Author Archives: Sarah Hickman

5 reasons why your marketing campaign needs print

Posted on  
Marketing campaign needs print

In today's integrated marketing communications, print is sometimes overlooked. However, not everything can be communicated online, so while the internet can help to promote your business, print still has an important role in closing sales.

Many businesses have moved all of their advertising online because of its cost effectiveness, convenience and potential for exposure. But print is still a powerful and necessary component of your campaign. Why?

  1. Branding - Printed marketing materials and adverts are a fantastic way of solidifying your brand identity. Your branding can be carried through in terms of design, colours and fonts.
  2. Tangibility - You can actually touch a printed piece. Your brochure or printed advert can be kept for years, while old online ads disappear into cyber space.
  3. Credibility - Print gives a sense of legitimacy. It shows that you're not a cheap, 'here today, gone tomorrow' organisation.
  4. Targeted marketing - Brochures can be handed out to qualified prospects at events and retail outlets. And placing adverts in speciality magazines, for example, can reach niche audiences that may be more difficult to target online.
  5. Engaging - Consumers are often more 'switched on' when reading printed material, and read more slowly. Websites are more likely to be skim-read.

The best way to market your business is to use as many channels as possible to reach your customers, and this should include print. Contact us at Public to find out how print can contribute to your overall marketing effectiveness.

Posted on  

Graphic design jargon buster

Posted on  
Graphic design jargon buster

Here at Public we make sure we explain everything to you in layman's terms. But have you ever heard a graphic designer or graphic design agency use a term and wondered what on earth they're on about? This little glossary might help bust that jargon...

Author's corrections
Corrections made by the author on proofs, that alter the original copy. The cost of making such alterations is charged for.

Bitmapped image
Image represented by an array of picture elements, each of which is encoded as a single binary element.

Blank dummy
Mock-up consisting of the substrate and cover material required for a printed document (e.g. a paper brochure).

CMYK
Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and black process colours.

Encapsulated PostScript file (EPS)
Type of image file conforming to Adobe standards.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A simple way to log in to another internet location in order to retrieve or send files.

Gradation
Staged change in tones from highlight to shadow.

Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
A commonly used method of compression for digital images. The degree of compression can be adjusted.

Line art
Image that has no tonal gradation.

Pantone
Pantone is one of the most widely used colour matching systems in commercial printing.

Portable Document Format (PDF)
File format used for the exchange of documents and defined in the Adobe portable document format.

Point size
Typographic unit of linear measurement.

RGB
Abbreviation for red, green and blue, the colours that combine on a digital display to make an image.

Tag Image File Format (TIFF)
Format for exchanging raster-based data.

Tone
Degree of lightness or darkness in any given area of an image.

Tone value
Percentage of the surface occupied by the image area.

Typography
Process of designing, specifying, composing, printing or otherwise working with typefaces by means of analogue and/or digital techniques.

Posted on  

Who are my customers? Using market segmentation can help you find out

Posted on  
Customer segmentation

OK, so this may sound like a dry, academic topic. But using market segmentation needn't be difficult, and can help any business – large or small – define who their customers are. Once you know who your customers are, you can then take steps to shape your offering to meet their needs.

A segment of the market is basically a group of people that share similar characteristics.

You can follow four rules for creating useful segments. Your segments should be:

1. Measurable
We should know where it is, how big it is, and exactly how it differs from the market at large and other segments in particular.

2. Accessible
You need to be able to access the segment with your marketing communications.

3. Substantial
It has to be big enough to be worth your while.

4. Homogeneous
The members of the segment must act in the same way, and respond in the same way to marketing messages they receive.

So the next question is – what criteria should you use for segmentation?

This depends on your business, but here are some suggestions:


1. Geographical markets

By country
By region
By county
By town
By postcode
Or even by street

2. Demographic factors
By age
By gender
By family life stage (e.g. whether they have children)
By income
By occupation
By education

3. Social factors
By social class (although this is becoming less useful)
By lifestyle
By personality

4. Benefits sought
For example, if you are a toothpaste manufacturer, why are your customers buying your product? Is it for dental health, social reasons (fresh breath), or appearance (tooth whitening)?

 

The list above is based on a business-to-consumer business. A B2B organisation could use slightly different criteria, such as type of customer, end uses, common buying factors, and buyer size and geography.

