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Advertising Tip

Christmas Message Marketing

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Christmas Message Marketing​

Christmas is Here! Don’t forget your Christmas Messages. 

End of year closures and holidays deliver the perfect opportunity for you to send out personalised messages with a touch of marketing.

What do you include? Open your message by thanking your clients for their support during the last year, including some wishes for Christmas and the New Year. Then use that as a segway into some personalised target marketing.

Your target marketing might include:

  • a discount code that’s only valid until the end of the year as a Christmas gift
  • a gift with a total spend over a pre-determined dollar figure
  • a button that leads to the new year’s catalogue preview
  • an option to subscribe to social media accounts or blog posts for immediate updates, sales or offers.

Usually, by this time of year, everyone is tired, worn out and lacking focus. So keep your messages and communication, short, sweet and to the point. Your clients will appreciate it more than an overload. 

So with that, our team here at Austnews and Austnews Advertising would like to sign off for this year. Next week we’re sending our clients a summary of the advertising year, so if you’d like to receive your copy send us an email or head to our Facebook page and send us a message. 

We look forward to working with you all in the new year as we move forward with some exciting new projects. 

Until then, if you need further assistance with your marketing, branding or advertising, feel free to call us or email us for a chat. Our team of professionals would love to help. 

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Advertising Tip

All Clients Matter; Stay in Touch!

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All Clients Matter; Stay in Touch!​

“It takes months to find a customers…seconds to lose one” – Vince Lombardi

Don’t lose contact with your old clients. Don’t lose contact with your new clients. Don’t lose contact with any of your clients, it’s really that simple. 

At some point throughout your business’s life, each one of your clients played a significant role. Whether they were your first; your biggest; the one who changed the way you do business; the one who said they’d never return. Every single one of them has put some type of income, trust and value in your products or services. 

The type of role they played in your business will depend on their experience and how you used their feedback to make a change, even if you reflected on their negative experience. So the best thing to do is, keep in touch!

To achieve this all you have to do is to build a database with all their current contact details. It doesn’t have to be a fancy one, you can create a basic spreadsheet in excel if that’s easy for you to maintain. Or, if you’re tech-savvy, create a full database with past orders, their most purchased product, total value spent with your company, etc. The list of records for your client database can be endless. 

Once you’ve got a healthy managed database you can communicate with your clients frequently. Send birthday messages, information on company updates, specials and promotions, VIP offers, new products or services and whatever else you feel is important to inform your customers about. 

They’re your clients, they’re working with and buying from you, you know them best! You never know, they might just be searching or needing your product right now and your contact may secure their next purchase with you. 

If you need further assistance with your design or branding, feel free to call us or email us for a chat. Our team of professionals can help you achieve your communication goals.

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Advertising Tip

Testimonials & Reviews: Promote Them!

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Testimonials & Reviews: Promote Them!​

Testimonials and Reviews are proof of ‘Word of Mouth’ Marketing.
If your clients are providing you with positive feedback, why not use them? 

Word of Mouth Marketing (also known as WOMM) is the purest form of free advertising and promotion and is usually triggered by a positive (and in some cases a negative) experience while working with or being serviced by your business. 

With everyone shifting to search online for their required products and services, testimonials and reviews can easily influence a shopper’s decision to book, purchase or close a deal with your business. This makes communicating the quality of your product, the success of working with your business or specific information much easier. 

How will they work in my favour? Testimonials and reviews will always outline your client’s and customer’s true feelings about your business (whether you like it or not). Real shoppers are providing real feedback that’s not manufactured and contains raw emotional information. They easily become worth their weight in gold if marketed correctly. 

How can I obtain this information? Many websites and apps have their own built-in product review or feedback widget. The most used are Facebook and Google reviews on their platforms or Product reviews through an online shopping portal. All you have to do is ask your clients to provide this information? 

How do I use them? Whether they’re positive or negative, this raw data can be used throughout your marketing strategies. You can include them in advertising campaign messages, raw data in your sales pitches, collection of information on an online product (could easily turn this into your top-selling product), featured on your social media pages and website. Even the negative ones can work in your favour, especially if you want your customers to understand a specific reason as to why you’re changing a product! 

If you need further assistance with using your testimonials and reviews in your ad campaigns or product branding, feel free to call us or email us for a chat. Our team can help you achieve your goals and leads. 

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Digital Advertising

Holiday Advertising: How to Do It

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Holiday Advertising: How To Do It​

With the Christmas and New Year Holidays fast approaching, we’ve listed some important factors to consider when advertising over this period. Now you can enjoy your time off too!

