Exhitions are a great time to give away branded promotional products, as long as they’re things that people need.  Invest in the right promo products and your marketing will be carried by more messengers to a bigger audience, at a relevant focused event and it will be seen for more hours than at any other time of the year.

So what will people want?  We’ve lots of ideas, and they’re split into handy topics below:  carrier bags, protection against the cold/rain,  summer seasonal items, sporting equipment; and all sorts of travel accessories.  All will provide a good-sized area to show off your images and marketing messages.

Bags:

Any bag is going to have a large area to print your branding and engagement messages.  The key is to find the type of bag that is most useful for your customers and perhaps most relevant to your industry. Business use eco friendly paper bags, backpacks, book bags, plastic carrier bags and more. Find the right kind of bag and use a striking design, as you put it in the hands of the visitors to your stand you then have portable advertising all day at the event your exhibiting at.

Rain/Cold Weather Protection:

Useful products are loved by customers. In cold and rainy weather seasons, use of branded umbrellas, fleeces or hooded jumpers make great portable advertising resources.

Summer Season Items:

This is the time for t-shirts to come into their own.  Make them colourful and bold; they will be worn and noticed.  Baseball caps are now worn casually by young and old alike, and again give you chance to splash out with something eye-catching.   Flip-flops are fantastic at raising your profile even though they’re at ground level!   Sunglasses make perfect sense in the summer as do fleeces  clear skies mean hot days and cold nights, and sea breezes can make any sunny coast chilly. Talk to our design team about making your summer clothes really stand out.

In Summer, people really try to look after their skin as well as keep cool.  Things like lip balm and wet wipes will be welcomed, and a sun survival kit will be a delight  it includes sunscreen, aftersun moisturiser and a luxury facecloth in a zip top bag.   T-shirts, caps and sunglasses are of course vital items.   Battery-powered personal fans are of two types – pocket fans in vivid blue or executive fans in classy black and silver.  Drinking promos range from sports bottles to a wine cooler.   Finally, the extremes of summer are shown in very useful British summer survival kits, which put sunscreen and waterproof poncho in one pack.  And never forget umbrellas, colourful adverts with massive space for marketing messages; bring on that summer rain!

Summer sporting fun

It’s a time for many people to get serious about their sports, and far more to start being daft outdoors.  Golf courses are packed for long hours, so there’s lots of valuable golf equipment available to sell your company and products.  Fun summer sports produce good alternatives that will be used again and again (for years in some cases); these include beach balls, frisbees, boomerangs and full-size footballs.  Talk to us about sourcing other branded outdoor equipment, from snorkels to sand-yachts!

Travelling equipment

Travel accessories includes everything from bags to picnic hampers, from binoculars to disposable flash cameras, from travel wallets to travel plugs, or toilet bags to luggage tags.  There’s plenty of useful ideas in our outdoors range, and in our health and fitness section.

As you can see, portable advertising really works for ongoing marketing of y our business.  Go for things that will truly be noticed, that will be used and that (ideally) will last.  If you haven’t seen what you fancy, then phone on 0121 565 2622 or email us (marketing@drprint.co.uk) and tell us about what you really want, or ask us for our ideas – whatever it is, we’ll be able to source it.

Here’s to exhibition success!

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Dr Print (UK) Ltd, 41 Downing Street, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 2PA

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Of course, that depends to whom you are giving it to.  Nevertheless there are various kinds of printed calculators that you can choose from to suit each type of client. You can go wrong with printed calculators as a giveaway.

Reward your loyal clients and business colleagues with a hip printed calculator.  Not only will this make them happy for your gratitude but they will also remember your company whenever they are using your gift.

Not a bad way to make sure that your company is in the foremost of their minds when something comes up and with the special feature of embedding your address and contact number, you will soon find new clients wishing to use your services.  The longer your printed calculators work the more chances of gaining new clients and retaining the old ones.  They will always be reminded of your products and how well you take care of them.

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Dr Print (UK) Ltd, 41 Downing Street, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 2PA

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But then again, one must stop and wonder whether or not we’re ready for this inhumanly fast pace by which the world we live in is moving.   And by the looks of things, we aren’t ready at all – far from it.   In fact, it would be prudent to remind the whole human race to just stop and slow down.

Development is nice, but it’s better if it’s sustainable. People need to constantly be reminded of this.   One way to do this would be to distribute eco business pens instead of the usual newly manufactured pens that the company gives out.

