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Santa’s Little Helpers Unleashed: Creating Cheerful Company Christmas Cards with Canva

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and what better way to sprinkle some holiday cheer into the workplace than by creating company Christmas cards that are not only festive but also pretty fun?

In this blog post, we’re diving into the whimsical world of Canva, sharing some little nuggets of inspiration and tips on how to craft the most memorable Christmas cards for your colleagues and clients. 

Whether you’re aiming for a classic or a more modern approach, Canva’s wide range of templates and design tools will surely help you unleash your creativity and spread some laughter this holiday season. So grab a cup of hot cocoa, put on your Santa hat, and let’s get started on making the most unforgettable company Christmas cards yet!

Step 1: Rally the Team’s Christmas Spirit

Call upon your crew to unleash their inner holiday spirit! Whether they’re donning ugly sweaters, tinsel tiaras, or even elf ears, encourage them to embrace the festive madness and capture it all in a group photo.

But what If your team isn’t local, or maybe everyone is too busy to gather for a group photo, don’t worry! You can create a virtual group photo! Simply upload individual photos of your team members–we’ll show you in the next steps how to arrange and edit them in a festive layout to capture the spirit of togetherness, even from afar. This is a great way for busy teams to still feel connected and celebrate the holiday season together!

Step 2: Canva Wonderland

Enter the magical world of Canva, where the Christmas design possibilities are as vast as Santa’s toy workshop. Before we can get to the actual editing, you’ll need to choose a template, or background, that really —whether it’s a classic design or a more modern twist—and get ready to sprinkle some digital fairy dust. Consider your audience and your company’s style when selecting the backdrop for your creation.

Step 3: Elfie Upload Extravaganza

Now, it’s time to really showcase your team’s holiday spirit! Upload that group photo or the individual elfies—I mean, selfies—right into Canva and start arranging them like the cast of a Hallmark holiday rom-com. Canva’s drag-and-drop feature makes this as easy as sliding down a snow-covered hill.

But wait, how do we make the images really pop? Let’s get rid of the office background with Canva’s photo editing tools. Use the background remover and add some fun filters or overlays to give the images that extra touch of holiday magic. With Canva’s editing tools, you can transform your boring photos into a digital masterpiece that will make your card recipients really feel the holiday cheer!

Step 4: Jingle All the Way with Festive Elements

With Canva’s extensive collection of festive elements, you can take your holiday card to the next level. Whether it’s adding a touch of sparkle with twinkling lights or bringing in a line of some playful snowmen, the possibilities are endless. And of course, don’t forget to include Santa hats and elf ears for that extra dose of holiday cheer! Get ready to spread joy to all with your personalized masterpiece.

Simply select an element, drag and drop it onto your card, and resize or rotate it to fit your desired look. You can also customize the color, opacity, and position of each element to create a truly unique design. With Canva’s easy-to-use interface, you’ll have a blast experimenting with different combinations and creating a holiday card that stands out from the rest. So go ahead, have fun, and let your imagination run wild as you bring your holiday greetings to life!

Step 5: Jolly Jokes and Yuletidy Text

What’s a Christmas card without a dash of humor? Whether you’re aiming for a laugh-out-loud moment or a subtle chuckle, Canva’s text tools offer endless possibilities for adding humor to your holiday card. From playful fonts to creative text effects, you can easily transform your words into comedic masterpieces that will leave your recipients in stitches. So go ahead and craft a message that really sleighs—I mean, slays!

Not your style, or do you need something more professional? Canva’s text tools also offer a wide range of elegant and sophisticated fonts, allowing you to create a more professional and polished holiday card. You can find the perfect typography to convey your warm wishes in a classy and refined manner.

It really is a gingersnap to get your company’s holiday greeting cards customized quickly. So go ahead and let your creativity shine, whether it’s through humor or professionalism; Canva has got you covered!

Boosting Your House Painting Business Revenue: Four Proven Ways to Improve Google Ads Results

Are you a house painting business owner who wants to save money on Google Ads and get more customers? 

We’ve got four simple tips to help you do just that. 

In this blog post, we’ll show you how to make Google Ads work better for your painting business, and it’s not as hard as you might think.

Tip 1 - Make a Special Page For Your Google Ads (Your Landing Page)

To get better results with Google Ads, you need a special page on your website, called a landing page, just for the people who click on your ads. This page should make it easy for them to contact you. 

Be sure that you include your phone number in the upper-right hand side and have a form that they can fill out.  You may also want to consider having a way to directly schedule the appointment, like a calendar or a chat function for the people that cannot wait to get started.

Don’t worry about making it show up on Google.  It doesn’t have to be optimized for SEO (search engine optimization) because you are sending paid traffic to it. 

Instead, make it all about getting people to contact you or leave the page. 

This simple change can make a big difference.

Tip 2 – Make Sure That Your Ads and Page Match (Ad Congruity)

If your ad talks about a specific service or benefit, make sure the page it leads to talks about the same thing. If your ad is about painting a room, the page should be too. If it’s about fixing a ceiling, the page should be all about that. This way, people won’t get confused, and more of them will contact you.

You will also want to use similar fonts, colors and images.

This technique is called “ad congruity” and it helps potential clients make the connection from your ad to your landing page in their mind.  The more they can look alike, the better. 

If your website hasn’t been updated in a while, this article will help!

Tip 3 - Focus on What People Want (Focus on the Client’s What’s In It For Me?)

Instead of talking about what you do, focus on what people want. 

People who need painting services want their homes to look great. So, tell them how your painting services will make their homes look amazing. Talk about the results and benefits they’ll get. This will get more people interested in what you offer.

