Business Cards are the major advertising agents of companies. A friendly, visually pleasing, and informative business card is more likely to make a lasting impression. However, make sure to give your potential clients a professional first impression.

Consider the following strategies to make your business card more memorable:

Make your business easy to work with:

-All major credit cards accepted

-Located conveniently off of Rt 108, next to Giant

-No appointments required

-Fast service guaranteed

-Experienced representatives always available

Add incentives onto your business card:

-present this card to receive a free quote

-ask about our new customer discounts

-log onto our website to receive free coupons

-Ask for Bill as your waiter and get a free desser

Customers want business cards to give them a quick outline of your company and its strengths. Sell your company on your business card by remarking on what is done well, such as “excellent customer service guaranteed.” Business cards can also be used as part of promotions, telling the customer if they bring the card back they will get a discount and other ways to sell your products and your company through your business card. Double-sided cards are also gaining popularity with many companies listing relevant facts or details to make more of an impression with customers. Business cards are the quickest and easiest way to market your business, but also the most overlooked. The key to a successful business card is one that creates a lasting impression with the potential client and enough positive information about the company that will make that client return.

We are all in the business of promotion, no matter what industry you are in, at some point you’re going to need to promote your company. Incentives are a great way to promote your business, allowing customers to reinvest into your products and build customer loyalty, increasing their likelihood to return. Gift cards sell your products and your business without limiting the promotion to specific products. Gift cards make new customers come to you because not only are you getting business from the customer who bought the gift card, but they, in turn, are giving the gift to someone else, thereby ensuring the new customer come to you. Gift cards also increase business promotion without spending money on promotional items.

Promotional gifts work along the same lines, building loyalty and encouraging repeat business. This gift with purchase should remind the costumer of your company. Oftentimes real estate companies send out calendars or tape measures with the company logo to subtly keep the company in the consumers mind.  Customers are just reinvesting into the products you already have.

Cross-promotion with another company allows you company to utilize gift cards for another company which raises the awareness of that business to your customers. That partnership, in return will bring you business from their clients. The best way to have successful cross-promotion is by finding other businesses that relate to yours. If you own a flower shop, have gift cards for a candy store.

Membership cards are a great way to support your best customers and keep them coming back. These cards are mostly free or they allow that day’s purchase to have a discount. Membership cards reward returning customers by giving them special discounts or bonuses. Panera Bread often gives their members added items on special days or discounts for repeated visits. Incentives can help create an atmosphere for your customer that allows them to feel special and make them want to come back and buy gift cards and tell their friends. It spreads brand awareness for you, creating an organic growth of your brand name as well as fostering good relations across your customer base. A few good incentives and promotions can go a long way to creating a strong connection with your consumers and utilize their word of mouth marketing to spread the word.

Restaurant specials and happy hour promotions also have a lot of marketing value to learn from. The use of specials on menus that advertise a restaurant’s best dishes for a lower price, or with as a combination with other good dishes allow the customer to taste a dish that they might otherwise shy away from because of the price. This opens up a larger customer base and, through the variation of the specials, allows for a wider sampling of all the restaurants dishes. Once a customer tastes the expensive dish and realizes that it is worth the price, that customer will not only come back, but will increase your revenue. The same applies for happy hour and other time-oriented promotions. When certain dishes or drinks are a lower price at a special time of day, more customers will come to the restaurant and it will actually end up making more during that time ever though the items are at a lower price. Marketing strategies can mimic these restaurant strategies. Make your products a lower price with combined with another product: make business cards half off when purchased with fliers. Have seasonal or time-oriented promotions: have a special on calendars during New Years. Different marketing strategies throughout a variety of businesses can all be slightly modified and applied to every business to increase advertisement.

Utilizing Dreamscape Marketings SEO capabilities and an aggresive Geo-targeting campaign, local businesses McMahon Auto, Assets Protection and BGA Insurance are receiving strong Philadelphia area  traffic numbers.

