6 Types of Print that Help Drive Small Businesses Bottom Line

Whether you are the owner of a small business, a realtor, or a photographer, print marketing is key to helping grow your brand awareness and bring in new customers.

For instance, you can read about a great restaurant online, but you don’t really know if it is good or not until you smell and taste the food. Seeing their menu on a website and actually tasting it are two very different things. One is simply visual via your computer or phone and the other is a physical experience. Print media is more like eating the food. It is physical. It is closer to the actual experience than just reading about it. It forces customers to physically connect with your brand.

Good print marketing registers and sticks out in the memory of your customers. That memory helps them bond with your brand. Even though digital marketing continues to grow, marketers often overlook the cost effectiveness and impact that print marketing can have on people. If your company’s goal is to improve its digital presence, print marketing can help you accomplish just that. It’s inexpensive and now you can easily track your ROI on flyers, stickers, posters, or any type of media your business wants to distribute by using QR codes or simple questions on landing and contact pages.

Below are a few ideas of how you can use print to raise brand awareness, increase customer loyalty, and create trust with your customers.

1. Stickers

“What can a sticker do for my business” you ask? Stickers can get you elected. Stickers can make sure your clients know where to re-order from when they get to the bottom of the box. Stickers raise your brand awareness, and best of all they are inexpensive! Give them away at events. Send them out with your invoices and receipts. Apply them to carry-out boxes as safety seals. If you have a great design, these stickers help expose your brand to a much larger audience. Loyal customers will display them on their cars, laptops, water bottles, toolboxes, and wherever else they see fit. Think of the old Apple stickers and all the places you used to see them when they were still included in the box with your new device. You might not be Apple, but loyal customers love you and your brand. Help them share that love with a sticker!

2. Flyers

Flyers are great for any event or promotion you have. Just like stickers, they are simple and affordable. Once you tailor your message, you just have to determine where you want to distribute them. Maybe it’s at a convention. Perhaps a trade group meeting. A community event. The beauty of flyers is that once you figure out where you want to hand them out, you have a large, yet specific, targeted group. Flyers don’t have to be focused on selling. They can also be an effective way to bond with a specific group of customers and grow your brand awareness as well as your brand story. You know we love a good story at Infantile Industries!  We would love to help you share yours!

3. Posters

Posters are another great cost-effective tool in your marketing kit. A well-designed poster is a great way to promote your company. Great posters allow you to share your message in a large format with anyone who walks by. While posters are still great for getting people to events like concerts and events, don’t pigeonhole them to just that application. You can use them for many different messages like: Coming Soon, Now Open, Curbside Delivery, We Are Moving. The list goes on and on.

Companies also use them to transform space and connect with potential customers for increased brand awareness. Step up your design, and people may even want to collect them! Speaking of collecting, did you see how NASA used posters to connect with the public regarding the exploration of Mars with this set of posters? This free promotion drove a good deal of traffic to their website and garnered them a lot of media publicity. A marketing plan well executed!

4. Letterhead and Custom Printed Envelopes

If you are in business, you need letterhead. It doesn’t have to be stuffy.  Your design can be professional or fun. It is yet another way to share your brand personality with the world. Using letterhead on any outgoing correspondence is a wonderfully inexpensive way of showing customers that you want their business. A custom, well-designed envelope and letterhead reminds customers of how to reach you and how important their business is to you, and if you are lucky, may even make them smile as they pick up the phone to reach out to you or your business.

5. Business Cards

Business 101: in order to grow your business, you need business cards.  You, as well as every employee that meets with customers or vendors representing your business should have business cards. They are so simple (but don’t have to be) and inexpensive yet are often overlooked. Your employees represent your brand. A business card helps them connect and feel important as a brand ambassador no matter what their role. You know you remember the first time you got your own business cards. You can spread that feeling while building your brand: share your contact info, bring in new business, and help employees network all with a simple little piece of printed paper stock. You know what else?  People don’t throw business cards away. They keep them for future reference. With business cards, your brands message lives on indefinitely.  Be sure you and your employees always have them on hand to pass out!

6. Last but Not Least – Direct Mail

As discussed above, we know that print marketing and promotions are the best and most cost-effective ways to bring new and old customers into your business. But did you also know that print marketing and promotions also drive customers to your digital storefront? The folks at Casper did and utilized direct mail (emails don’t get the same attention as physical mail) to drive consumers to their website to learn about and purchase their mattresses. Who would have thought a simple postcard could help turn the mattress world upside down and help them grow to a $750 million firm in just four years?! Casper and all other marketers, we are here for you!  Call us today to strategize about your next market disrupting project!