Thursday, April 30, 2009

Follow us on Twitter!!

To follow us on Twitter, go to:

http://twitter.com/ConceptDesigns

We will keep you updated on the news/events/sales that we have going on!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Free Advertising!

I just wanted to let you know of an opportunity for free advertising...MomAudience.com

Mom Audience connects moms with each other as well as with mompreneurs and businesses that appeal to moms. If any of your products/services/causes/etc. fit in those categories, check it out! Even if your business is location specific, there is a place for your listings too!

Each week an email is sent out to subscribers that includes all the listings, sponsors and advertisers. You can post your listings for free on http://www.momaudience.com/ and they will be included in the next week's email. It is a great way to get your business' name out there without costing a thing. If you want to get even more exposure, you can purchase a banner ad or sponsor a weekly email.

I am trying to let all my clients know about this so they can get in on the free advertising. If you have a business that is appealing to moms, post it!

Leave a comment and let me know if you post a listing!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Eco-friendly Printing

Got Green?

Concept Design Studios goes an extra mile to offer paper products that are recycled from certified sustainable production systems called PEFC (Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council Certification).

Recycled paper products contain recovered fibers, which include pre or post consumer sources, or both. As a result, there are significant environmental advantages of producing recycled paper over non-recycled paper. The advantages create an eco-friendly footprint which consists of a reduced impact on forest resources, reduced air and water pollution, reduced water and energy consumption, and the reduction of solid waste.

Concept Design Studios also incorporates the use of eco-friendly inks and solvents based on soy in our production which emit very low traces of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are the fumes emitted into the air from inks, solvents and cleaners as they are used or while they dry. Our VOC levels are one of the lowest in the world and much lower than the required amounts set by the AQMD. In comparison, petroleum based inks release a much greater amount of VOCs than soy inks. Soy inks are also extremely beneficial during the paper recycling process since removing soy ink stains from paper is much easier than other artificial inks. Soy inks are easily washable and cause less damage to the paper fibers. As a result, the recycled paper is much brighter and fit for reuse. Furthermore, the waste produced by soy inks does not pose any threat to the environment and can be easily treated using modern methods.

In our continued commitment to the environment, Concept Design Studios takes every opportunity to offer customers environmentally conscious and friendly solutions by expanding our recycled paper selection while still retaining a high degree of quality.

The future of our environment depends on the choices we make today. We are thrilled to be able to provide you the choice to use recycled papers and other green products. We encourage you to take advantage of these eco-conscious choices. Together we can make a difference.

~ Comfort C. Price

 

For tips on becoming more "green", check out some more of our other blog entries!

To order our eco-friendly print products, contact us or visit our online print shop!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Bozeman Chamber of Commerce Women's Conference - May 19th

Join us for the Bozeman Chamber's Women's Conference on May 19, 2009.

Visit our booth at the conference.  We look forward to seeing you there!!  Give us a call if you have any questions or want to know where our booth is located.

Contact us:
406.209.6544
info@conceptdesignstudios.com
www.conceptdesignstudios.com

Thursday, April 02, 2009

5 Easy Ways to Turbocharge Response to Your Marketing Materials

by Stacy Karacostas

Do your marketing materials grab prospects by the eyeballs and convince them to take action right now? If you’ve ever written an ad, brochure, sales letter or website—and gotten little or no response—the answer is no. And chances are the problem lies in your written content, or copy.
You see, most people write marketing materials the same way they wrote papers in school. I don’t know about you, but I’m not itching to read my last term paper or scientific report (unless I’m suffering a bad case of insomnia).

However, writing purely to explain or educate is completely different from writing marketing materials that sell. Instead of simply telling prospects about you or your business, products, services, methodology, etc., effective copywriting connects with your ideal customer, explains why they need what you have, and inspires them to take the next step.

Thankfully, this isn’t hard to do. Just follow these five simple steps to amp up the sales-making power of everything you write…

Step 1: Grab Their Eyeballs
Always include a strong, targeted headline in every piece of marketing or advertising. People are busy and typically skim before they read. The headline is your way of getting prospects’ attention and convincing them to keep reading.

Writing killer headlines from scratch takes tons of time and practice. A simple shortcut is to get a book of proven ads, find a headline you like, then follow its formula but rewrite it to suit your product and market.

Step 2: Make It All About "YOU"
Humans are, by nature, egocentric. We spend every day trapped inside our own heads thinking about whatever matters to us. So it’s only natural to focus on what’s important to you in your marketing materials—instead of what’s important to your prospect.

Try this test…Count the number of times you use WE, I, OUR, or YOUR COMPANY NAME in a marketing piece. If they’re at the start of sentences or paragraphs, or in a headline or subhead count them twice. Now, do the same for YOU and YOUR.

If you used WE and I way more than YOU and YOUR, you’re marketing is too egocentric. Try flipping offending sentences or paragraphs so they start with YOU instead.

Step 3: Offer Irresistible Benefits
It’s easy to assume people understand what’s so great about 40 amps, or 10 volts, or 60 mb, or bamboo fibers, or two meetings a month, or whatever features your product or service has. But we all know what happens when you assume anything. Besides, the last thing you want to do is force busy people to take extra time to think things through.

So for every feature you list, include a juicy benefit. The easiest way to find the benefits is to list every feature, then for each one ask yourself “So what?” and “Why would someone care?”. The answer is the benefit.

Step 4: Tell 'Em What to Do
“If you don’t tell someone what to do next, there’s no telling what they might do.”
Life is busy and full of interruptions. Even if someone is ready to buy, click or call, they might not know exactly what to do unless you include a super-obvious “call-to-action.”

Don’t be shy…write “To get X do Y” in bold. Then include contact info right there so they don’t go searching for it and get sidetracked. And make “buy now” buttons or Web links big and obvious.

Step 5: Write Like You Speak
Ask most entrepreneurs what they do and they’ll explain it in a way that’s passionate and riveting. Yet ask ‘em to write about it and you’re likely to get a dry, formal document that’s as exciting to read as a legal brief.

As advertising great David Ogilvy once said, “You can never bore someone into doing business with you.” So think of your copy as a conversation between you and one other person—the reader. And make it warm, friendly and interesting.

To discover if you’ve hit the mark, read your writing out loud. Or better yet have someone else read it to you. If it doesn’t sound conversational, it’s time for a rewrite.