Find a niche and exploit it - etch effect films from Metamark

A signmaking business, or any other for that matter, would mark itself as unusual if sales growth were not on its agenda. Growth of course usually involves attracting more work and this key concern represents one of the biggest challenges which small businesses face.

Growth can come from many sources, some easier to get at than others, some attractive, some not so. One thing is for sure though, according to the materials company, Metamark, signmakers today are lacking neither the tools, nor the materials needed to exploit or develop the available opportunities.

An emerging application that produces novel window graphics is enabled by Metamark's etch effect films. These films can be cut and applied, just like coloured vinyl, and they produce a very convincing effect that looks like acid or abrasive-blasted etching when applied to glass surfaces. Metamark's etch effect films can also be printed and the effect this accomplishes is subtle, very attractive and fresh.

Promoting something fresh and novel is a much easier job than trying to muscle out someone supplying a more established product.

But how to do it?

Metamark says that it is a big advocate of print-based promotions these days. Metamark has a point. The days when the letterbox opened and a torrent of so-called junk mail poured in would appear to be behind us. Today, the focus is squarely on your in-box and if something physical turns up on the doorstep, it's more likely to be read.

A simple leaflet focussed on a single application, is well within the mean of most signmakers to produce, and its printing isn't expensive even in low volume.

Distributing the leaflet could involve little more than a stroll along the high street or a drive around local industrial estates.

Follow up action may be a little more involved and could be a telephone based activity or, better yet, managed in person. Ideally, a personal visit to discuss the possible provision of next-generation window graphics would be undertaken in the company of some samples produced for the very exercise.

Metamark says that it will happily send free-of-charge samples to any company requesting them for the production of promotional material. Metamark will also supply professionally written advertising copy for the same purpose, again free-of-charge upon request.

In pioneering the application of a novel medium, much of the effort applied is missionary- like. New markets don't just spring up out of the ground, they have to be tended and developed. It's not likely that target customers will have seen the type of printed window graphics described above before, and they may need convincing that it will work for them. The rewards though, can be impressive.

Selling printed etch effect graphics into an emerging market is best approached along lines that establishes the medium as representing an improvement on what's gone before. Etch effects are popular, and well understood. The application of print though, enables the basic effect to travel and it suddenly becomes suitable for wider application in venues where it enhances ambience in a unique way.

For more information please call 01483 571111 or visit www.metamark.co.uk