Business Expansion – The Overlooked Power of Printed Marketing Materials for Small Business

Having a digital marketing program is important today. Digital marketing allows you to find new customers and follow up with existing customers. Digital marketing should be one part of your business’ marketing. Relying on only digital marketing with no supporting printed marketing is dangerous for most businesses and business expansion.

Why? Because there is so much digital marketing nowadays, that your customers ignore most of it. The Internet is a barrage of popup banners and ads that cause a dispersal of attention in your prospect and also presents a risk of malware infecting your computer. Email open rates have steadily declined, that is, if you can get past the spam filters and blocks. You can spend a lot of money on your website, but you still have to drive traffic to it. The PDF product brochure you emailed to your client sits in an inbox, unread. The biggest challenge with Internet and email marketing is that you are lost in a sea of competition.

I am not saying that you should not do Internet or digital marketing. What I am saying is you need to do more than just digital marketing if your goal is business expansion and growth.

Printed marketing materials offer you the options for promoting your products and services, directly to your customers and prospects, helping to accelerate business expansion. When someone inquires about your services, mailing them a printed brochure often will make more of an impact than emailing a PDF because the prospect will hold in their hands your brochure or flyer free from competitive distractions. Printed materials are more real to your prospects and customers, and because your company and it’s products are more real the customer it is, in turn, more comfortable buying from you.

Types Of Printed Marketing Materials:

• Business Cards: obviously a standard for most businesses. Often the first impression you make is with your business card, so do not skimp on quality.
• Pocket Presentation Folders: if you are giving prospects estimate or making a presentation, a nicely designed and printed pocket folder will make your company stand out.
• Postcards: a staple of business marketing. Postcards allow you to directly reach prospect and put an offer in their hands without the distraction and spam filters.
• Brochures: when that new prospect calls, a printed brochure will help you answer questions and close the sale.
• Point of Sale Posters: retail sales posters can help increase impulse buys from your customers.
• Flyers: for trade shows and homes shows, flyers offer an inexpensive way to promote specials.
• Door Hangers: still one of the most direct things you can do to generate sales.
• Product Catalogs: sure, you can save money by just putting your catalog online, but numerous studies have found that for most products, consumers much prefer perusing a printed catalog.

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Graphic design is the most important part of creating an effective printed piece. Many try to save money by doing the design work on their own. I am sorry for being blunt, but most of the time the finished piece you designed looks like you designed it yourself. Not because you don’t have natural talent, but because you don’t have the tools at your disposal, the time and experience to design a great looking piece.

My suggestion is to hire a professional in the long run, it will save you money, time and generate more sales for you business.

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