12 Productive Things to do at a Red Light

1. Take a deep breath- it's good for your health and relieves stress
2. Check your mileage- it’s important that you get your oil changed on time, it will help your gas mileage and helps your car live longer/stronger
3. Brainstorm- work those brain muscles, it might not be the next Facebook, but it could be
4. Dust off your dashboard- a clean organized environment will relieve stress
5. Sit up striaght and flex your stomach muscles- give your abs a little workout
6. Change your radio settings- spice up your drive-time with some oldies or something you haven’t listened to in a long time, have fun and get your heart rate up
7. Plan dinner- whether it is tonight’s dinner or tomorrow’s by planning ahead you will begin to crave what your having, leading up to a more meaningful meal
8. Quickly check yourself out- who knows what the wind has done to your hair, give yourself a second glance just to be sure your ready for anything/anyone
9. Laugh at yourself- have the courage to laugh off a stupid mistake you made and get a kick out of it
10. Text someone something important- no time to return a call, let them know with a simple text or send a quick hello, how are you to someone you haven’t talked to in a while
11. Clear your head- take a moment for yourself, no worries, no work, no rush -its not like worrying about the red light will make it change any faster
12. Think of a list of things people may be interested in reading- later expand on the list and blog about it

Thank Our Troops

Xerox has set up a website and program that allows us to say thanks to our troops through greeting cards!
http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1024.html

The site allows you to choose from numerous designs, drawn by children, and several pre-written messages or you can write your own message. It only takes 2 minutes and I promise you will enjoy doing it!

We are proud to be a Premier Partner with Xerox.

SNL & Mailing

Saturday Night Live takes a stab at the mailing business!

Although we find the mailing industry interesting, most people aren’t as enthused by it. However, Kristen Wiig can make almost anything funny and amusing to SNL viewers. If you watched SNL this past weekend and you happened to catch this clip we hope that you were as amused as we were, but if you missed it you have got to view it now! We’ve been in the mailing business for over 25 years, and if the best way to deliver your message were on horseback we would be doing it.

(I wonder if we did a spoof of this video for marketing purposes if it could attract any attention? Hmmmmmm, please comment!!!)

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/digital-short-pony-express/866402/

Decreasing Marketing Budget

There seems to be a theme among businesses in a downturn, obviously reducing costs, but in particular the marketing budget seems to be the first budget to get slashed. Coming from a huge fan of marketing that hurts my feelings and aggravates me! It takes seconds to google why you shouldn't cut your marketing budget, but I thought I'd bring it to your attention in case you haven't googled it yet.

CUTTING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET WILL HURT YOU MORE THAN IT WILL HELP YOU!

• Numerous studies have shown that cutting back on marketing efforts and budgets during an economic downturn will not only hurt sales now, but will also in the future.
• If your marketing is standing still right now, it defeats the purpose of your past marketing efforts.
• Losing customers now, could mean they are gone permanently. In the past during a downturn, customers that switch their brand loyalty tend not switch back and when they do come back it is very costly to you.
• Your competitors have also cut back on their marketing budgets, so why not take advantage and gain that potential market share?
• Studies during the 1981-1982 recession show that firms maintaining or increasing their advertising experienced an average sales growth of 275% over the preceding five years.

Check out these links for more fun facts and opinions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yE_RvhH9XY&feature=related
http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingtipsandadvice/a/mrktrecession.htm
http://luxuryexperience.com/publishers_notes/publishers_monthly_notes/is_it_time_to_cut_the_marketing_budget?.html
http://brandandmarket.com/when-do-you-cut-your-marketing-budget/

About us and what we wish to accomplish by blogging

Hello! We are Creative Marketing Solutions, we specialize in direct mail, digital printing, and fulfillment. We are very excited to announce that we are beginning to blog. Through this blog we hope not only to become more in touch with current and potential clients, but to also offer insight into our industry. Any advice you may have regarding blogging, business, or life in general is very welcome. If there is ever anything you would like us to help you with or us to blog about please let us know! We apologize if this blog is to businessy for you, right now we are in the learning phase (again advice is welcome). Learn more about us at http://www.creativecms.com/

Did you know that there are 146 million addresses in the U.S, 1.8 million new addresses every year, and 41 million move every year?