Sometimes an image captures the heart and emotions of a nation. Even in a world of film, video, 3D imaging and iMax movie experiences, a single still frame frozen in time can speak in a unique, powerful way for people with a power that other media cannot duplicate. Boston Magazine has created such an image that is both a moving tribute to the tragic bombings in Boston and a telling demonstration of the enduring power of design and the printed image.

Boston Magazine produced a cover image in response to the Marathon bombings in that city which seems to be an overnight sensation, currently making the rounds on social media. The heart shaped design composed of shoes from actual Boston Marathon runners visually tells the story of hope and endurance behind the experience of the bombings. All the major networks have reported on the image and its creation as a top news story. The powerful design will be printed not only as a magazine cover, but also as a poster with proceeds going to The One Fund – Boston. If you are interested in obtaining a poster of your own and thereby contributing, Boston Magazine says, “Please send us an email at [email protected] if you would like more information about the posters once they’re available.”

Yes, many of us will experience the image digitally as it permeates the culture through social media. But the printed magazine cover and the subsequent demand for a poster bring the image into the tactile world as a keepsake. Great design in a cover image can produce a print edition that becomes a lasting keepsake for many. Even in an increasingly digital world, print retains the power to influence and communicate in a unique way.

Below are a couple of other memborable cover images memorializing the events.

Time published a special “tablet-only” edition with the cover image below. You can download it here. (photo: Bill Hoenk)

The New Yorker’s “Shadow Over Boston” issue features the artwork of Eric Drooker:

Donate to The One Fund – Boston here to help those affected by the Boston bombings.

Printers understand communication and design. Your printer should be able to provide you with the latest information, inspiration, technical advice, and innovative ideas for communicating your message through print, design, signage, apparel and integrated marketing. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Shop our full ImageSmith catalog online here. We can work with you to find the best option to suit your needs. Please note, prices in online catalog do not include decoration, but call us for a quote at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

April 10, 2013

Your Integrated Marketing Plan Needs Direct Mail

Over at PrintisBig.com, you will find some eye-opening statistics about the print industry, and specifically about the power of direct mail – yes, good old-fashined direct mail, even in a digital age. While I would attribute part of the continued effectiveness of direct mail campaigns for marketing to their integration with other online and offline marketing methods, it looks like the preference of consumers for the physical nature of printed matter still pays off in increased conversion rates and marketing ROI. Also, small companies and non-profits are reaping the benefits of VDP personalization in increasingly targeted campaigns that drive up response rates as their database management matures. A couple of the stats from PrintisBig:

Since 2004, direct mail marketing response rates are UP 14%, while email marketing response rates are DOWN 57%.
In 2010, US companies increased sales through direct marketing to the tune of $702 billion.
Advertisers in the US spend $167 per person on direct mail, earning $2,095 worth of goods sold. That’s a 1,300% return on investment.
Non-profits gain 78% of their donations from direct mail.

Source: PrintisBig.com

Rather than seeing an EITHER/OR situation between direct mail and new digital alternatives, embrace the opportunities of mobile marketing, qr codes, email, social media and website e-commerce as a whole new box of tools to get our your message and/or drive sales. To abandon print and it’s proven effectiveness in that transition will prove costly!

Rely on your printer for advice and direction with integrated marketing. They should be able to provide you with everything from encouragement along the way to complete design, layout, copywriting, production, multi-purposing, online implmentation and distribution of your marketing outreach. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

December 27, 2012

2012: Our 10 Most Popular Blog Posts

This morning on a random internet search I noticed Wonderwall’s Hottest Couples of 2012 listing, and MSN’s Sports Deaths of 2012. Tis’ the season. If it’s the end of the year, it’s time for the barrage of Top 10 Lists recounting the high or low points of everything from news events to recipes, viral videos to Supreme Court decisions.

A year’s end is a good time to reflect and take stock of events before planning begins in the new year. So in that vein, here are our Top 10 blog posts from the past year, according to our monitoring of traffic at Imageblog:

Imageblog is our online newstand of conjecture, knowledge, experience and opinion about the world of print, design, marketing, technology and sustainability. Here’s hoping you will find some interesting topics in our list, or some useful information about print, design and marketing for the year ahead. Thank you for stopping by!