You can have your company’s logo printed on the pen for promotion, along with a nice reminder about helping mother earth.  It’ll show you’re your company is dedicated to the green revolution.   Another wonderful thing about using eco business pens is that they’re usually cheaper. Pens made from biodegradable plastic are usually cheaper to manufacture and are thus sold at a lower price.

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Dr Print (UK) Ltd, 41 Downing Street, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 2PA

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Far better than its counterparts, metal keyrings will sure be handy for anyone.  You can also engrave your company’s name onto the key ring so your clients will always remember you or will be the first name to come into mind whenever someone is seeking your kind of service.

Depending on what type of service or product you are selling, giving away promotional items should be in line with what you are offering.  Engraved keyrings are quite in demand and are a cheaper source of marketing.

Give away quality metal keyrings embossed with your name on it and you are sure to receive word of potential clients.  Each type of metal keyring has its own unique component.  Some are even placed in their very own boxes giving it that special quality  Metal keyrings also include gadget as torches, flasks, compasses and so much more. This is one type of give away that will endear you and your company to the recipient.

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Dr Print (UK) Ltd, 41 Downing Street, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 2PA

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>> How Marketers are Engaging with Social Media

>> Social Media Facts and Figures for B2B sales

>> How Businesses Spend on Social Media

If you are new to the world of social media, here is a useful article http://www.onlineschools.org/so-whats-social-media/

Once you have created your online social media profiles and accounts, having a co-ordinated online and offline marketing strategy for launching and developing your social media presence is vital.

It is essential that all your company’s offline resources (as well as online) display how your customers, or new enquirers, can follow you on your new social media web pages, whether that is via your Facebook page, Twitter profile, YouTube video channel, company blog or even a LinkedIn account. Many businesses now include their social media information within the company’s email footers for extra exposure.

As part of your social media strategy, why not look at branding a product, relevant to your business and customers needs, with your new social media URL or account name.  There are many simple products which can easily be branded such as pens, mugs, stress toys, USB memory sticks, notepads, and coasters. By giving away a branded social media focused item, you are raising your online profile daily amongst your current and potentially new customer base.

The long term goal of social media being to increase repease sales with current customers via offers online, as well as to convert new and future followers into customers.

As businesses in 2011, we need to adopt a social media strategy to ensure we are not losing out to our competitors engaging with a vast number of potential customers online.

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Dr Print (UK) Ltd, 41 Downing Street, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 2PA
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And really, most people won’t even bother to do it. Knowing everyone’s names just unnecessarily takes up too many brain cells and too much time.  It’s a good thing, then, that people have invented IDs or Identification cards.  Of course, to make things easier for everyone, it would be much better if the ideas are shown in plain sight.

This is where the lanyards come in.  The cord and the card holder that is used to hold the ID card is called a lanyard.  They come in different colours and materials.  The company’s name and logo is usually printed on the cord.  These days, the common trend among companies is to use environmentally friendly lanyards.

These earth friendly lanyards are made from recycled plastic and recycled cotton.  Companies that offer them allow personalisation so it would be a good way to promote company identity.  What’s best is that you can be sure that you’ll be helping the global efforts to stop pollution by using these environmentally friendly lanyards id cords.

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Dr Print (UK) Ltd, 41 Downing Street, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 2PA

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Seasonal marketing helps to ensure a memorable campaign by using relevant seasonal iconic hooks, such as images or key words and phrases. Incorporating these into a Valentine’s Day campaign to engage customers can be relatively easy as your customers will instantly relate to the images, values and concepts you use.

A vital point to remember when planning your Valentine’s Day campaign being that any claims or values you enthuse about during the campaign need to be evident/practised all year round. The last thing any business wants is a great Valentine’s Campaign, only to lose customers during Easter as your customer service hasn’t lived up to their expectations.

The key to any seasonal promotion is to be creative. Whether you are a B2B or B2C there is an angle which works for and is relevant to your business, spend some time finding it. This will help you stand out from your competitors who will undoubtedly be looking to promote themselves around the season for the romantic celebration.

Businesses which use social media for Valentine Day, are going to gain organic interest as it’s a subject of natural interest. Maximise your online viral links to push your campaign out to the target audience. Also, consider email campaigns to engage current customers with an exclusive email special offer. Customers love exclusive offers which are relevant and tailored just to them.

It’s worth noting that you may well pick up a few new followers during this time, having a follow up action plan for new online followers, sign ups to your e-newsletter or offline customers is essential to keep the engagement fresh and relevant. Setting up time in advance to plan the follow up as well as the initial campaign is going to help with your post campaign analysis.

Have a great Valentine’s Day!

