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Print media remains a powerful tool for your marketing campaign initiatives. Customers still seem to trust print media marketing just as much if not more than digital or those found on search engines. This makes print a powerful tool for your marketing strategy that shouldn’t be forgotten. But for print materials to be truly effective, they need to grab the consumer’s attention and stand out from your competitor’s print pieces.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel to create eye-catching items. One distinctive idea is all it takes to make a design uniquely different and help it stand out from the rest. Experiment with these 5 tips to take your print marketing campaign to the next level.
1. Try Different Textures
Your audience is more likely to remember an experience that involves more than one of their senses simultaneously. In digital design, “texture” only refers to the patterns in an image that are experienced visually. In print, however, it’s often something your potential customer can physically touch. Obviously, this only works when working in a medium that the recipient is likely to hold in their hands, like a post card or booklet (as opposed to a billboard or poster).
Choosing a textured stock is the simplest way to give your item a unique tactile quality, such as linen, vellum, or felt. Many particular imprint methods can also be used to add a tactile quality. Embossing and debossing methods, for instance, imprint your design directly into the stock (raised or depressed) for a subtle look that encourages interaction beyond just visual. Experiment by combining other imprint methods such as foil embossed. Designs using this method tend to be particularly popular.
Your printer can be especially helpful in choosing the best stock to achieve the effect you have in mind. Adding substantial interest to your design can be just a matter of including a subtle print method.
2. Typography as a Creative Outlet
Fonts you choose demand legibility, but they should also express the mood, feeling, or tone you’re trying to convey. So it should come as no surprise that choosing a typeface is a delicate art in itself. Don’t settle for the default, “popular” fonts just because they’re a good reliable standby or are simply readable. There are many font inspiration sites you can browse such as Typewolf or Fonts in Use to get a sense of what alternatives are out there. If you come across a font you’re drawn to but have no idea of its name, locating it can be easy with font identification tools such as the one provided by FontSquirrel (or at the very least find one that’s a close match to the font you were interested in).
3. Experiment with a Unique Die-Cut Shape
When you think of a business card, brochure, or other piece of printed marketing material, what shape comes to mind? If you’re like me, it’s a rectangle, and that’s generally due to few marketing items having an original shape. That presents a perfect opportunity for designers to come up with better marketing collateral and attract attention by choosing a die cut that deviates from the norm. Try cutting your items into a circle, an abstract shape, or an object closely related to your products or service. For example, if your company focuses on pool installation try a pool-shaped business card.
There are plenty of opportunities to make the form of your presentation materials stand out regardless if the shape is completely new. Many times, all it takes is something slightly off the beaten path, like a die-cut door for a real estate company, for instance. It’s the small variations like this that make your pocket folders, direct mail, post cards and other marketing materials truly worth remembering. It’s key to invest a little more time into checking out the different options that may be available; don’t just settle on the first item you see.
4. Implement Color Psychology
The colors you implement in your design can have an emotional effect on your audience, whether that was your intention or not. Warm colors such as red, orange and yellow create a feeling of passion and energy, as well as stoke the viewer’s appetite. Meanwhile, cooler colors such as blue and green, evoke a calming sense of serenity, safety, and security. It’s no accident print items for a dentist office, for instance, generally include blues and greens while avoiding reds or shades of orange.
When designing a printed piece, there’s an outstanding chance that it will use the business’s brand colors. If any leeway is given, however, full comprehension of color psychology is important before an element of focus in your design receives a particular hue.
5. Integrate Print with Digital Media
There’s no doubt social media seems to dominate the world of modern marketing lately, so it might be a great idea to look for opportunities where your digital and print campaigns can cross over. One simple way to solve this is by including details about the company’s social media presence in your print piece. Simply including icons for the sites where you maintain a presence is a great place to begin, but you’ll be depending on your audience’s willingness to search for your business. If there’s room, think about including at least a URL or username to help them in their search.
Including a QR code in your piece can be an alternative solution. Of course, these will only be useful if the consumer has a smartphone handy, but it’s a simple and mostly unobtrusive way to connect them to your online presence. Printing a QR code does require a few specific details to consider (such as size), so it’s important to keep those in mind as you plan your design.
Conclusion
Print collateral can play an important role in any successful marketing campaign with proper planning. The key is to find some way to make your design memorable, whether a unique material is used, a revolutionary shape, or a truly offbeat visual design.
