When it comes to print design, you have more than one option open to you. There are many ways to brand your company and do it on a small budget.

Here are 10 print design products and how you can make them work for your business:

1. Business Cards - The essential tool for any business.
   
2. Brochure - Two-fold, tri-fold, or custom-fold, a brochure can be distributed from your countertop, through the mail, or by handing them out at the local mall.
3. Calendar - Everyone needs a calendar. Give them away as marketing freebies and they'll think about you all year.
4. Greeting Cards - Send them out to your customers on birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmas. Custom designed just for your business.
5. Invitations - Like greeting cards, send them on special occasions. Get them custom designed just for your business.
6. Letterhead - No matter who you correspond with, you can do it in style with your own company letterhead.
7. Magnets - When your prospects look at their refrigerator doors, they'll see you. Your phone number will be in a handy location.
8. Mouse Pad - When your prospects and customers use their computer, they'll see you and your business right at their fingertips.
   
9. Outdoor signs - Whether you need a business storefront sign or a billboard, signage communicates your brand, your values, your business.
10. Poster - Hang it on your business walls or give to your customers to hang on theirs.
    

In our last blog post we talked a little bit about the ROI of web design. I'd like to elaborate on that a little bit in today's post.

Again, we'll compare a brochure with a website. If you print out 1,000 brochures at a fixed cost of $500, your unit per cost is $2.00. A single brochure that earns you more than that can be said to have earned you a positive ROI, but you know that you are not going to make money on every single brochure. Most recipients are going to toss it away.

Industry standard is a 1%-2% response rate. Let's say you experience a low response rate of only 1%. That's 10 people who call you based on receiving your direct mail brochure. Now let's say you close 50% of those sales and an average sale for your business is $200. You've earned yourself $1,000, or a 100% ROI on your investment. That's not bad.

The difficulty in judging the effectiveness of print marketing is that sometimes you don't realize a sale for a long time. If you send out your brochures today, what is a reasonable time period for receiving a response from that brochure? 3 months? 6 months? 1 year? It really depends on your business.

How Web Design ROI Is Different

Judging web design ROI is different. As mentioned two days ago, your website has an unlimited distribution. That means you can't put a "per unit" cost on it. Not per se.

If that website cost you $500 to produce and you get 1,000 visits per month to that site every month for 10 years, you can break down your "per unit" cost for the time period, but that doesn't really help you in terms of determining the overall ROI of your website. In truth, you can't get a realistic number the same way you can with a print brochure.

It is best to judge your ROI for web design in terms of time increments. For instance, we'll look at traffic numbers for one month. If you got 1,000 visitors to your site this month and your site has been active for 10 months, divide the cost of your site ($500) by the number of months it has been active (10). Your cost per month is $50. Now, you could try to figure the cost per visitor for this month, but don't bother. Instead, count your conversions.

A conversion is the number of people who bought something. Let's say you sold something to 1% of your site visitors (that's 10 sales). If your average sale is $200, then you've earned $1,000 for your business this month. Is that your ROI?

In a word, no. Your ROI is the total return you've received over and above your total expense. You spent $500. Anything over and above that is your ROI. If you earn $1,000 per month on your website every month for its life, then your ROI is that total minus the $500 you spent. Remember, you're looking at the total life of your website. Your "per unit" cost is likely going to be so small you can't measure it.

You've heard you need a website to maintain a competitive stance in today's business climate. That much is true, but you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to have a Web presence. For most small businesses - especially in Adams County, Pennsylvania - you can have a decent website at a reasonable price.

It is important, however, to learn how to judge ROI. Return On Investment.

If you are advertiser, then you already know how to measure ROI on your current advertising. You run a newspaper ad, then you see what kind of response you get. If you close a sale and your profits exceed your expenses, there's your ROI. Do you measure your ROI the same way for a website?

Yes. Actually, you do. But there is one more detail that factors into ROI. Even for traditional marketing. If you print 1,000 brochures, for instance, at a total cost of $500 (let's use round numbers for the sake of clarity), then after you have distributed those 1,000 brochures you should have realized an ROI of more than $500 in order to have made that investment worth your while. Brochures have a limited distribution.

And there is the heart of the matter. Websites have an unlimited distribution. In other words, once you build your website, it's there for good. Forever. Unless you take it down.

Assuming the same cost factor ($500) on an unlimited distribution run, your online brochure doesn't need to make you $500 within a reasonable time frame in order to be profitable. It needs to earn back that $500 over the course of its lifetime.

I'm not saying a website does, or should, cost you $500. You can get one for less. But if you consider the lifetime ROI for your website design, if it costs you twice that much and you get one or two customers a year, then your website will pay for itself in no time.

Facebook has turned out to be a phenomenon of sorts. With an incredible size of 300+ million active users, Facebook is one of the epicentres of social networking. You probably know that and already have a Facebook profile to keep in touch with friends and family. What about your business, then? Have you tried your hand at Facebook yet to boost up your business? If you own a small business or are planning to start one soon, a Facebook Page is the perfect springboard to make your business known to the abounding millions. How to go about it? Keep reading!

A Facebook Page is fundamentally different from your Facebook Profile. Your business needs a fan page that tells the audience about the company, its latest ventures, web and contact info, blog posts, Twitter updates, press releases, and much more. The major advantage of such a page is that you already have a huge audience base ready; you just have to post something that attracts them. Additionally, it’s possible for even a novice to maintain their Facebook page, whereas a personal webpage requires a bit of expertise. Crawford Designs can establish your facebook business page, and show you how to easily update it.

Remember that Google Search gives a lot of respect to Facebook profiles and business pages; so the more details that are entered for your business, the better. We won’t forget to include company logos, RSS blog feeds and relevant multimedia.

Promote your page. Create a list of profiles or business connections that might benefit from your company and send them invites to join you. Remember that they are looking for benefits from the association; so tell them what exactly is in there for them. We also spread the word about your Facebook Page (with the link) on Twitter, your blogs, through email notifications, business cards, and so on.

Make it interesting. None likes business all the time; post crazy stuff and lure the Facebook audience into reaching out to you. Post polls such as “How can we improve?” or “What’s your favorite?” Let them know that you want to keep it fresh and exciting.

Keep evolving. Your Facebook fans need their dose of the new and the amazing from you every now and then to retain their interest in you. Dedicate a few hours of your busy schedule in updating your page. Trust us; it’ll pay you rich dividends. Contact us today and we'll show you how to get your business page started!