Whether it’s business cards, advertising leaflets, stickers, or otherwise, if it’s printable marketing material, it needs to possess certain characteristics in order to be effective.
The question, though, is what should printable marketing materials possess stylistically? There are a number of things to include, and we’re going to discuss them in this blog post. Here are five important print marketing tips for businesses!
1. Utilize QR Codes
These days, QR codes are growing more popular in marketing. These are printed codes that can be quickly scanned by smartphones. Upon scanning them, additional material pops up on the phone, thus leading the phone’s user into the digital world.
This is effective for two primary reasons. Not only does it expose the viewer of your printed materials to even more of your company’s published resources, but it also puts them in a position to purchase things online.
So, by passing out a leaflet to someone, for example, you could essentially be making another sale, and maybe even obtain a long-time customer.
That’s a great deal of power for small, printed marketing material, but it’s a reality in the digital age. So, be sure to take full advantage of it.
2. Make the Header Catchy
In most cases, the first thing that a person reads on a business card or leaflet is the header. After all, this is the biggest piece of print on the card. It only stands to reason that it will be the first thing seen.
What this means, of course, is that the header has to be catchy or interesting in some way. First impressions are everything, and if the viewer’s first impression of the card is some boring and bland header, they’re probably just going to stop looking at it entirely.
There are a few ways to go about making catchy headers on marketing materials. One option is to ask a question. For instance, if you’re a chiropractor, you might consider using a question like “Back pain making your life miserable?”
Anybody dealing with bad back pain is instantly going to be attracted to this header. As such, they’re likely going to read the rest of the content that’s printed on the material.
Another option is to write a joke. However, you’d better make sure it’s actually funny. Otherwise, the printed material has the potential to fail spectacularly.
Statistics can attract attention as well. So too can descriptive words. For more information on the matter, read this.
3. Convey the Essence of Your Brand
Every business needs a brand. A brand is essentially a company’s identity. It represents what the company is and what it stands for.
There are several components of a brand, the primary of which are a logo, a colour scheme, and a catchphrase. For instance, McDonald’s has the Golden Arches logo, the yellow, white, and red colour scheme, and the “I’m Lovin’ It” catchphrase.
Your company needs something similar to this, and it needs to be represented on all of your printed marketing materials. You can certainly attempt to establish a brand on your own. However, you might have more luck working with an established marketing agency.
4. Use Calls to Action
Another marketing strategy for printed materials is to use calls to action. Calls to action are phrases that inform the reader of what you want them to do. For instance, if you want the reader to call you, you should use a call to action like “Call us now at [your company’s phone number]!”.
These should be used fairly prominently on all printed marketing materials. They should also be fairly large in print, as you do want them to be as noticeable as possible.
You might even consider using a different colour in order to highlight your calls to action. For instance, if most of the text on the material is white, you might want the call to action to be black instead.
5. Utilize High-Quality Images
Odds are, your printed materials will have some type of image on them. This image could be a logo, a picture of your building, a picture of your employees, or otherwise. Regardless, it needs to be of high quality.
The last thing you want is to have a blurry and grainy image on your marketing materials. This will instantly reduce your business’ credibility with potential customers and will likely keep people from reading your marketing materials fully.
In fact, it might be a good idea to have these images taken professionally. That way, there’s no doubt as to whether they’re clear and professional.
6. Limit the Use of Fonts
When creating printed materials for marketing purposes, you’re going to have to choose fonts. First of all, make sure the fonts you use are easy to read. If they’re not, readers will instantly be turned off and will likely just stop reading the material entirely.
Second of all, limit the use of fonts. Generally speaking, you shouldn’t use any more than two fonts per material. Using any more than this is not only confusing but also looks unprofessional.
You might consider using one font for header sections and another font for paragraphs. Or, you could use the same fonts for both the headers and paragraph sections, and then use another font for, say, summary sections.
The choice is up to you. However, regardless of what you do, you need to keep those fonts to a minimum.
Need Assistance With Your Print Marketing Efforts?
Are you looking to print any marketing materials? Need assistance with your print marketing efforts? If so, we here at Hippoprint are the people to see.
We offer a wide variety of printed materials, including everything from leaflets to stickers to business cards to calendars to banners and more. We also offer complete customisation capabilities.
So, whether you need urgent stickers, fast leaflets, or just fast printing in general, give us a call. Or, you can contact us now by email!