If it looks like too much work to figure out if this is a good marketing opportunity and all of the things that should come along with it then, maybe it’s not a good marketing opportunity for you. You should have a process in place to handle these types of decisions. To ask the questions, to have the other leveraging marketing opportunities in place, if it fits the criteria and then to be able to measure the results.

Here’s an example:
A local school calls and wants you to put an ad in their school directory:
1) Who will it reach and are they your target market?
2) If you support the school this time will you do it again?
3) If you support the school, how else can you support the school?
4) How can you get buzz that you supported the school?
Always be thinking on how you can leverage your dollars.

Recent happenings:
I asked a local merchant:
Where’s your businesses cards? He said “They have to buy something before they get a business card.” I said, What?!
Tip: A business card is the cheapest form of advertising.
Samuel Little Graphic Design can provide local, low cost, high quality printing for most all marketing materials: Business cards, rack cards, handouts, brochures, etc. Give Samuel at call (804) 601-0545 to discuss not only printing but the design of your marketing materials.

A campaign for schools:
Merchant: I sent 15 letters to the PTA and only got 2 responses.
You sat at your desk, wrote a letter, mailed it and expected to get a return. “I don’t know why they did not respond…it’s a good deal…it will save them money.” These ways of advertising are over.
You’ve got to show you care. You have to have a personal connection with them. You have to be there in person. And if you are going to spend this much time with them, make sure you’re in it for the long haul. Several years. Just think. If you could have a personal relationship with a school, continue that effort year after year, get the buzz of the community and something they can count on, just think of the things you can do for your community and your business. Note: I see so many times that people put their businesses first by offering a way they can help the community.

Giving back:
Merchant: We’ll give your organization 2% of everything you buy from us. 2%!?
They are creating to much work for themselves…what if that person only buys one item…you’re going to look real good giving a check to an organization for $1. Wow, Thanks.
Ok, instead of giving 2% to many organizations, why not give more to one organization every year, make a special presentation to that organization and get free press. Make it well known that that’s what you do to give back all year round.

Need FREE marketing advise?
Give me, Samuel Little at Samuel Little Graphic Design a call (804) 601-0545 for a free marketing consultation before making any decisions. I am passionate about what I do and cringe at the some of the things that businesses spend their marketing dollars on. Please give me a call (804) 601-0545 and let’s talk it through before you make a big mistake.

Samuel Little Graphic Design can consult you on how to get recognized in your target market and the result is, more business. Samuel Little Graphic Design provides 3 cores services to small businesses in Chesterfield County, Virginia:
• Website Development
• Print Design Services
• Marketing and Advertising

Need to streamline your marketing efforts? Confused as to what to do next? Give Samuel Little, President of Samuel Little Graphic Design a call (804-601-0545) for a free consultation to discuss your next step in marketing your business, product or service.

I see so many businesses spending dollars on advertising products that either in my opinion does not work or is not clearly marketing to their target. It sounds good in theory and makes sense but not really.

Don’t be spontaneous in marketing decisions. Think it though.
If your contacted by a rep over the phone have them send you the materials via email so that you can make an informed decision.
Tips:
-First, before costs, “is this serving my target market?”
-How can I leverage this marketing opportunity with my other forms of marketing?
-Is this something I would do long term? Would I make a campaign out of it and do it every year?
-Can I partner with another business on this venture?
There are many questions to ask before asking…how much is it.

And lastly, give me, Samuel Little at Samuel Little Graphic Design a call (804) 601-0545 for a free marketing consultation before making any decisions. I am passionate about what I do and cringe at the some of the things that businesses spend their marketing dollars on. Please give me a call (804) 601-0545 and let’s talk it through before you make a big mistake.

Samuel Little Graphic Design can consult you on how to get recognized in your target market and the result is, more business. Samuel Little Graphic Design provides 3 cores services to small businesses in Chesterfield County, Virginia:
• Website Development
• Print Design Services
• Marketing and Advertising

Need to streamline your marketing efforts? Confused as to what to do next? Give Samuel Little, President of Samuel Little Graphic Design a call (804-601-0545) for a free consultation to discuss your next step in marketing your business, product or service.

