January, 2016 | Killer Printing

Branding Your Business with Printed Marketing Materials

You have the company message, the colors, the fonts, the logo, the emotions and the target audience. The question is how to apply all of these things into a successful branded marketing campaign. Printed marketing materials are the backbone of any branding effort, because it’s the best way to put your company right in front of your ideal customers.

The following are a few tried-and-true ideas you can incorporate when branding your business with printed marketing materials:

Corporate identity package

The corporate identity package is first on our list because it’s often the first thing people think of when they think of branding. Corporate identity packages lack the luster of other branding efforts, but they offer massive repetition that is crucial to a successful campaign. A solid corporate identity package includes business cards, letterhead, envelopes, brochures and presentation folders. The beauty of the corporate identity package is that every single piece of correspondence you issue to customers carries your company’s image and reinforces your message.

Direct mail

Direct-mail campaigns place your message in the best place possible right in your customers hands. Direct mail can be anything from simple postcards and flyers to 80-page catalogs and multi-piece sales letter packages. Powerful branding that keeps your company on the top of customers minds can be achieved through direct-mail repetition; just because a prospect doesn’t respond to your first direct-mail piece doesn’t mean that that mailing won’t later act as a reinforces for subsequent mailings. In short, the more often you mail (without going overboard), greater potential for a good response rate exists for each subsequent mailing.

Press releases

Press releases should be printed on company letterhead and distributed to the media. Press releases are powerful branding tools, because, if your news is printed, you gain unbiased third-party validation and the potential to reach customers you didn’t know you could have.

Point-of-sale displays

Simple take-away POS displays such as a coupon book, brochure or even a menu can boost your branding efforts, because they are voluntarily picked up and taken home. Another way to use POS is to sponsor a charity via a retail outlet that asks customers for a small donation, which results in their names being placed on die-cut shapes and taped to the wall for all to see. All you have to do is provide the printed cutouts and add your company’s name and logo to a portion of it. Your brand will not only be prominent, it demonstrates that your company has compassion and goodwill, which can be a boon to attracting new business.

Stickers

Stickers offer the most fun branding opportunities, and perhaps the most creative. You can affix custom-made stickers to anything notebooks, car bumpers, restroom stalls, floors, walls, windows, mirrors, filing cabinets you name it, you can stick it! If you can come up with an appealing sticker design that customers will want to keep, all the better. Sometimes companies even hand out stickers to children at parades with a cute saying and their logo or company name beneath it.

Calendars

Want others to look at you every day, all year long? Distribute free calendars to your customers. This is one of the easiest and most effective branding strategies simply because calendars have intrinsic value people like to stay organized.

Banners

Event sponsorship through banners is a great way to get your image in front of hundreds or thousands of potential customers at one time. This could be a rock show, a festival, a sports event or any other event where your target audience gathers.

When developing a branded marketing campaign, it is imperative not to skimp on materials. This is true with all branded printing materials since your customers will equate the quality of your promotional pieces to the quality of your company. Make sure you use a printer such as Print Magic that offers the best paper grades, inks, finishes and state-of-the-art printing presses so your company leaves the very best impression.

Five Ways to Make Your Business Flyers Effective

Business flyers are some of the most important and most powerful marketing tools for many businesses. Business flyers are diverse: You can hang them anywhere from public locations to targeted niche gathering spots, send them direct mail, place them on windshields, distribute from counters, hand them out directly, pack them in sales letters, have them as trade show handouts, and more. But business flyer distribution is the easy part you have to make business flyers that command attention in order to get the most bang for the marketing buck.

Special sales

If your business flyers are promoting a special sale, you should make your sale discount figure big and bold so it can be seen and understood from afar. This will draw customers eyes to your discount (use dollar signs and percentage symbols), and use creative flair to couple your sales discount figure with your product offering. You might, for example, create a collage of your products inside it.

Odd images

An odd, humorous or out of place image is a great way to command attention for your business flyers. Think of ways to make your odd images relevant to both your customers and to your products and services. Not only will customers take notice of your business flyers, they’ll remember them and if your images are good enough, they’ll tell friends about them, doubling or tripling your business flyer’s reach.

Bright, bold contrast

One of the easiest techniques for commanding attention for your business flyers is to design them with bright, bold, contrasting colors. Yellow text on black, hot pink and fluorescent green, bright blue and orange all of these color combinations are bright, bold and contrasting. They can’t be missed by potential customers strolling down the sidewalk, sitting in a cafe or driving down the street.

Environment

Another great way to command attention for your business flyers is to create a design that works within your environment. You might, for example, design a flyer that looks like a window on a brick wall and place it, naturally, on a brick wall and have your company mascot hanging outside of it, announcing a special deal. You can also contrast with your surroundings, putting things where they should not be or casting a surreal glow to the world around your customers. Such unexpected business flyer designs will undoubtedly be noticed.