Segmentation isn't necessarily a precise exercise, but it should be able to help you target your marketing efforts more effectively. It can help define the focus of your company, increase your competitiveness, retain your customers, improve your communication… and ultimately increase your profitability.

Posted on  

Printing jargon buster

Posted on  
Printing Leamington Spa

We received so much positive feedback from last month's blog post on busting the jargon around graphic design that we thought we'd treat you to a glossary for printing terms! So here goes...

Binding
Method by which pages of a publication are held together.

Bleed
Additional printing area outside the normal printing area. Necessary for the allowance of the mechanical cutter in the trimming process.

Creep
Tendency of a printed image to drift out of register or position during the printing process.

CTP
Abbreviation for 'Computer to Plate', the method of making printing plates direct from digital media.

Die cutting
Process that uses sharp steel blades, laser beams or water jets to cut predetermined shapes into substrates.

Digital proof
Soft or hard copy proof produced from digital data on a display or on a substrate.

Drilling
Process that uses drills to bore holes in a substrate, for example in paper inserts which will be bound in a ring binder.

Embossing
System that uses dies to press raised images or textures onto blank or printed substrates.

Encapsulation
The process of covering and sealing printed paper or board with a tough waterproof, plastic film. An overlap is usually left around the edge. Often mistakenly referred to as 'lamination'.

Fill in
Undesirable effect in which small non-image areas are filled by ink.

Gloss lamination
A printing finish that gives a high gloss sheen often used on brochure covers, menus, magazine covers or presentation folders.

Gravure printing
A process in which the printing areas are below the non-printing surface. The recesses are filled with ink and the surplus is cleaned off the non-printing with a blade before the paper contacts the whole surface and lifts the ink from the recesses.

GSM
Measure of paper density. Stands for ‘Grams per Square Metre’. The higher the GSM number, the heavier the paper. For example, standard A4 office paper is 80 gsm.

Hickey
Imperfection on a printed sheet caused by unwanted particles that can cling to the image carriers during lithographic printing.

Imposition
Positioning pages in order to ensure correct sequence when the resulting print work is converted to final page form.

Laminating
The application of transparent plastic film, usually with a high-gloss or matt finish, to the surface of the substrate to enhance its appearance, increase the thickness and stiffness and to increase its durability. Differs from 'encapsulation'.

Letterpress printing
A process in which the printing surface of metal, plastic photopolymer or rubber is raised above the non-printing surface. The ink rollers and the substrate touch only the relief printing surface.

Lithographic printing
Process for printing from a smooth surface, called a plate, to a substrate, generally paper. Based on the rule that ink and water repel each other. The image area of the plate is treated to receive and transmit ink to paper via a blanket. The non-image area of the plate is treated to attract water and thus reject the ink from the ink roller.

Matt lamination
A printing finish that gives a subtle, tactile effect, and forms a protective coating over the print. Gives a less glossy finish than gloss lamination.

Moiré
Interference patterns that can appear at regular frequencies when two or more patterns on an image interact with each other (for example a fine check pattern).

Offset printing
The most commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface.

Pagination
Making up into page format.

Perfect binding
Adhesive binding – gluing together individual pages or signatures directly to the cover of the book. Best used when the spine thickness is from 3mm to 25mm.

PP
Acronym standing for 'Printed Pages'. For example a brochure may have 16pp.

Perfecting
Printing the second side of the sheet. Also known as backing up.

Process colours
The colours used for four-colour process printing: yellow, magenta, cyan and black.

Raster Image Processor (RIP)
Processor that creates a bitmapped image from any other form of electronic file.

Register marks
Small reference patterns, guides or set of fine line crosses, added outside the image area to provide points for alignment and registration of subsequent colours in printing operations.

Run on
The additional cost to print further copies at the same time as the main print run.

Saddle stitching
To stitch with wire through the back of a folder booklet or brochure. At a larger pagination this method will not work, and a different option such as perfect binding will be used.

Screen printing
Often called silk screen printing. A stencil process with the printing and non-printing areas on one surface, the printing (image) area is open screen. The substrate is placed under the screen and ink is passed across the top of the screen and forced through the open (image) areas on to the substrate below.