If you like this article, you’ll like this one too!
Decisions on Marketing Opportunities

FYI: Subject lines are very important to get the best open rate.

Dear Samuel Little, President
Samuel Little Graphic Design

We are pleased to inform you that your application for Small certification has been approved.

• Your certification is valid for a term of three years from the date of your approval; re-certification is required at the end of that term.
• You will see your company listed as a certified SWaM vendor on our website at http://www.dmbe.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/search.cgi.
• It is very important to keep your contact information–especially your email address–up to date. Submit your changes electronically to dmbe@dmbe.virginia.gov or call 804.786.6585.
• If you have any comments or concerns regarding our services, please fill out this form and send it to us: http://www.dmbe.virginia.gov/documents/Customer_Service_Comments_Form.doc

To do business with the Commonwealth of Virginia, you need to register your company with the eVA system, the state’s online procurement system at http://www.eVA.Virginia.Gov/vendors/index.htm. All state solicitations are conducted on this site.

To check Procurement and Business Opportunities with state agencies, local governments, and others, please visit: http://www.dmbe.virginia.gov/bid.html.

If you need assistance to operate your business, please visit this site: http://www.virginia.gov/cmsportal3/business_4096/running_a_business_4100/index.html

Sincerely,

Virginia Department of Minority Business Certification Team
1111 E. Main Street, Suite 300
Richmond, VA 23219
804-786-6585
Fax: 804-786-9736

Samuel Little Graphic Design can consult you on how to get recognized in your target market and the result is, more business. Samuel Little Graphic Design provides 3 cores services to small businesses in Chesterfield County, Virginia:
• Website Development
• Print Design Services
• Marketing and Advertising

Need to streamline your marketing efforts? Confused as to what to do next? Give Samuel Little, President of Samuel Little Graphic Design a call (804-601-0545) for a free consultation to discuss your next step in marketing your business, product or service.

Photo courtesy of Chesterfield County Chamber of Commerce

Debra Girvin, owner of Lochlyn Company, works with Jerry White of HR Web Connect, which is partnering with Girvin to create an interactive website called HR2GONOW.

This fall, Girvin is introducing a new human resources Web product called HR2GONOW that she hopes to license.

“It’s a Web-based membership program where small businesses will be able to get forms, business news and updates, and access information to get answers for their HR questions,” she said.

The program will have different membership levels. Girvin is working on pricing each level. The highest level will provide accessibility to Girvin’s expertise.

“They can contact me and discuss issues,” she said about the top tier.

Girvin’s business has grown from two clients to more than 100 clients since moving to the Richmond area. Her territory includes Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New York City.

Read more in Richmond Times Dispatch news article…

Samuel Little Graphic Design has been working with the Lochlyn Company for some time now on their website. When we heard 2 weeks ago that our client, the Lochlyn Company, would be featured in a news article by the Richmond Times Dispatch…we kicked it into high gear! We strive to provide the best possible service to our clients. When clients have deadlines that are important to them we don’t take no or second best for an answer. We meet deadlines and demand information from our clients to meet those deadlines even in fast turnarounds. After Debi Girvin told us of this article she asked that we at least have a landing page online at the time of the article. We said NO, we’re going to have whole site up! The website went live in record time. Even after the article has hit we are pushing to get the word out by posting it through all social networks and blogs. This is huge news…you never really know how huge a news story can be til after it has hit. It’s an amazing rush.

Stay tuned for more information on the Lochlyn Company website as the HR2GONOW service rolls out.

