Fund Management, Business and Marketing Resources at Pubdef Weekly

Figurines For Your Own Home

When you enter a house, you automatically roam your eyes around the living and observe the style of the house, the furniture that it has and the figurines that it has been adorned with. Sometimes you get amazed by the figures that you see, some maybe expensive and have been collected from all over the world by the home owner. Figurines either locally made or imported are great ornaments to have in a house. You can have it for your home and you can also create a perfect thematic, natural or religious theme in your home through your displayed figurines.

Figurines are great to have in any room of your house. It can also be a good hobby for you. Collecting figurines while you are travelling is a nice remembrance to keep during a tour. When choosing the right figurines to display in your home, below are some of the tips that you need to consider.

You have to decide first what design and style you would like to purchase. There are many to choose from. If you are a person who loves nature, you can look for animal and flower figurines. Religious items are perfect if you are a religious person. You can choose a variety of religious items that will best suit your need.

You should also decide on what material your figurine will be made of. Ceramics, plaster, polyresin and clay are just some of the materials. More so, you should also make up your mind whether you like to have a traditional design or conventional style for your collectibles.

You can search and purchase figurines of your choice over the internet. The World Wide Web will give you a lot of options to choose from plus the fact that it is the most convenient way. If you like to travel, collecting items to adorn your house would be as easy as a pie for you. You can collect different figurines from the different places that you have visited. Look for something that will remind you of the place you have been to, say for example you went to China, and then you could collect some items which signify this country. Items abroad such as figurines are very cheap, so you can purchase some to add into your collection which you can display in your home. If you purchase some figurines abroad just be sure to pack it properly to prevent it from damage when shipped into your home country.

The Superb Writing of a Lost and Found Promotional Prodir Pen

Every now and then a big cleanup is necessary to get rid of all the clutter that has accumulated over the year. And so it was – I found myself the week before Christmas out in my cold garage getting rid of all the things I don’t know why I kept in the first place. In my tool box I came across a Prodir pen that must have been placed there years ago. I say this because I am lacking in the DIY skills department and rarely go near the box of tools.

The Prodir in my forgotten tool chest was the popular DS3. It was printed with the logo of a customer who has placed many orders for Prodir pens over the years. This pen must have been from his first order as he has since changed the clip and barrel colours. All Prodir pens are made to order so you can choose the colours of the clip, barrel and other trim to match your corporate colours.

I placed the pen in my pocket and continued doing what I was doing.

At the end of the day I took the pen out and started writing with it. After years stashed away in a cold garage, it still wrote like new! Prodir do claim that their pens are guaranteed to write up to 5000 meters. That’s just over three miles.

I thought this is the kind of pen I want to represent my company. I have used many different promotional pens over the years but few come close to the stylishly designed, smooth writing Prodir pens.

Prodir pens do cost more than most plastic pens but you can count on them to represent your business in a positive way. Believe me, I have tried promoting by own business ‘on the cheap’ with low cost imported pens and it is not something I like doing!

As I am a promotional pens supplier I am in the fortunate position to know which pens achieve the best results. Often I am offered free logo printed pens from different manufactures to promote their brand.

The pens from the Far East that look fantastic are quite often poor writers. Scratchy writing pens that dry up fast do not promote a business if a good light. This is made even more obvious by the enquiries and sales I receive after a pen promotion.

If I send out 1000 Prodir pens to my customers, I know that I will receive orders for the pens from customers who love to write with them. This simply is not the case with low cost imported pens I have used.

Just a little food for thought.

The Senator Super Hit Promotional Pen Versus the Lookalike Calico Pen

I have personally tested both the Senator Super Hit and the lookalike Far East imported Calico pen. I wrote 3000 words with each pen as I do often with the pens I sell. At the time I tested the Calico I gave it a good review. It passed the test very well, but unfortunately a couple of days later it stopped writing.

