The top disk is a regular matt disc. The lower left is a high quality gloss watershield CD, followed by the new silver printable CD.

The photo doesn’t accurately show the difference between them so I recommend viewing them before printing.

We also have a new precut CD case stock available.

Double sided full colour CD cases production is now available on pre-perforated and creased stock. We print them for you, punch them out and assemble them. It’s as easy as that.

This is an excellent way to create high quality CD’s and DVD’s in a very short space of time, for runs of any size (even 1 if you need it).

So think about this the next time you’re sending data, audio or video out. Do you want to personalise the case so that it’s targeted directly to your market? Do you want to create a gift for friends and family?

How often do you look at a business card that someone gives you? The answer, suggests Rob Brown, author of How to Build Your Reputation and speaker on business networking, is four times at most. When they give it to you; when you return from where you met them and look at it (and others that you may have collected); when you decide to file it, scan it or bin it, and when you want to use it or pass it onto someone.

These days, with electronic media connecting us more and more, do we need business cards at all? LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all allow the exchange of information and contact details without the use of anything as antiquated as small pieces of card overprinted with ink.

But face-to-face meetings are what build trust — and trust, as the Nobel prize-winner Oliver Williamson has written, lowers transaction costs. Put another way, if you trust someone, you are more likely to do business with them. So meeting people is important. After you have met them, what remains? Your business card. Which, if it is only viewed four times, has to be as powerful as possible.

As Andy Green, the author of Effective Personal Communications, says: “Your business card is a vital part of your brand armoury. It has to do both an instant job in telling your new potential life-changing encounter about you, how you can make a difference, and ideally any future aspirations — and also be a legacy item, to live on without you, weeks, months and even years after the encounter.”

So what are the rules to follow if you want a successful business card — one that will convey your message and turn into a useful source of business? Opinions vary but the following sum up both the wisdom and experience of the experts.

1. Clarity of purpose

What do you want people to do with your card? The managing director of Dolce Vita, the online luxury magazine, does not have his telephone number on his card — just the website address, www.dolcemag.com. Why? Because he doesn’t want people calling him, he wants them to log on instead. Most importantly, make it clear what you do. “Your business card is often all people have left after meeting you. If it doesn’t scream out call me’ or refer me’ then why did you have it printed in the first place?” says Rob Brown.

 2. Use a photo

I shudder at this, not least because I hate photos of myself on anything and cannot imagine a time when I would agree to put them on my business card. Indeed, I confess that I would almost go as far as saying that it showed a distinct lack of class to do so. But Brown and Green are united in their support of this idea.
“You have your photo on your website,” says Brown, “so why not on your business cards?” Green goes further. “I also like the creative use of an ID photo on your card. Don’t be boring — one of my favourite examples, Paul Kerfoot of Bulletpoint Design, has half of his face on one side and the other half on the reverse side of the card.” If you are going to embrace this idea, get a decent photo.

3. Be Different

“Recall of you and your business is easier with more memorable hooks’ and images,” says Brown. “A good friend in business consultancy writes out all his cards personally on various high-quality pieces of card. Every card is therefore unique and memorable.”
Here, I heartily agree — I will always remember meeting William Whitehorn, now president of Virgin Galactic, back in the days when he ran all the PR for the Branson empire. Prominently on the card he gave me was the statement “white with one sugar”, which I take it is how he likes his tea or coffee. It made a big impression on me, and was clearly designed to break the ice.
Several years later, when I had bought my own company and we were redesigning our brand, I asked for all our cards to have something very personal on them that could also start a conversation. Now, each member of our team has a black-and-white professionally shot photograph on the reverse — no, not of themselves, but of an activity or object that they are very associated with. They vary from feet clad in ballet shoes, for a former dancer, to a set of football lights for someone who is passionate about the sport.
This illustrates another important maxim, namely to use the other side of the card. Green describes cards that stand out as “sticky” — “not literally, but make it memorable, so the impression you make sticks well beyond your encounter. I have a hole punched in my card (an idea suggested by my then 13-year-old daughter). The number of times I have had people subsequently say to me: I remember you. You’re the guy with the hole in his business card’.” One tip from me, though, is not to make it different by making it much larger than standard size — a pain in the neck to file.

4. Always, always carry your business cards…

Have some in your car, your handbag, your wallet, your briefcase, your pocket and a box of them on your desk to refill everything regularly. Never run out. I attend many black-tie events and hate carrying a bag, and so at one stage had a floor-length velvet evening gown made with a pocket under the hem the exact size of business cards to keep them in. “Always carry your card,” says Green. “You can have a networking encounter at the supermarket, picking up the children, in the unlikeliest of places.”
Your business card, says Brown, is a crucial tool in your business toolbox. “Like a great CV, a solid handshake, a compelling elevator speech and a nice suit, it helps to form a great impression of you that makes people want to call you, connect with you and engage you.”
And that from a man who is on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Business cards are not redundant. In a world full of information, they are more important than ever.