McMahon Auto is carving out market share against national competitors with its sights and sites set on Philadelphia and surround regions. The efforts of Dreamscape marketing in conjunction with McMahon Auto are helping the Philadelphia area fleet management company bring in valuable leads from their targeted market area.

Assets Protection is moving into new urban centers aggressively after already saturating several remote warehousing markets. With the help of Dreamscape Marketing, Assets Protection was able to locate new markets and position themselves to effectively utilize the new traffic Dreamscape Marketing was able to bring in.

BGA Insurance has a unique way of dealing with their clients, they treat them like individuals. Each client that deals with BGA Insurance receives a personal agent and has their needs analyzed and taken care of. With Dreamscape Marketing, BGA Insurance was able to focus their market and truly reach out to the local community.

With Dreamscape Marketing’s SEO efforts and Geo-Targeting campaigns, you can find and position yourself in undiscovered markets or areas of interest, without ever leaving the office. Contact Dreamscape Marketing today to receive your free quote and find out how Dreamscape Marketing’s SEO can help your business grow.

On May 21st, 2010, Google celebrated Pacman’s 30th birthday. Traditionally, Google has changed their logo to reflect significant or cultural occasions, but this time, Google took it a step further: an interactive logo. The Google Doodle, created by Ryan Germick and Marcin Wichary, not only is a full, 265 level playable version of Pacman, but also a very powerful marketing tool. One would simply have to go to Google and click “insert coin” to play the full game. As a bonus, the developers also had an option to make the game two-player: if you click “insert coin” twice, Ms. Pacman would join the game, to share the nostalgia. Anyone who wished to play had 48 hours to do so; however, the game became so popular that Google left it permanently on its site easily found through the appropriate search query.

Banking on current nostalgia trends throughout various marketing fields, evident most in the movie industry. Almost every other movie is recreating something from out childhood to phenomenal market success. A very popular marketing strategy now is manipulating the draw to childhood loves and this nostalgic game not only created plenty of web traffic, but it increased the amount of time users spent on Google’s website that day. During this celebration of Pacman, time spent on the site went from 11 seconds to 47 seconds on average – a monumental increase. The actual time spent playing Google Pacman is probably much higher as companies report as much as 4.82 million productivity hours lost due to this doodle, and many users didn’t even know that the doodle was playable so the number could have been much higher. This cost companies a total of $123,483,800. This creative marketing strategy fits right into the psychology of buying. The nostalgia of playing an old childhood favorite keeps people coming back and staying longer; imagine the implications on your own site. What types of interactive marketing can your company use on their site to increase the time users spend on the site? The web world knows that the more time a potential client spends on your site, the more likely they are to invest in your products or services. Only time will tell the marketwide implications of the doodle, but Google has served notice that creativity pays – it’s time to take notice.

In 2007 the SPCA debuted a commercial featuring the faces of sad dogs and cats, while Sarah McLachlan sang “Angel” in the background. In one year, that single advertisement raised over $30 million for the animal adoption agency.

To get people to buy, you have to appeal to their emotions.

Contentment is capitalism’s worst enemy. We are constantly spending money, because we are constantly trying to make our lives better.

But whether it be the new shirt which will make us seem more fashionable, or the maid service that will save us time, or that cup of coffee that keeps us going in the morning – we need to be emotionally instigated.

Lori Turner, of the Memphis Daily News, recently composed a list of the different buying-types and the desires that drive them:

-      Survivor Buyer

• Buys to fulfill basic needs, whether that be food, or perceived needs (such as a cellphone)

-      Convenience Buyer

• Buys services or products that help save time

-      Scarcity Buyer

• Buys whatever is in limited quantity in order to achieve the status of a “haver” in a “have-not” world

-      Prestige Buyer

• Buys to promote social standing

-      Community-Focused Buyer

• Buys in order to be a part of a community (such as, Apple users)

-      Value-Minded Buyer

• Buys products whose perceived value is greater than actual cost

-      Fearful Buyer

• Buys to eliminate fear (such as bed bug mattress covers)

But now that it’s not the early 1900s, we are overwhelmed with choices. Not only do we need to know what to buy to make our lives better, we need to know which brand is the best option. The business that takes the time to fully understand their key demographic, and that demographic’s buying-type, will  have a better chance of achieving the right emotional response to gain and keep consumers.