The Calico pen became popular a couple of years ago when a team of search engine optimisation professionals decided to launch a few promotional gift websites. They were much better at search engine optimisation than they were a promotional gifts but their strategies worked and they helped make the Calico pen one of the best selling pens in the UK. They promoted the pen online – it looked like the Senator Super Hit but it cost a lot less.

Not any more! Many promotional pen suppliers are now selling both pens at the same price.

With promotional pens it is not what is on the outside but what is on the inside that counts. Calico did pass my test but if given the choice the Senator Super Hit will win every time.

This is especially so after having smashed both pens with a hammer. I wanted to see how they were manufactured.

The construction of the Super Hit is to a much higher quality. After slamming a hammer down on the barrel I was convinced of this. The parts looked stronger right down to the refills.

The refill in the Senator Super Hit was stronger and larger. It also had a much more substantial spring for easier use. The Calico on the other hand just felt cheap. The refill was thin and the spring was as you would expect from a cheap Far East import.

Try this experiment for yourself. Ask for samples of both pens and smash them open with a hammer. I think I know which pen you will choose for your next promotion. It would be great to get your feedback.

Another bonus to the Super Hit is that it can be manufactured to order. This means that you can choose the colour of the barrel and clip to better compliment your corporate branding.

If you happen to get a great deal on the Calico pen, it is not a bad pen. It really comes down to what you are trying to accomplish with your promotional pen campaign and whether the savings is worth the fact that the pens will probably not last as long.

Guide to Low Cost Communications Strategy

The days of mass marketing, endless mailshots, newspaper and expensive yellow pages adverts are for most, over and gone. However, some will continue to flog a dead horse and spend their marketing budget on this type of outdated medium.

But for the majority the need to embrace Social Media here and now is a decision that cannot not be delayed. The fact is, Social Media is transforming the way the world does business, in your Town and your Village today – this week. The implications are huge and the prizes are enormous for those businesses with the wisdom and foresight to get involved properly – right now.

Social Media has given us immediate low cost marketing, instantaneous delivery and can be aimed at those who need to be informed of your service or products, and it can be created in a way that makes it almost impossible for the targeted person to ignore.

So how can you deliver this message?

Using Social Media Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube or the relevant platform for your brand. Social Media is about building relationships, it takes time and consistent effort. First you must identify new customers and prospects, establish relationships with these people, be courteous, polite, take an interest in their lifestyle and business. Listen to what they have to say, share interests, tell stories and ensure you take regular consistent action on a daily basis to build these relationships.

When you have achieved this you can start to direct your potential customer to your website, where they can access all the detail they require. Using Tweets invite them to read your blog, making sure that the content is useful, straightforward and of interest to them, and providing them with value. This will lead to becoming a trusted friend and this relationship building will convert into sales.

Let’s be clear, if your looking for an immediate hike in sales by using Social Media then think again, the major goal in all marketing activities is to achieve sales. However, if you simply promote your business on these platforms, it is more than likely that you will be ignored. Social Media is all about interaction and building relationships.

In my next blog I will give you a 10 Step Plan to getting started with Social Media.”

21 Shoestring Marketing Secrets That All Small Business Owners Need to Know

Unfortunately, many small business owners believe in the motto, “it takes money to make money” in the world of small business. The good news is that nothing could be further from the truth.

There are twenty-one shoestring marketing secrets that will provide you with the right frame of mind so that you can begin the process of building a thriving small business without spending a dime on marketing.

What every small business needs to know is that Shoestring Marketing is:

1. Low-cost. In today’s internet and social media age, there are now more low-cost marketing options than ever before. Not only is it possible, but absolutely doable to substantially grow your small business on a shoestring budget.

2. Commitment. If your marketing is going to eventually take hold, then you need to make a strong commitment to see it through until it sticks. Don’t give up in the early stages.

3. Patience. The fruits of your marketing labors don’t happen overnight. You need to plant your marketing seeds and tend to them regularly before your marketing garden blooms.

