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One of the ways real estate professionals market their services is by using just listed/just sold postcards.  The big question is "how effective is this marketing strategy" and should it be part of your real estate marketing plan?

According to an article on Active Rain, the social media site for real estate professionals, using just listed/just sold postcards IS an effective way to market your services.  Click here to read the original article.

This successful husband and wife team not only use just listed/just sold postcards to promote their business, they are getting results.  This article also had a tremendous amount of feedback from other agents who are also finding success and an increase in listings when they use the just listed/just sold postcards CONSISTENTLY.

The proof is in the results and this great article from people sharing what works and what doesn't should give you some great insights on marketing your real estate business with postcards.

Check out all of the Realtor postcard marketing options now!  PrinterBees is keeping up with the needs of our Realtor clients by offering short sale postcards/foreclosure postcards.  PrinterBees appreciates our real estate Clients!

Below is a really informative interview regarding "Storytelling marketing". Dana Todd discusses the importance of telling a story with your marketing that evokes emotion in people.  Todd also discusses the importance of sticking to a story for a minimum of three years to help build brand recognition.

The best way to come up with a good story is to evaluate and questions your clients to learn more about their stories and how your business brings value to their businesses or personal lives.  People make buying decision based on two major factors:

• They are seeking pleasure of some sort
• They are avoiding pain or are currently in pain.

When you consider these two motivators it's easier to come up with a storyline and commit to it.  If your selling shoes, your marketing marketing message could be about how great it feels to have a new pair of shoes OR the relief it brings your aching feet to have a new pair of shoes.  This rule can really be applied to pretty much any product.

Enjoy what Dana Todd has to say about story telling marketing and let us know more about your story.

Use storytelling marketing on your next postcard marketing piece by using images to tell your story.

Short Sales and foreclosure properties don't seem to be going anywhere soon and our real estate clients have had to change their real estate marketing plans in order to attract buyers.

We always recommend the Internet as the first way to attract new clients into your business and have even published a free e-book to make it easy for you to build your own website and begin attracting buyers over the Internet.  Download the free e-book on how to attract buyers and sellers on the Internet Now

We have also created a whole new line of real estate postcards to accommodate the current state of the real estate market.  Many homeowners feel they have no choices when it comes to selling their homes.  They often feel like allowing the home to go into foreclosure is the only option they have.

As you know, banks are willing to work with people who are upside down on their home mortgages and as professional real estate professionals, you need to get the word out to those that find themselves stranded.

We have created a new line of Short Sale and Foreclosure postcards to help accommodate your real estate marketing needs.

Here is a small sample of what you will find when you visit our short sale/foreclosure postcard page.

Remax Business Card Designs now available at PrinterBees.  With the high demand for real estate printing, we wish to add as many brands to our line of real estate business cards as possible.

Our talented graphics designers have added a new line of business card designs for our Remax Real Estate Agents.  Visit our Remax Business Card ordering page to see all of the new designs along with pricing details.   Our Real Estate printing clients appreciate our business card printing prices and love the quality of our business cards as well.

We look forward to the opportunity to serve you.  PrinterBees Home

Maximize Hotel Customer Service with Different Door Hanger Layouts

Door hangers, especially in hotels regularly used in several different ways.  By having the right type of design and layout, marketing managers can take advantage to further promote other hotel offerings or specials.  To be the most effective, it is a good idea to try several different door hanger designs to see which gets the best results.

Many know this as split A B testing. Creating two different marketing pieces, like a door hanger and putting them out at the same time in different part of the hotel, in this instance.  To make ensure you are collecting the right data for your door hanger campaign, make sure that people are forced to turn them in or provide a coupon code so you have a true picture of what style of marketing works best.

There are hundreds of ways of promoting features of hotels; with different activities, amenities, and products surrounding the vicinity.  Using printed door hangers can be one of the most effective marketing strategies, not to mention inexpensive.   With online printing companies like PrinterBees, you are provided with good quality door hangers that can meet the needs of split testing in smaller quantities like 500 or order as many as 50,000 at a time when you already know what works best for your door hanger printing campaign.

• With hotels and resorts that offer surrounding beaches, print two-sides door hangers to promote activities like Scuba Diving, snorkeling or inviting guests to take advantage of beach side/pool side happy hour activities.

