5 top tips for making the most of your print marketing materials

5 top tips for making the most of your print marketing materials

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5 top tips for making the most of your print marketing materials

It can be hard to believe in printed marketing materials. In an age where our phone pings every few seconds with a new email, or notification of the latest deals from our favourite brands. But having a combined marketing strategy that looks at both digital marketing and printed materials is the best way to reach as many of your customers as possible. Which is why we’re focusing this month on print. Traditional marketing methods, ‘offline marketing’, and how you can be making the most of your print marketing materials.

In this blog we’ll be looking at tops tips of making the most of your printed marketing materials. As it can be easy to overlook the differences of advertising to someone through digital methods than it is to someone through a brochure or letter.

 

Professional design

Though it may seem a sales pitch coming from a marketing company. Approaching a professional designer is possibly one of the best choices you can make when it comes to printed materials.

As we have spoken about in previous blogs, your brand’s credibility is made up in several ways. With one of them being what you give or send out to the general public. If it looks professional and polished, it is much more likely to attract customer’s attention for the right reasons. Rather than something that looks like you haven’t put in much effort.

Not to mention designer’s do this for a living, they’re good at it! Just as with your own services, that you know going for a professional is more cost effective in the long run. Than trying to attempt it in your own, and the same applies to the creative process. Invest in a good designer who understands what you are trying to achieve for your company. This will serve you a lot better in the long run, than rush designing some leaflets yourself.

 

Understanding print jargon

As with anything, it can be hard to know if you’re getting what you are asking for. Knowing if it is the best possible product if you don’t know the jargon. Now, any reputable designer will talk you through any terms you don’t understand, but that’s only if you ask.

It can be very easy to nod along to a designer who is telling you a certain stock is better. Or you should definitely choose a silk varnish because you don’t want to look silly for not knowing what it is.

If you don’t understand what your designer or printer is talking about, always ask. As it’s your finished product they are working on! However if you would like to build your own knowledge, there are plenty of jargon busters such as this one. Which will give you an idea of all the basic terms. So you can have some idea of what you are working with, and if that choice is what you want.

 

Your audience

This may seem an obvious point, but one that can be forgotten when it comes to offline marketing. Knowing your customer personas means you will be able to better advertise to them.

This can come down to simple observations. Like knowing that your main audience are of an older age group, and would respond really well to a personalised letter. Or that you do a lot of exhibitions where everyone is after a free pen.

Or it could be more focused on your product and how it may benefit a certain group of people. We mentioned in one of our 12 days of Christmas blogs, about ADT’s box campaign. Where they looked particularly at apartment blocks and buildings. With most people considering apartment blocks to be reasonably safe. With a number of locked doors to get through to eventually get to your apartment. They may not have been ADT’s normal customer base. However, using a clever spring-loaded box, they were able to approach a whole new demographic of people.

ADT used their spring loaded boxes (which could be folded flat) and pushed them under the apartment doors. Once pushed through the door, the box sprung to shape. With the message “breaking into your apartment is easier than you think” along with the company branding printed on the box. Giving the impression someone had been in the apartment to pop down the parcel, and no doubt scaring people into thinking about their security systems.

Printed materials can focus on customers ‘pain’ points just as much as digital marketing. You just need to have enough knowledge as to what your customers react to.

 

Time dependent offers

Unlike digital marketing, where you can set up email automation, or notification & reminders, or even place a pop up for when people are about to leave the page, you really need to get people to react quickly to your printed material.

Though your materials may stay pinned to their notice board, or on the paper pile, and may possibly be picked up at a later date. To be able to track your efforts effectively with printed materials means getting a quick turnaround.

This can be done through time dependent offers. So your potential customers have to react within a certain time period to gain the discount or offer. By the amount of people you have taking advantage of the offer within this time limit makes it a lot easier to assess how well people have reacted to an offer, and if you should have similar offers in the future.

 

Combining your efforts

As we said in our introduction, it is no longer a case of picking printed materials or just using digital methods to market your business any more. You have to allow fluid motions between the both. Which means making it easy from your printed campaigns to reach you online, and letting people know online they can gain printed materials if they wish.

If you are advertising a certain campaign through letters or leaflets, sending people back to a landing page not only allows you to feed those people through the sales funnel for that particular product or service, but also allows you to track your efforts, as you can see who has taken action from your material.

 

If you’re looking for help with your printed materials, or want to begin a combined marketing campaign but would like it all managed in one place, then why not give us a call? Based in Burntwood, Staffordshire, we can take care of all of your marketing needs in-house, meaning less running around for you. Contact us today for a friendly chat on how we may be able to work together. Or if you wish to read more about Print then why not check out our other blogs. 

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