Schedule your Campaigns in Advance. Advertising throughout the holiday period should still work for you, even while you’re on holiday. The best way to do this is to plan your holiday calendar and advertising in advance. Most digital advertising companies, like ours, allow you to book and plan ahead of time so that when Christmas is done, your Christmas message expires and your next message starts. This is especially effective for any business hosting specific sales, events and activities. 

Set your Auto Responses. If you’re taking the time to relax and reset over the Christmas and New Year period, just like us, be sure that your auto-responses are set where required (email, messenger, voicemails, live chat, etc.). That way, if a customer tries to contact you while you’re “offline” they will understand how important their enquiry is to you and that you’ll get back to them as soon as possible. We all know that everyone deserves a holiday, just don’t leave your customers hanging if they’re trying to contact you.

Get your Message out Early. Although shoppers will continue right up until Christmas Eve, be sure to get your sales campaign, message, catalogue or important holiday information out early enough to catch as many customers and clients as you can before you close. This will help keep you focussed and organised through a very stressful period.

Keep your Marketing Communication Active. Although you’re not going to be there, keeping your clients and customers informed of what’s happening over the holiday period is also still relevant. You could use this time to keep your EDM’s scheduled. Set them up to give your clients or customers a countdown to the next sale; take the opportunity to advise what’s to come in the new year; provide a summary of the most wanted products or services for the past year and send them links (if it’s something everyone wants, there’s a good chance others will want it to). 

These basic steps will keep your business tidy and active so that when you return from your holiday you can easily answer any clients, get your products out, book in services for the new year and plan your next quarter successfully. 

If you need further assistance with your campaign scheduling, digital advertising or communication branding to get through this period, feel free to call us or email us for a chat. Our team will be happy to help!

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Advertising Tip

Email Remains King!

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Email Remains King!​

Email communication has consistently evolved over its lifetime to become one of the most reliable forms of direct marketing. Here’s why…

Email Marketing is Direct! We even said this in the title. It has become a digital one on one conversation with your audience and clients about your product or service.     

Emails can be Tailored! Regardless of who you want to target, their physical location, time zone or preferences, each email can be customised for a specific reason. Not everyone likes or wants the same thing.      

Test & Preview is Easy! Why not try a new template design, incorporate a video file or add a catalogue button? Whatever and however you want your direct marketing to look and feel, emails can be previewed and tested before they’re deployed. This is perfect when you’re not 100% sure of your new design.      

Embed Buttons & Catalogues! Sending direct digital marketing allows you to place the button for what you’d like your client to do right in their face. Get them to shop your sale by clicking a button (they don’t need to Google it themselves); get them to book online so they don’t need to call you and wait on hold.     

Simplified! No matter what platform or email party you choose to use for email communication, customising, scheduling, deployment, adding in digital components and tracking click rates have made this is the simplest form of direct marketing. Most of the time all you need to do is upload your subscribers or recipients, select a template and start entering your message. 

Honestly, the list is endless. The more you use email marketing, the more you’ll notice the benefits and direct return on investment (ROI). 

This is why our ePublisher Communication Platform used by Australian and New Zealand schools experiences overall success. Not only does it provide the schools with digital tools to communicate with parents, staff, students and community members directly and effectively; but it also provides digital advertising opportunities for local businesses and companies who are seeing long term return on investment and success.

If you need further assistance with email marketing, advertising or digital communication, feel free to call us or email us for a chat. Our team of professionals can help you achieve your communication and marketing goals. 

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Advertising Tip

Call to Action – You Need One!

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Call to Action - You Need One!​

Wherever you advertise, whatever your message is, have a direct call to action and make it clear! 

If any of your past or current advertising has been unsuccessful or you’re not seeing the results to match your budget, there’s a good chance your call to action is blurry or doesn’t exist! 

Your first step when planning an ad campaign is knowing what you want your customer to do when they see your ad. Do you want them to book your service online; do you want them to download your free guide; do you want them to register their details for ongoing communication? Whatever it is, know it and understand how you’d like it to work.  

It’s quite a common occurrence to see ads being designed, printed or uploaded without any true indication of what the end goal for the business is. Meaning, there’s no call to action listed, it’s too small to read or there’s no clear direction for the customer to respond.  Basically, you just end up throwing a digital business card into cyberspace in the hope that a customer will pick it up and use or purchase your products. 
 
