Are postcards worth their price?

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We appreciate. We criticize. We laugh. We mourn. We are moved by postcards.

Since its introduction up to the present time, postcard is still one of the best medium of communication. We can recall that postcards were used as means for brief communication. It was the best choice then because they are light and inexpensive.

Nowadays, postcards are not only used to express our hi’s and hello’s, it is now popularly used as a marketing tool. Whenever there is an upcoming event, a product launching or a new service to be made available postcards can be your reliable ally.

Postcard is a great way to market tourism. Just by mailing them, you can make people desire to travel. Just by using luscious pictures, you can make people starve with food cravings. Just by making your business known to your target, makes the latter long for it.

Sense of seeing is pretty powerful. It can drive other senses crazy. In fact, it can lead them to ludicrous wants. That power is also imbibed in postcards.

Postcards are most effective when done in full color. 4 color postcard printing adds dimension and create dramatic effect to your postcards. One or two-color printing may be too plain and simple for your artwork might as well use the color process that can bolster your postcards aesthetic as well as functional value.

In deciding whether to use 4 color postcard printing or not, you have to weigh first its pros and cons. Clients, designers and printers are more at ease with this printing process. It maximizes design flexibility. In fact, it can create an almost limitless palette. However, this process can be a bit expensive compared to one or two-color printing. It can go as high as 4 times the price of a two-color printing job.

4 color postcard printing is good for postcards because it brings out brilliant images. It uses four pieces of film – cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Each color uses one film. Two-color printing is cheaper because it only uses two films. Thus, it takes less stripping and plating. Moreover, it will only take little time in order to finish the printing job.

Exact colors can also be produced with the use of PMS or Pantone Matching System. This process is often resorted to create accurate colors that match the company’s logo or traditional design. This process may seem the most costly. However, if you want exact colors, try this.

Good Companies Grow No Matter What

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Every business demands growth, and double-digit growth is the dream of every dedicated business owner, even when lackluster results show up at quarter’s end.

Most entrepreneurial business owners need a guide to navigate their way toward substantial, sustainable growth.  It can be done even in a slow economy as demonstrated by such companies as Harley Davidson, Starbucks, and WalMart.  Even smaller companies such as Paychex and Oshkosh Truck have been able to make gains in revenue, gross profits and net profits.

Here are 5 disciplines of sustained growth:

  1. Retain Your Customer Base:  Keep the growth that you have already earned by coaxing customers into complex relationships that make it a hassle for them to switch to your competitor.  Tailor your products/services using data gleaned from your customers giving you an advantage.  Proactively managing customer defections will help you anticipate and pre-empt them. Bonding with customers wherever emotion is tied to an interaction is another great way to retain them.

  1. Gain Market Share at the Expense of Your Rivals: Give customers a reason to abandon a competitor’s product/service for yours.  Do what it takes to lower the switching costs.  Pulling customers away from a competitor can be difficult, so you must devote many resources to raiding their customer base.  Offering higher value and quality are crucial to this end.  Buying a competitor is another way to do this.

  1. Exploit Market Position:  Show up where growth is going to happen by spotting it early.  This can be done by watching the industry for shifts in buying criteria, product or service innovations, and population trends.  You must be able to spot positioning opportunities to make the most of them by continually using a systematic approach to the process.

  1. Invade Adjacent Markets: Before moving into a nearby market, decide whether it offers significant long-term growth and profitability.  Determine whether you have an advantage over a competitor, and ensure you can match its standards of quality and value.

  1. Invest In New Lines of Business:  If you take this approach, never overpay for a new line.  You must find simple strategies instead of complex ones, and partner with the new business by assessing its leadership team and balance sheet.

Although a successful growth portfolio might not include all five of these disciplines, it must contain more than one.  Only a balanced growth portfolio can keep an organization growing when the market shifts dramatically.

Markets & The Dynamics of Competition

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Today marketing is not the same as it was in the ‘60s or ‘70s, because there are enough products to satisfy customer’s needs.  In fact customers are “hyper-satisfied”!  Companies have segmented the market until it has become almost too small to service profitably.

Distribution is now largely in the hands of giant corporations such as Wal-Mart and Costco. There are more brands and fewer producers, products “life” have been shortened, and it’s cheaper to replace than to repair – all complicating the process further.

Marketing has always started with identifying the needs of your customer, but many companies are now focusing on the product.  They focus on what category it falls into, and then what sub-category (for instance pudding and then what flavors). By focusing on the product, companies then focus on who’ll use the product, and those considered “not using” are excluded from the picture.  In doing this, you’ve just given your competitor a target market.

You may have captured 75% of your “user market” because you have a USP (unique selling position) i.e.; more flavors, more convenient packaging, longer shelf life, etc.  But why can’t YOU also take care of the other 25% instead of your competitor?

To do that, requires a new way of thinking known as “Lateral Marketing”.  Stop thinking about how you can keep the 75% in love with your product (Vertical Marketing), think about drawing in the 25% of the market that wasn’t your customer.  This is done by innovative thinking.  This may be seen as further “segmenting” the market-place, but at the same time it’s making it bigger.

