Print marketing is a tricky segment of the industry. It’s easy to do, but hard to do well — and even harder to do in a way that generates a good return on investment. But if you do get that balance right, print marketing can be one of the best business decisions you ever make. Here are five tips that can help you create better print marketing materials:
- Do Your Research First
All good marketing starts with research. Before you ever start looking at your commercial printing options or choose a print company (we’ll get to that below), you need to define your goals for the campaign and do some research on what appeals to your target market. That’s the only way to get a good return on investment for print marketing materials.
- Don’t Try to Do Too Much
Whether you’re working with a large format banner or a 3-by-5 postcard, it’s important that you don’t try to fit too many elements on the canvas. Figure out how to concisely convey in words and images the most important information: what makes your company special, what you can do for your customers, and what you want the people reading your ad to do next.
- Keep Things Fair and Legal
This should go without saying, but small businesses sometimes get sloppy when it comes to permissions. There’s nothing wrong with doing a little research on Google to snag good ideas from your competition or get inspired design-wise. But you need to make sure your content is original or you’ve obtained the proper legal permissions to use existing content.
- Give Copy Due Attention
Good design is an important part of marketing, but it should never come at the expense of good, clean copy. Copy should be carefully written and tested — not to mention proofread multiple times. There’s nothing worse than spotting a typo after a project has gone to the printers.
- Pay Enough for Quality
This is where choosing the right print company comes in. It’s likely that digital printing will be to your advantage cost-wise, if you’re creating customized or direct mail pieces, so that’s something to look out for. But your top priority absolutely must be quality. Both digital and offset printing can offer excellent quality, so you should ask to see samples of both from each company you’re considering. From there, you can balance quality and price as usual, using your target market’s preferences as a guide.
Do you have any tips on choosing a print company? Share your thoughts in the comments.
