PrintFirm's Blog

Annual subscription business models can provide stable cash flow, generate long term customers and minimize administrative costs in-house. By locking in customers for a year at a time, you can better predict business income and reduce the amount of time spent processing payments. The benefits are obvious, but it can certainly create some hurdles for your company as well.

Depending on the value of your service or product, the annual cost could be relatively high – with it not being uncommon to see some annual subscriptions in the thousands of dollars. This means that your new – and renewing – customers are more likely to do sufficient research and take careful consideration prior to paying up for a full year with your company.

This certainly can be done, but means that your marketing strategy and execution needs to be planned and managed properly.

If you already have a few hundred or few thousand subscribers, you don’t need to look very far for marketing ideas. All business professionals know the “it costs five times as much to attract a new customer, than to keep an existing one” rule, but so many seem to ignore it.

Marketing to Current Customers

If you want to improve subscription rates and get customer to renew for a second, third – tenth year, you need to realize that marketing to existing customers requires a different approach than driving new leads. First and foremost, providing high quality service with annual improvements to your subscription will go further than anything else you can do.

But that doesn’t mean you can ignore marketing to current customers beyond providing promised services and just expect them to renew.

Yes, you should email your customers when their renewal date is around the corner, but following up with custom printed postcards that remind them to renew are likely to have more impact. Emails are easier to delete than postcards are to throw away. Use similar messaging for both to complement, and serve as reminders for each other to improve annual subscription renewal conversion rates for years to come.

Attracting New Business

Of course, not everyone is going to renew, so you can’t ignore new customer acquisition either. Prospects aren’t as familiar with your company yet, so you need to build authority and provide a more complete story to sell your subscription. Cheap booklet printing allows you to have a complete marketing piece ready for presentations, promo materials at trade shows you attend without a booth, or to send via mail. Happy selling!

Putting together a school play can produce life long memories, friends and build a passion for the arts for students interested in theater. Planning every costume detail, creating set props from scratch and perfecting the lighting for the final scene are all essential to a successful opening night – but there is more that can be done off the stage to turn your school play into a professional production.

Nothing is worse than spending months memorizing lines only to perform in front of an empty house. Promoting the school play long in advance of your run of shows will help to increase attendance for your performances. Limited budget? We have you covered. Advertise with custom printed flyers that showcase the cast, time, date & location of your school play starting 30 to 60 days prior to the show to increase attendance.

Let’s be real. Everyone will say that they will come to see the play – but come show night, everyone seems to have other plans. You need to go beyond hanging up flyers around school and town if you want family and friends to avoid “forgetting” that your big show is coming up this weekend…

In Order to Get Into The Show, You Need…

A ticket! You can make your school play look and feel much more like a professional production by printing custom tickets with information specific to your event. Whether your sell tickets to the play or give them away for free, they’re likely to end up stuck to a fridge, or sitting on a desk – serving a constant reminder to your audience that the show is coming up.

Problem with people leaving early? Tickets can help solve that as well! Purchase perforated, numbered tickets that you can then use the stub of in a raffle during the intermission break. A give-away sponsored by a local business is a great way to bring the community together and promote the play at the same time.

Shine Before Show Time

Show night is here, the auditorium is filling up – it’s just like a Broadway play! Of course it is, because your Director and Staff took care of the short run booklet printing – putting the cast & characters names on high quality glossy paper to excite the crowd before the curtain goes up. The play schedule may only last a weekend or two, but your flyers, ticket stubs and play booklets will serve as great keepsakes for years to come.

Providing outstanding legal services and winning cases for clients is the best way for any law firm to generate new business, but marketing is still essential to grow. Most attorneys we’ve met don’t particularly enjoy the marketing aspect of running a law firm, but do acknowledge the need to market their practice areas to potential clients. But as most attorneys know, there are laws about legal marketing that you have to follow as well.

And it’s important that you follow those laws for advertising & marketing a law firm. Your state bar license could depend on it.

Because of the importance of staying within the advertising laws for legal marketing, smart attorneys keep a close eye on everything that goes out representing the firm. Keeping a close eye on your legal marketing program can help keep your firm out of any trouble down the road, but you don’t want it to take away from lawyering.

