When talking to business owners about using print for marketing, they often worry about not knowing how to do it correctly. With any investment, you want to do it right so it pays off — you want to know how to develop top print collateral.
Audience
Identify who you’re talking to. The goal with marketing is to create conversation, buzz. Find out who your target audience is and what makes them react. Get specific. The more specific, the better results.
Goal
What result do you want? Do you want to lead them to your website, be inspiration for purchase, create brand awareness? Having thousands of Twitter followers or Facebook likes is nice, but it means nothing if you can’t get followers to take action. Whether talking about a Tweet, blog or print ad, the text needs to inspire people to do something beyond just reading. This can help you determine what kind of piece to create and how to reach your audience.
Design
If you don’t have that designer eye and don’t have one in-house, hire one! This piece should reflect your business and should bring about the brand and goals that appeal to your audience. Just as we are not experts in your field, no one expects you to be one in ours. And here you thought colors and graphics were simple, right? A photo with bad lighting can be reworked to project its best, but if you don’t have the tools you are not maximizing the potential.
When creating a marketing piece on screen with the tools you have, monitors are comprised of an RGB (red/green/blue) gamut. Digital printers are collaborated with a CMYK (cyan/magenta/yellow/black) gamut. What you see on screen is not necessarily the end result. The red Pantone (PMS) color for Coca-Cola is PMS 484 or C 8 percent, M 92 percent, Y 100 percent and B 33 percent. This color is consistent throughout their brand. If you paid for logo design and brand, straying can be detrimental. People do recognize, so be consistent and hold your printer accountable.
Structure, stock and layout
This matters. Request samples to view and feel. There is a minimum postcard weight to be in compliance with the post office. Did you know dividing an 8.5-by-11-inch piece of paper is not the right template for a trifold brochure? Panels need to offset to make for a balanced piece. Which is more important, time or money? With an expert in design and print, headaches can be eliminated in advance which saves time and money.
Call to action
The more compelling, the better! Inspire people with your call to action — a visit to your website, brand recognition or getting the phone to ring. If you have achieved one or more of these, you can call your piece successful!
Toni Quiruz is director of marketing/sales for Digiprint Corporation ( www.digiprintcorporation.com) and NCET’s vice president of membership. NCET is a member-supported non-profit that produces networking events to help individuals and businesses explore and use technology (www.NCET.org).
Our very own Toni Quiruz has contributed some good advice to our local community! This article was published in the Reno Gazette Journal. The original article can be found here.
