If your reading this article, chances are your surfing the net. You and millions of other people, from your same town,from your same country, from your same continent and all over the globe. Now with all these readers how did you come to read my article. I own a printing and promotional product business in Montreal, Canada. Chances are you've never been to Canada and if so chances are you've never been to Montreal. So how did you get here.

Did I invest thousand of dollars for an SEO (search engine optimization) company to use tricks to push my company to the first page of Google, Did I use pay per click to drive traffic to my site or did I use some trick to send thousand of emails to unsollicted email addreses to get you to come to read my article? The answer is no, no and no. These techniques while sometimes effective for the short term, are not the answer to your problem. If you want traffic to your site you need to brand your site. If someone is driven to your site unwillingly, chances are they will have a negative opinion of your company.

Maybe it's me, but I believe in making a good first impression. The first thing with your website, store front or business proposal, is you must decide on what image you want to project. If your able to attract the right client, your window to sell them is limited. Your pitch must be concise, direct to their needs and worth their while. Today nobody has lots of discretionary time. Be direct, tell them what you or your product is about. Next you must explain how your wonderful product can benefit them. Again be concise and precise. Vagueness or generalities tend to lose prospects. Finally, why should they buy this product or service from you and not your competitor and why Now!

Remember plan your campaign thoroughly. Make sure everything looks nice, works and is ready to impress. If it's not, there's a 95% chance you'll never get a second chance. Ask someone who has had many

Now how do I go about branding my company or site without blowing my budget. The cheapest and most effective referals come from word of mouth. Get out there. Mingle and schmooze it up. Go to local meetings, PTA meetings, charity events, sports leagues and talk up your site or business. Next advertise. Investigate who your potential market is and see where they get their information from. Local newspapers, daily papers, t.v., radio, internet, or billboards. Reinforce your company with free give aways. They don't have to be big, they don't have to be expensive. What they need to be is clever, effective and useful for the end user. Today almost every item can be branded with your name. Be careful though when you brand your item not to "overbrand". Your name should be visible but not to visible that the person will never use the product. There's something to be said for being discreet. Once you've invested in advertising look at the administartion side of your business. Be consistent with your logo from your business cards, to your invoices, to your envelopes, to your sales literature. All these items are a reflection of your company. people tend to forget to brand their company to their existing clients. This is one of the most important groups who you need to brand to. You want to keep these customers, and have them thinking only about your comapny, when they think of your product.

I have over 20 years experience helping Fortune 500 companies, medium and large size comapnies with their marketing and branding. Between our printing division and our promotional product division, we should have you covered. If you need more help, give me a call at 514-337-2238 or visit us on the web at www.solutionsink4u.com

Steven Schneidman

Steven Schneidman owns a successful printing and promotional product company. He started off teaching finance at a Canadian University and working at the head office of the secong largest bank in Canada. Solutions Ink works to help all size comapnies grow and prosper.

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