Custom Postcard Printing and Mailing With VistaPrint

If you are looking for a company to handle your custom postcard printing and mailing needs, there is a new service to consider. VistaPrint has offered postcard printing services for a long time, but they recently launched a mailing service to go with it. Now they offer everything you need to print and mail custom postcards to your audience.

They also offer something else you might be interested in -- 50% Off All Postcards

Quality Printing for Custom Postcards

I first heard of this company about five years ago. I got a business card from someone at a marketing conference and on the back it had a VistaPrint logo. I asked him why the logo was there, and he said he got the business cards for free as a special promotion, and that's why the printing company's logo was on there. What a great idea for word-of-mouth marketing, I thought to myself.

Now they've come up with another great idea, by offering mailing services to complement their custom postcard printing service. They also allow you to purchase a customized mailing list online, during the ordering process. So they are truly a full-service postcard printing company now.

Check them out and see what you think. They have pricing listed on their website, so you can compare them to other companies. You might also enjoy the fact that VistaPrint offers short-run capability, so you can place a smaller postcard order if you want. Believe it or not, there are still some custom postcard printing companies around that "force" you into placing larger orders (like a 5,000 minimum).

Good luck and good marketing!

-Brandon

Small Business Internet Marketing Tips

I often refer to the Internet as the "Great Equalizer" in terms of business competition. With the right Internet marketing strategies, your small business can compete with (and often surpass) your larger competitors.

Online, it really doesn't matter how big your marketing department is, or what your annual budget is. All that matters is how well you manage and promote your website. So if you do this better than your competition, you can take the lion's share of the web-driven business in your industry or niche. Here are some small business Internet marketing tips to help you do just that.

Internet Marketing Success

First of all, you need to understand the importance of the Web and how it can help you grow your business. When we want to research a topic these days, what's the first thing we do? We sit down at the computer and use a search engine to gather information. This method of research is becoming more common with each passing day.

So this is the first Internet marketing tip you should absorb from this article -- the Internet has the power and reach to take your small business to the next level. With that out of the way, let's talk about some of the things you can do to capitalize on this...

Tips for Visibility

From an Internet marketing perspective, search engine visibility is one of the best things you can achieve for your small business. So it's worth your time to learn the fundamentals of search engine optimization (SEO) and apply them to your website. Here are some of those fundamentals:

• Do a thorough round of keyword research using Google's keyword tool, WordTracker or something similar. This will help you identify the key phrases you should focus on for search engine optimization. Internet marketing success starts with building blocks such as this.
• Create plenty of original content for your small business website, focusing on the topics you identified in the last tip on keyword research. How you organize your content will depend on your business model, your products and services, etc. The important thing is to create quality information that is specific to your intended audience.
  
• Inbound links (from other websites to yours) will help you boost your rankings in the major search engines like Google. So research the various ways to build links and practice them on a regular basis. Techniques include article marketing, networking, submitting your website to web directories and more.
  

Tips for Usability

Website usability is an important part of your small business Internet marketing program. If your website is hard to use (for whatever reason), you are going to lose business as a result. So it's worth your time to learn the key concepts of usability and apply them to your site. Here are some starting points:

• Examine your menu / navigation structure to ensure it makes sense. Your menu should follow standard web conventions to help visitors find their ways. Label things clearly and logically. Draw it out on paper first, if necessary.
  
• Have a friend visit your small business website, somebody who has never seen it before. Ask them perform a certain task, such a locating a particular product or service. You'll find out pretty quick how easy or hard your website is to use.
• Keep your web pages clean and clutter-free. Each page should have a specific goal, and all of the content on that page should support that goal. This is an Internet marketing tip that many small business owners ignore. I can't tell you how many websites I've visited that were overloaded with information, to the point of confusing me completely.
  

Tips for Conversions

Within the context of small business Internet marketing, a "conversion" takes place when a casual website visitor becomes something else. For example, when somebody visits your site and signs up for an email newsletter list, they have been "converted" from a visitor into a subscriber. Web-based leads, inquiries and purchases are other forms of Internet conversion.

• Use multiple techniques for lead generation and/or sales generation. With all other things being equal, several techniques will produce more conversions than a single method alone.
• Start this process by identifying the top-three actions you want people to take when they visit your site. Action 'A' might be the most important, but you should also have a 'B' and 'C' to fall back on. For instance, if you can't make a sale, you should at least capture the visitor's contact information for follow-up purposes.
• Conversion points are the areas of your small business website where you want people to take action. A sign-up box and a purchase button are two examples. Make sure your conversion points are easily visible in key areas of your website. Provide clear instructions where necessary.
  

Obviously, there's a lot more to small business Internet marketing than this list of tips and tactics. But this article offers a good overview of the three most important concepts -- visibility, usability and conversion. If you focus on these three things, and improve them every way you can, there's no limit to what you can accomplish.

The Marketing Encyclopedia - Now Open

We have created a new section of the website called the Marketing Encyclopedia. And as the name suggests, it will offer information on a variety of marketing topics. Most of the information will fall into one of three categories:

General Marketing Topics - The section covers some of the general concepts behind marketing. How to plan a campaign, the tools you can use along the way, marketing-related jobs and more.

Types of Marketing - Explains the many different ways you can market your business, with topics ranging from direct mail to search engine optimization (and everything in between).

Information by Industry - How do people in your industry use marketing to grow their businesses? You can find out in this section of the Encyclopedia.

This only marks the beginning. There's a lot more great stuff coming soon!

Writing Tips for Marketing Letters - New Article

Marketing letters have long been an effective tool for increasing sales and overall business success. They are easy to produce, easy to deliver, and they are virtually guaranteed to be read most of the time.

But success with marketing letters often comes down to the writing ability of the person who creates the letter. Sure, it all starts with a great product or service. But in order to convey the selling points of your products or services, you need to understand some fundamentals of direct mail copywriting.

You find plenty of articles on this subject all over the website, and we've just added a new article that outlines the process of writing a strong marketing letter. Specifically, this articles explains the five steps to success a writer must go through when planning and developing a sales letter.

Here's an excerpt:

If you have kept up with the prescribed letter-writing steps up until now, you should have a clear idea who you are speaking to with your letters. The next logical question deals with the reader's action. What do you want your readers to do when they read your message? This needs to be a specific goal, because you will write your entire message around it.

Read the rest here:
How to Write a Marketing Letter