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Leaflet delivery : SWC Delivers.

Tips for flyer printing promotion

When it comes to promoting events, flyers can be cost-efficient and powerful marketing tools. Additionally, they are perfect for short-notice advertising needs because they can be printed quickly.

The most effective will be vibrant and eye-catching. Whether organizations put flyers on display or have someone handing them out, they need to be appealing to attract attention. Designers may generate the most interest using a combination of bright colors and interesting images.

Determining the appropriate places to distribute flyers is also vital to successful promotional campaigns. You should target locations with a lot of foot traffic. It's important to be courteous, though, and dont forget you should only pass out flyers where it is allowed.

Flyers are best used to promote upcoming events. For example, charities could use them to generate awareness for drives, while businesses should consider utilizing them to create exposure for sales

One of the things that print companies talk about endlessly is the kit they’ve got installed at their premises; machines with names like Heidelberg this and Konica that.  They talk about digital and litho print processes, and as customers, I’m sure at some stage we’ve wondered whether or not we really need to know the difference between them.

At SWC Print and Design, we choose the right method for the job you want us to do.  When choosing between processes, there are three main factors that need to be considered.

Firstly, as a general guide, if you are printing up to 500 items, it is usually cheaper to print digitally.  Anything over 500 is usually cheaper using offset litho printing.  As you probably know, the majority of the cost comes from setting-up the process, so printing 600 doesn’t cost much more than 500.  This is worth bearing in mind if you think you might need additional copies at a later date: can you think of ways to prolong the longevity of the item you are printing?

Secondly, digital printing is often a quicker process.  At SWC Print and Design, we can often turn around a digital job in a matter of hours.  A few of our customers can agree with this: we’ve pulled out all the stops to deliver a rush job at midnight to respond to our customer’s needs.  Just another way in which we think we are different to other print companies.  Litho, on the other hand, usually takes between 3 to 5 working days.  This is because real (and wet!) ink is used, and this requires drying time before packaging.  It is worth thinking about this when putting together your marketing plan.  Do you have time to wait for the ink to dry?

Thirdly, both digital and litho use a full colour process to create different colours, but litho print processes can allow for the use of dedicated spot colours, which are very accurate and can even allow for the use of metallic colours.

We’ll probably know which method is right for the job you want us to do, but it is worth sharing with us whether speed is more important than getting the cheapest price for the job want.  Of course, we’ll do our best to keep the final price down, that goes without saying, but we to ensure that we meet your requirements as best you can.

You may have the odd desk-top printer lying around your office that you use occasionally for printing items.  Do you think it might be cheaper, and a better use of your time, if you out-sourced it to us, for a speedy, digitally-printed professional job?  Or maybe you work from home, and produce flyers to advertise your company from your desk-top printer.  We’re pretty sure that we can do it cheaper for you, and we can even help with the design work too. 

We’ve tweeted previously about ink from desk-top printers being more expensive than gold; and with our 10% off for new customers, we’re pretty confident that we can save you money.  Call us now for a quote:  you’ve nothing at all to lose!

This is a copy of a guest blog I have written for an accountancy firm in Coventry, but I thought I would post it here too, as we do get quite a few questions on writing effective promotional items.  For many small businesses, it is just another task to add to the never-ending list of jobs, but I think that most people can enthuse at length about their own business.

Everyone knows that people buy from people, but life isn’t that simple.  You need more than a winning sales technique and an engaging personality; you need substance and integrity to win trust to continue a fruitful business relationship.  Your marketing literature is a key way to demonstrate your business values and company culture, and you need to make sure that yours fully represents everything you stand for. 

I admit that I turn to the internet almost hourly in a quest for information; whether I’m tweeting or blogging, or looking for insight into competitors, contacts, suppliers, it always comes back to the internet.  It is easy then to assume that print is dead and that businesses should cut back on their print expenditure and throw it all into their online presence. 

But in an age where we are almost continuously plugged into our electronic devices, printed products are becoming rarer but crucially, less disposable.  People now think twice about accepting a flyer or leaflet.  Where they do, they are more likely to be interested in the product on offer and keep it for future reference.  I’m always wary of using anecdotal evidence, but I shall use it here anyway!  Most of my friends keep promotional leaflets for local businesses in a folder, particularly where they know they will have a need for it in the future.  Unless I know a lot of particularly organised people, this says to me that it is worth thinking carefully about promotional print items to get the most from the financial investment. 

