Author Archive for Dan – Page 14

Marketing Tip #1, Be Prepared to Tell What You Do

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

I went into the grocery store the other day.  I was standing in line and the person behind me read my shirt and then asked what my business does.  I very quickly replied, “My business is to build businesses through solid marketing materials such as print media, vehicle graphics, signs, and websites”.  I then closed my mouth to wait for a question because I knew they would have one.  The point here is I knew what to say in a quick effective manner and shut my mouth.  If you reply to someone with a long statement you will loose them in the conversation.  Give the statement and then shut your mouth.  Do not do all of the talking.  People love to hear their own voices in a conversation.

I always recommend to clients to practice saying what their company offers so when the situation comes up they have confident response to engage conversation.  If you are engaging you are more likely to convert this person into a customer.  I would recommend roll playing with a friend or spouse to make sure you know what to say, but more importantly how to say it effectively with confidence.  It may seem trivial but what you say and how you say it does matter.

I am going to end this Be Prepared statement with ALWAYS have your business card on hand no matter where you are going.  You never know when the next big customer is going to be found. When possible always ask for the potential customers information during the exchange.

Be sure to check back soon for updates to the 509 Media Marketing Tips Section.  Thank you for reading.

Marketing Tips From 509 Media

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Everyday I engage conversation with someone wanting to know how to better market their business or organization.  I thought it might be helpful to some people if I post small but useful things to better market goods or services.  Many new business owners have no clue where to start advertising or assume it is too expensive for them to do.  The truth is advertising leads to new business, and new business is the life blood to any company.

Advertising and marketing does not have to be the enemy.  You should view it as a necessary evil to make your bank deposits a little bigger.  I am going to start this section of the website to share marketing ideas.  If you have something you feel should be added to this section please email me through the Contact page on the site.

Stay tuned for the first marketing tip.

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Woodland Car Care Business Cards with Spot UV

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

woodland_car_wash_business_cardsA few months back 509 Media began working on a logo design, stickers, and other marketing materials for Woodland Car Care.  Woodland is a car wash and car detailing company.  The owner of the car wash wanted custom business cards to reflect a modern image.  The business cards feature spot uv which makes only certain sections of the business card shine.  Spot uv works to give the card depth.  When placing a business card like the Woodland Car Care in front of people they can not help to pick it up and check it out.

The car wash business cards were printed in full color on 16 pt card stock.  Woodland Car Care ordered 10,000 business cards to help kick start the new car wash business.  10,000 cards typically start at 160 dollars and go up depending on options like spot uv or rounded corners.  Call 509 Media today if you would like to get started on custom business cards for your business.

Check out the pictures of the cards printed below.  In the pictures you can see how spot uv adds to the look and feel of the business cards.  You will be able to see more in the angle shots.  Spot UV can be difficult to capture in a picture.

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Custom Welding Caps Logo for Dadscaps.com

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

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Donna at Dads Caps contacted me through a forum I post on.  She makes custom welding caps for both professional and recreational welders.  If you are a welder you should check out her WEBSITE. You will find custom welding caps with many different designs.

Dadscaps.com was in need of a sticker for their vehicle.  Since Dadscaps.com did not have a logo to use we put together something to fit their budget and fit the application.  The logo will be printed on vinyl to create a full color decal for their truck.  If they decide to use the design on their website and even embroider the design into their caps they can.

The icon in the logo is a line representation of a welding cap.  If you do not know what a welding cap is you might not get it.  So be sure to check out the caps on their website for reference.

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Studio One Hair Salon Business Cards

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

studio_one_businesscardsStudio One Hair Salon wanted 509 Media to design and print new business cards for their salon located near Auburn, Alabama.  The design was left open to the graphic designers at 509 Media.  Action was taken to design and print a high quality business card for the hair salon.  The business cards are printed on high quality heavy 16 pt card stock and UV coated on the front side only to make them shine.  The UV coating was left off the rear of the card to allow for the hair stylist to write appointment times on the read side of the business card.  A hair stylist earns their money by building clientele for repeat business. Often times if a stylist leaves a salon the clients will follow their stylist because of the stylist client relationship.  With that said a hair stylist needs to consider their work as a little business within the larger business being the salon.  It is important for the stylist to establish a brand or name for themselves within their given market area.  The market area can be as large or small as people are willing to come see you for your hair styling abilities.

A well put together business card design can speak volumes about your hair salon business.  If you are standing in line at the grocery store and someone asks what you do for a living you should have a response to fire back at them in less than 10 seconds.  DO NOT have a long drawn out story of how you worked over there and now work over here.  You will bore people.  Get to the point and make an impact.  Have your business cards on you at all times to capitalize on every opportunity that comes your way.  You will never know when an opportunity will come to gain new business.  After you tell the potential client what you do make sure you are handing putting a business card  in their hand and ask them to drop by for a visit sometime.