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Dr Print (UK) Ltd, 41 Downing Street, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 2PA

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This spring colour trends are hot neons with soft pastels, we can see this translating into clothes, home paints as well as online web palates. Pantone have adopted their colour of the year from such a colour range. Their 2012 colour is Pantone 17-1463 Tangerine Tango.

Why not stay ahead of your competitors and use the season’s colour trends when you are planning design and printing of your business resources this year, especially for exhibitions when vivid colours attract to a stand. Business can also incorporate colours into their promotional products, making them more attractive to customers.

>>For some colour inspiration have a browse of these websites/articles:

Pantone’s Colour of the Year

Crown’s Spring Colour Trends

ColourLovers Spring 2012 Palates

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Dr Print (UK) Ltd, 41 Downing Street, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 2PA

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How to make your exhibition stand count?

Exhibiting at an event is rarely cheap and therefore it’s important to make the most of each opportunity. Below are 5 golden rules to help your next exhibition succeed.

1. Exhibition Strategy

It’s essential to decide in advance the ultimate goal for the exhibition, whether that be sign up targets, promotion of a new campaign or product or networking objectives. An equally important factor is how you will measure the success of your goals.  Depending on the size of the event and your exhibition stand, you may want to gather a small team to implement the actions arising out of your strategy.

The overall strategy should also include the following important elements:

- Stand dimensions and layout design
- Booking the stand and liaising with the event management team
- Booking of stand furniture and equipment
- Staffing & Briefing (plus practical details such as overnight stays, travel, set up/pack down)
- Resources required
- Branded promotional giveaways
- Any campaign/new service launch details
- Promotion/Marketing/Networking opportunities
- Expectations about stand ‘management’ during the event
- Follow up method & post event communication
- Post event debrief

2. Promote Your Exhibition

Once your exhibition stand is booked, it’s time to advertise the fact.  The exhibition event management team usually have advertising packages to promote your stand on their websites and within their brochures. Remembering that your competitors may also be exhibiting, it’s well worth taking up these opportunities.

Businesses can also make good use of their own customer networks. Why not highlight the event on your website and social media networking sites. Many businesses choose to engage their customers via a simple email campaign which includes an incentive code to be redeemed at the event; for example, ‘freebies for the first 10 people who visit the stand’ is another excellent marketing technique and great opportunity to meet your customers face to face.

3. Layout Design of your Stand

The layout of your stand deserves time and attention. The most successful stands will have put significant time into creating eye-catching, innovative and easily navigated displays. These stands will also have set up the furniture and equipment in a welcoming, low intensity layout.  Designing the layout can be a tad daunting if you haven’t done this before. However, you can now access free online interactive tools such as http://babycad.com/.

Some important things to remember when designing your displays and layout:

- Make sure logo and company details are high enough on your display to achieve maximum visibility.
- Decide where your representatives should stand so that your posters/key messages are not blocked.
- Make sure your stand is well lit – the event management team should have pre-event advice on best practice for lighting the stands.
- Ensure your resources are prominent at eye level; also invest in some desktop organisers to save your reps having to rummage into boxes when supplies are low.
- Seating on the stand can be useful. If delegates have been walking all afternoon, they often want a seat, plus you then have a captive audience. Think of the best place to have the seating so that your non seated rep can continue to meet and greet other delegates at the same time.

4. Be memorable for the right reasons.

I’m sure anyone who’s been a delegate at an exhibition has met the pushy salesperson who won’t take no for an answer. That approach isn’t necessarily giving the right message about your business and can put off a potential new customer.  It’s essential that your business and brand are memorable for positive reasons, especially since the delegates will be bombarded with so many other different people, companies and offers through the course of the event.

 Here’s a few things to consider.

- Staffing
It’s a good idea to have at a minimum of 2 reps at the stand per day for continual cover.

- Uniform or dress code
For a consistent business brand consider adopting a dress code of colour co-ordinated ties/shirts/blouses. If you are seeking a more friendly and relaxed feel why not consider branded t-shirts.

- Customer service staff briefing
Some important key attributes for staff include being friendly not pushy, being well informed on products and services also always helpful and approachable.  Your staff at the exhibition will be the first impression of your business to a potential new customer; it’s important to set the right tone and create a good impression via your representatives.

- Branded Giveaways
If you choose seasonal specific and innovative products to brand and giveaway, you will have a better chance of standing out in the marketplace.  One of the main reason delegates attend exhibitions is for the freebies. Another important reason for the branded giveaway being that it continues to advertise your services long after the delegate has left the event.