The best call to action (CTAs) is always the simplest. The favourites we like to use or recommend to our clients:
  • Book Online
  • Click Here
  • Download our Catalogue
  • Free Quote
  • Enter this Code at Checkout for Discount
  • Register Today
You can always combine a few CTAs for more clarity “Click here to Register Today”, “Register your Interest to Enrol your Child”, etc. These types of CTAs are easy to manage and easy for the customer to understand. 
 
What about tracking your CTAs? 
 

If you’re tech-savvy your website analytics will always give you a complete understanding of your website and platform activity. However, if you want something simple, create a specific landing page or form that opens only by clicking on a specific ad or campaign or offer a specific discount code to use at checkout. Each of these tools will give you overall guidance on the success rate of your ad. 

Remember, Call to Actions (CTAs) always form the starting point of your businesses sales funnel and conversation. If the lead isn’t there to start the conversation, how do you get the information you need from the customer to close the sale? You don’t!

Digital Call to Actions

We’ve touched on this in a previous blog on how to stay connected to your clients. Have a read and put our two advertising tips to use when creating your next ad campaign. You’ll notice a difference these two small steps will make to the success of your digital campaign. 

If you need further assistance with your ad design or branding, feel free to call us or email us for a chat. Our graphic designer can help you achieve your goals and leads. 

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Advertising Tip

How to Supply your own Artwork

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How to Supply your own Artwork​

Choosing to Supply your own Artwork for any advertising, branding or marketing purpose comes with understanding the specs required by the company. 
Here are some Dos & Don’ts on how to do that.

Do send your ideas through. You may be swift in using paint or design products in some online software or apps which will be effective on how you’d like your ad or design to look. The designer will then use your concept to create a professionally finished image that will meet the end print or digital requirements. Your graphic designer will work with you through to the final approval. 

Don’t supply images that aren’t your own. You may see a great image on Google that you’d love to use, but if it’s not yours or you don’t have the copyright to it a designer can’t use it. It’s best to mention to your designer that you like a particular image so they can find one from an approved catalogue to use in your artwork. 

Do meet the size specifications. Each design will have its own size specifications that will be dependant on whether it’s print or digital. This includes measurements in millimetres or pixels, the number of dots per inch (dpi) for quality resolution, and the type of file the finished design must be supplied in (.PNG, .JPG, .PDF, etc.) If you’re supplying artwork to Austnews for your advertising, click here to view our artwork specs. 

Don’t copy another design. While we all have a keen eye for effective design it’s best not to copy another company or businesses concept or design. You can mention to your designer the elements that you like best about a particular design but it’s always best to stand out on your own merit. It also avoids any copyright infringements. 

Do send through raw design files. You may have had someone work for you in the past who gave you access to the actual layered design files for your business. If you’re working with a new designer and want to continue with the same structure, share your raw design file, images and fonts with them. It definitely increases the efficiency of the design process. 

Our design team is always available to chat about your concepts for advertising, branding or marketing and how best to move forward with your products. If you’d like to chat with our design team or obtain a quote for your next design job, feel free to call us or email us. Our design team can help you achieve your goals and leads. 

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Austnews

What Makes Effective Advertising?

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What Makes Effective Advertising?​

Quite often we stumble across a design request to fit a full A4 page of notes about the client’s business into an ad size that’s no bigger than a business card. This can’t be done! 
Here are our four Effective Advertising tips we provide all of our clients.

Less Text is Better! Regardless of the size of your ad keep your message simple and clear. Don’t overcomplicate it by adding unnecessary information. 

All you need to do is give the reader a reason to stop, read your ad and then act on your Call to Action (hint; we cover that below). Cramming too much information into a small space will make your ad appear messy, unimportant, and too tiny to even read. Your reader will scroll on past your ad and probably land with your competitors. 

Use your own high-quality Images! Having up to date, high-quality (designers refer to them as high-resolution) images that showcase your product is very important.  With the camera technology hosted within our phones and devices these days, it’s almost impossible to find a reason to not have photos of your business, services or products. 

Authentic, custom content will always give you a better result when designing your ad. Your competitor can’t use or “download” your images from an online stock catalogue which makes it harder to replicate your message and campaign. Remember, you cannot use any images you found on google or on another ad that you don’t hold the copyright for. 

Always use a Call to Action! A Call to Action (or a CTA) is a simple instruction that you would like a reader or client to do as a response to your advertising campaign. Some effective examples are “Book Online”; “Click for More Info”; “Free Online Quote”; and the list goes on.