People always want to know, “What’s in it for me?”

So, answer them in a way that will elevate their status, but will highlight what you can do.  It’s a win-win for everyone.

Tip 4 - Show You're Trustworthy

People like to see that others have been happy with your services. In fact, 46% of consumers feel that online business reviews are as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends or family according to BrightLocal.

Add reviews from past customers to your landing page. These can be written reviews and even short videos where your happy customers talk about their experience. You can even use widgets to embed the latest reviews from Google into your Website if you are using WordPress.

By making it easy to see what people are saying, it helps people trust you and decide to contact you.

Sometimes, people don’t leave reviews because they don’t know what to write.  To make it easy to leave a review, send your client some variation of the following email:

“Mrs. Smith – 

We hope that you found our service to be extraordinary.  If that is the case, we would love for you to leave us a review.

To help you get started (and avoid writer’s block), we have found that the most impactful reviews answer these questions:

  • What work did we do for you and where are you located?
  • Was it done well?
  • Why did you pick our company?
  • What was the best thing about working with our company?
  • Would you recommend us to family and friends?

Please click here and it will take you directly to our Google Review Page: [Link]

Thank you for choosing us and we really appreciate you taking the time to leave a review.” 

We recommend asking for a review after your final walkthrough, which is when your client should be the happiest.

By asking these questions, you help guide them to use the words and phrases that will make your reviews relevant to most searchers looking for companies like yours. In addition, they will leave reviews that look non-spammy and well thought out.

Where To Go From Here

Improving your Google Ads results is doable, even if you’re running a house painting business by yourself. 

By following these simple steps, you can save money on advertising and get more customers. Just make a special landing page, match your ads to it, focus on what people want, and show that you’re trustworthy. These changes can help your business grow. 

If you need more help, feel free to reach out to IFTS. Good luck with your house painting business!

Unlocking Success for House Painters – The Economics of Client Acquisition

Have your PPC ad costs gone up over the past year?

We have seen the rising costs of Google ads prompting many painting companies to reduce their advertising spending. However, this shift can be detrimental, potentially allowing competitors to
dominate the market.

Why?

Because whoever is willing and able to spend the most money to acquire a client will ultimately come out on top.

This concept, emphasized by marketing strategist Dan Kennedy, highlights the importance of structuring the economics of your business to support a robust client acquisition strategy.

In this article, we will explore the key numbers that drive your business’s profitability, delve into the concept of cost to acquire a client (CTA) versus average client value (ACV), and discuss how house painters can increase their ACV to gain a competitive advantage in client acquisition.

Understanding the Numbers – CTA vs ACV

Two crucial figures play a significant role in your business’s success: the cost to acquire a client (CTA) and the average client value (ACV). The wider the gap between these two values, the higher your profit margin. 

In this economy, it’s essential to shift your focus away from reducing CTA. Instead you should concentrate on increasing the amount of money you make from each client.

For example, let’s say the average exterior house painting job in your area is valued at $5,000. A decent return on marketing ad spend is 5:1.

In this scenario, if your ACV to CTA ratio is 5 to 1 or better, you can afford to spend $1,000 on acquiring a client. 

However, what if you could elevate your average client value to $10,000?

This improved ratio would allow you to spend $2,000 to acquire a client.

The Power of Economics – Beat Your Competition Every Time

By strategically structuring your company’s economics, you can afford to spend more money to acquire clients and outshine your competitors. 

Let’s again consider the scenario where your average revenue per client is $10,000, while your competitor’s average revenue is $5,000. With an increased ACV, you can allocate $2,000 towards client acquisition, whereas your competitor can only invest $1,000. 

This substantial investment disparity positions you to win clients consistently, as you have the financial capability to outspend your competitors.

Continuously Evaluating Your House Painting Business Model

To maintain a winning edge, it’s crucial to continuously evaluate and enhance your business model. 

Ask yourself, “What else can we do to increase the average value we make from a client, enabling us to spend more on client acquisition?” 

This question will drive innovation and identify additional opportunities to upsell or cross-sell to existing clients, increasing their lifetime value.

Converting Traffic and Building Loyalty

In the realm of online marketing, there are three types of traffic: 

  • traffic you control, 
  • traffic you don’t control, 
  • and traffic you own. 

The ultimate goal is to convert the traffic you control and the traffic you don’t control into traffic you own. 

Traffic you own refers to having access to essential user data, such as email addresses and phone numbers, which allows for direct communication and relationship-building. Once you have traffic you own, you gain greater control over converting prospects into clients. 

Explore opportunities to expand your services or offer maintenance plans, such as treating a deck annually after building and painting it. Additionally, leverage your existing client base to upsell complementary services or offer discounts on additional projects, creating a cycle of repeat business.

Some examples of this might be:

If you did the exterior painting for someone, maybe you could give them a deal on the interior, or, maybe you could sell them a power washing package to help the paint last longer.

If you did a complete kitchen makeover, you could then sell them interior painting of all of the rooms around the kitchen to make the whole level look new.

Offer a design package on top of painting to help your clients get a “Designer look”.

Start Raising your ACV Today

By understanding and optimizing the economics of client acquisition, house painters can position themselves for success in an increasingly competitive market. By focusing on increasing average client value, rather than solely reducing costs, painters can afford to invest more in client acquisition, outspending competitors and securing a larger market share. 

Continually evaluating and enhancing the business model, along with converting traffic into loyal customers, further solidifies long-term success. Embrace these strategies, unlock your business’s potential, and watch your painting business thrive.

Need help implementing any of the ideas discussed in the article?  Let IFTS help!

Call 412.715.6266 or send an email to si@iftsdesign.com to get started.