Self cover
A brochure or booklet having the cover in the same substrate as the text pages (inside pages).

Signature pages
Professionally printed books have many pages printed per sheet of (large) paper, which is then folded and cut where necessary to produce a gathering or 'signature' of several smaller sheets.

Spot colour
Colour created from a single ink, which is not one of the process colours.

Spot UV
A special printing finish you can apply to specific areas on your print work to make it shinier. For example you can apply UV varnish to your logo.

Stitching
Method of binding pages in a booklet, for example using wire, thread or metal/plastic rings.

Stochastic screening
Printing process that uses the variations of spacing of tiny dots of uniform size and density to render tones.

Substrate
The base material that images will be printed onto, for example paper or card.

Web printing
The use of rolls (or 'webs') of paper supplied to the printing press in a continuous form. Generally used for runs in excess of five or ten thousand impressions. Typical examples of web printing include newspapers, newspaper inserts/ads, magazines, direct mail, catalogues and books.

Posted on  

How Google Analytics can help improve your web traffic

Posted on  
Google Analytics

Google Analytics monitors and measures your website traffic.

It’s free, and integrates with other Google programmes like AdWords.

You can see how many people are actually engaging with your website, which you can't do using offline marketing tools like brochures or press ads.

We recommend that you analyse your website traffic reports regularly. These will help you understand where your traffic is coming from, and what visitors do when they land on your website.

How to set it up
1. To use Google Analytics you need a Google account. If you don't have one, set one up. It's quick and easy.
2. Once you have a Google account go to Google Analytics and sign in with your Google account.
3. Follow the instructions to create a new analytics account.
4. When you are creating a new account, the 'Add Tracking' step will generate your tracking ID. The tracking ID will start with 'UA'.
5. Copy and paste the tracking code into the pages of your website that you want to track.

You can follow these steps yourself, but it may be easier to get your web developer to do this for you.

With this code in place, you will immediately start to receive data related to your website that you can then use to analyse your traffic and business goals.

One fantastic feature of Google Analytics is goal tracking. Set up a 'conversion goal' within your analytics account and you will be able to check if you are reaching this goal. You will be able to see exactly where you are losing your visitors along the conversion process, allowing you to correct any mistakes you are making on your site.

Posted on  

6 rules for writing advertising copy – by George Orwell

Posted on  
Copywriting Leamington Spa

George Orwell, author of ground-breaking works such as Nineteen Eighty-four and Animal Farm, started his career as an advertising copywriter.

He used this experience to create a few simple writing rules, which we can still use today to ensure our writing is clear, direct and effective. His rules apply whether we're writing a blog post, web page, magazine article, news story, advert or mailout.

1. Try not to use metaphors, similes or other figures of speech
DON'T SAY: Cutting-edge web designers
SAY: Leading designers / the kind of designers that others follow / the industry's most original designers

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do
DON'T SAY: Expeditive, accommodating or monumental
SAY: Quick, helpful or large

3. If it's possible to cut a word out, do so
DON'T SAY: J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury's most lucrative writer, is now exploring themes of great importance - crime, suicide - in her first novel as Robert Galbraith, “The Cuckoo's Calling”.
SAY: J.K. Rowling explores crime and suicide in her first Robert Galbraith novel “The Cuckoo's Calling”.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active
DON'T SAY: It was understood by the team that Peter's visit was a great success
SAY: The team understood that Peter's visit was a great success

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent
DON'T SAY: In the spirit of carpe diem, the design team blue-skied proposals on the aortic behaviour of cupid's arrow
SAY: The designers took the opportunity to think creatively about love

6. Don't break these rules!

Posted on  

Twitter for business – what do I say and how?

Posted on  
Twitter for business

So you're a business owner and you've heard that Twitter is a great marketing tool. You've set up an account and are faced with Twitter's text box asking “What's happening?”

What should you say?

Before you start typing away about your latest offers, take a step back and consider your social media strategy. This needn't be a long and drawn out process. We've written a blog post with some tips to point you in the right direction.

Now you know why you're doing it and who you're talking to, it's time to get tweeting.

1. Use a catchy headline, clear English, and interesting content
Don't forget that Twitter is fast-paced. People usually skim-read the thousands of tweets that pop up in their news feeds every day. Try to make yours stand out.

