Even in this hyper-digital age, print materials are still effective ways to market your business. With a piece of printed material, people can touch your brand, which appeals to their physical senses. The most important sense to appeal to with all your marketing materials, however, is trust – and trust is instilled in customers through brand consistency.
Different Types Of Print Marketing Materials To Consider
Print “collateral” (add-on materials that reinforce your brand) can be grouped by how they are used. Here are the top four groups of printed marketing materials and examples of each:
1. Corporate identity print materials: business cards, letterhead stationery, and envelopes. These are the first point of contact with your target customers.
2. Promotional or marketing materials: folders, flyers, brochures, rack cards. These are your customers’ expanded view of the brand and are often handed out personally.
3. Direct mail: postcards or larger size mailers. These can get a little more granular in terms of the customization for a target audience.
4. Promotional products: branded handouts. These are an expansion of your brand positioning and include items that you might give away at events and trade shows labeled with your logo and information. This category also can include large, eye-catching items such as posters, banners and booth designs.
Materials in all of these categories are effective ways to market your business. In combination, they give an overall picture of your brand.
Establishing Brand Consistency Sets the Foundations for Success
Once a company has invested in brand identity, it’s important to make that identity consistent across all materials. A consistently portrayed brand makes clients think, “This business has its [stuff] together.”
Marstudio has a real estate agency client in the San Francisco Bay Area, Burlingame Properties. Real estate is very expensive in this area, and the company’s target clients are well educated and market savvy. Over the past five years, we have created a breadth of marketing and promotional materials for our client that are consistent in portraying a high-end brand. The materials, designed to be attractive and memorable, are now instantly recognizable by homeowners in the area. Our client credits that brand recognition factor for contributing to his success and ultimate business expansion.
The strategy here is to design all materials so that they work together to portray your business as the legitimate entity that it is – and consistency in design is part of that.
Think about how you feel when you look at marketing materials mailed to you or dropped off at your home. If you see a couple of pieces supposedly from the same organization that don’t quite go together – different colors maybe, logo not exactly the same, different fonts used – do you feel impressed or uneasy? Do you want to do business with that company, or do you immediately think that something is not quite right about them?
How To Make Sure Your Print Materials Reflect A Consistent Brand
Marstudio is an example of a business that walks the walk of brand consistency, from the way our office is decorated to our website to the print materials we hand out, to the wrap on our company cars. Clients subconsciously translate that consistency into trust, and we don’t betray that trust – we consistently meet their expectations when applying our strategic skills to their marketing.
It’s important for all serious businesses to invest the time and money in brand consistency. With print collateral, this means making sure that all of your materials reinforce the good impression you want to make. Marketing companies like Marstudio will always design for brand consistency across materials and serve as the conduit for the print process to make sure your materials are well-produced. Taking that concern off your shoulders allows you to spend your valuable time on growing your business.
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