Whether you’re feeling stuck in a rut with your marketing efforts or you want to reach out to a new audience, sometimes you need to shake things up with your marketing efforts! If you’re looking to make a change, here are a few tips for shaking things up with your marketing strategy.

Shake Things Up on Social Media
Because it moves quickly and changes just as quickly, the social media world can be a great way to shake things up with your marketing strategy. First and foremost, if you don’t have an online presence for your business you should definitely create social media pages as a new way to connect with customers. Once you’ve created these pages, it’s time to get started!

If your marketing is a highly polished and conservative affair, consider using social media to show a more casual, more human face to your business. Depending on your customer base, you might also want to show off the visual flair of the print you provide by sharing photographs on social media. This gives you a chance to show a different side of your business and possibly appeal to a whole new market.

Experiment With Seasonal Marketing
With the holidays coming up, you might want to think about how you can create seasonal marketing for your business. Not only is embracing the holiday season a great way to shake up your marketing and give you the chance to try something new, it is also a great way to experiment with new things without dedicating your marketing strategy to them long term.

Talk to Your Customers
Are you looking for a lower-risk opportunity for change? Talk to your existing customers about what they love about your business and what they wish they had known when they first started to do business with you. You might find that you aren’t highlighting the best that you have to offer and have the opportunity to change your marketing for the better.

Reach Out to Find New Ideas
This isn’t just one way to shake up your marketing—it’s opening the door to potentially endless ways! By reading books or blogs and following social media accounts written by people outside your specific industry you might find inspiring new ideas. As print professionals, you have a lot of choices—read a book on marketing strategies from a professional marketer, read blog posts about the markets that you work with most often, or follow small business owners to learn about a variety of new topics.

How do you shake up your marketing efforts? We would love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

When you talk to your customers, sometimes you need to decode what they’re asking for. Whether it’s a technical term that they aren’t familiar with or navigating their desire to be polite, talking to your customers can be like a lot like translating. Here are a few of the things you might hear your customers say—and what they really mean.

(And, remember, we love our customers, and we know you appreciate your customers, too. This is only for fun.)

1. What Customers Say: “I definitely need [product].”
What Customers Mean: “I’m pretty sure I need this product because I’ve used it in a similar situation before and I’m not ready to change.”

2. What Customers Say: “I want people to know that this is our brand.”
What Customers Mean: “Make the logo big.”

3. What Customers Say: “Could you make that logo a little bigger?”
What Customers Mean: “Could you make that logo a lot bigger?”

4. What Customers Say: “It’s a shame that you have to work on holidays/weekends.”
What Customers Mean: “This is probably a pain for you, but I’m really glad that you’re open because it’s the only day that I have to place this order.

5. What Customers Say: “Can you make it pop?”
What Customers Mean: “Make it shiny and colorful. Maybe add more detail. No, more colorful.”

6. What Customers Say: “I’m on a tight budget.”
What Customers Mean: “My wish list is much bigger than my budget. I’m probably going to look at your pricing quote and ask if you can adjust the pricing a bit.”

7. What Customers Say: “I like it, but…”
What Customers Mean: “I don’t actually like it at all, but I’m trying to be polite.”
What Customers Might Also Mean: “I’m realizing now that the more expensive thing you showed me before would have made me happier.”

8. What Customers Say: “I don’t have a budget in mind!”
What Customers Mean: “I’ve definitely got a budget in mind, but I haven’t put a number on it just yet.”

9. What Customers Say: “I’ll know what I want when I see it.”
What Customers Mean: “I don’t know what I want, and chances are I’ll want to see every sample you have before I know what I want.”

10. What Customers Say: “What’s the turn time on that?”
What Customers Mean: “I should have placed this order a few weeks ago, but time got away from me and now I need to get it fast.”

11. What Customers Say: “Let’s change it back to how it was before.”
What Customers Mean: “I know I had a lot of requests, but I’m starting to realize that they didn’t get this to look like I wanted it to and it’s easier not to change.”

Have you heard these customer comments? Are there others that you’ve had to decode? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

You’ve missed a call. Maybe you stepped out of the office for a moment, or maybe you were out of town for a few days. You might have even received a call over the weekend when your business wasn’t open. Whatever the reason, you’ve got a voicemail, and one of these characters might be waiting for you! Have you met these characters on your voicemail?

The Lost Information
This person may be nervous, or they simply might be forgetful. Either way, you’re missing some important information on their call. The Lost Information often forgets the information you need to get back to them: their full name, their phone number, their order number, and even the question they called to ask in the first place! While caller ID can help, chances are you’ll need to return their call—or even do some research and guesswork to figure out whether they’re an existing customer—before you can actually help them with their request.

And you might have also met The Lost Information’s twin…

The Double-Caller
Unlike The Lost Information, you don’t have to track down the information this caller forgot—that’s what their second message is for! The Double-Caller can be very helpful because they fill in the additional information you missed in the first message. However, it’s a good idea to take notes while listening to their messages because the important details might be split between the two messages.

The Mumbler
You’re going to need to listen to this message a few times! The Mumbler doesn’t speak quite loud enough into their phone, but without a person on the other end of the line they didn’t have a chance to adjust their volume while leaving their message. As a result, you might have to listen again to catch what they are saying.

The Speedy Speaker
Like the mumbler, you’re going to need to listen to this message more than once to make sure you’ve caught anything. When you’re dealing with a Speedy Speaker, they might be perfectly clear, but they speak so quickly that you may only catch part of the important information when you listen the first time. The Speedy Speaker might also surprise you by leaving a message at normal speed but rattling off their contact information so quickly that you can barely catch it. Either way, get ready to listen a few times.

The Unintended Visitor
This person didn’t intend to leave a message—in fact, they didn’t even intend to call! The Unintended Visitor dialed you accidentally, and their voicemail message reflects it. You might hear muted conversation, clothing rustling around the pocket the phone was in, or vehicle noise. The good news, though, is that you don’t need to worry about returning this call.

The Distracted Dialer
This character in your voicemail is doing their best to leave a great message, but something keeps getting in the way. Someone might be talking to them while they try to leave the message, or they might be talking in a busy area. Whatever the reason, the Distracted Dialer is just that—distracted. As a result, like the Lost Information, some important details might be missing.

The Final Word
We all want The Final Word in our voicemail! Their messages are short, sweet, and to the point. They include all the information you need to get back to them about their question. Their messages aren’t just great to receive: they also allow you to return the call quickly and get back to your day.

Have you met these characters in your voicemail? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.