Whether you believe in global warming or not, in today’s market, you can really only benefit from initiating some “green” processes for your business. Not only will this boost your creditability to any potential conservation-conscious consumer, it may also help save you money.

One of the best things that may have ever happened to trees was the Internet. Here are some ways to use it to its “green advantage:”

Declare your business a “paper-free” zone.

-      Encourage your employees to use a shared drive to work on projects.

-      Instead of snail mail, use email to send out promotions and newsletters.

-      Use SEO and social media avenues to help increase web traffic to your site (therefore negating the need for mailings all together).

Understandably, most businesses can’t function completely without paper. But there are many ways you can still conserve.

-      Buy in bulk. Doing so reduces the amount of energy required for packaging and shipping. It will also save you money.

-      Encourage recycling by having bins available around the office.

-      Avoid printing large quantities of time-sensitive advertisements.

-      Avoid mass-mailings and instead send well-researched direct mail.

Every business setting is unique, so chances are there a variety of additional ways that you can help reduce, reuse, and recycle within your company. At Dreamscape, we purposefully chose a dark background color for our website, because darker pixels require less energy. This also helps us reduce our monthly energy bill.

But beyond saving money, you may actually see a return on your green “investment,” as many consumers consider environmental sustainability when choosing a product or service.

A tradeshow offers you the chance to do something you don’t often have the opportunity to do: walk into a room full of your key demographic. But if you’re not prepared properly, it won’t matter who’s in the room. It’s like being handed an apple when you don’t have any teeth.

The key to a being a success at a trade show is making sure:

-      You cater to your demographic

-      You stand out amongst your peers

-      You are aware of logistics

Demographic

You originally enter a trade show because you deem the demographic to be beneficial to your brand. But what is important is that prior to the trade show, you identify sub-groups within the tradeshow’s general demographic. This way, you can fully prepare to cater to whatever types of potential consumers may wander past your booth.

For example: if you’re going to a pet supply tradeshow, and you are a company who sells organic cotton leashes, identify how you can appeal to environmentally conscious dog owners. Then determine how you may reach those dog owners who have no environmental stance or even pet owners that like to walk their cats (it never hurts to think outside the box).

Stand Out

Chances are there will be a number of different companies hawking their own leashes as well. Find a way to stand out. Perhaps hang your leashes from trees made of dog bones or prove how strong your leashes are by bringing in a few heavyweight champs to have a leash tug-of-war.

Creativity will broadcast your business.

Logistics

One of the things that we, at Dreamscape, have found to be an important part of being successful at a tradeshow is planning for the general logistics of the show itself. Considerations include: developing timelines and budgets, determining where your company should be positioned within the show, and what tools will be available at your disposal. The last thing you want is to be disorganized, because this will reflect poorly on your company.

Tradeshows really can be a very fruitful and fun experience if you are well prepared. Top the preparation off with a “Wow!” factor and you’ll be sure to convince cat owners that walking is all the rage.

We’ve already talked about the importance of using keywords for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But to further benefit your SEO campaign, you need to know where best to position your keywords.

Best Keyword Positions:

-      Use keywords in web page titles. Web page titles are located at the top of your browser window, in the same bar with the buttons which allow you to minimize the window.

-      Web page headers are the next important place for keywords. Headers are the titles within your actual web page.

-      Website content is the next step down after titles and headers. Always place a few keywords in the first few sentences.

-      Use keywords as directional tools, as in buttons or links that navigate to the rest of your site. So, instead of “click here for more,” use site-specific keywords.

-      It’s also good to use keywords in your domain name if applicable, but not if it will make your website more difficult to find for a potential consumer.

General Tips for Keywords:

-      Organize your website content with bold and italics. This has  been shown to have a possible positive effect on a website’s SEO listings.