Law firm marketing guidelines can get pretty specific at points – and we’re not attorneys, so it’s up to you and your team to create a set of rules that work best for you. With that in mind, most of the laws about legal marketing come down to one thing…

Avoid Direct Solicitation

You cannot directly solicit a potential clients that may be in need of legal services. Could you imagine if attorneys were allowed to show up at the scene of a car accident and hand out their business cards to victims on stretchers getting into the ambulance? Or a lemon law lawyer knocking on the door of someone with a certain make / model of car in their driveway that is known for generating cases?

That doesn’t mean that an attorney can’t hand out their card to a friend in need, or that they can’t target a specific audience in their local area that may have prospective clients.  Printing custom door hangers that advertise your firm’s case history, practice areas and contact info to be distributed around a local neighborhood or in apartment buildings can help gain awareness & produce new leads.

Attack Cases Head On

Marketing your law firm isn’t all about generating leads, it’s also about turning those leads into clients. Professional services that print full color letterhead, such as law firms see excellent long term benefit and command trust from clients. This simple marketing tactic can increase the number of consultations that turn into clients – and turn those clients into another success story for your firm.

Making beats and bars won’t get you that far. Promoting independent hip-hop can be the most challenging part of making money in the music industry, and requires just as much creativity as the records you make. You can rap 16 bars, but can you get 16 people to show up for a show?

Before you can pack a club, you’ll need to create more than a few songs. Every independent hip-hop artist should define their image along with their music. Are you Ghostface Killah or Frank Ocean? Your persona will help you promote your independent hip-hop music by providing a consistent theme throughout all of your marketing efforts.

We recently posted about creative ways to market your band offline, but know that each genre has it’s own history, culture, fans and requires different tactics to be successful. A promotional strategy that works for a country singer probably won’t work for an independent hip-hop artist. Once you’re done in the studio…

You’ve Got to Get Up, Get Out and Get… Offline

Getting your songs posted by hip-hop blogs, and growing your fan base online will happen much faster if you don’t ignore your local audience. There is no better way of promoting independent hip-hop music than through live shows. This is where your image comes into play.

You’re going to need to print promotional flyers to advertise the show. Your design should reflect the image you created. Look for examples from other artists that make a similar style of hip-hop for influence if this is your first time creating flyers. Take it a step further by printing tickets for the show that you can sell in advance. Sell enough, and your fans will think that you’re a superstar.

Superstar or Superhero? Be Both!

The show went great – you killed it on stage, and now there is a line of people waiting to meet you. Of course you will have already printed CD covers that prove you’re a superstar, but did you create hip-hop trading cards to turn yourself into a superhero?

Separate yourself from other artists by printing trading cards with your image, story and stats in the most creative format possible – include a few with each CD you sell!

One of the fastest growing industries in the country is also one of the most difficult to market. Most marketing for medical marijuana dispensaries, aka “Pot Shops,” needs to be executed without blatant advertising, which requires shop owners to be more creative with their promotion. Medical marijuana advertising regulations are different in almost every state, making it difficult for shops to franchise or cross over state lines. Thankfully, there are still plenty of ways to successfully market your business if you want to open a pot shop.

Just like any successful business venture, you need to be able to make potential customers aware of your products, location, and what separates you from the competition. Using your core customer base as a mouthpiece to introduce your shop to other potential patients will be your most powerful marketing tool – but what can you do to increase word of mouth referrals for your business?

Mix a classic approach with a new industry. Include two copies of your marijuana business cards with each purchase for customers to share with friends. Have a daily special or regular discount that you offer new customers? Be sure to include that on the business cards you print to entice new customers to check out the shop.

The Growing Medical Marijuana Industry

With changes to medical marijuana laws in most states – decriminalization and legalization in other areas, the industry is predicted to expand rapidly over the next decade. If you’re thinking about getting into this billion dollar industry, many experts would suggest that now is the time. It’s early enough where the business model has been proven, while the risk is just high enough to also offer potential rewards higher than in most industries.