Use of Paper

• According to new research, digital media is no substitute for traditional printed media.
• Most adults reported that they feel more comfortable when they have something on paper than when it’s on screen, suggesting that we make an instinctive association between things we can touch and feel and things that are ‘real’.
• Nearly two out of three (64 percent) workers prefer ink on paper to a computer screen when it comes to reading.
• You can exchange a dozen emails in the time it takes to find a stamp for your snail mail, but a handwritten birthday card in your mailbox somehow means more than an identically worded email in your inbox.

Environmental

• Two in three U.S. adults (67 percent) agree that they care more about saving money than "being green".
• BUT only 11 percent of employed adults report that their company is less likely to choose "green" products if it means spending more money.
• For many small businesses, outsourced printing is a cost-efficient way to be green.

Outsourcing Print

• In addition to investing in print hardware that rarely operates at capacity, otherwise cost-conscious businesses regularly find themselves paying more than they have to for ink, paper, and other consumables
• The cost of maintaining extensive in-house print capacity is compounded by gratuitous usage.
• Because printing out-of-house bears a more obvious – albeit lower – cost, it is rare to find people using a print shop unnecessarily.

The full article can be read here http://members.whattheythink.com/news/index.cfm?id=40687

Have a look at how marketing has dramatically changed over the last few years, and how a well planned direct marketing campaign can produce extremely good responses, profit and return on investment!

Let your clients know you love them, ask them how they have they’re coffee and spring one of these on them!

For a bit more fun add in a PURL (personalised web address) to visit your website.

Design templates available from Dean dean@cq.co.nz

These reward programmes have to be done right. In an excellent article by Geoffrey De Weaver "… consumers do not mind sharing information with retailers as long as they receive worthwhile, personalised benefits…  54% of Australian consumers have at least one reward or loyalty card, and 69% tried to use a loyalty card as often as possible. Importantly, both figures are trending north…  Never lose sight of the top 20% of your customers who generate the majority of your sales and profits…"

But for the retailer, the hidden beauty of loyalty programs is their ability to better track things at purchase time. Without this or similar mechanism in place, few companies can track individual purchases back to customers.

A major income boost for targeted marketing campaigns

It’s not just about getting people back to the store and buying. It’s about getting these best customers to buy more products, more often. This data is used to alert the right customers, at the right time, about the right offer. This makes it more relevant and therefore obtain a far higher response, often 10x higher.

Imagine having an attractive offer arrive in your letterbox (normal or email), based precisely upon your current buying preferences, desires or on your birthday? Loyalty programs collect just this type of data, yet to date, are too seldom used by retailers or brands here in NZ. Yet it’s been common practice in Europe, UK and the US for several years…

Imagine too if this detailed consumer buying data was available in a smart company CRM system like Salesforce? And what if it’s then used to drive a personalised [semi-automated] cross-channel marketing programme? i.e. Many more sales, for much less effort and overhead cost.

Predicting buyer needs through data mining isn’t new (click here). But loyalty programme data, linked into one-to-one marketing system takes things to the next level. We can now talk directly to the individual, not just the broader demographic, ensuring much higher response rates and ROI.

It’s already started Downunder

Myer, a major retail chain in Australia has decided to slash it’s traditional mass advertising budget, instead sending targeted direct mailers to their 2.7 million Myer One card holders – It’s a smart move which should pay huge dividends.

Once the Myer One database was analysed, it was likely a simple financially-driven decision – One that should save them millions in old fashioned TV and Newsprint advertising, as well as boost their sales volumes and margins.

As Rafi Albo proved many times, a good loyalty program is the hidden key to effective, highly relevant one-to-one communication – When done well it hits that emotional mark, driving sales results way beyond expectations.

Step Up Marketing
In looking at cutting expenses, frequently one of the first cuts is in marketing. This can be a critical mistake.

Control the External Message
One way to make sure that you are in control of the message is to stay in front of the customer both through marketing avenues and personal one-on-one visits.

While others are cutting back on client visits, communication, advertising, and public relations, you can use communication avenues as a differentiating tool.

As one State of the Industry participant put it: “…we are taking every opportunity to make sure the company is perceived as progressive, financially stable, and completely reliable.”

Below are some of our thoughts regarding what proactive businesses need to do to survive and even prosper in today’s business climate.

- Stay in front of your target audience with relevant communications. It’s absolutely critical to build and maintain top-of-mind awareness, as well as position your brand. Look for articles on the Web that have value to your clients and prospects and pass them along. There are also companies such as mine that will create that content for you.

- Use expertly targeted communications like direct mail. Targeted communications to your best, existing clients, with relevent offers always has a high response and sales conversion rate – Sometime 100 times more than traditional, non-targeted campaigns, with means amazing ROIs.

- Go Cross-Channel for results. Email great and is low in cost, but delivery and response rates can be poor. Direct mail has superb delivery rates and good response. However the best, most effective marketing campaigns use parallel, identical messages via both media channels, averaging 15-25% higher sales than any single-media campaign.

- Ramp up their sales and marketing activities in response business conditions. Communicate with your audience at least every 60 days (preferably monthly) to ensure that your message doesn’t get drowned out.

- Some companies will begin to cut back on their efforts. Take advantage of this. Overtake these companies in the minds of your target audience.

- Take the paddlewheel approach. People need to hear your message repeatedly. Pass on large, one-time expenditures and opt for repetition instead.