-      Use keywords at the beginning of titles. This is known as “front-loading.” So instead of “Darling’s Body Shop: Benefits of a Regular Oil Change,” use “Benefits of a Regular Oil Change from Darling’s Body Shop.”

When using keywords for the benefit of SEO, remember that “keyword stuffing” – the act of filling your website with nonsensical listings of keywords – will dramatically hurt your website’s search ranking. An excess of keywords with little relative content is an immediate red flag to search algorithms, stating that your site is not a high quality source.

Google’s Keyword Stuffing Policy:

“Keyword stuffing” refers to the practice of loading a web page with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google’s search results. Filling pages with keywords results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.

Dreamscape has a lot of experience initiating effective keyword campaigns for a variety of businesses. If all this seems daunting, let us help.

Brand marketing is different from product or service marketing as it defines the company as a whole. This may seem obvious, but many times businesses without a well-defined brand cannot retain customers

The American Marketing Association’s definition of “brand” is a: “…name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”

Starbucks Coffee is a good example of branding. There are many companies in the U.S. that are associated with coffee, but it could be said that Starbucks brand is associated with “hip, professional, coffee.”

Dunkin’ Donuts, while also associated with coffee, is the “blue collar brand.” Even Dunkin’s current slogan, “America Runs on Dunkin’” elicits images of the builders and working class “Joes” who keep the country going strong. Not the hip computer geeks who sit writing in Starbucks. Even the Starbucks and Dunkin stores reflect their brands as Starbucks has places to lounge and Dunkin is setup more like a McDonalds.

Both companies do well because, while their products may frequently change, both companies maintain the same persona. Each new marketing campaign draws influence from previous campaigns. This continuity gives customers a sense of stability.

A Successful Brand Marketing Strategy is:

-      Clear. Your brand needs to be well defined in order to reach your target.

-      Emotional. You need to connect to your audience on a base level.

-      Motivational. You need to successfully convince your target demographic that they need to continue using your product or start using your product (or service).

-      Credible. Your brand needs to say that you are the go to business for your product or service.

-      Inclusive. Your brand needs consistency as it grows and changes.

Most importantly, you want your brand to be memorable. You want to accomplish all of these above targets, but also stand out. This takes creativity and well-crafted construction. Rarely do people remember a brand with a poorly crafted logo or a cliché slogan.

The best first step you can take in becoming a top brand is to check out your competition. This way you can find your niche within your market. Like, perhaps a fast-service place to get fancy tea. Not everyone drinks coffee.

Technology has taken the marketing world from print media and focus groups to social media and Google analytics. And just like McDonald’s changed the pace with which we feed, so the Internet has changed the speed with which we consume information.

But beyond speed, we also receive so much more information than ever before. According to a 2007 New York Times article, the average city-dwelling consumer is exposed to up to 5,000 ads a day. That’s a lot of competition for a consumer’s attention.

The Necessity of a Website

Every business should have a website. It need not be flashy, unless your industry demands it, but you need to be available online. A modern customer turns to Google before they ever search other sources.

Another benefit of having a website is you can link it to Google Analytics. This is a free way to learn more about your demographics and the effectiveness of your website itself.

E-Mail Newsletters

If you have a website, having a regular online newsletter is an easy and highly effective additional marketing tool. You can have a sign-up  form available on your website. Use this sign-up area to also discover the demographics of potential customers – offering a catered mailing in return for answers to “gender,” “location,” and “age.”

This is also a great way to offer promotions and unique information  not available on your website. Make it worth the customer’s while.

Social Media: To Use or Not to Use?

Using social media is not a necessity. It really depends on your business whether or not what, if any, forms of social media would be appropriate as a marketing tool.

A business-to-business corporation would have less of a need for an online presence, whereas a business-to-consumer corporation would do well to create an online persona.

The best part of social media is you can quickly develop a relationship with your potential customer.

As technology and social media continue to expand, your marketing needs will continue to evolve. But it’s important to remember, that no matter how strong an online presence your business has, nothing can replace an actual conversation with a customer. Don’t get trapped behind the computer screen.