The Best Printed Marketing Materials for your Business

Over the past twenty years there has been a huge shift in marketing, from a reliance on printed materials (like flyers, brochures and posters) to online materials (like websites, banner ads, emails and social media). With all trends definitely pointing in the direction of digital, you might wonder if it's even worth having printed marketing materials for your business.

The answer is yes. It's important not to neglect the power of the web when it comes to marketing, but there are certain benefits you can only enjoy through printed materials.

For instance, printed materials can be kept. How effective is an e-newsletter that gets read once and then deleted compared to a postcard that gets posted on the fridge?

You also have the opportunity to be more creative with your printed collateral. While the Internet offers many interesting features, it is ultimately a visual experience that has to follow certain formats to be successful. With printed material, you can experiment with all sorts of materials and layouts to totally customize the viewer's experience.

So the answer, when it comes to print vs. digital marketing is... use both. With strong branding, you should be able to create strong print and digital campaigns that complement each other and benefit your business.

As mentioned above, you have lots of options when it comes to printed collateral. You can print on paper, plastic, cloth, wood, metal, cardboard... You can print cards, envelopes, personalised note pads, t-shirts, golf balls... You can make it big or small...

The right choice depends on your business and your goals for the collateral. Are you a fun, youthful company just looking to get your name out there? Think about printing up some custom frisbees. Do you have a trade show or conference coming up and want something appropriate to distribute? Look for presentation folder printers to customize the folders you'll stick your brochures in.

The sky is really the limit here, and it's important that you and your team consider your branding as well as what you hope to achieve. However, if you want a few good standbys for any situation, custom pens and stick notepads are can't-miss items. (HINT: items that are useful in their own right are most likely to be kept!)

Of course, the details of what you materials will look like depends on your business and what you hope to achieve with your collateral. But there are a few simple rules of thumb to follow:

Only use 2-3 fonts. One for titles, one for subtitles and one for text. Any more will overwhelm the eyes. This goes for font sizes too!

Use a limited color scheme. Bright colors everywhere never looks good, so stick to a few complementary shades.

Use contrast to attract the eye. This will attract attention.

And be sure to have your collateral printed by a high-quality printer- there's nothing worse that working hard on a great design only to have it come out crooked or with the colors off.

Again, exactly what goes on your material is up to you. But, as with your design, you want to create something that grabs attention and engages your potential customer. Ultimately, you want to create something that instead of finding its way to the trash, your customer will want to hang on the refrigerator.

How do you do this? There are a few approaches to writing the kind of copy that makes something worth keeping...

Be funny. People love humor. If you can make someone laugh out loud with your marketing material, you can be sure it has made it's impression.

Be inspirational. If you can write something that will make someone pause for a moment and think, your printed collateral is working.

Be useful. This one is probably the easiest to achieve. See if you can think of a way to make your promotional material into a reference object. If appropriate to your business, try printing recipes, tips, glossaries or useful facts on your material.

Now that you and your graphic designer have come up with some memorable material, you need to send the design to someone who can create your finished product. Fortunately, this step is pretty easy. There are a number of printers who will be happy to turn your ideas into reality.

If you are using unconventional material or sizes, you might have trouble finding a local printer who can accommodate your needs. If this is the case, look for an online printing business. You can email them your design and then they'll ship you the finished product. Talk about convenient!

Then comes time for distribution. Be sure to give out as much collateral as possible. Leave them with local stores, give them out at trade shows and conventions, mail them to your customer base... What ever it takes to get it out there: it's not going to do any good sitting in a box in your office!