Marketing efforts are most successful when both print and digital marketing activities are used to complement each other. When guiding customers to your mobile app or website, printed marketing materials can work great. Walking past a poster, picking up a flyer or receiving a business card are all effective ways of nudging them towards your website to make purchases.
But unfortunately, a lot of businesses won’t merge online and offline marketing simply because they don’t know how. If this is your company’s situation then look below for inspiration on how you can easily incorporate print into your digital marketing strategy:
When involving both online and offline marketing activities you need them to support and coincide each other for the best results.
There’s something about glossy catalogues that everybody takes pleasure in flicking through. The glossy texture, the bright photographs and the organised layout makes it easy to sit back and relax with. You can use this to your advantage to drive other digital campaigns. For example, including a QR code which directs to your app, promoting a social media competition or advertising online discount codes.
This is great because not only are you encouraging customers to opt-in for your service, but you’re pushing the customer along the buyer’s journey to convert.
At business events and exhibitions, prepare yourself with printed marketing material that will persuade your offline customers to visit your business online. As people walk by your stall, provide them with something captivating, completed with an encouraging CTA or incentive to participate in a digital campaign.
Leaflets are great for detailing information about your business and telling readers where to go to find out more. For example, you could provide leaflets on the variety of services your business provides and then direct them to your website for portfolio work, pricing, etc.
Posters are perfect for promoting exciting deals and competitions that people walking past can notice instantly. Make them vibrant and straight to the point so potential customers will remember to check out promotions after the event.
Adding QR codes and personalised URLs to your printed materials is a great way to monitor customer activity, to see who you’re attracting and where from. It may also give you insight into why they chose to scan your QR code if it was found on a leaflet covering a specific service of yours.
Overall, print still holds an important place in the marketing mix. According to research, 79% of consumers will immediately act on direct mail, whereas only 45% will with email. Targeted direct mail also generates a 4.4% response rate compared to email which only generates a 0.12% response rate. This shows that print marketing is still effective and often generates higher results than digital. But when you combine print and digital together your campaigns will become a lot more advance and produce greater results.
For more inspiration on how you can incorporate print materials into your digital marketing strategy visit our website for our full range of services.
At a large business conference, an exhibition or spectacular industry event, you need to be prepared for any opportunity with a strong brand representation and marketing strategy. Here the printed piece comes into its own, offering a way to make a striking and memorable impression on the spot. Booklets or brochures are excellent promotional printed devices as they effectively combine compelling imagery with sufficient room for information. Additionally, they’re portable pieces which can easily be carried and distributed in large quantities on the go. However many businesses fall into the trap of trying to play it safe with a plain design, or trying to squeeze on all the information they can. For a promotional booklet that truly engages, here are some top tips detailing some creative ideas to inspire your next project:
The foundations
If you’ve only ever opted for the standard formal booklet, perhaps it’s time for a shape up – literally. You can instantly add interest to your booklet by moving away from centre-bound pages; there are a variety of ways to make your booklet fold out. Tri-fold and accordion booklets can open out into a larger display, such as a poster which displays your brand’s message overall. Even the pages can be different shapes to best suit your business and offering.
When it comes to size, again anything goes, as long as it suits your promotional purpose. Although full-page or landscape sized booklets are great for a very visual approach or for displaying sample work, smaller may be better if you want to put across a concise point that’s simple for people to understand and connect with. Smaller booklets are also easier to hold onto and fit into a purse or pocket.
If you’re worried about a smaller booklet being forgotten, interesting shapes and materials will set it apart. Consider using a thicker weighted or textured paper, for a more tactile and relatable appeal. Recyclable paper is a good choice for showing your environmentally friendly credentials and steps away from a highly corporate feel. Additional touches, such as using sleeves to encase your booklets, will give your promotional device an added personal value as you have to remove it to gain access to what’s inside.
Presenting information that inspires
Cramming on too much information that will bore your audience doesn’t make for an inspiring promotional print. Keep it concise and powerful, using teaser headlines or snippets of information which make the reader want to know more – just remember to clearly display where they can find it.