With online advertising, CTA’s assist in monitoring campaign success through analytics, specific landing pages, online forms and the use of discount codes when finalising purchases. An ad without a CTA is considered a simple directory listing or online business card that provides little to no response or tracking capabilities.

Crisp & Clear Graphic Design! It’s very easy to fall into the trap of designing your own ads and branding necessities, especially with the increase in online design programs and software apps. It’s important to remember that your ad is often the first time someone is learning about your business. How would you like your business to appear? 

Crisp clear graphic design work will build your business while boosting your brand awareness and trust. There are plenty of options out there if your company doesn’t have its own graphic designer where you can put trust in their professionalism to get you the ad you need and want. If you’re designing with us, we’ve got one in house and your design is included in your ad campaign. 

If you need further assistance with your ad design or branding, feel free to call us or email us for a chat. Our graphic designer can help you achieve your goals and leads.

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Advertising Tip

Stand out from the Rest

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Stand Out from the Rest​

What’s your point of difference? 
How do you and your business stand out from similar businesses? 
It’s time to get loud with your advertising!

When creating and designing an advertising campaign that represents your business it’s important to remember your unique points; the ones that make you different from everyone else in your industry. Eventually, every dental, medical centre, pharmacy, hairdresser, cafe, beautician, real estate and all other businesses end up looking the same. You’re all delivering the same services for the same reasons. 

Three important questions to ask yourself when creating your campaign:

  1. Why would clients choose my business?
  2. What makes my business different from my competitors?
  3. How can I stand out?

Here’s how you can stand out!

What if you’re the real estate agent that gives free coffee at the time of a house inspection; or your cafe is dog friendly, or you provide your clients with a glass of champagne at the time of pampering? They are your unique points and they should speak the loudest in your advertising campaign. 

Showing customers and clients why they should choose you over your competitors will give you a positive response to your ad whatever your call to action may be. Remember, it’s important to include a direct call to action. 

Find a professional who can help you!

While it might seem simple to plan your campaign, seeking advice and help from a professional designer or advertising consultant will benefit you long term. Every ad that you need will change specifications and size according to the platform you wish to use. It’s certainly not a ‘one size fits all’ case. This applies to digital and print advertising. 

There’s plenty of professionals out there who live and breathe graphic design and advertising. Once you’ve found the right person, creating your visual message will be an easy process. They’ll help you think big; think bright; think loud! 

If you need further assistance with your graphic design or advertising campaign, feel free to call us or email us for a chat. Our team of professionals can help you achieve your goals and leads. 

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Austnews

Austnews, who are we?

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Austnews, who are we?​

Austnews (short for Australian Newsletter Services) is a communication service schools use to connect with their families, students, staff and local community. 

Since 1978, Austnews has been an Australian family owned and operated business providing hundreds of schools across Australia, and now New Zealand, with newsletter templates, printing and stationery services.   With the ever changing world of technology our business model is continually evolving to provide schools with the latest technology and deliver a superior digital service known as ePublisher.

The Austnews team is comprised of dedicated professionals with a continued vision to innovate, design and build bespoke communication tools to maintain an open gateway between the school classroom and the family home. We are teachers, marketers, graphic designers, programmers and parents who understand the importance and value of communication and its role in education. 

Where does Austnews Advertising fit into all of this? 

Austnews supplies schools with newsletters and communication services for free, thanks to the small business, companies and large corporations who choose to advertise. The advertising fee these businesses pay covers the ongoing design, print, hosting and tech support costs required to keep these tools relevant and available. Some might even say their advertising is a form of sponsorship and ongoing community support for their local school. 

Over the past 42 years, we have seen several thousand Australian and International businesses advertise with Austnews to not only show their support but also reach their target audience in the most direct form possible – straight into their households and email addresses. 

Where to start? 

If you’re looking to support your local school or schools within your region get in touch with us. With a dedicated team of professional advertising consultants, your enquiry will be answered promptly. 

Not sure what you’re after? 

That’s ok, we can work with you to see what your best fit is. We offer a range of branding and campaign focused advertisement packages all inclusive of free graphic design services. Why not check out our current campaigns and promotions to help get you started? 

Want to know more?

Follow us on Facebook for the latest tips, schools, promotions and updates or view our websites listed below to help you better understand how Austnews Advertising can benefit your business and your school. 

We look forward to working with you!

Austnews – Make Better Connections
Austnews Advertising – Connecting School Communities
ePublisher – Communication Platform

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