Tuesday 22 December 2009

Christmas Hamper Winner!

I am very pleased to announce that the winner of December's Christmas Hamper competition is...

... Imogen Hesp of Graduates Yorkshire (www.graduatesyorkshire.co.uk)

We shall be dropping off Imogen's extremely yummy food hamper tomorrow morning and of course, we are insisting on a photo opportunity for our Shameless Plug campaign!

Graduates Yorkshire can then enter our January competition to win £1000 worth of print.

Go to http://iloveprintingdotcom.tumblr.com/ to find out how you can enter this fantastic competition! It's very easy and there are lots of options!

Here's Harry the Office Hound's Shameless Plug...






If you need a Shamelesss Plug banner, poster or sticker or the printing.com logo to make your own just contact us!

Be sure to forward this onto your contacts so everyone can join in and I'd like to wish everyone a very restful Christmas and a prosperous New Year! x







Thursday 17 December 2009

When websites go bad....


During a recent visit to a business exhibition, I spent an hour listening to the Google geeks talk about their free website analysis software 'Google Analytics' (www.google.com/analytics).

Despite having heard about Google Analytics before, I hadn't yet made use of it and having had the talk, I was excited to get it hooked up on our local printing.com site to see how the stats stacked up. And boy, was I in for a shock.

I really would recommend you take a look at Google Analytics if you're not already using it. It's very easy to add to your site and allows you to monitor and analyse a stack of stats, from how long people stay on your site, which pages they go to, which pages they exit on, how they find you, which key words they use.... you name it, you can find it out.

As with any marketing method, your approach should be organic. Nothing is set in stone and you should be prepared to change things, make tweaks, make additions, take things out... whilst monitoring the affect these changes have. Simple!

Problem being, we spend so much time handling our clients' projects, we rarely get the time to get our own act together. A couple of years ago we were very excited to get online with our own local site which we felt would give potential clients some insight into our business, rather than just the national franchise (which might be misconstrued as faceless).

Whilst we've revamped it a couple of times, there's always been that nagging feeling that it's just not right. And Google Analytics has backed that up, proving that the traffic that is getting to the site simply isn't spending any time on the site and, more importantly, doesn't seem compelled enough to contact us.


Gutted.







So, the big project in the printing.com offices now is a complete re-design and overhaul of our site. Not just a re-vamp but something that will create a buzz, something that will effectively communicate our character, our ethos and our individuality.

It comes back to this whole thing of taking some time out to work on your business, not in it.

You hear this phrase banded around constantly but how many of us actually do it on a regular basis? How much business has been lost by not having strategies and plans in place? How many opportunities have been lost by not taking time to monitor, analyse and adjust? It doesn't bear thinking about!

So, changes are afoot and I'll be expecting your feedback when we launch our brand new site.

In fact, if you've got any feedback on what you do or don't like about the existing site (www.sheffield-printing.com) put your comments back to us.

It's a tough thing to put your neck on the line and invite critique, especially for a control freak like me, but it needs to happen. 


I'll be brave.



 

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Is your image damaging your business?

I met this guy out networking the other day. His business involves working at a corporate level, going into businesses and advising them on how to improve certain internal processes (I shall be vague to avoid potential embarrassment).

His business cards contain the font 'Comic Sans' (that 'friendly and approachable' font which definitely needs to be eradicated - www.bancomicsans.com), the colours have been picked from the the 80's, the layout is amateurish and they are printed on shoddy card which is curling at the edges.

I cannot help asking myself 'how seriously does he take his business?' followed very quickly by 'how seriously do others take his business?' 


In short, how much is his image damaging his business?

Clearly I have no proof that he is damaging his business. He could be a millionaire for all I know! But what I am confident of is that people subconsciously form opinions of our business and our business ethics and approach from the way we look - from our business card right through to how we dress and present ourselves.

In today's competitive world and fragile economics, why would you want to create extra hurdles for your business? Why would you want to create the wrong impression? And if there were an opportunity to change this, why would you not take it?

Design isn't about 'making things pretty' and it shouldn't be an afterthought. There's a good reason why you should invest in design and it's measured in one thing. COLD. HARD. CASH.





Image courtesy of www.baddesignkills.com







Monday 7 December 2009

Win a Christmas Hamper!

December's competition is in keeping with the festive season with a yummy food hamper up for grabs.

Stuffed full of scrumptious treats, this hamper will either keep you munching right through the festive season or save you some money on someone's pressie!

There are two things you need to do to qualify for entry:


1) If you're not already subscribed for feeds and updates then either use the RSS feed function or subscribe by email - buttons on the right-hand side of my blog. If you're not subscribed, you won't know if you're a winner!

2) Fill out the entry form
on the following link
- WIN A HAMPER ENTRY FORM

The winner will be drawn on Friday 18th December so get your entry in ASAP!


I'd really like to grow my readership therefore I'd love it if you'd forward my blog on to business colleagues who could benefit from my ramblings and the odd competition!



NB - Image not representative of actual hamper




Friday 4 December 2009

And the winner for November is....

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the delay, it's been bedlam here looking after all of your festive promotions!

We've chosen a winner for November's Win a Free Set of Starmarque Business Cards competition and the winner is...

James Murphy from
HS Direct Ltd (www.hsdirect.co.uk) with his rather bizarre but very funny story of the Peperami Animal that stole his business cards!





Well done James - give us a call to claim your prize!


Keep an eye out for December's competition and don't forget to subscribe or else you won't know if you've won!