A Strategy To Printed Materials?
Wednesday - July 02, 2008
Have you ever wondered why businesses send out all those printed materials?
You see them everyday, but is there a strategy to it all?
If you are a new business owner looking to understand the reasoning behind the 'why' in printed materials, look no further!
When you first began in business you became aware that the main task was in trying to make potential customers aware of your business.
This is done through repetitive exposure of your business.
If you're like most businesses, your budget will be limited and allocated to many variables, thus making media exposure like television and cable fall outside of your repetitive advertising budget.
If this is true for you, then repetitive printed materials is your strategy!
To understand the 'why' , as far as why you'll be designing a strategy with printed materials its important to grasp the bigger picture of what's happening.
Here's the field and game rules you'll be playing in:
1. The average person needs to see your company, brand, product.. at least 7 times before even an inkling of memory is created about you.
2. People will tend to NOT sit, focus, and turn on their mind's full undivided attention when reading your piece. (In reality, it will be a 2 second glance before being passed aside or hitting the trash. That sucks yes, but its the fact.)
3. No matter how great of a deal you offer - if people don't recognize your business/brand they will by majority overlook it as unimportant to them. (Most cases they wont even fully register what they read since it was a glance OR if you were lucky and got them at a time when they were looking for what you're selling.)
Two Ways to Win
There are at least two ways you can make a sale - a short term and a long term:
Strategy 1. (short term)
Your printed pieces reach someone that was planning on buying exactly what you're selling, perhaps they have been putting it off, but when they see your great offer they are reminded that they were planning to get one of those.
Strategy 2. (long term)
You have exposed your business to the public so much that they begin to actually develop a sense of familiarity to your brand, colors, logo, etc.
They then stop to take a few extra seconds to read what you're selling. They begin to think of your business when those products or services come up in thought, and conversation.
As you can see Strategy 2. is the strategy that most businesses pursue.
( It is also why branding is used so much - Your logo, your business colors etc. )
Your Budget
You wouldn't want to step up to the carnival game and start throwing them $1 dollar-per-throw softballs blindly at the milk jugs.
Focus your efforts: This can be done by researching your target demographics, by only mailing to a 5 to 10 mile area around your business first (most likely
customers), and any information you can come up with that will focus your efforts rather than bulk throwing wildly into the unknown.
Step 1.
You should plan on a minimum of 7 to 12 mailings to begin (repetitive mailings for creating the familiarity strategy). These will be your less expensive pieces (as in full color postcards). They shouldn't overwhelm with information and products - instead a professional look & feel and perhaps a single
line of bold font text that shows them your business exists! Keep it very simple! and repeat this step every 2 weeks over the course of 14 to 24 weeks.
Always keeps it simple, use bold,large, easy to read text (something they will read at a 2 second glance over) and keep the piece clean so that nothing will distract their eye from your brand.
Basic Example: Say your business sells coffee mugs:
| Week 1 - 2 | Week 3 - 4 |
 |
 |
|
| Week 5 - 6 | Week 7 - 8 |
 |
 |
Instead of trying to squeeze it all in there in a 'hard to read from a glance' piece like this:
Step 2.
Once the repetition familiarity strategy has been completed - Then send them the full color brochure or booklet that features all your styles and is more detailed in text. By that point, they might feel familiar enough with your business to look over the brochure or booklet.
Would you be interested in an EzPrintSolutions Business Account?
Includes:
* Bulk Rates
* Credit Line Design
* Consultation on your pieces/ campaign
* Direct Mail w/ bulk postage rates
* Custom Quotes
EzPrintSolutions can help you design your pieces, implement the best strategy for your campaign, and get you the best deals in multi-piece rates, mailing, and postage!
Call or Contact US
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