 Let’s say you sell soap.  You’ve captured 75% of your market because of some formulary development that makes more suds with less product.  The 25% that your competition is trying to capture would rather spend less for soap, than use less.  Your method of also capturing that 25% is to start thinking “innovation” and not different product.

Lateral Marketing works within the original category of product and complements it, not competes with it.  You could come up with a soap with more bleach, with less foam, fragrance free, with more foam.  You can innovate by size – selling in large economy packs, selling in individual packs, and do this without ever changing the formula of the product.  This type of marketing works best for mature markets with no growth (after all, what new uses can you come up with for soap).  It also can create markets from scratch, requires greater resources, and may redefine your company’s mission and business focus.

This innovative method of marketing doesn’t create “new” categories or markets, it always occurs “within” the category where the idea originated.  If you’ve done everything right, you’ve garnered the 25% of customers that might have got away and it didn’t require a lot of overhead – you’re still producing soap!

EBPP GAINING IN 2004

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Electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) started showing signs of renewed life in 2003, after its introduction in the late 90s.  It took a few years for the idea to take off, and industry experts are considering 2003 a success, but a high rate of adoption by we average Joes and Janes is still a number of years away.

If you examine the electronic bill payment landscape you will note that the current usage surge is largely by the Generation X demographic, in spite of the fact that a single-source option is not yet in place. Forecasters thought that banks would probably be the single-source option, but there is still no solid consolidated infrastructure among those banks that have systems in place.  The way it’s working now is very much like the way automated teller machines (ATMs) used to operate, that is providing access only to certain cardholders with specific affiliations.

While banks are taking steps toward  consolidating infrastructure, in 2004 we will likely see a continued proliferation of individual organizations, where each has its own presentment and payment strategies and solutions.  Consumers will have to go to multiple sites to pay their bills, and for the short term will put up with that system.

For the long-term though, the single-source EBPP system is going to be the process of choice for consumers.  Eventually, they’ll want to receive and pay all bills electronically from the single site, but that won’t happen until the above mentioned consolidation.

Many banks will work overtime during 2004 to educate consumers about the benefits of online banking, because it will be a cost saving to them.  There is a lot o upfront costs to banks and financial institutions, the ultimate benefits of processing payments through the Fed’s automated clearing house (ACH) instead of through the Postal Service are immense.  It all boils down to a cost-saving issue.

I wonder how long it will take the average entrepreneur to embrace this new EBPP?  Will you and I be comfortable maintaining a web site or some type of electronic presence so that we can electronically bill our customers/clients for goods or services?  Perhaps this is how our forefathers felt when Henry Ford tried to replace the horse and buggy with his auto machine, but I must say I find a certain comfort in the good, old-fashioned “paper trail”.

I must confess that I do use the electronic trail on occasion, especially when I know the mail won’t beat the due date on my supplier’s invoice, but to transact all commerce via EBPP is another matter.  One must admit however, that at least 1/3 of our office space these days is dedicated to files filled with paper.

Still, that old “paper trail” is comforting – much like the cookie crumbs dropped while walking in the woods that assure us we’ll find our way home again.

Prepare Crisis Control

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A personal crisis doesn’t have to spell disaster for your business if you’re prepared.  Every business occasionally endures a crisis, but what happens when your dilemma isn’t falling profits but personal.

Because we have no idea what type of personal crisis may await us – an ugly divorce, debilitating disease, or ailing parent/child/spouse, we must be prepared. Just as you plan for advertising and promotions, you must plan for life’s surprises.

Paul Krasinski, founder of Lion Strategy Advisors, New York, suggests finding somebody NOW who can take over your responsibility and carry on for at least 20 days.  He/she needs to be someone who can communicate well with staff and command respect, and may or may not be the person you feel closest to in the company.

Once a personal crisis hits, Krasinski recommends “full disclosure” to your employees. This avoids the feeling of being hit by a bomb, and that business will go on as usual.  In case you think this doesn’t work, let me give you a case history.

Dana Weidaw, 28 and president of her own PR firm had only been in business 1 year when she tested “full disclosure” with her employees.  She was diagnosed with an aneurysm which required a surgeon to drill through her skull.  She had just landed her first major client and was publicizing a major hockey arena.  If all didn’t go well with the project, this client could turn out to be her last.

Before missing 7 days of work, Weidaw prepped her full-time employee, another agency she was working with, and her client by sharing the nitty-gritty details of her crisis.  She assured them everything would run according to plans and smoothly in her absence, and found that everybody was willing to work around her crisis.  Weidaw found that, by nature, people are very sympathetic.

A word of caution though, you need to know when to talk.  During and after a crisis – full disclosure is great.  If you’re “contingency” planning though, it might be prudent not to advertise that if your personal life goes in the tanker good old Gary or Suzy will be in charge.  Your employees may needlessly dwell on why they weren’t picked to run the show instead of them.  Above all, you don’t want to cause widespread distress or distract your staff from day-to-day operation.