While it takes time to grow a business from the ground up, focusing on strategic relationships, local growth, and hiring hard working employees will go a long way towards building your marijuana based business. Once you become established in the community or area, the possibilities are endless.

Aim for the Sky

Why stop with one shop? Why not have the best product and the best prices? Continued business growth should be your goal if you want to open a pot shop, we have another marketing tip to share to help you accomplish just that. Some marketing products have a longer lasting effect than others.

Print custom stickers for customers to take home with each purchase over a certain amount. These are likely to end up stuck to a glass pipe or around where they typically use your products. Staying top of mind to make your shop their go to marijuana dispensary and watch your sales grow month after month.

Of course you’ve already taken care of renting the venue, planned snacks, food and team building games – but there are other company bbq checklist items that needed to be taken care of to have a successful event. The summer company bbq is often much more fun and relaxed than the annual holiday party at the end of the year, and a great opportunity to bring your employees together for a fun outing.

The point of a company bbq goes beyond just having a big of fun though. Team building games and activities for a few short hours on a summer afternoon can have positive effects on productivity in the office year round. Bringing co-workers closer together, or introducing members from two departments with little day-to-day interaction can help to improve communication and spur innovation for your company.

If you’re going to throw a successful company bbq this summer, you will need to separate your event from the typical family park gathering. Make it look official. Invite your employees with custom printed event tickets or cover the office in creative business flyers advertising the event. The more effort that HR puts into planning the company bbq, the more employees are likely to attend, and participate. It’s worth adding a few more items to your checklist.

That’s Right, It’s not Just about the Food

Your company bbq should focus more on employee appreciation than hamburgers and hotdogs. Getting them to the event is only step one, you need to encourage participation in planned activities once they arrive.

One creative idea that companies use at summer bbq events is to print yard signs that label their outdoor activities. This can be extremely useful if your event stations are spread out.

But Don’t Forget to Eat Up

The meal portion of your company bbq checklist can be the most stressful if your don’t plan carefully. Management giving speeches prior to serving dinner? Make sure to have an official company banner printed to hang behind the podium. Printing table tent cards to identify seating assignments, menu options, or other event information can be very helpful. Cheers to a successful summer bbq for your company!

Marketing amusement parks isn’t easy. Most families aren’t thinking about rollercoasters and water slides for the majority of the year – but fall too far out of sight and your amusement park definitely won’t be on their mind when planning summer vacation. It’s important to maintain a connection with past park visitors throughout the entire year, but doing so can be tough when they aren’t interested in visiting for another few months.

Sure, there are amusement parks in certain parts of the world – like right here in Southern California – that are able to keep their gates open year-round, but even then seasonality plays a big role in ticket sales and revenue. Their peak times of the year will also fall during the summer months when families are on vacation and their wallets are open. Without revenue coming in, it can be difficult to justify spending money on marketing, so most amusement parks look for the most cost effective ways that they can advertise throughout their slow season.

One of the most cost effective ways to advertise your amusement park during the offseason is by printing custom postcards, and mailing them to your current list of previous visitors, as well as any prospect lists that fit your target demographic. Offering a discount on season passes for people who purchase prior to a certain date can help to produce some immediate ROI, while still effectively staying in front of everyone else who will wait to buy tickets at the gate.

Making the Most of Memorial Day through Labor Day

Offseason amusement park advertising strategies are all designed to push families to visit during peak months, but marketing efforts can’t stop there. Your best selling tool is the amusement park itself, so it’s key that you make it easy for guests to have as much fun as possible. This includes providing clean facilities, great amusement park food, fun rides, memorable souvenirs – and the ability to navigate the park without getting lost.

Many parks have opted to print mini brochures small enough to fit into a pocket, that include a map, with list of rides, restaurants, and other attractions. The more rides they ride, and fried food they eat, the happier they will be with their experience – and more likely to become a return guest at your amusement park.

Leaving Them Wanting More

Make sure they have a great time while they’re at the park, but also leave them wanting more. Highlight coming attractions and new rides opening soon with large format posters around the park, and near the exits to entice visitors to start planning their next trip before they’ve even left the parking lot.

