You’ve made it past the initial elevator pitch. Your new customer is interested. You’ve scheduled a meeting. You might be tempted to create a big presentation that will take most of your allotted time.

Then your customer calls. Maybe their day just got a lot busier. Maybe the weather looks like it is going to take a turn and they need to be out the door earlier than expected. Maybe they simply needed to shorten your meeting. It’s time to create a presentation that will pack a lot of sales punch into a limited time frame—and Navitor is here to help! Here are our tips for creating a great presentation when time is tight.

1. Start With What You Know—What Challenge are You Solving?
Whether you’ve had a chance to talk with your customer about the challenges their business is facing or you only know a little bit about the market they do business in, focusing on what need you’re fulfilling is an important way to bring focus to your presentation. If the customer mentioned that they are rebranding, for example, take a moment to discuss how ordering updated stationery pieces can help establish that brand. If they are moving to a new location, talk to them about updating signage. And if you’re going in blind, consider using our vertical market kits as a guide for which print pieces might be a good fit for their market.

2. Get Visual
You know how they say that a picture is worth a thousand words? When you don’t have time for those thousand words, embracing visuals can be a great way to pack more information into the presentation. Wherever you can, use graphs to illustrate data or diagrams to illustrate concepts like bleed. Not only do these visuals help your prospective customers understand the information you’re giving them, but they do so at a glance. And if your customer wants a more detailed discussion of the data you’re sharing, consider having a printout of the full information on hand.

And speaking of visuals…

3. Use Samples to Reinforce Information
Samples can be a good way to show your customers what final printed pieces will look like, and having print pieces to look at can help reinforce the information you’re discussing in your presentation. They are especially important if you’re going into your presentation without having had much contact with your prospective customer—samples can give them a great idea of what you can do.

4. End With a Call to Action
Especially when time is tight, having a clear next step in place is key to keeping the conversation going. Whether you’re going to call them in a week to discuss their needs further or they are going to send you their designs for business cards so that you can place the order, make sure that you end the meeting with a clear next step.

How do you create a great presentation when time is tight? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.

There are a lot of ways to approach your marketing strategy. You can lean hard on online marketing. You can advertise on television, on the radio, in magazines or newspapers. But all of these methods can be expensive. So how can you market your business when your budget is tight? Here are some effective—and low-cost—marketing strategies that you can use to get the word out about your business.

Work on your Public Relations
If you can make the news, it can be a powerful way to promote your business without making a big impact on your budget. A news story can help raise your profile in the public eye, and a news story feels more authoritative than an advertisement.

How can you get started? Consider a press release. Even if you only distribute the release to local news outlets, a press release is a good way to spread the word about big news at your business. From new locations to new products, there are a lot of pieces of news that could help you connect to the press. And, if you’re looking to make a splash…

Give Back
Giving back to the community is a great way to create a positive reputation for your business and to make the news. Sponsoring an event like a cancer walk, having a collection jar for the local food shelf at your storefront, or even taking some time as a business to volunteer for a good cause can be a good way to give back and to generate goodwill with customers and prospects.

Use What You Already Have
One of the best ways to save money in your marketing strategy is by using what you already have—and you might have more than you think! When you creatively use your existing resources, you can build a strong foundation for your marketing strategy and make your budget even more effective.

If you have a storefront, you have many promotional possibilities before you. Your storefront’s windows are a place to showcase samples or banners to advertise special offers. Your door and windows are a great place to display your logo and store hours. The sidewalk out front is an opportunity for A-frame signs to bring in walk-in traffic.

Talk to Your Suppliers!
One important thing you already have is your suppliers. From free sales kits and samples to digital resources like catalogs and flyers, your supplier might already offer a variety of pieces you can use in your marketing strategy. Navitor does—and we create new flyers every month!

Use Your Budget for What’s Important
No matter what your budget, saving money by using the previous tips can give you more wiggle room in your budget for more expensive marketing options. For example, using supplier sales tools might allow you to invest the time and money you would have otherwise spent in designing your own flyers in advertisement in a local publication instead.

How do you save money on your marketing budget? We’d love to see your tips and tricks in the comments below.

Whether it’s icy roads or a sudden snowfall keeping people indoors, doing business with customers in the winter can be a real challenge. And, when you’re faced with inclement weather, it can be a challenge to market to your customers as well. Here are just a few marketing strategies that you can employ even if your customers—or you—can’t make it to your storefront in person.

“Start Early!”
If your customers order print for a business that has seasonal services, this is the time to remind them that their marketing should start early. For example, if you work with customers in the lawn care industry, they should be laying the groundwork for new customer relationships before the first blades of grass peek through the snow. Talking to these customers about the necessity of starting early is a good way to boost your business and theirs.

Step Up Your Social Media Game
We talked a lot about your social media strategy last month, and there’s a reason for that. Social media is a great way to reach out to more customers—and it works especially well when inclement weather limits your marketing options. Check out our posts on social media strategy and social media don’ts for more information.

Give Your Customers a Call
Your telephone is a great tool, too! If things have slowed down at your business due to the cold weather, consider giving a call to your top customers or to customers you haven’t heard from in some time.

Make Sure Your Emails are Polished
When your customers are snowed in, email might be the primary way that they reach out to you. Polishing up your email format will help ensure that your communications are a professional alternative to seeing your customers face to face. Consider updating your email signature to include your photo or company logo and using fonts that work well with your branding to add style to your everyday emails. You should also work to ensure that any promotional emails like newsletters look good, too—use photographs and be sure to show the best of what your business has to offer.

And speaking of digital promotions…

Online Options
One of the best ways to market to your customers is to give them a way to browse your product offering without having to brave the snow. One in-depth way to do this is to create a website that allows your customer to order online, but there are small ways to give them online options, too. PDFs of product flyers or customized digital catalogs can both be sent through email and ensure that information about your product offering is only a click away.

Want to get started on these simple online options? You’re in luck—Navitor offers free online flyers and digital catalogs. Visit Zoomcatalog to get started on personalizing your copy of the Navitor catalog or check out our free digital flyers for more information.

How do you promote your business when you’re snowed in? We’d love to see your winning winter marketing strategies in the comments below.