So, get your print products right and your customers will keep hold of it, and refer to it time and time again.  So, how can you maximise the return on your investment in your campaign?  Here are some useful, and practical tips: 

• Encourage your customer to engage with you: this is a great way of seeing how effective your campaign has been.  Drive your customers to your website or facebook page and engage in a conversation with you.  People buy from people, after all!

• Include a call to action: give them a reason to put their hand in their pocket and part with their money.  Time-limited offers are a tried and tested method, and a good way of measuring the success of the campaign.

• Think about the design of your logo and layout.  In all honesty, does it really give the right impression for your business?  We’ve lost count of the number of leaflets through our door that have spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.  We’re not all experts in copywriting, so always ask someone honest to give you feedback before committing to print.  We’re always happy to do this for you.

• What is the key message for this campaign?   Have you thought about what you want your customers to know?  Do you know what differentiates your company from your competitors?  Is it price, product, service, or even your winning smile? 

• Think about integrating your print and online presence through using QR codes.  These codes can prolong the life of your printed materials, saving you money and allowing you to invest in longer print-runs which can be more economical in the longer-term.

We can help you design an eye-catching, effective brand image for your business, and if you are just starting out in business do take advantage of our in-house design service to get you noticed as quickly as possible.  We can help put together a very cost-effective starter package for your new business.  

If you've been around a while, why not ask us to take a look at your current designs, logs and brand and see what a fresh pair of eyes can do?

Contact us now for a no-obligation chat.  For a 10% discount on print items, quote the following code: IREADTOTHEENDOFTHEBLOG

Print delivers results

Print is the ideal communication medium and a powerful marketing tool. But because it has been around for so long, print often gets lost in the enthusiasm for newer options, such as online and social media channels. Yet, after all is said and done, print is still the prime communication and promotional vehicle.

Why? Because of its unique characteristics:

Print is durable, portable, credible, universal, beautiful and works well with other media, particularly when combined with QR codes to integrate with your online media. Most importantly, print works.

Print on paper builds brand identification and powers sales. It’s no wonder print media is still the workhorse of successful marketing and advertising campaigns. In an age where we spend most of our time gazing at a screen, printed material can make a real impact.

Print is back in fashion

There has been a shift in the way that agencies and marketing teams think about print communication. Sure, electronic communication will still retain a vital role in connecting with customers and prospects. But there is a growing knowledge that not everyone wants to connect via e-mail.

When did you last review your print marketing material? Is it time to refresh your designs or push a special offer? Take advantage of our special offer now and make sure that your printed marketing materials promote the best message for your business.

After all, you wouldn’t serve apple pie without custard so don’t create marketing without print!!

Contact us and quote “Print delivers” for 10% off your marketing.  Valid until 6th June 2011

We recently took part in the 4am project in Warwick.

Pictures can be seen here

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1 704556@N23/

A group of photographers met in Warwick today (29th May) to capture pictures of the town at the “magical” hour of 4am.

QR Codes

We’re buzzing with the possibilities that QR codes allow us.

We think these codes are the perfect marriage between your print materials and your online presence.  We’ve used a QR code on our business cards to allow our customers to instantly grab our contact details onto their phones, and you can see that we’ve used a QR code as our avatar on twitter.

The next step

We intend to use a QR code on our next marketing campaign to small businesses.  We’re sending out a postcard to customers who’ve signed up for such things and the QR code directs recipients to our current special offer.  If they keep the postcard in a safe place, they can use that QR code time and time again to access our most up-to-date offer.  That way, we ensure the longevity of our print promotions and ensure we’re not offering our summer special to customers at Christmas.  Sounds great!  Now there really is no reason not to order higher quantities of marketing materials.
 
The even better news is that QR codes are simple to generate and we can talk you through the process.  Sign up here for our postcard and to find out more about QR codes. 

We think the possibilities for QR codes are endless!

Marketing materials

Is it time you looked at yours?

 
Whether you are creating a flyer, poster or multi-channel marketing campaign, you need a motivational call to action.  By offering an attractive, time-limited discount in your campaign, you create a strong motivational call to your customers as well as giving you a highly accurate way of judging the success of your campaign. 

Click here and register within 7 days for our special offer - 5000 Double sided A6 postcards on Stiff White Card for ONLY £105 delivered with NO VAT to pay!!