Aligning Your Branding, Print Marketing & Promotions

Article contributed by Katherine Halek, Content Strategist at Signazon.com.

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Image Source: Stuart Miles, FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Branding, print marketing, and promotions are not separate entities, but all cogs in the same wheel. If you don’t have a background in marketing, now is the time to familiarize yourself with the intricacies of these terms and how they all work together. A united image will be your best friend in growing your customer base and widening your profit margin.

Creating Brand Recognition through Consistency

How did the biggest brands in American marketing get where they are today? McDonald’s, Apple, Target, Nike, AT&T, Tide, FedEx, and hundreds of others owe much of their enduring success to the consistency their marketing has displayed. They cultivated an image and stuck with it for years. That strategy, coupled with the appeal of their products and services to their target demographic, has placed their logos among the most recognizable images in the world.

Like these companies, your business should project a consistent image in all of your visual media. Even though you may not have international aspirations, being more recognizable is infinitely useful in helping potential customers find you. A name may be hard to remember, but an image is hard to forget — especially after multiple exposures.

Fonts, color choices, design theme, and more should all match the atmosphere you want to create. If you are painting or decorating your indoor walls or advertising outside with outdoor signage, you should follow your theme for maximum benefits. Lastly, your print marketing needs to display the same aesthetic that you display online and at your location.

 

Aligning Print to Your Existing Marketing Plan

Print doesn’t exist in a vacuum as the antiquated cousin of newer, more sophisticated marketing strategies. It is still a viable, profitable form of advertising and can do wonders for your brand recognition. The ways in which you can use print to enrich your other marketing efforts are numerous.

First, keep the wording of your print promotions consistent with the tone you use everywhere else. Your slogans, tweets, blog updates, and all other communications need to have an angle, or a brand voice. (We found a couple of sources for you if you aren’t sure what a brand voice is, or how to build one.) As this carries over into what you say on paper, you’ve created another way for people to recognize you

What kind of print promotions should you use? Again, this depends on your normal business operations. Are you primarily a casual, bring-a-friend kind of place? Try leaving some flyers on public bulletin boards and getting approval to hang door hangers in neighborhoods, offering a free sample of your product. If you need a slightly more formal approach, consider direct mail or an ad in a local coupon book.

Check out the creative direct-mail feats that other companies have accomplished if you need some inspiration. While you’re designing your own piece, include a plug for your social media accounts and website to get people engaging with you through multiple avenues.

 

Keeping Information Uniform in Print and Digital Channels

It’s easier to update digital media than print. This leads many people to stick with the web, and rarely (if ever) distribute a promotion on paper. However, printed ads are vital for this reason: what you read in print stays in your memory longer than what you read online. Thus, it’s important that your digital and printed efforts exist in a symbiotic relationship; each supports and reinforces the other. There are other benefits to diversifying your marketing media, including a greater audience reach.

To keep your print and digital efforts in sync, you don’t have to print a new round of postcards or take out a new magazine ad every time you make a change within your business. Print works best for promoting events, like one-time sales, while your social updates and blog posts can handle the day-to-day details that customers want to know.

Have we left out anything? Tell us the business lessons you’ve learned from your own marketing adventures below!

Image Source: Stuart Miles, FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Katherine Halek is the Content Strategist at Signazon.com, a leading online printer that works with thousands of small businesses around the country. Katherine enjoys writing about retail, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Connect with her on Google+.

 

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