| A Radical Idea
Whose Time Has Come |
Let's face it. Everyone is looking for ways to save money right now. Budgets have been cut to the bone and a lot of people are working less than a full 40-hour week just to keep from getting laid off altogether. But a business can't survive if it doesn't continue to promote its products and services, so how do you get your message across to your customer base when you no longer have a budget for it?
Drastic times call for drastic measures. Let us suggest a new one to you - one that, if you can adjust your thinking a little bit, can save you a bundle of cash.
One of the early promises of the personal computer era was to reduce the use of paper. (OK, if you can just control your laughter for a moment and get back in your chair, we can resume this discussion.) So here's our proposal: paperless publishing. Instead of printing your marketing literature, just post PDFs of your catalogs and product bulletins on the your website for your customers to access.
"What's the big deal?" you ask. "We're already doing a lot of that. All of our important marketing literature is posted on our website for clients and prospects to access anytime they like."
Exactly! So why are you still paying to print most of that literature?
I know it's a big jump to go from providing printed marketing literature to telling your customers that they can find it on the Web, but it's an idea whose time has really come. We've all become accustomed to the idea. Think about it for a minute. If you want to find a piece of information, what's your first instinct? Do you reach for a thick book, or do you look it up on the Internet?
Check out the side bar article for some of the cost saving benefits of paperless publishing.
We realize that the proposal to move to paperless publishing is a radical paradigm shift for some of you, but we're already accustomed to getting our information directly from the Internet, the cost savings can be huge, and the beneficial impact to our environment is substantial.
This truly is an idea whose time has come.
We're Data Designs Publishing - a different kind of publisher. Give us a call (419-660-0500) to discuss your next publishing project.
(No paper was used or printing costs incurred in the production and distribution of this e-newsletter.) | |
| Marketing Idea of the Month |
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Yep, our marketing idea of the month is the same as last month - we had to because it fits so well with our our featured article. Not only can you publish your literature to your website, once you have the PDFs, you can organize them with a front-end "bookshelf" type program and distribute them on CD, DVD, or even on a flash drive. And who doesn't need a flash drive? They can be reasonably priced when bought in quantity. (We recommend using Cherie Towler at On Time Promotions. She receives new pricing on flash drives every Monday.)
Put your logo on it AND your marketing literature (be sure to include information about your capabilities). Set the program to open when the disk is put into the user's USB port. Your name will be in front of your clients every time they use it. |
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Save Marketing $$ and Go Green with E-Newsletters |
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Don't just go green with your catalogs. Targeted e-newsletters are perfect for keeping your name in front of your customer. Here are some tips for your newsletters:
- Keep it short - if they can't read it in under 5 minutes, they probably won't. Would you?
- Make it look easy to read - short paragraphs, white space and pictures all make the newsletter seem less intimidating.
- Provide information your customer can use - teach them something, give them a new idea, help them make or save money. It's not about you, it's about them.
- Give them an easy way to unsubscribe if they don't want to receive your newsletter and honor their requests.
- Be consistent, but don't overload them. Think about your own reading habits. Would you want to receive an update daily? Weekly? Monthly?
Give us a call (419-660-0500) - we can help create your marketing e-newsletters. If you like, we can handle the whole process, from content development to e-mail list management. | |
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| Save $$ by Going Green |
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Here are just some of the ways you'll save money through paperless publishing: |
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· No inventory to manage. You never run out of stock.
· No shipping, distribution, or fulfillment costs.
· It's a "green" solution. Not only do you stop killing trees, you also cut down on the use of toxic printing inks. (Ask your favorite printing company rep about the EPA regulations associated with the printing industry.)
· Customers can still have a printed version of your catalog. All they have to do is hit the "Print" button on their browser and print it on-demand on their own laser printer. They can print the whole book or just the pages they need.
· You can easily and cost-effectively keep your literature accurate and up-to-date by updating or adding pages or whole sections to your Web-based documents without paying for another print run of the whole book.
· You can publish high-impact documents in color inexpensively when you aren't paying to print in full color. It doesn't cost any more to create a full-color PDF than it does to create one in black & white. Since you're not paying a premium to print in full-color you can afford to do things you never could before.
· If you decide to do a traditional print run of your book, you can print from the desktop publishing files we used to create your Web-based PDFs with little or no duplication of layout effort and expense.
· Periodically mailing your customers a list of all the documents available on your website (and the specific Web address to access each of them) is easier and less expensive than printing and distributing a single marketing piece. You can use this mailing to highlight any new products or services. |
Thanks for reading our
e-newsletter. If you're experiencing any difficulties reading this newsletter, please let us know. And if you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to give me a call or send me an e-mail.
Sincerely, 
Sandra Hovatter
Data Designs Publishing
419-660-0500
©2009, Data Designs Publishing, Norwalk, OH |
If you received this newsletter from a friend and want to receive it directly from us, e-mail us at info@DataDesignsPublishing.com. Include "E-Newsletter" in your subject and your e-mail address. |
| Website Recommendation |
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We're out of space in this issue, but coming up next month... www.dropio.com - a great and free or inexpensive (depending on the option you choose) site to save and transfer files. | |
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