Labels for LifeLabels for Life will give tips for organizing your life, home and office.

Some people think of postcards as being an old-fashioned, outdated advertising medium. Old-fashioned – definitely. Outdated – hardly.

Here are some reasons why your business should use postcards for advertising or marketing:

1)    They’re cheap to print. Depending on the quantities you order, the cost of postcards is measured in pennies.

2)    They’re cheap to mail. The going rate to mail postcards is around thirty cents. If you do a lot of business reply mail, you can pay even less.

3)    You can connect them to electronic media. This is not your grandfather’s postcard. In the old days, there was no such thing as electronic media. Thus, there was no way to leverage the postcard by adding a QR code or a personalized url. Now you can connect anyone to your website using those electronic links.

4)    They’re not spam. Nobody completely ignores post cards. Unlike email spam, they have to be dealt with at least momentarily.

5)    You can put a great attention-getting design on them. A space of 4 x 6 is plenty of room to feature a design which will get someone’s attention. Whether it’s an award-winning logo or a product image or just a happy customer enjoying your company’s service, the blank side of the post card gives you a second opportunity to hook your customer.

6)    Nobody has to open them and look for your message. When someone sees your postcard in their mail, they don’t have to expend much effort to see what it is you are offering. If you can gain someone’s attention with a standout image or textual message, you may get more attention than some other advertiser’s bulky envelope which has to be opened.

7)    Other people can see your message as well. Your postcard may pass through the hands of several people before it gets to you. If you have a great service, people who you didn’t intend to reach will become aware of what you do. But don’t worry. Your postcard will still get delivered.

At Conquest Graphics, we think the strategic usage of post cards is a great investment for your business. Contact us today and we’ll put together a plan that will work for you.

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Our gift shop opened this September and while owning our own business has been exciting, I’ll admit that there have been some learning lessons along the way. This very first holiday season certainly brought a very hard learning lesson when it comes to tracking labels. We didn’t use them at our gift shop – and quite a few gifts were not delivered or returned to us. This has been a very frustrating time at Cyndi’s Adorables Gifts!

Tracking labels tell you where a package is at all times. I never really thought about this – and I certainly wasn’t thinking about this as I mailed out holiday packages. Quite frankly, I just wanted to get them in the mail. My gift shop hasn’t done a lot of mailing – and I was excited to see our business pick up. I was expecting to see a lot of gift business because we are a gift shop – but I was not expecting all of the challenges and heartbreak that came our way because of these tracking labels – and our packages not having them.

Tracking labels are easy to attach and scan into a computer system. Using tracking labels in many ways reminds me of going to the supermarket. You know how every item “beeps” as it goes over the conveyer belt as its UPC code is read? That’s just like a tracking label! When your tracking label is read along the way as the package is shipped and delivered – you’ll be able to see where and exactly when your package was there. It’s that easy.

Not having tracking labels is not just careless – it’s very expensive. I did not realize just how much I was going to wish I had tracking labels on my packages. You would think that people mailing gifts to family and friends for the holidays would know the address they are sending things to – but sometimes they don’t have the correct address. This means your package can be undeliverable and wind up sitting somewhere in package limbo. If you have a tracking label – then you know exactly where it is. If you don’t – then you just have to wait for the package to be returned to you. It’s January now and I’m getting all kinds of returns from holiday packages people sent out. That’s not counting all of the angry calls I received from customers who wanted a gift sent to a family member or friend that didn’t make it there on time.

If you have a business – learn from my mistake and don’t make one of your own. Get tracking labels now before you get shipping orders. Your customers will be pleased even if they don’t realize the difference. Best of all, you’ll realize the difference. The cost alone makes it well worth the price. Tracking labels are so small many people don’t think about them. But they hold very important information that can really save the day. Order your tracking labels today – and make your customers happy. Or they may find another business that does!

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While the holidays are a few weeks away, most companies are starting to think about what gift they’ll send to clients, vendors and others. You want to send something great that your clients and vendors will enjoy. But no matter what you send – now is the time to really “wow” your clients with a great holiday message.

Personalized labels are an excellent way to send out holiday greetings to everyone while giving a nice gift. The labels can be attached to the gift. By not sending out cards, the money you save on cards and stamps can be put in your budget towards a gift. The best personalized label is one that sends out a holiday greeting that matches your company’s personal style. Some companies are very corporate and others are more buttoned down. So a formal message may appeal to one company and a more approachable message may appeal to the other one.

One of the best things about choosing personalized labels is that you are almost guaranteed to have everyone see your greeting. Whereas with a card, just a few people in the office will see it – a personalized label is seen by everyone enjoying the gift. So if you send a food related gift then everyone enjoying the gift will see the personalized label reminding everyone to have a happy holiday season.

A favorite thing with great personalized labels is that this is an easy way for everyone to know who a company holiday gift is from. Where a gift can get separated from a tag or card quite quickly, a label sticks to your food related or other type of gift. This way everyone will know the gift is from you. This lets them enjoy your sense of friendliness and goodwill towards them. And they also know this gift is from your company. Many times you deal with quite a few people at a company yet only send one company gift. By choosing personalized labels, you’ll know that everyone sees this label.

There are many holiday themed accents you can choose for your personalized label. Trying fonts in holiday colors like red, green, blue, gold and silver are all ideal choices. Adding accents like snowflakes, snowmen, Christmas, Hanukah or Happy New Year items are great.