4. Branding. Your clients and customers need to have a clear picture in their minds as to who you are and how your product or service can solve their most pressing problems

5. Consistency. Marketing is much like breathing. It’s the life of your small business and should be a regular part of your daily business activities.

6. Domination. If you want to explode your small business profits, then you must dominate a small part of your market. You need to become the “go-to” person in your particular niche.

7. Customer-focused. Your primary job is to clearly identify the problems that your prospects face and offer them the obvious solutions.

8. Identify your target market. It’s crucial that you know exactly who needs your product or service. Mass marketing doesn’t work in today’s business environment. Not only does it force you to water down your marketing message to please the masses, but it’s much too expensive for the shoestring marketer.

9. Elicits confidence and trust. Create experiences and situations that boost the level of confidence from your prospects. At the end of the day, people buy from those whom they like and trust.

10. Massive visibility. Since your prospects are exposed to over 4,000 ads every single day, you need to ensure that your small business is utilizing as many marketing platforms as possible. Your prospects should come across you in as many places as possible.

11. Repetition. Research suggests that prospects need to encounter your small business between seven and twelve times before they are ready to purchase. So, put yourself in front of your target market over and over again.

12. Ease of use. If your sales process, marketing materials or any other part of your business is too complicated, your customers will become confused. Confused customers simply don’t buy.

13. The WOW Factor. What are you doing to get noticed? How are you different than your competition? The fastest way to small business failure is to blend in with the crowd.

14. Quality. If your product and/or services aren’t top quality, then you won’t get repeat business. Your long-term success depends on satisfied customers who spread the word about your business and purchase from you repeatedly.

15. Education. Position yourself as an expert and educate your prospects as to why your small business can offer them the remedy to their most pressing pain points.

16. Relationships. Create real relationships with your prospects and customers. Answer their questions, solve their problems and help them if they’re stuck. Your prospects want to know that there’s a real person in front of your small business.

17. Increasing the lifetime value of customers. Over 20% of your existing customers will purchase from you again (since they already know and trust you), so create additional ways for them to make purchases.

18. Automation. We’re living in a fast-tracked society that doesn’t work using old-fashioned marketing methods. So, embrace automation tools such as landing pages, email autoresponders, shopping carts, customer management software, etc.

19. Tracking your results. It’s essential to your overall survival that you have a clear understanding what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to your marketing. Use link tracking software to track your ROI (even if your only investment is your time).

20. Flexibility. Things change quickly and you must be willing to adapt. When the next “great” marketing platform emerges, be willing to jump on board and embrace it with excitement. If you are a flexible marketer, you’re always miles ahead of your competition.

21. Everything that you do. Marketing isn’t just about your advertising campaigns. Every single interaction that you have with your prospects promotes your small business. So, be careful how you answer the phone, respond to your emails and treat your customers because all of it makes an instant and lasting impression on them.

So, there you have it, twenty-one Shoestring Marketing strategies that will literally transform your small business from “just getting by” to “flourishing.” And, the best part of all is that you can do it all on a shoestring marketing budget.

Competitive Intelligence: It Is Wiser To Find Out Than To Suppose

It is often said that if you know yourself well, but not your enemy, for every victory gained, you will suffer one defeat.

How do companies counter attack their competitors. How do they know and anticipate every move and respond to it with the same intelligence and innovation?

They make use of competitive intelligence. This is the art of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors, individuals, concepts, information, ideas or data needed to support executives and managers in strategic decision making. It includes the use of government intelligence, market intelligence and business intelligence.

As the word suggests, intelligence means an ability to outsmart others and beat them at their own game. Competitor intelligence is used as a tool to cash in on competitor weakness.

It is not an act of spying or getting insider information, competitive intelligence is an ethical and legal business practice, whose focus lies on the external environment of the business.

It is used to identify in advance, the risks, opportunities, threats and weaknesses that would come in the path of the business, before they become obvious to everyone.

