Cost saving tips
Recognize and Retain Your STAR EMPLOYEES
Keeping your good customers satisfied surely has been the primary focus this year – and rightfully so. Have you done the same with your top employees? Everyone is impacted by economic cutbacks, including those whom you’ll count on for the turnaround.
Your ‘A’ Team
Most organizations were forced to take a hard look at their employee compensation and benefits packages this past year. And, scaling back on employee recognition programs does make economic sense when budgets are stretched thin.
However, it’s not an “all or nothing” proposition. Small indulgences can register big satisfaction when you want employees to be actively engaged in the long-term health of your organization. Non-monetary incentives work!
Research shows companies with high employee morale are:
• 56% more likely to have higher-than-average customer loyalty
• 50% more likely to have lower turnover
• 38% more likely to have above-average productivity
• 27% more likely to report higher profitability
What can you do to boost morale and retain invested, valuable employees?
• Employee newsletter – Don’t rely on the grapevine to deliver organizational updates. A company newsletter gives you a regular and “official” medium to distribute vital company information.
• Employee handbook – A professional environment inspires professional attitudes. Do the same issues surface repeatedly? Best to lay out company policy in an employee handbook.
• Business cards/logo apparel – At minimum, all employees should have business cards. Those who interact with customers and the public may best represent your business in logo apparel and feel more like part of the team.
Limit the Guesswork in Marketing
Direct mail or email. Yellow Pages or banner advertising. Radio or newspaper. Sprinkle in the pressure to get into social media and it’s enough to make your head spin.
When divvying up your marketing dollars, how can you be sure you’ll end up with the right mix of strategies and tactics to sell, inspire or recruit?
Marketing involves some trial and error. The trick is to minimize the error by relying on the tried-and-true channels that are proven to generate the action you need.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that small businesses are now returning to direct mail marketing after experimenting with electronic strategies, like email, to trim costs last year.
What did these marketers learn? They discovered that their customers and prospects still respond to “snail mail” communications – when it’s done right.
MIX IT UP
So what’s “right”? For direct mail, personalization and relevant messaging have proven to lift response rates. As with any advertising medium, saying the right things to the right people at the right time is the killer combo.
Using a combination of communications strategies – print, electronic and in-person – will improve your odds of driving your key audiences to act. Remember: all customers are not created equal. Time and dollars should be more heavily skewed to those who generate the most income.
A complete analysis of your market opportunities, current customer profiles and marketing communications budget will all help to determine the right mix to help you reach your organizational goals.
How to build a better brochure
Whatever the format (single sheet fold-over, multiple panels or multi-page), your brochure has a job to do – and that’s to sell an idea.
Solid design principles and creative flair aside, your brochure needs to say something. Here are a few tips that can help you to get your point across:
- Get emotional – It’s well-accepted that people buy based on emotion and justify their decision with logic. Appeal to the heart and connect with the reader’s pains or needs.
- Have the right perspective – Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. A winning brochure will speak to your customer’s point of view … not your own.
- Use simple language – Remove all technical or industry jargon. The simpler your statements, the easier it is to connect with your audience.
- Spotlight benefits – The quickest path to the trash can is a rundown of product or service features. Instead, stick with the benefits. Answer the basics: How will you help me save time? Money? Improve results?
- Include a call to action – “Visit a Web site.” “Call for more information.” “Order
now.” If you ask for nothing, you’ll be sure to get it. - Make it readable – Bullet points, boxes, arrows or other graphics break up long type and make your key points easy to find … and remember.
With the right focus, message and style, your brochures can say all the right things about your organization and inspire the actions you seek. If you have neither the time nor expertise yourself, consider outsourcing the work for professional and effective results.
Be Earth-Friendly
Today’s conscientious printer quickly dispels any myths about print communication’s role in environmental misuse. Many “green” practices can be incorporated into everyone’s daily work routines, whatever the industry.
Here are a few ideas for around your office:
1. RECYCLE
- Identify all of the material that is potentially recyclable. Then, target the highest volume of materials that would be the easiest to separate.
- Create incentives for employees. Having an active role in a recycling program that grows, reaches goals and creates benefits will motivate employees to participate.
2. REDUCE
- Use local suppliers and carpool to limit vehicle emissions.
- Rely on technology for information storage.
- Use recycled or reusable materials when possible (coffee mug vs. Styrofoam cup).
3. ENERGY EFFICIENCIES
- Turn all switches to “off” when not in use and set temperatures back.
- Pay special attention to conference rooms, basements, restrooms, walk-in coolers and storage areas.
- Replace incandescent bulbs with compact florescent bulbs.
For your printing, publishing and marketing needs in Hamilton area contact a printer that is conscious of environmental challenges facing today’s businesses. Contact Allegra Hamilton. We will lhelp you put your “green thumbprint” on the environment.
Time-Saving Print Solutions
Every second counts, they say. Thankfully in most business environments, evaluating success or failure by a single moment is the exception and not the rule. When it comes to your print communications, there are ways for you to save time without cutting corners.
A SINGLE SOURCE
Missed deadlines. No accountability. Details overlooked. All tend to go hand in hand with projects that are divvied up to multiple vendors.
In addition to cost savings, using a single source for designing, printing and mailing also saves time. With one point of contact, project management becomes a whole lot more manageable. The process becomes seamless, you know who’s responsible and who’s going to deliver.
Look to us to handle your jobs from start to finish. And put your time to better use.
THE NEED FOR SPEED
For all businesses, time is money. Technological advancements have made it easier, faster and cheaper to get your hands on a high-quality printed product. The source: digital printing. In contrast to traditional offset printing which uses a press to lay ink on paper, digital printing is like an extremely high-quality color copier.
Digital goes directly from the computer to the printer and takes just minutes. Because it does not require film, plates and other pre-press preparations of offset printing, the time and cost savings is significant.
DESIGNED TO SAVE
When you are designing your materials on computer disk and/or providing a digital file, we’ll output a sample to verify the accuracy of the layout and any color separations.
Also, make it a time- and money-saving habit to complete your revisions before you turn over your layout or digital files.
