handing out your cards at a networking event, looking at proposals with your brand on them, walking into your office and seeing your logo on the same old sign every day, or giving presentations off of your PowerPoint template – you see the same thing over and over. And it’s natural. But I can almost guarantee you that unless you’ve been in business a very long time or you’ve been harassing your clients with constant marketing mailings, you’re the only one who’s bored of it.

The expierence not the product

2010-08-17T03:01:00.000-07:00

The Power of a Brand

Marketing is not a battle of products, it's a battle of perceptions. The power of a brand lies in what resides in the minds of customers – what they learned, felt, seen, and heard about the brand as a result of their experiences over time.

I remember when a Best Buy and Circuit City was put up in the vicinity I was thinking "which one will suit my needs.?" Circuit City being the closest to me, I decided to take a stroll inside to see what new gadgets came out. I immediately headed for the tv section to check out the new flat screens. It took forever for a representative to assist me ( the funny thing was it wasn't even busy) as time went by, a customer service rep stopped by to ask me if I needed anything and, I said "No just looking" he replied "If there is anything I can help you with feel free to let me know"... Hmmm, thinking to myself what does Circuit City teach their employees for training I thought he would at least try to make an attempt to make a sale. Oh well, I guess I'll take a short ride to Best Buy.

Best Buy was a little different( or should I say very different) busy a lot more going on so I thought this could be worse. The tv section was really busy but, a customer service rep acknowledged me and said "sir, If you give me a couple minutes I'll finish up with my customer and attend to you".. Whoa, pretty shocking coming from a much busier place and yet he still found time to acknowledge me. The young associate approached me as I was looking at the flat screens and instead of asking me"Can I help you?" he took it upon himself to educate me on certain flat screens. He mentioned why this particular brand is better than the one he explained about higher resolution he mentioned also the warranty (mind you this place was busy) but yet, He took his time to educate me,he knew his products and he had superb customer service. I didnt end up buying the tv that day but, I did return on a later date to purchase it.

The Best Buy brand definitely left an everlasting impression on me. Just the experience from the customer experience alone was enough for me to return and not only purchase the tv but, purchase other products. Though,Circuit City is closer and offers the same exact products, I'll drive the extra quarter of a mile and deal with Best Buy. So, I say "It's not the products, It's the experience".

Personal Branding : The Core You

2010-08-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

A friend asked me the other day "What should I brand myself or My company?".. My response was "YOU"
With a confused look he asked me why?.. Let me share a few thing with you on why I believe it is better to brand you.

1) Authenticity - People are looking for genuineness. Be "realistic" paint a real picture exaggeration will repel any future projects.

2) Character - People are looking for ones who are trust worthy, who are willing to take the time to service them especially after the sale (very important) it shows what type of character you have if you are in it for the 1 time sale or for the ultimate long term relationship.

3) Leadership - You are now the leader . (bottom line!).This positions you to be the expert in your area of expertise they will look to you to guide them and to help be the solution to their problem.

At the end of the day, Your clients are buying "YOU" not the product. So I say with these qualities "YOU" will make more of an impact to your customers than your products. Your customers return because of you and how your customers service is.

Presidential Gadgets

2010-08-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama in a recent photo taken at the White House on July 22, 2010.

Photo: Photo by Brendan Hoffman-Pool/Getty Images

On The View today, President Barack Obama talked about what forms of communications he is using. President Obama mention he has his Blackberry,Ipod and spoke about Twitter.

Obama said he currently has a BlackBerry, but it's less fun for him now because only 10 people are able to contact him on it. He said everyone's afraid that all communications will be covered by the Presidential Records Act and become public later, so "good stuff" is not communicated via BlackBerry.
When asked whether he tweets on Twitter, Obama siad that he doesn't though a "20-year-old" member of his staff tweets on behalf of the Office of the President.
Asked about iPhone, Obama responded, "I have not made the switch."