- Networking
some of the exhibitors may not be in your industry and therefore not competitors. A great opportunity to network, you too can make the most of the wide variety of exhibitors, services and products available, perhaps even find some new suppliers.

- Social Networking from the event.
Why not create interest in your stand by tweeting or updating your business Facebook page from the event, mention networking contacts or friendly delegates you have met.

5. Follow up

Before the exhibition starts you will have planned how you are going to engage with ‘sign up’s at the event, whether through a simple sign-up sheet, using QR codes, or via a pc web form page. If you are using a simple paper sign-up sheet, brief your reps to have delegates use block capitals to avoid having to try and decipher illegible handwritten details when you get back to the office.

As delegates will have interacted with a large number of diverse exhibitors at the event, why not stand out from the crowd by sending a little postcard or personalised email to thank them for signing up and confirming the next step in the process or offering a small discount voucher. If using a postcard it can be innovative in shape and design, making full use of your brand and social networking sites for ongoing customer engagement.

Post event debrief and performance measuring

A debrief with the staff that attended the event, and the team which helped to plan it, will assist in measuring your results in light of the goals you set prior to the event. The debrief is a helpful learning forum and a useful indicator of how to adapt and develop your strategy for the next exhibition.

Summary:
1. Create a strategy for your exhibition
2. Promote your stand
3. Carefully design your stand Layout
4. Be memorable and make the most of your marketing opportunity
5. Follow up your new contacts and develop a strategy that works well for your business

 These 5 golden rules will help you to get started in your planning, to avoid the common pitfalls of exhibiting and also help you to deliver successful exhibition stands.

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Dr Print (UK) Ltd, 41 Downing Street, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 2PA

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Top-notch printers typically offer a variety of cardstocks to choose from. One such cardstock option at the high end of the quality scale is silk, sometimes referred to as “silk-satin.” This is one of the classiest and most elegant cardstocks you will ever see.

Silk Lamination

First and foremost, let’s talk about what exactly the silk is comprised of. The silky coating is accomplished via silk-lamination, typically on 10pt or 15pt cardstock. This laminate coating is completely unnoticeable and invisible unless you try to tear the card. If you try and rip a silk card, you will see the ultra-thin, transparent layer of silk-laminate peel away from the card.

It is this lamination which gives silk cards their uniqueness. For one, it makes the cards more durable. The laminate coating makes the cards a little more difficult to tear, and helps minimize the possibility of corners and edges getting frayed.

Additionally, the silk lamination is completely writeable, meaning you can write on the card with pens, pencils, and markers with ease. This is a nice feature and is something that is not possible with glossy cards. This attribute works well for jotting down appointments, so it is particularly appropriate for doctors, dentists, attorneys, or similar professionals.

No-Gloss Elegance

Another key attribute of silk cards is that they are non-glossy, which eliminates the common inconveniences associated with glossy business cards such as fingerprinting, streaks, smudges, and the cards sticking together.

Glossy cards are coated with a varnish-like substance known as glossy UV (ultra-violet), which is completely different from the lamination associated with silk business cards. It is this glossy varnish that creates the aforementioned inconveniences. Conversely, non-shiny silk lamination eliminates these types of problems.

Additionally, the non-shiny look is more upscale and elegant. Many people correctly perceive glossy UV business cards to be a relatively low end card product. The non-shiny look seems to be “in” these days, which positively influences people’s perception of quality.

Enhancements

Finally, the durability and composition of the silk cardstock make it the best choice for card enhancement features like spot UV, embossing, and foil stamping.

Spot UV business cards in particular offer a unique look, as the areas treated with the spot UV are slightly raised and shiny compared to the non-shiny silk cardstock. Thus, the treated areas “jump off the page” and provide a striking visual impact. It would not be possible to produce spot UV business cards on an inherently glossy cardstock.

Embossing also works better on silk cards. Embossing is the process of raising certain design elements by virtue of them getting “pushed through” from the backside. The net effect is similar to the account number on a standard credit card, where the numbers are raised on the front and recessed on the back. As you can probably guess, embossing is a delicate process that puts much stress on the cardstock, and thus is a more appropriate enhancement feature for durable business cards like silk.

Summary

To sum it all up, silk cards are laminated, durable, writable, non-glossy, and support enhancement features. Outside of metal business cards or plastic business cards, silk cards are generally considered the highest-end business cardstock in the market today. They have an elegant look and feel, and do not have the same inconveniences as glossy business cards.

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Dr Print (UK) Ltd, 41 Downing Street, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 2PA
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