I know a couple hair stylists who operate their own websites as a portfolio of their work.  On the business card you can place the website address to direct people back to your work.  Part of the goal is to make sure people recall what services you offer the next time they have a need.  Like 509 Media your website can be built to easily add information to the the website without the need to know a lot about computers.  509 Media will be happy to talk about setting up a portfolio website if you are interested.  509 Media can also show you different way you can promote your brand and the advertise your hair salon.

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Texas Truck Performance Business Cards

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

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TTP (Texas Truck Performance) contacted 509 Media to design a new business card for their truck accessory business in Texas.  TTP was looking for an updated design to better match the style of their company.  The business cards were printed in full color front and rear.  The rear of the business card has an area for writing quotes.  The rear of the card did not receive a UV coating to make it shine.  The front of the business cards did get the UV coating.

TTP received their business cards a few days ago and have been very happy with customer response.  Everyone coming in their truck accessory business has wanted to put a business card in their pocket and take it with them.  A business card can be a very effective sales ad if used correctly.  In the automotive industry business cards are all about flashy.  Call 509 Media today to get a free quote on doing your company business cards.

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Categories : Business Cards

A&W Lawn Kare Full Color Vinyl Stickers

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

dsc_9671Brad at A&W Lawn Kare asked 509 Media to take the design from their business cards we created a few months back and print full color stickers for the doors of their fleet vehicles as well as some smaller stickers to place in other locations.  Branding a lawn care company is an important part of creating awareness for your company in any community.  If people see your lawn care company brand around town they will have a higher chance of recalling your name when the times comes for the lawn care service you offer.

Call 509 Media today to get a quote on printing stickers, vehicle graphics, website design, and more.  509 Media is in the business of building businesses.  Let us show you how to stand out in the crowd.

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Categories : Stickers

Our New Baby Printed Vinyl Signs

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

dsc_9686Our New Baby located in Dothan, AL needed some quality signs for their Thomasville, Georgia store.  The signs were printed and laminated on high quality vinyl and then applied to aluminum sign blanks.  Our New Baby has been the leading store for baby related furniture.  They now have stores in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia with plans for more locations.

Expecting mothers in the Dothan area should check out Our New Baby.  Our New Baby is the leading baby supply store in the southeast.

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Categories : Signs

Kombi Ice Cream Business Card Design

Friday, April 16th, 2010

kombiicream_businesscardsKombi Ice Cream has to be one of the neatest projects to show up at 509 Media in a while.  The business will be selling ice cream from a restored VW bus.  The VW bus will be used at car shows and other related events.  We will post pictures of their vehicle as soon as we get the vinyl graphics installed.

The Kombi Ice Cream business card design is simple and to the point.  We choose to keep the design simple to preserve the vintage look and feel of the company.  The colors on the card carry over from the VW bus.  The business cards are printed full color front and rear.  No UV coating will be added to these cards to keep the vintage look and feel.  The cards are being printed on 16 pt matte finish card stock.

509 Media is in the business of building companies.  If your company needs help standing out in the crowd be sure to contact 509 Media.

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Categories : Business Cards

Changes to the 509 Media WordPress Website

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

There are major changes going on to the 509 Media website.  The look of the site may be changing, but the platform has remained the same.  509 Media runs on WordPress.  WordPress is a content management system.  WordPress was originally designed to be a blog platform, but many developers have used it to contain and organize large amounts of information.  509 Media choose WordPress for the ability to easily add and maintain content on the website.

We are working to change the look of the site.  The navigation of the site will be changing  as well in hopes to make it easier to find what you are looking for.  WordPress basically runs off of two different types of content.  The first type of content is Pages and the second is Posts.   Pages are static content that remain the same over time.  Pages are things like our Content page.  The Content page holds the contact form and rarely gets updated.  The next area is the reason many of you visit the site on a frequent basis.  Posts are the life of the website.  Posts are new content being added to the site as new things happen.  In 509 Media’s case we use posts for updated projects, how to articles, news, and this article.  A post can be anything you want to add to your website.  WordPress makes this very simple.  Posts can be made from any computer and many smart phones.  I use my iPhone to add new posts from time to time.  I rarely Publish a post from my iPhone.  Most of the time I will start an article while I am thinking about it and save it in WordPress as a draft.  This allows me to take a second look at the post on my computer before making the post.

We will be adding more information and images to the site over the next few days.   We have been working on an online store for the site and hope to have it up and rolling sometime very soon.

If you would like to see us make a certain change to the site please post up below.  Please keep in mind we are in the middle of making some major changes and a few things around here are not dialed in yet.

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Categories : News