2. Rewrite and repeat your best tweets
If you worked hard on a blog post or are proud of your new product or service, don’t be afraid to tweet about it a few times. When you repeat your tweet, make it different - don’t tweet the exact same words every time.

3. Tweet breaking news
If you tweet breaking news there is a good chance others will share the news as well, and your tweet might just spread. Make sure you use a hashtag...

4. Use #hashtags
Using a hashtag is as simple as adding the ‘#’ sign before a single word or phrase without spaces. If you tweet with a hashtag, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your tweet. Remember: don’t over-tag a single tweet and use hashtags only on tweets relevant to the topic.

5. Tweet about trending topics
By tweeting about a trending topic you give your tweet greater exposure than it typically will receive. Getting retweeted is an excellent way of extending your influence on Twitter. Retweets can lead to more followers, more traffic to your website, and more publicity for your business.

6. Use pictures
Twitter's own research has proven that including an image with your tweet increases engagement (i.e. more people will see, click on and retweet your tweet).

7. Use links
This isn't essential, but if you include a link to your own website (especially a relevant page) this can drive more traffic to your site. Use a URL shortener like bit.ly to save space – you've only got 140 characters. If you use a scheduling tool like Buffer, the system will automatically shorten any URLs for you.

8. Tweet often
It sounds obvious, but with over 300 million users worldwide (and growing), there is plenty of other noise on Twitter so you need to be persistent to make an impact.

9. Say thanks
Out of common courtesy it's worth taking the time to say thanks if people mention or retweet you. Also they will be more likely to retweet you in the future.

10. Help others
Help others get their message out and they will be much more likely to do the same for you.

11. Include @mentions
If you include the Twitter user name of others in your blog post, they'll be notified that you mentioned them. There's a good chance they will retweet your post when they find out they are in the post you are sharing. This often works for big brands too – but only if you say something nice about them!

12. Time your tweets
We use Buffer and Hootsuite to schedule our social media posts at the optimum times for ourselves and our clients. Scheduling your tweets in this way can help your content get maximum exposure.

13. Avoid too many self-references
If you focus too much on “me” and “my business”, tweets can resemble pushy sales pitches. Of course you need to talk about yourself, but remember that Twitter is a social platform so people will lose interest if it's only ever about you.

14. Run a Twitter competition / freebie
The better the prize you are willing to give away, the more likely people are to retweet your link. And if you offer a free online course, eBook, or digital content, you are more likely to get engagement.

15. Install Twitter buttons on your website
Installing a Twitter button onto every page or blog post on your website makes it easy for people to share your content. You can get one from Twitter and you'll probably be able to do this without your web developer's help.

16. Analyse your results
Use Twitter Analytics to find out what you're doing right (and wrong). You can drill down into the data to find out what's working best for you.

Posted on  

Email campaigns: how to avoid sending spam

Posted on  
How to avoid sending spam

So you've read our blog post about using email in your marketing, and have decided to go for it. But before you grab a long list of email addresses and start hitting send, you need to consider spam.

What is it?

We've all had it. Spam is basically electronic junk mail. It's defined as an unsolicited email, i.e. one that the recipient did not ask to receive.

Make sure your recipients have actually opted in to receiving mail from you, because the last thing you want to do is antagonise your potential customers. More to the point, sending unsolicited emails is illegal - although we're not sure how many cases actually make it to court...

How can I avoid sending it?

  1. Make sure your list of email addresses is clean and up to date. If you get a high bounce-back rate you might be marked as a spam sender.
  2. Don't use 'blitz' or 'spray and pray' approach. Segment your recipients and make sure your messages are targeted correctly, i.e. what you are sending is actually of interest to that segment.
  3. Add an Unsubscribe link. This is a legal requirement.
  4. Don't bombard your contacts, or they'll get bored of you and unsubscribe.
  5. People's spam filters check for html code. Opt for plain text emails, high quality html templates, or professionally coded emails
  6. Avoid multiple exclamation marks, coloured fonts, all capitals and 'spam trigger words'. Check out our list below.
    • Free
    • Visit our website
    • Opportunity
    • 50% Off
    • Click here
    • Call now
    • Subscribe
    • Bonus
    • Discount
    • Save up to
    • Winner
    • Prizes
    • Information you requested
    • Important information regarding
    • Guarantee, Guaranteed
    • Special Promotion
    • Great Offer/Deal
    • All New
    • One Time
    • Order Now

Obviously some of these words are common business phrases so it's hard to avoid them. We suggest that if you must use one of these phrases, just use it once per email otherwise it could be blocked. Try to use synonyms like 'complimentary' instead of 'free', or change the wording slightly so you don't get picked up by spam filters.