Rely on your printer for advice and direction with all your marketing needs. They should be able to provide you with everything from encouragement all the way to the complete design, layout, copywriting, production, multi-purposing and distribution of your marketing outreach. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

September 28, 2012

Storm-Tweeting, and 5 Other Twitterbombs for Small Business to Avoid

As a marketing tool, Twitter has proven to be a real gift for small business. Through an active Twitter account, you can reach customers locally or globally, establish your expertise and leadership in your field, promote your business and brand, drive traffic to your website or link your marketing efforts on and offline… and best of all, it’s FREE! However, certain pitfalls seem specific to the small business owner who is overworked, overscheduled and struggling to take advantage of all the digital revolution can provide. Avoid dropping the following Twitterbombs, most being related to time management, that can derail your social media success:

1: Twitter is my soapbox.

Twitter is a conversation, not a monologue. Well, it can be a monologue but people both online and in daily relationships do not enjoy being preached at and quickly tune out. You have a forum to announce your information, but also a great opening to learn what your potential customers are thinking. You want to encourage people to read your posts AND to respond to them. As in any conversation, the process demands both the ability to listen and a commitment of time (a precious commodity for a small business owner). Which leads to the next point…

2: I don’t have time to talk to everyone.

Answer all Replys and DMs (Direct Messages). Ignoring someone’s comment, or forgetting to thank them for a Retweet, is a sure way to generate ill will on Twitter. Check for DMs regularly and browse the @Connect feed, which will give you a history of Retweets and followers. You can respond briefly when appropriate and thank them for their interest even if you don’t agree with their comment! Oh, and remember to wear a thick skin and take the high road… social media communications can often be brutal.

3: I am not here to follow.

For myself, the most damaging signal I see for a business account on Twitter is when they have a number of Followers, but are themselves following no one. This clearly says “I want no contact, I only want people to listen to me.” Again, Twitter is a conversation, not a one-way forum. Follow potential customers, local buisnesses, experts in your field, everyone who has contact with you! They have valuable information to provide you as well.

4: Storm-Tweeting

This habit really irritates many on Twitter: you don’t have a lot of time, so when you get online you tweet multiple times in a row – sometimes dozens! – then disappear until the next day. The timeline of your followers fills up with you avatar over and over. Irritated and feeling ambushed, your followers will at best not read all of that flurry of information, and at worst, Unfollow you. Often it is a time management problem, and for many the solution is a free dashboard application such as Tweetdeck that allows you to monitor, schedule and manage your tweets and replies on your own time. If you find yourself Storm-tweeting, this may be worth checking out.

5: My account is dead.

The worst. If you build up a following on Twitter, you should commit to using and contributing to it DAILY (you can slide on weekends if you must). If you leave it inactive, you have essentially made a public announcement that your business is, well, sort of dead! You’ve left a Twitter-corpse lying in the public domain. If you abandon your Twitter account, by all means deactivate it.

6: TMI, or “Did you really just say that?”

Up front, you should take some time to decide what voice you want to speak with on Twitter. You can be a completely business-like entity, unlinked to any individual person. You can be a parody account, the voice of your brand or a brand mascot, or a multi-faceted voice of many employees all tweeting under the same name. But whatever you choose, set some guidelines for your approach in terms of what topics to cover and how to handle various interactions. Revealing some personal details or day to day events in your company will interest followers and humanize your brand. If taken too far, this can also work to alienate followers or create an impression that is unprofessional or unpleasant. In other words, while it is not productive for a small business to have a completely robotic, non-human voice on Twitter, it is probably worse to use your brand’s account to announce pet peeves, physical ailments, or “I just ousted @SoandSo as the Mayor of Lolita’s Bar and Grill.” Be aware of the tone and voice you cultivate publicly. And never, ever engage in spats or arguments, no matter how tempting!