Samuel Little Graphic Design is a website development and print design company specializing in small businesses in Chesterfield County. We are active in the Chesterfield County business community.
Active member of:
Chesterfield County Chamber of Commerce
Hull Street Business Association
Western Chesterfield Business Alliance

Here are some items and tips before sponsoring and event (not in order of thought process):
1) Where is the event being held?
Note: Is the event in your geographical target market? Think of travel, boarding and dining expenses to attend.
2) Are the attendees in your target market?
Note: Will you benefit from the attendees at the event?
3) How many attendees will be attending?
Note: The amount and quality of attendees are important
4) Is the price for the event inline with the ROI?
Note: Most of the time you can negotiate the price of the sponsorship to fit your budget with event holders
5) After the event will you get a contact list of the attendees?
Note: If so, then you’ll need to prepare to contact the attendees after the event.
How will you contact them? Via mail, email, phone, etc. The form of contacting needs to be prepared before the event because time is of the essence. Once the event is over you’ll need to start contacting the attendees in a timely manner depending on your form of delivery.

For more information on who, what, where and how to sponsor contact Samuel Little Graphic Design at (804) 601-0545 for consultation. Visit us on the web at: www.samuellittlegraphicdesign.com

You’ll see alot of emails coming from comcast.net, verizon.net, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, etc. Everyone is business should have a domain email address. If you have a domain you should be sending email through your domain (ie services@slgd.com).
A domain email offers many benefits:
1) Your representing your business in every email. Everytime you send a comcast.net email you are advertising for Comcast. It’s a constant reminder for Comcast. It’s all about branding.
2) If you were to change your internet or email carrier you would simply redirect your email from your domain email acct. to your new carrier or not at all depending on your current email set up. No need to email the world to tell them you’ve changed your email address in the hope that you don’t miss out on any emails.
3) Email technology is changing every day…by having a domain email address it allows you to make options that do not effect the name of your email address…Make sense? (Note: I have had my same domain email address since 1998 and have changed internet or email carriers many times from Earthlink to Comcast to Verizon to Yahoo and now I’m with Google.)

How do I get started? Contact your webmaster or host provider and ask them what your options are OR contact Samuel Little Graphic Design (804-545-7503) and we can review your options. If you need a domain name contact us at 804-545-7503, services@slgd.com or visit our internet services website at http://www.slgdhosting.com to purchase your domain. You’ll be glad you did.

Here is an example of a current client with a similar challenge:
We developed a website for this client. He currently uses hotmail for email. We set up domain email for him to use instead of his hotmail acct. and instructed him on how to use it and he accepted the change. During further communications, we see that the client is not using his domain email and continues to use hotmail (Like I said, some people accept change differently).

So we asked the question:
I see you have your hotmail email account on the site and are still using that email address for communications…are you going to use that email address or use your domain email address? Because if you are, you/we’ll need to change some things to send email to your hotmail account. (Some don’t want to make the change and we don’t force them to…it’s a choice…we like to steer them in the right direction)

Client’s reply:
I don’t think the Hotmail account is a problem and no need to change anything else.
If I can give people another option to contact me more’s the better. They can still go through the web site to place orders, which is where I’ll direct anyone who contacts me personally.

Our reply:
Having different emails doesn’t give the sender options. One email address is one email address. The benefit is that YOU only have one place to go to check mail. By having 2 separate email accounts, makes it to where you have to go to 2 places to check your email…and you could forget and not check them both.
So, do you want your domain email address or your hotmail email address?
One point I’d like to make…hotmail and yahoo are notorious for getting hacked…this doesn’t happen with your domain email with us.
It’s a matter of “change”. Accepting change for the better.

Client’s Reply:
Fair comment.

Our Reply:
Ok, great thanks for accepting change.
Remember, you can keep your hotmail account for personal and from now on anything with business will be the domain email…or you can use your domain email account for all communications.
If need help with your domain email acct. let me know or your can call tech support.

So, there’s more to email than you think.
If you have any questions or want to discuss email options give me a call at 804.545.7503 or email me at services@slgd.com.
You can visit us at http://www.samuellittlegraphicdesign.com or at our internet services website at http://www.slgdhosting.com