Word of mouth advertising is one of the most influential tools to get customers in the door to your business, and when happy, to return. But why do businesses make such a big deal about something that naturally happens, or focus on it when there are other forms of advertising that are also effective? Let us have a quick overview…

Direct mailers and flyers are great. If you send out information to the correct audience it can move people to call with questions. Creating traffic is always a plus! The issue is that the creation and mailing of these sheets take time and money, which can often be tight for some businesses. On the other hand, someone mentioning the great price and quality product you provided could make their friend turn to you for their next project… Free marketing, and definitely effective!

Websites are fantastic tools all sorts of businesses can use, as I am sure everyone knows. Be it advertising, drawing in new clientele, research and learning about customers through polls… websites do it all. But websites, no matter how ideally constructed, always lack what I call the ‘human element’. Webmasters can post testimonials on their pages to try to compensate, but the problem is the potential customer is not hearing the positive news from their friend or relative. What carries more merit – two sentences from a stranger, or your friend of six years telling you that a company had excellent customer service, cared about your timeline and made the project happen beautifully? (Definitely the latter!)

Social media is a fantastic source to get your customers and other related businesses involved online! Many people now use Facebook and Twitter as main sources for advertising, posting their promotional offers and office updates online. Between the business to business interactions, customers that add you because they like your business and people that stop by just to check out a promo offer… well, let’s just say it is pretty nice! Plus, you get more of a friendly feeling due to your friends possibly liking the same thing, and you have contact information online, so you know you can pursue the company or item at a later date. However, Facebook and Twitter do not move as fast as someone enthusiastic about a product or service, and the audience you are targeting with these websites tends to be younger. If you were selling hand-made greeting cards your target audience would not be kids, teenagers, 20-somethings or adults from 60 up; you would target people in their 30s and 40s, that have families, appreciate hand-made items and are willing to pay a bit more for a product made in Canada or the United States vs. made in China. (Who knows though, customers come in all ages!) For both the previously mentioned websites another issue is text space for posts – you cannot always get your point across in 140 characters or less. Word of mouth advertising gives the customer the ability to share their experience with people they feel would be interested, thus making it more beneficial.

A happy customer will tell other people about how pleased they were, and suggest they check out your shop or website! … But never forget, the same goes if you failed a customer or provided them with a substandard product. Word of mouth moves at a good speed when positive; it moves at a racing pace when negative. Make the customer happy so their lives are easier! Remember all those times you were disappointed and frustrated with a business? Well, next time a customer has a serious problem listen and do what you can to correct the issue. Turn a negative into a positive, and show people that you care… You will be remembered in the best light possible, and for all the right reasons.

In celebration of BC Day and with the fall season fast approaching, Allegra Marketing & Print Solutions wants to help local restaurants with their seasonal menu changes. If you print your fall menus with us, we will print up to 50 table promos/menus ( 4″ x 6″) free. We want to see what BC has to offer!

If you would like to place an order with us, please e-mail us at or phone us at (604)681-5599. Order before October 1, 2011.

Allegra Marketing & Print Solutions would like to thank you for signing up for our monthly newsletter. Our newsletter features design, print and marketing tips, and articles that you will enjoy!

Thank You!

The Allegra Team

ORDER NOW and Get 10% OFF Discount Code: ALLEV

Custom Printed Christmas Cards in Vancouver. Printed on high-quality stock, these cards include space for your own customised text. Corporate Business Christmas Cards. Affordable, personalised corporate Christmas Cards, Greetings Cards, Season Greetings Cards and Holiday Cards, ready now to order from Allegra Print & Imaging for 2010 Xmas season. Custom Personalised Greetings Christmas Cards

Get 10% OFF with your Discount Code: ALLEV when you order online

Christmas Cards

A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks proceeding Christmas Day on December 25 by many people (including non-Christians) in Western society and in Asia. The traditional greeting inside a Christmas card often reads “wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”. There are innumerable variations on this greeting, many cards expressing more religious sentiment, or containing a poem, prayer or Biblical verse. >>Wiki<<

Christmas Greeting Cards

Pre-printed or Custom Christmas Cards personalised with your own Christmas message, from flat to folded, plain to foil stamped, one to full colour.

Personalized Christmas Cards for any occasion

Holiday party invitation, office Christmas party, holiday open house invitation, corporate holiday party, Christmas cocktail party invitation, holiday tea, holiday cocktail party invitation, holiday dinner party invitation, business holiday party, Christmas invitation, business Christmas party, holiday luncheon invitations, Christmas invites and more.

Vancouver Corporate Christmas Cards
Business Christmas Cards Vancouver

Foil-Accented Christmas Cards

These beautiful designs accented with gold, silver or red metallic foil can be personalized for Christmas Greeting Card, Corporate Holiday Party, Invitation or any other private or business event.

There are 6 major types of printing in Canada; these are Lithographic, Flexographic, Gravure, Letterpress, Screen and Digital. Though all are ultimately placing an ink or coating onto a surface, they are each unique in their technology.

Lithographic printing is a technique that relies on the fact that oil and water don’t mix to control ink application. A blanket, which is a sheet used on the printing press to carry the image, is prepared by creating an area that will accept oil-based ink. During printing the blanket is coated with a fountain solution, which is primarily water based and does not adhere to the image areas, and oil based inks, which adhere to the image area and are repelled by the fountain solution. Lithographic printing is often an offset process which means that the first roller will transfer the image to a second roller which will in turn transfer to the printed surface. Lithographic printing is commonly used for high quality jobs such as magazines, catalogues and art reproduction.

Flexographic printing uses a flexible printing plate with a raised image to place ink onto a substrate. Traditionally flexographic printing has used high-solvent, fast evaporating inks. This makes flexographic printing ideal for printing on non-porous substrates such as plastic bags and food packaging. Flexographic printing is often used in the manufacture of labels, food wrappers, plastic bags and cardboard packaging.

Gravure printing uses an image that is recessed into the printing plate with indentations which pick up the ink and apply it to the substrate. Gravure printing plates, or cylinders, consist of a steel roller coated in copper (which is etched) and then chrome plated. Like flexographic printing, gravure printing traditionally uses inks that have high solvent content. Due to the expensive and durable nature of gravure cylinders the process is most often used for long run printing jobs, such as printing wallpaper and magazines.

Letterpress printing is very similar to flexographic with the primary difference being that the printing plate in letterpress is rigid. Letterpress was once the most common form of printing but its popularity has declined due to its slow speed, relative to the other printing processes. Letterpress printing is now often used in the printing of books, business cards and brochures.

Screen printing is the most versatile of the printing processes in that it is capable of placing ink on almost any surface imaginable, from paper to masonry. Screen printing uses a “screen” with an image overlaid to control the amount and location of ink applied to the surface. Because of screen printing’s inherent flexibility it is used to produce a diverse set of products such as clothing, billboards and art books.

Digital printing occurs on non-impact, primarily electrostatic, printers. Digital printing encompasses everything from photocopying to printing on a home printer. The high quality and speeds that digital printing is starting to achieve are allowing it to supplant small lithographic presses for some work.