• Promote family events;  If your hotel or resort offers family friendly events that encourage both parent and child participation, promote and invite your guests to those events by placing door hangers to help them remember the upcoming events.  By using "rip business cards" or perforated door hangers, you can offer guests the ability to rip off a coupon or guest pass that is approximately the size of a business card.

• Room service menu's are probably the most common use of Door Hangers in the hospitality hotel industry. Use your printed door hangers to present the menu for the week for full color on both sides.  Feature the hotel restaurant and Chef’s specialty for the month.   By using  full color printing, food images can look delectable and attractive because of the print’s color quality output.

For guests that are on vacation for several days or are accompanied by children, they will look forward to see what "today's door hanger" will have on it when you are consistent, which is at the core of any good marketing campaign.  Most people would love to check their doors daily if they had some sort of coupon, invitation or a list of events that could be attended.  Your guests will remember your sincere attempts to make their stay rememberable and comfortable because you and your staff took the extra effort to communicate in such a friendly way that is also non intrusive.

Hang tags are commonly used to carry your clothing store's brand name, logo, and product details.  Customers dispose these tags after their purchase, since the hang tag no longer serves a purpose for them. You can make your hang tags more functional by adding value to them. Here are a few hang tag printing ideas that may encourage your clients to keep them around longer increasing brand recognition:

* Fashion Tips: Appeal to your customers by providing fashion tips on your clothing hang tags.  For instance, you can include style inspiration from the current fashion icons that inspire certain looks with that particular piece of clothing or accessory.

* Shopping Tips: Providing shopping tips on your clothing hang tags is very use to any customer.  Promote upcoming sales events or other ways to save money.  Times are tough for many and shopping tips that help people save are more likely to be kept around.

* Discount Coupons: Motivate customers to purchase more by adding a discount coupons to your hang tags.  Advise them to present the clothing hang tag on their next purchase to use towards a discount on something else.   The cost of printing hang tags is so cheap that it is easy and very convenient with online hang tag printing services.

* Event Passes: Give customers a special treatment by using the back of your hang tags as event passes for fashion shows and other events sponsored by your company.   You can also get other local businesses that have events coming up to pitch in toward the cost of printing your hang tags by allowing them to promote their upcoming events on the backside of your hang tags.   the opportunities are endless when you consider how many events are often going on around town.

* Date of your Next Big Sale: Give customers something to look forward to by keeping them updated about your next big sale. Your clothing hang tags will serve as a constant remember of the sales date. Customers will hold on to your hang tags in order not to miss the big sale.

creating your clothing hang tags with valuable information to your clients helps strengthen your relationship with them along with your marketing and branding efforts. Your hang tags will be worth keeping with the exciting benefits incorporated in them.

When creating a door hanger campaign to market your products or services, it is important to make sure you keep a few things in mind to get the most out of having door hangers printed.

If you want the people of the community you distribute your door hangers in to pay attention to and read your door hangers, you need to remember one of the first rules in marketing - KISS.  Keep It Simple Stupid!  By keeping your marketing message simple, concise and to the point, people are much more likely to give it their attention.  Life is crazy busy and we all have way more to do in a day than time to do it.  If your marketing message takes more than a moment to read, you are guaranteed to loose the attention of your reader.  Lesson here…Keep It Short…Keep It Simple.

Your door hanger should include a message that benefits the client.  Did you catch that….it needs to BENEFIT THE CLIENT.  The most common mistake people make with their marketing messages is making it about their businesses and not about the client.

The best way to sort out the difference between making your message about you verses the client is to make a list of problems that your product or service solves for your potential clients.  Once you list out the problems people have, list next to it how your product or service solves that problem.  How your product solves the problem is what should be included on your door hanger.  In marketing lingo…it is listing the "benefits" to the client, vs. the "features" of what your product does.   The same holds true for your postcards, fliers, brochures or anything else you plan to market your business with.

Include images to help convey your message.  Generally speaking people are visual and when you consider how visual people are, pictures help!  If you have having a sale, make sure to include a "sale image" that everyone recognizes.  If you want people to STOP and look, include a stop sign.    If you are promoting the local pizza parlor, make sure to include an image of a delicious mouth watering piece of pizza.   If you have included a coupon on your door hanger, make sure to make the word SAVE NOW stand out so people can't miss it.

All marketing pieces, including your door hangers need to have some sort of  "call to action", telling the prospective customer exactly what you want them to do once they read or look at your information.  If you don't tell people what you want them to do, how will they know?  Don't assume it is obvious.  If you want them to order today…then tell them "order today".    If you want prospective clients to call you, include something that says "call me today" and make sure to provide a good reason why someone would call you.