If you have been guilty of a few of these, don’t feel bad. There is real social media learning curve for us all and the “rules” are generally in flux as times and technology change. Remember that your Twitter account is a public representation of your self, your company, your brand… have fun and expand your knowledge and contacts as well as seek to gain a solid ROI. If you enjoy the interaction, your followers will as well. Your online presence will be more fully rounded and attractive to your audience, and you will also discover a great deal that you would never have been privy to otherwise. Following people and businesses in your own town and your own field will keep you better informed than any news outlet or nosey neighbor ever could. Being better informed makes you better equipped to effectively market your business.

Follow us! @maryimagesmith (Print, Design, Technology, Sustainability – Asheville & Western North Carolina)

Rely on your printer for advice and direction in design, print and integrated marketing. They should be able to guide you through the latest changes and introduce new technology to help get your message out… if they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

August 1, 2012

Pursuit Horizon: Cross country documentary in the making

Ever wanted to shove off and hit the road to see what lies out there for you? That is a popular fantasy for most of us working stiffs – some folks actually make that dream come true.

Enter Zach Settewongse and Amanda Pollard: they decided to grab life by the handlebars, heading out on their high tech motorcycles on a journey of over 8,500 miles around the US, filming their own adventures for a documentary, blogging and exploring the frontier of the information revolution. They camp when they have to, and let circumstances take them where they need to go – a brave adventure that brought them through Asheville and for an overnight stay here at ImageSmith. We were inspired by how they are exploring where technology and a sense of adventure can lead you.

You can follow Zach and Amanda’s crosscountry odyssey at their daily blog and through weekly podcasts, or check out interviews on YouTube. Remember to “LIKE” them on Facebook.com/Pursuit Horizon or “Donate” to their trip and help keep Pursuit Horizon on the road longer.

Rely on your printer for advice and direction in deciding what options are out there for your marketing budget. They should be able to provide you with the latest information and innovative ideas in print and integrated marketing. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

June 25, 2012

Design by committee – what do you think?

Old adage: a camel is a horse designed by a committee. And it’s true – good design struggles to survive the committee. In the art world, creativity is generally under the direction of one artist or auteur, occasionally it’s a collaboration or the work of a highly skilled, carefully chosen team. But in the world of graphic and commercial design, when a new product, print project or website is presented, generally a committee of people unfamiliar with design is brought together or asked for input. The result, not surprisingly, is less that it could have been. The challenge… to recognize where the committee approach lacks effectiveness and direct the project with a clear focus.

When presented with design, the committee approach starts on the wrong foot by asking the wrong question: “What do you think?” Can you imagine the financial forecast of a business being placed in front of people unskilled in finance and asking them for an off-the-cuff gut reaction at first glance? What this solicits is a round of strange, subjective reactions: “I don’t like blue.” “Why is it so busy.” “Can we put more ‘oompf’ into it?” “I want it to look more modern, but with an old-fashioned flavor.” All reactions may have some truth to them, but are unfocused, random impressions that are not guided by a sense of the overall purpose of the project.

Misstep 2 follows in the wake of these comments when the committee doesn’t really know how to process their own critique or trust their spoken and unspoken reactions. Typically, any real decision gets tabled. “Hmmmm. Let’s think about this for a while. I want to show it to a few folks.”

Now the committee expands. People go home and show the design to their spouse, their kids, their dog. They stop people at the checkout line, email it to Aunt Gladys in Pensacola, post it on Facebook. Again, the question: “What do you think?” And all of that feedback, whether pro or con, begins to color their decision on the design. It’s like crowdsourcing an opinion rather than relying on the skill and aesthetic of a design/marketing team who have worked through the process of why a design is what it is.

In this process, I often struggle with what I would call “invalid” feedback. Yes, everyone can have an opinion on how a design project “looks.” But unless they have some insight into what their reaction means, how the project can be improved, why a certain aspect fails while another succeeds, then their input is what I must deem invalid. For example, I once worked on a committee where someone’s first response to design proposals was: “I don’t like them. I can’t really tell you why I don’t like them, but I think we need to see other choices.” That is not valid feedback. It serves no purpose in furthering the work. Someone has to take the initiative and have the vision to say what they want and why.