Whether you log hours every day in a car, truck or van, running your service business from a vehicle presents unique challenges some other companies don’t have to face. In order to be effective, you need to turn your vehicle into a mobile office that includes everything you could possibly need to service a client. Different services will have different needs in a vehicle,  but when setup correctly, they can be even more efficient than a store front.

Companies that need a lot of large tools to get the job done, such as pool services or appliance repair techs, require more space and typically use Trucks or Vans. Services that don’t require a lot of equipment, such as tech support or a mobile notary, often use a car instead. Regardless of the vehicle type or size, there are a few items that PrintFirm can help you with to make sure your business runs smoothly at every service stop.

You may be wondering “What do these guys know? They’re an online printing service – they’re not like us.” While all of our orders are picked up or delivered via mail, we’ve learned a lot by talking to many different businesses that operate out of their vehicles. Each service is unique, but there are a couple of products that we print for almost all of our mobile business customers.

Get That Paper

Issuing invoices and taking payments out of your service vehicle can be more difficult than if you had a cash register on a counter in a store, but there are ways to make it easier. Writing out invoices can take up a lot of time, especially if you aren’t using the right type of paper. Invoices that already have your business name & contact information can save you a lot of time – particularly when they produce copies for both client & company.

We offer some of the cheapest NCR form prices anywhere that you can print your company logo, name & other key information on. Customize the form to suit the needs of your business and customers, while speeding up the invoicing process & keeping great records for your company. Pick from 2, 3 and 4 page form options based on what will work best for you.

Advertise on the Road

Whether you spend most of your day driving from stop to stop or park your van outside a customer’s location for a full week to get a job completed, car door magnets are one of the most effective ways to keep advertising your business. Be sure to include a big logo, large font & easy to read contact info for others to know exactly what your business offers. They may not need your services tomorrow, but they might in a month – and they’ll recognize your company name when they’re ready to research services because of your simple advertising techniques.

We recently highlighted some of our general real estate marketing materials, and received a great response from our readers asking for more specifics. Many of the readers who reached out are Remax Agents who were looking for printed promo products specific to their company. With over 100,000 agents, it’s no surprise that we heard from Remax representatives more than almost any other group!

Buying and selling real estate are among the biggest decisions that people have to make in their entire lives, so it’s extremely important that they trust their agent. Earning the trust of home buyers and sellers takes persistence and time, but the payoffs are well worth the effort when the sale closes. Of course, it can be difficult for you to get face time with potential home buyers and sellers to establish this trust, but there are other ways that you can build your reputation without ever speaking to potential clients first.

You can establish that you are polite, friendly and trustworthy just by staying in front of real estate prospects who may be in the market to move. Some of the trust will inherently come with the Remax name, since they are one of the most well known real estate companies, but you will still need to establish yourself personally as an agent too. Let everyone in the community get to know a little about you by designing a flyer using our free templates, or creating Remax door hangers to grow awareness for your services. This is a great approach is you are just starting out or new to a neighborhood / community, but once you get to know the area, there are more targeted approaches you can try.

Turning Contacts into Real Estate Leads

Once you have established a base of contacts, it’s important to stay in touch so that you are the obvious real estate agent to choose when it’s time for them to buy or sell a home. You wouldn’t want to go back and leave more Remax branded flyers or door hangers on the home of someone who you already established a relationship with – you’re going to need a more targeted approach.

Personal mail is still one of the best promo tools for Real Estate Agents because it allows them to connect directly with their contacts – turning them into leads. In order to do this effectively, while continuing to build that trust will require printing business envelopes with the logo for Remax to start. Use a matching Remax letterhead design to give the appearance of being very professional and having that attention to detail that’s needed to guide real estate transactions.

Turning Leads into Sales

Leads are great. Sales are greater. You never know when someone is going to decide that they want to move, so always be ready by carrying your Remax business cards with you. PrintFirm offers branded Remax templates that you can use for free to design your business card online. With this approach, you’ll be selling more homes in no time. Make sure to follow up with your Remax thank you cards for buyers, sellers, escrow, lawyers and anyone else involved in the sale to make sure they keep you in mind for their next deal!