Make your booklet topical or offer fresh and unique information that will be useful to prospective readers. Solving relevant problems in your booklet will ensure that readers hold onto it for future use, in order to build a trustful relationship and your own authority in your field.
Visual tools such as graphs will make the text easier to digest and allow you to convey important company information in a more engaging way. Your text doesn’t have to be uniform and there are a number of ways to make the text stand out as a visual aspect in itself.
Rewarding design
It doesn’t matter how engaging your content is, if your design is lacking your audience won’t want to pick up or read your booklet. Your design should hint to the content and work with it cohesively to reflect your brand’s message.
A simple design can work very effectively without being boring. Using printing techniques, such as embossing, foil or lamination, can add contrast, texture and a more unique feel. Good quality printing for your booklet is so important in visually representing to your target audience your professionalism and the quality of your brand overall. Ensure you have high quality images – large or full-page, full-colour images make for striking visuals placed next to key information.
Design can also add a fun element to your brochure and make readers want to interact with your promotional piece. Die cuts, or cut out shapes, can be used to reveal colour, parts of images or interesting bits of information that will make them want to open your booklet to find out the whole story. Whatever design elements you choose, ensure that each element works together to create a solid promotional piece that really drives your brand purpose.
Making it functional
Functionality is a critical consideration for a promotional booklet that will add value to your audience’s experience with your business and help them remember you long after your booklet has served its immediate purpose. Consider how you can extend the life of your booklet for your audience as opposed to it just being informational.
An increasingly popular trend is to create pop-up or multi-purpose booklet designs – they could fold to function as a box, open out to a map or something that’s 3D and interactive – how can you make this relevant to your offerings and create a lasting impression for your business?
Including small surprises such as free giveaway items can also add impact and value to your promotional booklet. It doesn’t have to be extravagant; simple items such as stickers, gift cards or vouchers will help spark interest in your products or services and encourage further action.
If you have a promotional project you’d like to bring to life, or for any high quality printing solutions for your business needs, we’d be happy to help. Please contact us on 0121 359 0783 or email info@russellprinters.co.uk.
You may have been thinking of ways to try and gain more business, or maybe you want to make your store stand out from the crowd. Window graphics are an innovative way to attract customers and impress clients. By investing in high quality window graphics, you can completely transform the look of your shop front – making it look fresh, modern and unique, which will certainly get heads turning.
Window graphics are a great advertising tool for your corporate business; a simple graphic can sum up your brand with an image or a few words. This is a really effective way of attracting customers. You should ensure that the images used are of a high quality. This will ensure that the graphics look professional, and it will show that you place a high importance on the aesthetics of your graphics and how they reflect on your brand. You should aim for quality, as this is is the impression you want to give in order to build your reputation – you wouldn’t want your brand to be recognised for shoddy window graphics.
Here are 3 top tips to help you use windows graphics effectively:
1. Choose The Right Font
The fonts should represent your business, and reflect your branding where possible. The font should be easy to read, and should not be too small – It has to be able to stand out. There are many fonts to choose from, but it’s important to choose something you like, and that you think others will like too.
2. Picking The Right Colours
Try to avoid picking anything overly bright and over powering, this could distract a customer as it could hurt their eyes. Use a colour that is noticeable yet not overpowering; this colour shouldn’t blend in with the rest of the shops surrounding yours. The colours often will reflect mood, for example, red is designed to increase the heart rate and create a sense of urgency, so you should put careful consideration into the connotations particular colours will give.
3. Short and Simple
Whilst you can be very creative with window graphics, it’s important to keep your main aim of using this tool in mind. You don’t want to distract your potential customer by including irrelevant information. You should include details that are to the point, straight forward and easy to understand. This way you will hook your customer’s interest and entice them into your shop.
How a Printing Company Can Help
Reputable printing companies can help you by offering a corporate print service. They will work with the designs you may have in mind for window graphics. They can also help by suggesting ideas, and use suitable large format printers to produce high quality images and copy for your window graphics. You should look at choosing a printer who has had experience in window graphics, so that you can be assured of a high quality service.