Also, some people think the “perfect” design concept will leap out at them if they only see it. It follows that same line of thought that designers dread: “I can’t tell you what I want until I see it, I’m a very visual person.” I once encountered a client who requested a design by saying “Show us 25 or so examples and we’ll pick which ones we prefer.” 25? If only they had agreed to an unlimited budget to create that scenario.

Committees often tend to pick and pull at details rather than controlling the overall vision. They rarely see the entire picture or have all the information necessary to evaluate decisions about function and form, and the process suffers. Feedback can often be colored by the inherent power sturcture: the need to impress superiors or establish authority, to appear knowledgeable rather than uninformed, to contribute something… anything rather than be perceived as not participating. In such a situation, who is accountable if the project fails? Everyone chipped in an opinion but no one claimed to be in charge. This “anonymous” or leaderless decision making leaves no one accountable. The result? Bad design, failed projects… and another committee meeting.

So it’s clear I have no solutions here. The committee approach isn’t going away. Facing the pitfalls of the “design by committee” approach can be a good start however. Good design decisions are unique, informed “leaps of faith” that rely on an understanding of the desired aesthetic, full knowledge of a project and ultimately the bravery of making the call on what the design will be. For some great analysis of the topic check out Smashing Mag’s article “Why Design by Committee Should Die”, or another great one from Boag called “Death to Design-by-Committee.”

For help? Rely on your printer for advice and direction in making branding and design decisions. They should have years of experience to share with you. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

May 17, 2012

Print, Globalization & A Little Green Bug from China

A little green bug from China really got me thinking about small business and the new globalization of marketing.

Wide format printing of banners, signs, floor murals, POP displays, outdoor signage, wall decor and other graphic displays keeps our Mutoh printer very busy. Rush orders are no problem, and we often rely on overnight shipping to get the media delivered to the shop on time for an order. One such material that was overnighted recently was a vinyl banner material that is great for outdoor displays. The original manufacturer of the material is, according to the product descriptions, in China. While I’m sure the matierial is usually sitting in a middle-man’s warehouse somewhere, theoretically it could come directly from China to our shop floor in a matter of days.

This material is wound onto a core and comes in 150 yard lengths. But the factory in China must lack screens on its windows, because we’ve noticed that on the back side of this material there is often the occansional squashed little green bug that got caught up in the material as it was wound onto the core. With close inspection you can make out the bright green body, mosquito-like wings and huge round eyes that still seem to be putting the brakes on mid-flight.

Now my first thought on seeing the bug is that it’s no surprise how quickly a mosquito-born disease could potentially travel worldwide. But outside the worries of public health, this little Chinese bug points out the interconnectedness of the entire world in a business relationship. That global connection effects each of us as consumers and in business. Today, the market for all of us, just like for the factory with no screens in China, is worldwide. The internet and global communications have increased your potential market to any extent you can imagine. As a printer, out next job could come just as easily from across the street as across the globe.

Integrating your marketing to include web-based and mobile outreach as well as mail, print, and signage in a coordinated effort can open up that new world of potential customers for you. It is a daunting task for an already busy small business owner. The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER! They are the experts at introducing you to marketing innovations and working with you to direct your brand and reach to more people, locally or globally.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

March 20, 2012

15 Years of Rapid Change for the World of Print

Today ImageSmith surprised me with a little celebration for my 15th anniversary with the company and a very generous gift of a brand new iPad. Our discussion at the gathering centered around the changes in our business over the past 15 years and the vast differences technology has created in that relatively brief span of time. Back in 1997, hardly anyone at work had a mobile phone; few used the internet or even had a home computer.

Oddly enough, I had been reading online this very morning about the new issue of Newsweek that highlights the return of the show “Mad Men” with a retro 60s issue and an amazing recreation of retro print advertising from that era. The rate of change in this industry from then to now has exponentially increased. Print quickly adapted to new computer technology in the ’80s, drastically altering the way graphics are created, business is done and ultimately the very heart of what the printing industry is today. From my own experience here at ImageSmith, I could see the major ways technology has created this rapid change:

THE INTERNET

In the 90s, the art department was completely a Mac platform (Mac certainly led the way with graphics software and innovation) and the only other computers were PCs used for the front office and accounting. Files were transferred on floppy disks or zip disks. Proofs were faxed or hand delivered. The idea of communication or doing business via the internet seemed fanciful.

