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10 Hot Marketing Tips For Your Business

Wondering how you can improve your marketing? Here are some tips.

  1. Update your website regularly. Keep current information online. Your visitors will keep coming back if your homepage is always fresh and new. (If your site is hosted by Imaging Specialists, image and text updates up to an hour per month are included in our standard hosting plan.)
  2. Take advantage of all marketing options available such as your web site, email, mailings, newspaper and magazine advertisements, brochures, and flyers.
  3. Advertise in the newspaper, radio, and on your local television station. Broadcasters can help generate your ad or you might consider calling ISI for help. Just supply your information and we’ll put it together in the correct file configuration each outlet requires. Great, professional advertising- just the way you want to be represented.
  4. Keep the same message, logo, and look in all your marketing materials and paperwork, from advertising and brochures, to invoices and receipts. Changing your look in different places could possibly confuse your customers.
  5. Invest in indoor and outdoor signage. It’s seen every time a potential customer passes by or comes into your business. Make sure it fits your location and your company’s image.
  6. Develop flyers and brochures. They can be used to promote “sales” or other promotional events your business or organization is hosting. They can be an inexpensive way to quickly get your message “out there.” Contact the Chamber of Commerce to learn where brochure racks are around town and the region.
  7. Join community organizations, such as the Lions, Rotary or the Chamber of Commerce. Club meetings, service projects and the Chamber’s “Business After Hours” are good opportunities for networking and the local Chamber is often the first place new residents look for local services.
  8. List your web site and contact information on all materials you hand out. Help your customers get in touch with you. Additionally, consider making your policies and forms available online as downloadable pdfs. You’ll be able to update them in one place and everyone will be able to access the latest versions. It will also cut down on your printing costs – they download and print the forms, themselves. (Don’t forget to add your contact info on each pdf, also.)
  9. Follow trends that affect your market. You love the field you’re in- that’s why you do it! You already know more about your products and services than anyone else. Take time to become the most knowledgeable in your field and people will rely on getting their information from you.
  10. Sponsor local television and radio events. Your name and message will reach potential clients in the region and WCOK Radio and Alleghany Community Television offer reasonable rates and the advertising revenue stays in our area.
  11. BONUS TIP
    Contact other websites and ask them to link to yours. Are you in an industry organization? Find out if they have a directory that you can list with. Links increase your visibility to search engines and, of course, to your potential customers.

Contact Imaging Specialists for help with these (and your own) ideas to promote your business.

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Vinyl Signs, Banners, and Decals – NEW from ISI

Imaging Specialists is now offering custom cut vinyl for signs and banners. We can generate durable yard signs, parade banners, window vinyl, vehicle decals and even removable interior wall decor. We will design your sign to your specifications including your own fonts, colors, logo- whatever your need, Imaging Specialists is your graphics department!

Original Design and Final Parade Banner

 

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Imaging Specialists Receives Honors in Morehead City

The North Carolina Society of Historians awarded the Garland P. Stout Publisher’s Award to Imaging Specialists on Saturday, October 10 at their annual banquet held this year at The History Place in Morehead City.

In a complete surprise, Imaging Specialists also received the President’s Award for the array of historical projects we’ve generated this year, mainly, for the Sesquicentennial. The President’s award is only given to one (unknowing) recipient each year by the NC Society of Historians and we were proud to accept it.

Along with these, we received awards for the Alleghany Historical-Genealogical Society web site, ahgs.com, the Alleghany County Sesquicentennial Committee web site, the Alleghany Map jigsaw puzzle, the Aerial photos puzzle, the Sesquicentennial Schedule of Events brochure, and the Alleghany Star Vol. 1, No. 1 reprint in the Paul Green Multimedia Award.

LtoR: Claire, Sharon & Jeff Halsey – Imaging Specialists, Elizabeth Sherrill – NCSH President, Ernest & Agnes Joines- Alleghany Jubilee and Betty & Ken Richardson – Alleghany County Commissioner.

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Mountain Girl Press books at The Sparta Store

The Sparta Store has carried Mountain Girl Press books for a while now.

Mountain Girl Press was formed to publish fiction that celebrates the wit, humor, and strength of Appalachian women. Their stories explore the relationships between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends, and the way they interact with each other.

Recently, Mountain Girl Press and publisher Tammy Robinson Smith, was featured in the Bristol Herald Courier‘s lifestyle insert, It’s all about HER:

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Why pay for web hosting?

Free! That’s a word that everybody loves to hear. And when you get something you need for free, it’s even better. But, you know what they say about something that sounds too good to be true. You might find that free hosting brings unexpected costs.

Your website needs to be “hosted” to be online. Without hosting, your site is just a collection of files on a disk. A hosting company places your files on a web server so that they are accessible to the public.

So what’s wrong with using a free hosting company?

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