Five Direct Mailers Every Business Should Use

Every business needs to have both an online and a print advertising and marketing presence. But in this day and age of the Internet, some businesses fail to utilize all of the potential methods of direct mailers that’s so essential to business success.

Direct mailers are some of the most powerful marketing tools, and they have benefits online advertising can’t match. For one, they allow you to be one-on-one with customers without interruption. They are not intrusive. They also allow for better targeting based on demographics most online marketing mediums can’t touch. You can literally grow to be a multi-million dollar business on direct mailers alone, when you know how to take advantage of their power. The following five direct mailers should be used by all businesses.

1.Postcards

Perhaps the most versatile direct mailers available, postcards are also some of the most effective and cost-efficient. Postcards are incredibly cheap to develop, print and mail; and can be used in a variety of ways to generate interest for your products and services: as coupons, VIP passes, mini-newsletters, mini-catalogs, web promotions, discount notices and more. They can also be tracked via redemption coupons and codes.

2.Catalogs

Many top companies use direct-mail catalogs even though they have a strong web presence. These catalogs arrive in consumers homes as tangible, physical objects to browse and peruse at their leisure. There’s nothing like the feel of a hefty catalog filled with superb products with the descriptions and prices located next to each item. People still delight in flipping through the pages, and business will definitely increase via these mail-order sales and the online orders they spawn.

3.Newsletters

Every business should mail out a regular newsletter, usually on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, to keep all of their loyal and new customers informed of all of the latest updates and recent developments that are going on with the business. Your newsletter should have short articles and stories based around the benefits that the consumer can derive from continuing to patronize the particular business but it shouldn’t be a rolling advertisement. Provide customer value and highlight happy customers for maximum potency.

4.Response cards

Response cards are a great way to learn more about your customers and collect new names for your mailing list. Create a short survey and have customers return it with a discount coupon, or offer customers and a friend a great discount or other special incentive for filling out your response card. Collect names and contact information so you can keep sending targeted mailings to the first customer, a proven responder, and the second customer, a new name you can market to.

5.Sales letters

These direct mailers need to be mailed out on a mandatory basis to every consumer and potential consumer on your mailing list. They should make a direct statement of facts and helpful information as well as offer the consumer the chance to purchase something special from the company’s inventory. Sales letters allow your friendly personality shine through and therefore allow you to showcase the unique aspects of your business.

Poster or Banner?

Posters and banners let you bring your message to the people: At events, on the street, inside schools and offices – anywhere many people congregate or pass through. Knowing which is best suited for your advertising needs is critical to long-term success.

Different look, same goal

Posters and banners are not functionally different. They have the same purpose to spread your message and achieve a desired response. At a glance, they are not all that different in form, but the differing compositions of posters and banners have differing pros and cons. Posters are printed on paper and are therefore incredibly cost effective; however, posters don’t last long outdoors (unless in a case). Banners, on the other hand, are printed on vinyl and are much more durable outside but are more expensive to produce than posters. Banners can also be printed in much larger sizes, as well as hung from banner posts.

Thus, posters are the better choice when repetition is crucial because they can be massed produced and distributed everywhere on the cheap. Banners are a better choice when you need to be seen by an extra-large audience (such as at a concert), you’ll be hanging your promos outdoors in the elements (opt for mesh vinyl to reduce wind damage), or you’ll be using your banner repeatedly for many months (or even years), such as with traveling shows.

Try posters and banners

Printing posters and banners doesn’t have to come down to an either-or decision since using the pair in tandem can produce even better results. Banners can be used outdoors and at events, while posters can be placed in doors and other nooks and crannies that banners either would not fit or would not be appropriate. The overall branded effect of a multi-medium marketing campaign is well worth the effort.

Hang in there

Once you’ve decided whether to print vinyl banners, posters or both, make sure you print on high-quality materials for a professional presentation and durability. For posters, print on 100-pound text or cover, or 16-point gloss or recycled eco-friendly 13-point matte paper stocks. For vinyl banners, go with 13-ounce white vinyl or 9-ounce white mesh vinyl and have hems and grommets or pole pockets inserted for easy hanging.

Seek creative placement opportunities, which might be available cheaper than traditional venues (because no one’s ever asked) and have the advantage of helping your promos stand out even more, since they don’t belong. Your ability to stand out from all the noise and deliver a concise message with a compelling call to action will make all the difference, but you can’t even begin to reap the benefits of poster and banner marketing unless your poster and banner design and placement is getting the looks. Once you have that mastered, you’re primed for profit!