It involves more than analyzing competitors. It makes the organization more competitive with respect to its environment and the stakeholders, its customers, competitors, distributors, technologies and other macro economic factors.

Competitive intelligence is often confused with market research and business research but it cannot be used synonymous with these terms. Its areas of endeavor include assessment of strategies, competitor perceptions, and effectiveness of current operations, competitor capabilities and long-term market prospects. It also makes use of strategic and tactical intelligence.

This does bring up some concerns about ethics and behaviour, because the perception is related to the positive image and reputation of a company, and its competitiveness. Information found by illegal means cannot prove fruitful in the long run, and hence, it is better to pay a decent amount and make use of competitive intelligence rather than step into the black and bear unnecessary costs. Having said that, we also must understand the ethics behind competitive intelligence and the legalities involved. Before getting into the whole process of carrying out competitive intelligence, one must get familiar with the ethics and professional conduct.

The bottom-line is that competitive intelligence helps to get improved market knowledge, improved cross-functional relationships in the organization, greater confidence in making strategic plans, and improvements in product quality versus the competition.

In a nutshell, this helps to make companies more competitive and sustain itself in the race of bourgeoning companies.

Best Practices Management: A Crown Jewel In The Company’s Assets

Benchmarking is very popular today — but companies benchmark the wrong thing. They benchmark what other companies do, when they should be benchmarking how those companies think.

Every company claims to be following best practices. So what is a best practice? It is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive, or reward which is regarded as more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. when applied to a particular condition or circumstance.

The purpose of this is that desires outcomes can be delivered with fewer problems with the help of proper processes, checks, testing and systems in place. Best practices result in accomplishing a task in the most efficient and effective manner, which is derived by repeated testing and finding results over a period of time on a large sample size.

Best practices are not the same for every situation of company; they have to be modified as the circumstance maybe and as the situation demands. Based on the kind of problem and the factors affecting it, the company’s actions should be so modified to make them best practices.

This term usually is mis-used in the context of meaning the same as rules. They usually make it sound as if best practices refer to rules followed by a company.

The term “best practices” has implications of finality, obedience, authority, and universality. It implies that somewhere there is the final answer to any problem which is in dispute or discussion. This term “better practices” seems to seek better ways, which may even lead to tweaking the suggested practice to make it even better.

It suggests that all of us together can come up with something better than any one of us can arrive at individually. The term may imply that the better practice is not universal, but depends on the specific situation.

The challenge lies in being able to manage and sustain these best practices. There is a need to constantly evolve these best practices with respect to changing times, technology, situation, problems and opportunities, and to be able to strive to reach great heights of making a mark in the industry.

Best practices which are well recognised and have proved fruitful and emerged successful in every situation, have been used as guidelines and a base for problem-solving in similar situations faced by other companies. This is thus a matter of pride and an encouragement for such companies to continue to maintain that position and image in the eyes of other participants in the industry.

Benefits of Promotional Tote Bag

Are you looking for an effective promotional item for your company that does not end up in trash before the week gets out? Then promotional tote bag is the perfect solution. You might be surprised but it is true that the products given in a lot of advertisement campaigns end up in trash. In this way your time and money goes waste. Obviously this was not your purpose behind your add campaign. You must think before you actually start giving out the product you have chosen. A promotional tote bag is an effective tool to attract audience from all spheres without getting it end up in dustbin. Here are few reasons which will describe you why you should imprint your logo, company name and contact information on a promotional tote bag in your next promotional campaign.

• It gives your company a positive image in the eyes of your customer. First of all they are made up of recycled material which means they are totally eco-friendly. This will have a positive impact in the eyes of the audience. Another reason is that it is a product which they can actually use and not just keep it as a piece of trash in their home.