Just as surely as you plan for financial allocations for your business, always have a crisis plan in place.  This may need adjustments from year to year as staff leaves and are replaced, so when planning for each year’s business needs include your crisis plan.

Become Your Own Personal CFO

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Budgets and personal finances are not most people’s favorite topics, and certainly not one of mine.  Even bank executives have problems in this area, but if you’re an entrepreneur so do you.  You’re concentrating so much time on your business, your personal checkbook takes a back seat.  Then one day you are met with the startling fact that you’re not saving enough for lean times and you panic.

Well, just apply your professional talents to the situation and become your own personal CFO.  By using your CFO eyes on the situation, it somehow tempers the pain of dealing with your own money.  To get started, here are 5 rules for treating your personal finances like a business:

  1. Be Your Own Board of Directors.  To make good decisions, you must know what you’re trying to achieve. In business, Board of Directors write mission statements to keep the company on track with goals.  At home, it’s up to you to define your mission and make sure you’re fulfilling it by writing down your goals.  Not just your financial goals either, but your “life” goals.

  1. Know Your Operating Costs.          Do you know what you spend every month on average?  Businesses do because they base their budgets on historic spending patterns.  Most people, however, don’t know what it costs to keep their lives running.  You can make out detailed budgets, but find out at the end of the month that you haven’t stuck to it.  So instead of doing a budget that dictates how much to spend, do a “cash flow statement” that records how much you actually spend each month broken into several categories.

  1. Know Your Net Worth.     Companies measure progress toward goals through balance sheets which list their assets and liabilities.  Your net worth is your balance sheet where you list everything that you own.  That means your checking and savings accounts, investments, car, house, etc. minus everything you owe.  Track your net worth quarterly to make sure you’re moving toward your personal goals.  Without this step, you might not see the impact of your money decisions until it’s too late.

  1. Forecast Money Decisions Results.  When a business makes important decisions, they use a process called “investments”.  They look at the possible outcomes of one choice compare to another.  You can use the same process to make smart money decisions.  For any choice, pick two options, and then look at what each answer would do to your cash flow and net worth.  Remember, there are no “good” or “bad” choices – only choices that put you closer or farther from your goals.

  1. Track Progress by Annual Reports.  Just as companies assess their progress in their annual reports, you need to review your list of priorities every year.  Have you accomplished any goals?  Have your spending patterns changed? Did you spend less than you earned?  Did you save as much as you planned?

You need to treat your money like you treat your business.  Give it the time it deserves, because in the end the time you spend is really an investment in yourself and your dreams.

An Online Newsletter

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When you start an online newsletter you have the opportunity to collect opt-in email addresses to build your subscription base and establish creditability with your subscribers so that they may want to purchase products from you, a trusting source.  The best part about an online newsletter is that it is free to start up.  With an online newsletter you can offer your subscribers juicy daily or weekly information and they will love it.  It will slowly build up their curiosity and they may purchase a monthly membership or products from you because they love receiving the information you supply.  Now, if you send them junk, the complete opposite will occur, so having an online newsletter takes work, but you can always pay someone to do it for you.  So, with all this work put into it should you consider charging for subscription.  That depends on what you want to accomplish.  Do you want to attract visitors and entice them to your main product.  Or are you only offering an online newsletter with no products.  How often do you send out autoresponders and how in depth and valuable is your newsletter.  Is this information easily found free somewhere else on the Internet.

Free newsletters are much easier because you can get a lot of people opt-in and you can sell them a subscription in the future.  Everyone loves free stuff.  Occasionally, at the end of the email you may want to offer special subscriber only promotions or notify your subscribers of new products or services.  You could even offer special subscriber only bonuses with a purchase.

By the way, if you send your subscribers what begins to look like sales letters, they will opt out quicker than you can say wait! Be careful because this is your potential customer crowd and it is like gold to you.

Age-Old Question Do You Need to Have Your Own Product

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Whether or not you need to have your own product to become a successful affiliate marketer is a question that has been asked and answered every few minutes since affiliate marketing came on the scene. The reason it is asked so often is because everybody has a different answer. There are those who say you absolutely MUST have your own product to get started and to succeed in affiliate marketing and then there are those who say you don’t need a product when you start or ever to be successful. So, which is it? Yes? No?

The fact of the matter is that everybody is right. Having your own product is great but it isn’t absolutely necessary. Those who have their own product can build a website around that product and add affiliate links to it. Those who don’t have their own products can still create a great website and be an affiliate marketer. Producers of products love affiliate marketers and products are not the least bit hard to find.

The thing that both those who do and those who don’t have their own product have in common is that they both must be passionate about the products they sell. You will never be successful in selling something that you aren’t interested in yourself. It takes drive and ambition to succeed at any endeavor and affiliate marketing isn’t any different. You must be passionate about a product or an idea in order to keep your drive and ambition alive and well for the long haul.

Whether you are marketing your own product or a product produced by others your success is directly related to how effective your marketing techniques are, how focused you are, how well you manage your time, and how much you believe in the product.