A good way to deal with these issues is to use a a web-based email marketing service like MailChimp or Mailigen. These services are free up to a certain level, so are great for small businesses who want to give email marketing a try.

If email marketing sounds a bit too daunting, drop us a line and we'll see if we can help.

Posted on  

What's a social media strategy and how do I get one?

Posted on  
Social media strategy

For all businesses, and particularly SMEs with restricted budgets, social media can be a valuable and very cost-effective method of marketing communications. That's if you know how to use it.

It's about involvement and brand-building, getting your name out there rather than using it as a direct sales tool. Compare it to being at a party. The person who stands there all evening talking about ME! ME! ME! will end up alone as everyone will slowly get bored and wander off. The person who asks questions, responds, gets involved and has interesting things to say will attract the bigger crowd. That's not to say you can't shout about how great you are now and again of course!

To make the most of this valuable marketing tool, make sure you've worked out your social media strategy. This isn't as difficult as it sounds. All you need to do is ask yourself some questions:

1. Why am I using social media?
Is it for website traffic? Conversions? Brand awareness? Creating a brand identity? Creating positive brand association? Communication and interaction with key audiences? Maybe it's a few of these.

2. Whose attention am I trying to get?
Okay, so you want to market that new line of products, for example. You still need to know your target audience for that product.

3. Which platforms do I want to use?
If you have enough time and resources to handle multiple social networking sites, that's great. If not, it's important to focus on one or two, or you could spread yourself too thin and end up going days or even weeks without activity.

4. Who's going to manage my page?
Would your social networking activity fall under a current employee's responsibilities, or do you need to bring in new talent? Will you do it yourself? Outsource to a professional? If you ever find yourself without the staffing resources to manage your page, don't stick your head in the sand, find the time to do it yourself or pay someone else to do it.

5. What's going to be the personality of my page?
Keep an eye on the 'voice' of your social networking site. People buy from other people, not from other companies so it may be useful to pick a person (yourself?) to represent your business.

Take some time to answer the questions above and you should have a clearer idea of where you want to go.

HOW DO I GET THERE?

If you're an SME or sole trader, you might have limited time to devote to your social media. That's fine. You can use tools like Buffer or HootSuite to schedule your posts.

You should also try to draw up a schedule – otherwise you'll either (1) never use your social media accounts, or (2) find yourself wasting time clicking endlessly from one link to the next...

There are a multitude of social media platforms out there. Don't think that you should be using them all. Stick to one or two that you think will be most suitable for your product or service, and devote your time to making sure they are kept up to date. Better to have one useful, well-maintained account than five half-used or dormant ones - it could reflect badly on your business.

Posted on  

What are your marketing messages?

Posted on  
What are your marketing messages

The first step in putting together a marketing communications plan for your business is to know who your customers are. That answers our first question:

1. Who should receive your marketing messages?

The next two questions are:

2. What should the messages say?
3. What image of my business do I want to project?

A message should reflect your company's mission statement (if you have one). It should reflect what your organisation does and believes, or talk about a particular product or service you offer.

A message or set of messages are the building blocks for all of your communications, e.g. adverts, press releases, website content, brochures, social media content, etc.

Some tips:
- Think about your audiences and carefully consider what you want them to think about you. Will your message make them take action?
- Make sure the messages are clear and concise – keep it simple and memorable.
- Don't forget the ‘why’, i.e. answer why your organisation does what it does.

You can then move on to the next few questions:

4. What's your budget?
5. How will the messages be delivered?
6. What actions do you want people to take after they've received the messages?
7. What 'control' methods will you use – i.e. how will you make sure that the messages don't get disrupted?
8. How will you summarise what was achieved, e.g. find out what return on investment was achieved?

After this you'll be in a great position to start making decisions about what types of marketing communications tools (website, paid advertising, social media etc) you need for your business.

Posted on