• It is a very good mode of advertising. When people will carry the bag given by you, hundreds of more people will watch it. That it means it is not restricted to the person having it rather the message spreads through him. Imagine when that person will be going to a shopping mall, how many other people will get to see your brand name. Also, the recipient will get to see your message a lot of times. You can give away these bags at trade shows, exhibitions or in a shopping mall; the main idea is that there should be crowd where you can give them away.

• By giving out a useful item to the audience you make a lasting impression on them. A promotional tote bag is not an edible product which means it will last longer than any other item. It will stay for them for a longer period of time and will keep reminding them of the event they received it. The main important thing is that they are useful and will not be thrown away in the corner of the house. And even if the person does not like he is likely to pass it to someone. It means it will be used by someone and will not go completely useless.

Social Media Manager: Why Your Business Needs One

Social Media is not a trend, or a limited phenomenon. This new avenue is changing the face of business marketing, and businesses who do not move quickly will be left behind by their competitors. A lot of people give the impression that social media is easy and free, but that is a misconception. Like any marketing avenue, it needs careful planning and strategy to make it work.

There are no shortcuts with social media. It is a long term process, which requires continuous time and effort, and there are many unwritten rules which need to be followed to achieve success. Many books are now available and there are numerous blogs written on how to make social media work. If you can dedicate and invest time in understanding and practicing, the rewards will be greater than any advertising campaign you have ever run.

But what if you do not have time? What if you are too busy helping customers or running your business? How will you find the time to learn social media, put together a plan, and implement that plan on a daily basis? Then you need help.

A Social Media Manager

The role of a social media manager is exactly that – to manage on a daily or weekly basis the online social marketing and networking activities of your business. They will perform pre-decided engagement activities to build your business’s online reputation, interact with your customers and build your fans and followers.

This may include:

• Facebook – managing your business page, or group, and slowly building real fans or likes
• Twitter – managing your Twitter account, posting engaging and relevant tweets, and building followers
• LinkedIn – if your business is B2B, or suitable for LinkedIn, they can manage your professional profile, help you engage, and manage your group
• YouTube – managing your profile, post videos (if required), and build friends
• Writing Articles and Blogs
• Submitting your Blog to Directories
• Engage in Social Bookmarking to spread your business profile

Benefits to your Business

Old advertising no longer produces the leads and business that it used to, and is still expensive, so to not move forward and start engaging where your customers actually are could be a big mistake.

In today’s competitive world, businesses must strive to be more personal, and more engaging with customers. And by using the social networking media is currently the best way to do this. This envolves asking your clients and potential clients questions, and listening to what they have to say. As well as sharing your knowledge and expertise in your field.

To get real returns from social media, you have to view it as a long term and ongoing marketing campaign. Conducted daily for 6 to 12 months will show the best results for your business, which is more sales – more repeat business, and more new business.

Effective Marketing With Post Card Printing

Riviera Beach, FL – Advertising with postcard printing can be profitable and rewarding for your business. Start-ups or small local companies can sometimes have tiny marketing budgets. That is why it’s important to choose advertising that is both affordable and effective, like post card printing advertisements.

Why use postcard printing?

Advertising Efficiency

With a little research you can ensure that post cards go out only to those most likely to be interested. This targeted approach ensures efficient advertising with the potential for responses from every person a card is sent out to. Rather than spending your advertising budget on reaching a wide audience, postcards ensure that nearly every penny pays for advertising directly to the target audience.

Control of your Advertising

By deciding how many cards to send out, you shape how much you boost your business. This allows you to send out a steady stream of postcards, giving a steady boost in business. It also gives you the option to send out more postcards during your typical off season or when things are slow.

Advertising Speed

The results from a postcard advertising campaign are nearly immediate. You could have your cards in the mail less than a week after deciding to launch the campaign, and you can expect to start seeing your first responses within 2-3 days of sending them out.

Affordable Advertising

Postcards are very affordable, typically costing less than ten cents per card, and the postage on post cards is less than that of a standard letter.

Looking for a new way to market products and services? Postcard printing advertisements may be the best thing that ever happened to your business.