I thought not. You run a small business, and you already know success takes a lot of hard work. What you might not be aware of is the proven power of personalization. When each individual prospect feels as though you really have them in your thoughts, your overall response rate will skyrocket. It’s a proven fact: make them feel special, and they will respond.

Whether you’re hosting a conference or you’re simply inviting new clients to a free consultation, personalized invitations will go a long way toward making your campaign a success. It starts with sending your invitations to a specific person (and not a title or the dreaded “current resident”). But there’s more to personalized invitations than a printed address label:

• print stationery and hand-write your invitations
• hand-sign all invitations
• print matching envelopes and hand-write the addresses (this will fetch far more opens)
• print greeting cards or response cards with a spot for you to hand-write an individualized note

All of these take extra work, but they all yield big results. Yes, I know: You don’t have the time. I counter with this: You’ll actually save time because you’ll land more sales. That’s less work you have to do per customer in the long run. In addition, you can recruit co-workers, spouses and employees to help hand-write your personalized invitations. Unless your customers would recognize your hand-writing, the effect will be the same.

Personalization equals profits, ask any marketer in the know. Try it out and see for yourself.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

While it is true that the mail-order business witnessed a 3.4 percent decrease in 2009, it really isn’t clear whether that is a permanent trend or more the result of an economic repression that has hurt just about every other business on the planet.

What’s more, catalog printing accounted for more than $133 billion in sales last year. Hardly what you’d call a dead industry, eh?

There are certain trends that you should pay attention to if you market with catalog printing. The most successful companies in the Internet-age have mailed specific niche catalogs. They’ve learned that the more in-tune you are with your customers, the better your sales figures will be. Mass-market catalogs are giving way to specialty-niche catalogs, and even the big chains are breaking their formally large catalogs down into smaller, niche-oriented catalogs.

Catalog printing can reach a target audience that can be difficult to engage online, and your marketing campaigns will work best when your catalog printing and online e-commerce store work together. Catalogs can get you the attention you need and give a healthy sampling of what you sell, then lead customers to your website to buy additional items as needed.

Catalog printing is growing, especially for the niche companies I mentioned earlier. Outer Banks, for example, has more than tripled its customer base in just three years, a 309 percent increase. And that’s not the only mail-order catalog enjoying phenomenal growth!

Catalog printing isn’t dead, but it is fair to say that the catalog’s role in the purchasing process changed. Take advantage of these changes and you can print a powerful catalog that brings in massive return on investment.

Image use Creative Commons license via Flickr.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

1. Offer a green discount

The beauty of the Internet is you can post news quickly and take it down just as easily. If you advertise a sale on your company’s website today and then promote it immediately via social networking such as Twitter or Facebook, you still have time to catch people’s attention. Come up with something that will attract search engines, since “St. Patrick’s Day” is always popular this time of year. One idea is to offer a “green” discount – let your customers know that you’ll take a dollar off their purchase for each green item they wear on Wednesday.

2. Play up your greenness

The color green symbolizes St. Patrick’s Day as well as the environment. Combine those two for one promotion that casts attention on your business in a positive light. On your website, mention your eco-conscious efforts. Perhaps you’ve swapped out light bulbs or chosen an environmentally friendly printer. Let your customers know they can be comfortable spending their hard-earned green with you!

3. Know the reason for the season

Other companies might throw shamrocks and leprechauns all over their marketing collateral and store, but you can be different. Do a little research on the history of St. Patrick’s Day and then pass it on to your customers via the company website or in the shop. You can create a box on your site with St. Patrick’s Day facts, such as the origin of the shamrock and the pot of gold, or you can have an in-store contest with trivia questions.

So let this be a lesson to you: Even though you’re now armed with some quick marketing tips, don’t dawdle on future holiday promotions! Now is the time to plan for upcoming special occasions, such as Easter, Earth Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Then promote the heck out of it!

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Rock star posters serve as excellent inspiration for unique baby announcement designs.

Let’s start with rock poster baby announcements by Rattle-N-Roll. Based on the premise that some of us are just born cool, you can design similar baby announcements that practically guarantee you’ll have the most popular kid in daycare.

Commemorate your special deliver with baby announcements inspired by magazine covers.

If your baby is destined for stardom, you could design a magazine cover birth announcement to commemorate her birth. Or make it a booklet, with interior pages that offer background on parents, grandparents, siblings and plenty of photos from your baby’s first few days. It will be a keepsake you’ll have forever … as long as the paparazzi don’t steal it!

Design a baby announcement like a B-movie poster.

If you harbor a penchant for B-movies and have a great sense of humor, take a cue from Brandon Buerkle. The artist created this birth announcement when his baby was born, and you can use it as inspiration for your own creative birth announcements.

Make your baby a star with movie poster birth announcements.

Five Star Baby designs custom baby announcements based off of popular movie posters, and you can use these as inspiration for your own theme-based baby announcement design.

Now it’s your turn. Use the inspirational sources listed here, add in a dash of creativity, and you can design some really cool birth announcements. When you do, send me a link!

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

It’s my turn this year, so I’ve been researching St. Patrick’s Day party invitations online to see if I can glean inspiration from others’ designs. Here, I thought I’d share with you a few of my favorite designs from the search.

I love a festive theme for St. Patrick’s Day party invitations, and this design takes the cake with patterned shamrocks that seem to pop out of a translucent shamrock background. A unique font that seems to mimic the outer edges of four-leaf clovers and the multi-hued green wave accents add class to this incredible design.

Unique and elegant, the suede background of this St. Patrick’s Day party invitation is the perfect backdrop for a faux embossed shamrock. This is one of the best party invitations I’ve seen for any holiday.

In my St. Patrick’s Day party invitation search I stumbled across the website of Erin Condren, and if you haven’t had a chance to check her designs out you simply must. Erin’s work is absolutely amazing, and even more so when you learn that she is a stay-at-home mom with twins! Here’s one of her party invitations…

… and here’s another. What I love about Erin’s designs is that they’re quirky and fun. She knows how to turn fonts into design elements and use a minimalist layout to make a lasting impression.

Last but certainly not least is this St. Patrick’s Day party invitation design that can’t be ignored. Risqué yet classy, this reminds me of those World War II era pinups sometimes seen on the side of planes, always seen on man walls and definitely a killer party invitation idea!

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

You can always count on PsPrint for free resources. Need ideas, links and inspiration? Here’s a host of graphic design tips for specific spring holidays:

• St. Patrick’s Day – March 17
• April Fools’ Day – April 1
• Easter – April 4
• Earth Day – April 22
• Cinco de Mayo – May 5
• Mother’s Day – May 9
• Father’s Day – June 20

Of course, the best design means nothing without good execution.

For St. Patrick’s Day, print green die-cut flyers in the shape of shamrocks.

Use humor in your flyers, postcards and banners for April Fools’ Day.

Whether your customers are Christian or not, Easter symbolizes renewal, so remember that theme when creating postcards and brochures.

Want to do good and get your business name out there? Adopt a highway for Earth Day!

Throwing a fiesta is a fun idea for Cinco de Mayo. Be sure to include lots of bright colors and Mexican icons in your promotional items.

Take a good look at your mailing list when get around to Mother’s Day. Pay close attention to your demographics and keep your marketing tuned in to those clients.

Memorial Day (May 30) and Flag Day (June 14) call for pride. Flags and the use of red, white and blue are obvious, but be sure to keep the right mood and theme for these holidays. Have fun, but be respectful.

Father’s Day may be for dads, but don’t forget that women do a lot of the shopping. Giveaways are always a big hit, but be aware of your clientele when deciding what product to give away.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.