Holiday Personalized Label Tips:

Take some time choosing the best greeting. Think first who your gift will be going to. What would be the best greeting to say to them? Try to come up with several to choose from.

Choose fonts that are easy to read like Arial, Courier and Times New Roman. Fancy script fonts look pretty but often are hard for many to read. If you are getting personalized labels, you want everyone to be able to read the greeting.

Always add your company logo and try to add a few holiday accents. Try to ask the art department to make a very small and simpler version of your company logo ideal for the label. Anything representing your business should have your company logo on it. Add some fun holiday accents like snowflakes or a snowman to celebrate the holidays if appropriate.

Best tip: your label should always represent your company well. Take the time to create the best greeting and select the other accents that represent your business. A food gift will likely be put in the employee break room for everyone to share and those feelings of goodwill for your company will be felt for a long time. You want your personalized label to look attractive and represent your company well.

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Goods shipping are hollering on the phone that they have run out of shipping labels and the re-order for the new ones has not arrived.

Do you:

(a)    Tell them to write them out by hand on sticky labels;

(b)   Tell them the person who usually does the ordering has fallen into the Grand Canyon and not done the re-order;  or

(c)    Get online and find a supplier who will deliver the new shipping labels at the right quality, right price and right now!

Pretty obviously the answer is c., but when you get online you will be confronted by hundreds of thousands of print stores offering you shipping labels yesterday!

So how do you choose which supplier to fulfill the order?

To get the labels on time and looking as they should follow these tips when ordering online.

First, deal with established print and design outlets that have a physical base in the country.  Many of the internet sites are glossy fronts for overseas print companies with many offering very cheap pricing because they are based in the Far East and especially China.  Your delivery will not be seen for possibly several weeks and certainly not this week.  You can check this by looking for a physical mailing address and a landline telephone number; if the web site you have selected shows neither, avoid them and move on to the next potential supplier on your list.

Second, online purchasing is becoming more the norm than the exception.  Modern online security is very safety conscious and you are fully protected in the event of mishap.  But you do need to make sure you are dealing with a print provider who is operating a retail website and has the necessary “back-end” to provide the security.  When you are looking at a payment screen on your computer, look in the browser bar where the website address is entered – you are looking for https://websitename.com – note that little “s” after http; that means it is a secure and protected section of the site which is safe for you to use with your banking and credit card information.  If it doesn’t have this – move on to the next supplier on your list.

Third, look for customer reviews elsewhere on the internet.  Once you have found a potential supplier, simply put their name into your search engine along with something like, “customer reviews” and see what comes up.  Bad news travel fast and furious especially if the company behaves unscrupulously or badly towards customers, so in this instance, treat no news as good news though it is always assuring to read positive comments.

Fourth, if this is truly a rush order, call the company up and explain the situation to them.  Be prepared to pay a little extra for the privilege but you can also negotiate with other business that you have too.  Shipping labels are something you are going to use again and again, so be sure to ask the supplier questions such as will the price be the same for re-order and what are the minimum (and maximum) order quantities they are able to handle as well as typical turnaround times.

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I’ve always loved dogs. People always say, “There are dog people and there are cat people.” While I do like cats, I really have always gotten along so well with dogs. I worked in an office for years but my heart just wasn’t in it. It was a job…you know what I mean? But I always smiled when I came home to my dog. I think a lot of people are that way. So when my company closed in this lousy economy I took a leap of faith and started what I’d always dreamed of: a doggy daycare. I named it See Spot Run Doggy Daycare – cute right? I found the perfect storefront and several college kids to take care of dogs with me. It was perfect. Except I didn’t think about how to promote my business!

I really started to panic. I mean, I’d put so much time, money and myself into this business. But my husband said, “What about bumper stickers?” He travels a lot on the road for business and he always likes to tell me about funny bumper stickers he’s seen. He’s even called me from the road about a good one – so I realized that if my husband is looking at bumper stickers then other people are too! I placed an order that afternoon for full color bumper stickers.

It was really easy to order the bumper stickers. I added my logo of “Spot” the mascot dog and chose my font. I wanted a bright and colorful bumper sticker. I chose purple and yellow – something I knew would really get attention out there and looked fun. I added our company name and our telephone number and website url. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on those bumper stickers.

When the bumper stickers came in, I gave them to friends and family and to the clients I had. “How cute!” one of my customers said as she attached it to her convertible. I smiled as I watched her drive away. With her dog leaning out the car, it was like the perfect advertisement for my doggy daycare.

After a few days, the telephone started to ring and people and their dogs were walking in. My business picked up by 35% in just two weeks! I know it was because of those bumper stickers because I didn’t have a chance to do any other advertising. And the best thing about the bumper stickers is I didn’t have to wait for a magazine or newspaper advertisement deadline. The bumper  stickers also last and last on someone’s vehicle. I designed them to look so cute that I knew people would enjoy driving around with them!

My days are pretty busy now, walking dogs and taking care of them all day. Some people think when you run a doggy daycare that it is all fun and games but it is really a hard job sometimes. But I love it, I really do. I mean where else am I going to get to spend my entire day around all of these great dogs and make them all happy? And I think my office days are behind me.

So I’m really glad I listened to my husband about those bumper stickers. They were the easiest thing I’ve done to let people know about my doggy daycare – and at a price that simply can’t be beat!

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