Never mind figuring out whether or not your marketing message is pushing the right buttons with your customers. Today, it’s tough enough just finding the time to develop those materials in the first place.
Then there’s the often times exorbitant costs associated with using an agency – should you choose to go that route.
When you’re dealing with something as important as promoting what it is you do everyday it is certainly not something that can be set-aside for when you have more time.
“It’s a big dilemma for many retailers today,” began George Lee, a long time, New York ad agency veteran. “And for so many of these guys professional-looking marketing materials let their customers know they really mean business. They can make small business look big when they’re done right and in eth imaging industry today telling your story in a way that will be compelling to consumers is vital.”
No one knows that to be true more so that the Photo Marketing Association and thanks to their new PMA Marketing Toolkit, which launched in October, marketing help is now just a mouse-click away.
Organized under the theme “Love. Live. Print. Give.” and designed to market photo books, photo greeting cards, and photo calendars, the Marketing Toolkit now contains several components developed by Forest Creative Group LLC (www. forestcreativegroup.com), Wixom, Mich.
Once members login into the PMA site they’ll find a series of 9 print ads, all 4-color, available in 8-by-10, half-page, and quarter-page sizes; 4-color, 24-by-36- inch posters; as well as envelope stuffers, ceiling danglers, shelf talkers, postcards, and web banners.
“This presents a major enhancement over what we’ve offered previously,” began Laura Covey, executive, Membership Sales and Services for PMA. “We’ve set this up to make it as easy as possible for retailers to run their business more successfully.”
Yet another component of the toolkit is newsletter templates developed by PMA with simplicity and ease-of-use in mind, and content – articles and pictures – provided by the New York Institute of Photography (www.nyip.com), the largest and oldest photography school in the world.
With regard to the aforementioned costs of the typical marketing campaign, PMA is presenting this opportunity as an affordable alternative, despite the fact it was actually created by a high profile ad agency.
The best part about the toolkit is the low price. “Having a campaign designed – and purchasing high-quality creative materials to support it – from an ad agency like Forest Creative Group would cost a typical company between $15,000 and $30,000,”
Covey says. “We are offering members the Marketing Toolkit as just one part of PMA+, a new, premium-level package of services from PMA – with several yet-to-be announced additional components – for only $600 per member year.”
To make that annual cost easier to handle, PMA members can pay $50 a month on a credit card. Those taking part in PMA+ after the new membership year began in October will receive a prorated price.
“We recognize one of the most valuable benefits we can provide our members with is time – time to spend growing their businesses, contributing to their communities, and enjoying their families,” Covey says. “The high-quality, yet affordable, products and services that will make up PMA+ are all designed with this need in mind. The easier we can make it for our members to run their businesses, the more time they’ll have to spend on the other very important things in their lives.”
To learn more about the PMA Marketing Toolkit, contact the membership department at membership@pmai.org.