TODAY: communication inside and beyond the company is via the internet. Computers network through a wifi connection and a central server. Orders are placed online, files transferred, deliveries scheduled and tracked… to do otherwise would seem painfully slow and unprofitable.

SOFTWARE

The change in graphics software is always rapid and amazing. In 1997, we were using Adobe PageMaker for our layout (it had only recently been acquired by Adobe from Aldus). PhotoShop and Illustrator were used for photo and graphics manipulation, but only minimally integrated with the actual desktop layout duties of PageMaker. Many clients created their jobs in QuarkXpress, Microsoft Word, Corel Draw – and the confusing task of the art department was to try to handle and image these files cross platform from PC to Mac without disastrous font conflicts and software glitches. The idea of a “portable document format” or pdf was on the horizon.

TODAY: Adobe Creative Suite provides virtually flawless integration of PhotoShop, Illustrator, Acrobat and InDesign. A totally pdf workflow moves client jobs seamlessly from desktop to press or web. Print design can be cross-purposed to web pages, mobile apps, e-books, etc.

PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

Many jobs were still created physically on paper and then photographed. “Paste-up” was the means of gluing into position different page elements. It all seems very primitive now. The process of making plates for offset printing also relied on photography. Negatives were imaged, stripped into position, manually color separated, and burned onto plates.

TODAY: Computer-to-plate and computer-to-press techonology completely removes the photographic element in printing. Digital layouts are rasterized and imaged onto plates for the press in exact position. Increasingly, digital presses are replacing the offset process to meet the growing demand for short run, full color print.

DATA STORAGE

In 1997, a typical print job would fit easily onto a standard 3.5 inch, 1.44MB floppy disk. Artwork and client jobs were archived onto floppies. These were replaced by SyQuests – able to hold 44 or 88 MB or data, and then Zip Disks from iOmega with the amazing capacity to hold 100 MB. In the late 90s, most all computers, PC and Mac, came with a built-in floppy and Zip drive. Over the years, the Zip yielded to the CD and then the DVD for removable storage options.

TODAY: File sizes for some print jobs today dwarf the capacity of all of these removable data storage devices. High capacity servers and cloud-based storage solutions manage files and the process of archiving data.

With all of these changes has come a core redefinition of what small and mid-sized print operations are about. Printers have expanded to become multi-media specialists, marketing consultants and e-commerce solution providers to meet the equally drastic changing needs of their clients. Integrated marketing techniques combine the realms of print with mobile, email, wide format printing, signage, printwear, branded merchandise and social media. Looking ahead to the landscape of the NEXT fifteen years is exciting and daunting. Mobile and cloud-based technology will continue to drive the marketing into the world of augmented reality, 3-D printing, conductive ink and other as-yet unknown innovations.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

March 14, 2012

Now THAT is Integrated Marketing – Taco Bell Shows How its Done

We have all heard the discussion about what the true value of social media and marketing via Facebook, Twitter, etc. is for small and medium sized businesses. Everyone wants to know the ROI – we want hard and fast data proving this much money in, this much money out. But the reality that is gradually being revealed is a brave new tech world where the old business school models don’t always hold up in the face of “viral” product buzz. For both B-to-B or B-to-C models, the emerging evidence indicates that building a social network of customers, clients, acquaintances or like-minded individuals both locally and internationally holds an undeniably great marketing potential for any enterprise. This instant connectivity has never been possible before, and it’s value is rich.

The question for marketers becomes how to leverage this newfound social network into everything from product buzz to hard and fast profits. Take a look at how Taco Bell is making this work. They have 167,000 Twitter followers and over 8 million Facebook fans – a definitely solid base to begin a project like this with. The product being launched: Doritos Locos Tacos, which also provides sponsorship for a series of concerts called “Feed the Beat.” Packaging on the taco has a QR code to link those who scan it to exclusive video of these music concerts. An AR (augmented reality) code on other packaging lets consumers connect via a Taco Bell mobile app to view live Tweets and Facebook comments.

