In today’s digital environment, you might think that marketing tactics such as brochures, flyers, and postcards are less effective than in days past. Not so fast! In fact, print marketing is significantly more effective than ever.

As marketers shifted efforts to digital, the online landscape has become increasingly cluttered. Print stands out even more now. Direct mail and postcards have the highest return on investment compared to any other form of advertising. According to the Associational of National Advertisers (ANA) and Demand Metric, direct mail has a 112% ROI.

Digital ads can be fleeting. By putting things in writing, you’re making a commitment to your customers. Print has a sense of permanence that instills confidence in consumers. That’s why print pieces like brochures, flyers, and postcards are the most trusted source of information across all demographic groups.

So, how do you use print materials best to drive sales and grow revenue? Here are some tips to help improve your effectiveness.

Designing Your Print Materials to Encourage Sales

With any print pieces you use, the first impression is crucial. You must do two things immediately: 1) grab their attention and 2) convey professionalism. 

To do this, we recommend 7 critical things to keep in mind:

1. Know Your Customer

To start, you need to know your customer and what they want. Who are your target customers? Why would they want to buy your product or service? What outcome are they looking for? What is the most important thing it can do for them? The answers will help frame your messaging and offers.

The more closely you align your marketing with your customer’s needs, the more effective it will be.

2. Tailor Approach to the Customer Journey

The customer journey, or the buyer’s journey, maps the prospect-to-customer thought process of Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. Designing your print materials to focus on how consumers move through the customer journey is effective. Grab their attention and get them interested to learn about what you do, increase their desire for your products or services, and give them a reason to act.

3. Headlines and Imagery

You only get a few seconds for people to look at your materials and decide whether to consume them or drop them in the trash. If the first impression is boring or doesn’t entice them, you aren’t likely to get them to read on.

Images should be high-quality and showcase the benefits of your product or service. Ditch the pictures of your business and use images of happy customers enjoying your products or services, your team in action, or other pictures/graphics that show the benefits of what you do.

And visually emphasize specials. If you’ve got a big offer, make it big and bold, so people see it. If you’re offering a 50% off coupon for first-time customers, don’t bury it in a brochure or in small print on a postcard. It won’t be seen.  

4. Brand Consistency

Any marketing you do should be consistent with your brand, which includes images, colors, fonts, tone, and messaging. Even if someone doesn’t become a customer today, continually communicating your messaging with brand consistency has a long-term cumulative effect. The more consistent you are in everything you do, the more likely someone will remember your brand.

Even if someone doesn’t need your product or services today, you want your brand to be top of mind for when they do. 71% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from brands they know.

How important is brand consistency? Research shows that, on average, consistency in messaging can improve revenue by 23%. 

5. Showcase Benefits

Once someone starts to read your material, you need to quickly prove benefits. You want to readily answer: “What’s in it for me?” People buy because they want to solve problems or meet a need. So, you want to demonstrate how what you’re selling does exactly that.

You also want to focus on your unique value proposition (UVP). In competitive industries, you need to let consumers know how you are different or better than other options.

 

6. Keep It Simple

In marketing, clutter is your enemy. Great information gets lost when it’s hard to find. Keeping things simple makes your messages easy to digest and remember. You can do this by:

• Using bullet points to highlight important information, making scanning your messaging easier.  
• Focusing on key information and eliminating the rest. Don’t try to do too much. 
• Telling consumers what you want them to do. Direct calls to action punctuating your message work well. 

7. Create Urgency

Attention is fleeting, so give consumers a reason to act now. Your call to action can help highlight an urgency you create. Tactics include limited-time offers, scarcity, and fear of missing out (FOMO). You need to motivate consumers to take the next step before they get busy with other things.