Is your marketing material up to scratch?

4 seconds, that’s how long you have to make an impression with your marketing material.?Does yours do the job? In this article, we discuss options you have when deciding on what printed collateral to choose to promote your business. There are lots of options to consider, here is a list of the 11 most popular things we print at Scarbutts Printers:

• Business card
• Leaflet
• Booklet
• Catalogue
• Banner
• Poster
• Flyer
• Labels
• Packaging
• Compliment slips
• Letterheads

Is there anything there you hadn’t thought of or something that needs a revamp? Let’s look at the top 3 most common forms of printed marketing collateral and what to consider when deciding if your marketing material is fit for purpose.

Business cards

Business cards will not get you business on their own but the right business card will emphasise your brand message. A poorly designed and printed business card can give the wrong impression and if you’ve just spent half an hour of your precious time building a relationship with a potential client the last thing you want to do is hand over a tatty business card to leave your lasting impression before you part ways. A well designed business card will give the right impression and ensures your contact can easily get in touch with you.?Things to consider:

• What information do you need to display; Your company name and contact details are essential but think about if you need a strapline to remind what your business is about.
• How many do you want? Don’t get 5,000 printed if you’re only going to need one or two every now and then, you’ll only end up binning most of them next time you need to make an update.
• What size should your business card be? Most business cards are 55mm x 85mm which is the size of a credit card, but you can choose to make them fold to this size and add features such as round corners and cut outs.
• What style and finish? Consider the paper stock, do you want a thick card, do you want a glossy or matt finish to it?
• Do you want to display contact information or a QR code? Contact information doesn’t need to be displayed on all business cards, you can add QR codes that link directly to social pages to make it quicker and easier for people to connect with you online, strengthening the relationship.
• What shouldn’t you do? It is advisable not to overload a business card with too much information and imagery. Sometimes, less is more.

Folded leaflets

Folded leaflets are great for advertising your business and offering a bit more information inside. Restaurant and takeaway menus and business information leaflets are a great example of folded leaflets. In their simplest form they can be square, rectangular, portrait and landscape and they can come in a variety of fold formats such as:

• z-fold
• c-fold
• gate fold
• half fold
• cross fold
• roll fold

Think about what information you need to display, what is more important and how you can use the different fold types to display the information in a way that improves and enhances the layout.

Booklets

Booklets are more informative pieces of marketing collateral, allowing you more space for more in depth information. Most booklets are printed in 4-up pages so your page count needs to be in multiples of 4, including the front and back cover or you will end up with blank pages.

There are 4 main types of binding process for booklets that we offer:

• Saddle-stitching (stapled)
• Perfect bound
• PUR bound (like perfect bound but uses a special kind of adhesive which is more durable)
• Wire bound

Scarbutts Printers are long established commercial print company that have worked with hundreds of business across Kent and the UK for over 60 years. We don’t just print, we get to know our customers and their businesses so that we can tailor every printed piece to suit the needs of the business.?

Get in touch