Now the brilliant draw in all this, even more than the online music and connectivity, is that TacoBell will be displayhing selected tweets using the #DoritosLocosTacos hashtag on digital billboards in Times Square in New York City and Sunset Boulevard in LA. The payoff for fans is to see their name up in lights (so to speak) in such iconic locations. The payoff for TacoBell and Doritos? Well you can see that clearly.

The Whole Enchilada…. er, Taco

Print, web, social media, signage, mobile marketing, product packaging… a truly integrated campaign uses all available media, and leverages that content through the connectivity of a solid social network. The best advice here for any small business appears to be develop your social network online, and then get creative about using that base to get your message out.

The development of a social network on outlets such as Twitter and Facebook is itself an asset. Many have questioned the profitability of spending the time and manpower to cultivate such a network. Enterprises like this Taco Bell campaign are blazing the trail to show how such connection can be leveraged into a big – and increasingly essential – marketing win.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

February 22, 2012

If You Have The Right Printer, You Have Your Marketing Consultant

Running a small business demands expertise in many, many divergent fields. You must excel at finance, employee relations, marketing, sales, and of course the specifics of the type of business you went into in the first place. In a large corporation, each duty or specialty is handled by an expert in that profession – or an entire heirarchy of experts: production, sales, marketing, human resources, R & D. As a small business owner, that’s all on you. Technology is only making that landscape even more challenging, daily.

To bring in help or advice on any of these areas is costly and risky. When it comes to marketing, however, your best resource is right at hand. And – this is by far the best part – it is FREE! If you have the right printer, you already have a highly trained marketing consultant who knows print, branding, direct mail, web strategies, social media and has years of experience in both high and low tech marketing approaches that work for businesses just like yours. The most assuring part of this partnership for you is that the print/communications company only succeeds when your marketing succeeds! Start taking advantage of this asset – the print industry itself has had to reinvent itself in this new high tech economy. They know what works.

Even if you have a background in marketing, the rules of the game over the past 10 years have changed DRASTICALLY. (Check out this amazing and exhaustive infographic on the History of Marketing.) The marketing success that got you and your small business to where it is today will most likely not take you to future success in the emerging economy and IT world. Do you have the time and resources to become an expert in web design, SEO (search engine optimization), interactive online marketing, web metrics or analytics, to position your operation to embrace the new and as yet unknown technoligies that are right over the horizon? In most cases, the answer is no – and unless your business IS marketing, you should not have to. Turn to your printer for help.

The term “printer” is misleading. Today, printers do far more than put ink on paper. They have become marketing and communications specialists, and they are your closest and most knowledgeable sources for consulting with you on your overall marketing strategy. A good printer will understand your budget, your marketing goals and be able to suggest many options for creating results: integrated marketing strategies, direct mail, targeted variable data printing, promotional products, signage, branding, website development and e-commerce, social media marketing techniques, and unique design ideas. Discuss with them your target audience, who your consumer is, what your mission and specific goals are for the year. These are the facts your sales rep needs to recommend specific marketing strategies that you can use to translate into profit and customer recognition of your brand and your work. So the question is: why drain your energy trying to learn the new world of marketing on TOP of running your business when you already have a marketing consultant waiting to talk with you?

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

Since 2004, direct mail marketing response rates are UP 14%, while email marketing response rates are DOWN 57%.

In 2010, US companies increased sales through direct marketing to the tune of $702 billion.

Advertisers in the US spend $167 per person on direct mail, earning $2,095 worth of goods sold. That’s a 1,300% return on investment.

Non-profits gain 78% of their donations from direct mail.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

1: Twitter is my soapbox.

2: I don’t have time to talk to everyone.

3: I am not here to follow.

4: Storm-Tweeting

5: My account is dead.

6: TMI, or “Did you really just say that?”

Follow us! @maryimagesmith (Print, Design, Technology, Sustainability – Asheville & Western North Carolina)

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

THE INTERNET

SOFTWARE

PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

DATA STORAGE

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

The Whole Enchilada…. er, Taco

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.