Is print a part of your marketing? Do you use flyers, brochures, business cards, or direct mail? These can all be great tools if you are effectively using them to generate leads. Or they can be a waste of time. Do you feel that you aren’t seeing any benefit from your mailings or your handouts? The problem could be in the design of the piece. Keeping that in mind, we’ve put together some tips that will help you generate far more leads the next time you use a print piece for your marketing. We’ve been doing this for over 30 years and we have seen some amazing pieces as well as plenty that could use a little work…follow this list to make sure you are one of the amazing ones.
- Target
First and foremost, your piece must appeal to your target audience. Who do you design it for? Think about what you know about your customer. Are they a certain age, gender, or income level? These can all be targeted with specialized mailing lists. Also, the style you will use can vary greatly depending on what demographic you are going for. You do not want to design your piece for “everybody”, that’s a good way to catch no one’s attention. Whoever you are targeting it is crucial to use a design that specifically aims for them.
- Headlines
Next you need some strong headlines. Keep them short and to the point. Focus on the benefit the customer will get from you. Most people skim a piece before they decide if they will give it the time to read it. The headlines need to catch their interest and portray to the customer why they should give you any more of their attention.
- Short and Sweet
Now that your headlines have captured their attention, don’t lose it. This is not the time to be rambling about your product or service. Keep it short and direct. Get all the relevant information out as easily consumable as possible. Do not over-crowd your piece, this is a quick way to lose the potential customer. Make use of space, use a graphic or a beautiful picture to tell the story not a flood of text.
- Branding
In all things you design branding is crucial. If your brand is strong enough then just a glimpse can tell a potential customer that this piece is from your company. So, it is a good idea to tie all your pieces together. If possible, use your printed pieces to drive traffic to your website or get them to sign up for your email blast. This is a great way to hit all corners of your market and to have all your marketing strategies working together as one.
- Call to Action
We can’t tell you how many beautiful eye-catching, attention-grabbing pieces we have seen over the years that fall flat because of a lack of a call to action. What is the point of grabbing a person’s attention and giving them all the information about your product if you don’t intend to do anything with it? You must include some sort of direction at the end. Whether that is simply to come visit you store or check out your website, you need to directly tell the interested party what you would like their next steps to be. Include an expiring coupon on your postcard while asking them to come visit you. Ask them to sign up for your email newsletter to collect some customer information. Tell them to call now to get more information they might be interested in. Whatever your call to action is just make sure it is direct and simple to do.
- Track
The final step to increasing the effectiveness of your printed material is to track all the data you possibly can. When a customer contacts you try to figure out how they heard about you or what made them call. This will help you learn which pieces are performing well and which ones need to be tweaked or dropped entirely.
Print marketing is a very effective tool in 2022 but it must be done correctly. Keep these tips in mind when you are designing your next piece and you will see much better results!
For more helpful information check out our blog at: /advice-from-the-printer/
And for more information on Inkwell Printing Company check out our website at: www.inkwellstl.com