I encourage you to read a great book I stumbled upon to help keep things in perspective.  It will save you a lot of time, not to mention a lot of aggravation when it comes to writing "ad copy".   Writing good copy takes a lot of practice and it certainly doesn't hurt to have a few great tips of a great copy writer.  This book is worth its weight in gold!.

The holidays are approaching and many businesses are trying to determine what they can give away to their clients to show thanks and appreciation for their business. More than likely, small business owners are also trying to keep what they spend on year end client appreciation to a minimum due to the tough economic times and tight marketing budgets.

The easiest and frankly the handiest …and the cheapest way to show client appreciation is with custom calendar magnets. They are affordable for our clients, add value (everyone needs a calendar handy) for your clients and they "stick around" until you send them a calendar magnet next year.

When you order your calendar magnets by the end of October you'll save 15% on magnet printing.  COUPON CODE - NOVMAG15

The biggest benefit of marketing with magnets is the "shelf life".  By using magnets to thank clients, your name and company name sticks around for months or possibly years to come.

Printerbees provides great AFFORDABLE marketing gifts on magnets like Wine paring magnets, CPR Magnets, Measurement Magnets, Memo Board Magnets and so much more.  Visit the Custom Magnets Page on PrinterBees for ordering and pricing information.

Whether you are printing door hangers, business cards, postcards, color brochures, or any other type of printed marketing materials, the paper you choose to print on is very important to the final result.

We wanted to break down the confusion over paper.  So, what is the difference between 100 lb Bookweight Paper vs. 14 pt. Cardstock?

What is 14 pt. Card stock?

14 pt. card stock is a thick paper, also known as “cover stock,” and the 14 pt  is also a measurement of thickness, which equals .014 inches thick. The key thing to remember is that the higher the points, the thicker the paper , so 14 pt. is thicker than  both 10 pt. and 12pt. paper/card stock.   When printing your marketing pieces, using a sturdy thick 14pt card stock provides a much more professional looking piece.

When should you use 14 pt. Card stock?

Since 14 pt. card stock is thick and sturdy paper stock, it is perfect for printing projects like business card printing, door hanger printing, postcard printing or anything else where it is important that the paper is sturdy and professional.  The 14pt card stock also tends to look more expensive.   When it comes to printing business cards, 14pt. card stock with a UV gloss coating is the most popular.

What is 100 lb Gloss Book weight Paper?

100 lb gloss book weight paper is the same as 100 lb and is measured in weight.  The term “100 lb” is the weight of 500 sheets of paper and is considered to be a medium weight.  Our gloss book paper has a high gloss coating which which looks very professional.   It is not as sturdy as the 14pt card stock, but is perfect for projects like booklets, color brochures, color fliers, menus, posters, door hangers and sell sheets.

Many small business owners rely on past client referrals and repeat business from past clients to stay in business.  When you consider how important past client retention is to your business, isn't it important to make it as easy as possible for them to reach you again and again?

We have always encouraged our clients to use Custom Magnets as an inexpensive marketing tactic to increase repeat business.  Repeat business is the absolute most inexpensive client you can find when you consider your marketing budget.  Past clients already know you, like you, have done business with you already and know what to expect.  No convincing necessary! Your past clients should be at the very top of your list when you plan your next marketing campaign.

By providing a clients with a "business card magnet" you are increasing the chances of your information "sticking around". Small business owners will see an increase in referrals and repeat business by providing clients with business card magnets, calendar magnets or any other type of custom magnet that has "staying power". Do you keep the magnet that your favorite take out provided to you with your last order?  Of course you do!  If they are your favorite take out place, you want to keep their information handy for easy ordering.

Magnets are less likely to be thrown out because they add value (by holding up "Sally's" school drawing/report card on the fridge) to the client and have a higher perceived value because everyone knows they are a bit more pricey than business cards.

When you order 500 business card magnets, the cost per magnet is only .31 cents!  The small investment of .31 cents could increase your repeat business and referrals substantially.

Visit the Custom Magnets page to see all of the different magnet printing options available.  PrinterBees has 2010 Calendar Magnets, CPR magnets, Wine Pairing magnets, magnets for the family and can custom create anything you have in mind when it comes to having magnets printed.