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Small Business Marketing Tools - Desktop Publishing |
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Marketing Tools For Small Business |
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Marketing >> Marketing Principles >> Marketing Tools
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Start by developing some good quality marketing tools. If not now, there will come a time when you will need to make presentations to clients about your services. If you don’t have the time then, chances are your choices will be something of dubious quality or nothing at all.
If you have the skills, doing it yourself only costs you some time. If you don’t, consider farming this out to someone that does. Ugly presentations rarely close the sale.
Sit down and make your list of every possible thing that you could need during a sales presentation. This could include introductory materials, things that tell about your industry, your business, benefits and costs comparisons, lists of services that you provide, affiliations and associations, contracts, forms, brochure materials, and legal forms.
If the idea of hiring out professional services leaves you cold, consider other alternatives such as graphic arts college services or hiring a professional who is doing some moonlighting. There are many very qualified people whose rates are lower than the top end pros.Desktop publishing
Most business people already do a certain amount of desktop publishing, even if it's only to print out your own letterhead.
Take this a step further and start to develop your own marketing tools. Putting them out on your own printer isn't always the best option and you won't match the quality of a 4-color print process down at your local Alpha Graphics. But if you take your time, work it, massage it, and pass it around for some ideas, you will probably come up with something that is very passable. The best part of it is that you won't have spent a fortune on it if you look at it later and decide that something needs to be changed. Of course if it's a choice between desktop publishing your own stuff or nothing, something is generally better than nothing at all.
The other advantage to developing your own marketing tools is that you can customize them. Instead of sending your representatives out with the exact same thing that everyone else in your company has, put their picture and contact information on it. It's just something that adds a bit of pizzazz to the 'just another brochure", and it does help to differentiate you and your staff.
You will of course need some software in order to create your marketing tools and that would mean both graphics development and publishing tools. This does NOT mean that you can get by with MS Word and WordArt. Those are slightly above using crayon, but not much.
You will have to come up with some money for it, but consider the long-term payoff. You will constantly need to develop this little bit of graphics or produce a new brochure in order to sell your services.
Marketing >> Marketing Principles >> Marketing Tools
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