Russell Printers are a reputable printing company who have created window graphics for a variety of clients. For more information you can call Russell Printers on 0121 359 0783.
Business cards are an excellent cost-effective marketing tool, which you can use to advertise and promote your business to potential clients. Well-created business cards will have clear, concise details on them, and will reflect the image of the company really well. Logos, pictures and various graphics are often used in a high quality format, so that they appear clear and undistorted on the business card itself.
Business cards will often give a first impression to most people about you and your company, so it is important that they are well created, and aren’t too over the top, or too plain and boring.
There are a few common errors that some businesses make when they create cards – these are fundamental mistakes that should be avoided. Here are a list of the top 10:
1. The Wrong Spellings, and Wrong Details:
As silly as it may sound, this is a common mistake businesses make when creating cards. More than often, names are misspelt or the wrong details are entered. It is important to check the names, addresses and other relevant details are correct.
2. Poor Quality Card:
Compromising on cost for a cheap, and affordable card will often show in the card itself. Other people will be able to tell that it is cheap, because it will more than likely be flimsy and have a poor quality print on it. If you have chosen a cheaper option, that’s fine but ensure that the material being used is of a high quality.
3. Proof read what the printers send you:
If you are using a professional printing company, they usually send you a copy to proof read, to ensure that all the details are correct and so that the final design is what you want. It’s no use skimming over this step in the process, because when you come to pick them up and if you are unhappy, you may still have to pay for them. It’s always important to check the proof copy the printers send because you can always have amendments made at that stage.
4. High Quality Logos, Images and Graphics:
If you are including your company logo, or any picture or design you need to make sure that this is of a decent quality. Compromising on quality would mean that the image could be distorted or look as though it has been stretched. It won’t look professional if you use this on your cards.
5. Writing On Top Of The Business Card with a Biro:
Whether the name has changed, the company has changed or details in general have changed – it’s a real shame when a lovely business card is spoilt when somebody has used a regular pen to cross details out, or write their name at the top if it’s not been included. This appearance is unprofessional, and will spoil the overall look of the card. It would be better to get a set of new ones made, rather than write over the existing ones.
Business cards are an important feature as they promote your company, they should accurately represent your business and should be carefully considered in terms of what is put on them.
Russell Printers have experience in creating professional looking business cards for a range of clients. For more information you can visit russellprinters.co.uk/business-cards
There’s no denying that the growth of digital media has been phenomenal in recent years, with people using their laptops, tablets and smartphones to read the latest news, catch up with friends on social networks and connect with business colleagues. This has had a knock on effect on the print industry, for example; with people often turning to read the news on their mobile device as opposed to buying a newspaper. However, industry experts are not ruling out the future of the print industry, in fact, many are saying that the two industries can in fact complement each other.
A survey carried out back in 2012 by the Professional Publishers Association claims that 96% of people who owned a tablet had also read a printed newspaper during that year. Whilst websites can offer immediate, bite sized snippets of information to readers who may be limited on time, a traditional newspaper can offer a more in depth study into a particular story. Many people have a couple of different news apps on their smartphones, but will stay loyal to a brand when purchasing a printed newspaper.
The same report also found that 68% of people who read the digital version of a particular magazine would often go on to purchase the printed edition. Again, this may be due to the fact that for longer articles people still prefer to read a printed publication, and the draw of actual print is still popular.
Publication companies therefore need to ensure they offer the right balance to their target market – whilst there is undoubtedly a huge demand for instant information on specific news stories which people can read on the go, there is still a market for printed material too. The key is to use innovative technologies which work in conjunction with print, so that readers can get the best of both worlds.
It’s important to remember that digital and print marketing needn’t be in direct competition with each other. Instead, with a clever marketing strategy, both methods of communication can work together to provide the ultimate form of media for readers.
To find out more about the print service offered by Russell Printers, feel free to visit their website.
