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Brands haven’t forgotten about the power of print marketing to engage and excite their consumers.

Keep putting out fresh and engaging content online. But balance that with print marketing and rescue your audience from digital fatigue.

By all means, keep working on killer content and graphics to keep your website alluring. After all, your consumers are plugged in and looking for you online. So there is justification for your digital dedication when it comes to marketing. So if you own a restaurant, go ahead and upload photos of your most delicious dishes. Also make people want to lick their screens because the quality and accompanying descriptions are so good.

If you want your business to stay truly relevant, don’t misstep and focus entirely on social media and website flair. As some business owners mistakenly do.  If you forget to put print to work for you, you are stacking the success of your business. On marketing efforts online that are all too easily scrolled away, deleted or overcome with the sheer volume of competition out there in cyberspace. Print marketing will make your business POP in the eyes of your target audience. In a way that ignites excitement that compliments all of your efforts to hit the big time as a brand.

Don’t trip and fall on the myth that print is dying or dead. Or your business will lose out on that studied and documented integrated marketing magic

The myth that print is dead or losing steam somehow is a dangerous misconception put forth by the well-meaning, naïve or misled who may not be aware of how printed marketing functions as a powerhouse for growth. The evolution of printed media has not only kept in step with technology… It has strengthened right alongside of the advancement of the tools afforded to marketing. In the information age and it guards against the inevitable “digital fatigue” that plagues online-only marketing tactics.

In fact, just one of many studies that support the punch that print packs in terms of driving internet traffic tells us that 44% of direct mail recipients visit a brand’s website after receiving highly targeted, high quality printed marketing messages in their mailboxes, according to Choose Print. We are talking about 10% more traffic than is generated by email marketing alone. Visit a digital print, design and marketing expert can help you come up with a clever postcard.  That could get 4 out of 10 people visiting your website. Why on this busy, digitally saturated planet would you wait?

Here’s the cool thing about the contemporary printing industry…

If you got distracted by your screen and lost track of how print expanded. You might think that print marketing is complete after you’ve lined-up sharp business cards and presentation folders. But the full potential of print branches out into all sorts of promotional products. 

From USB drives and mobile phone power banks to apparel, magnets, drinkware and hats, you can literally put your logo on just about anything that suits the interests of people that are just waiting to get to know your business. Think about promotional items and how you perceive them. As gifts given by a generous member of the business community. Allowing people to use items that make their lives a little bit easier or more attractive. While displaying your logo and contact information, including your website.

In these ways, a physical connection exist and folks hold onto simple things like promotional pens and bottle openers. Eventually sharing them and your business along with them. There is an impressive list of promotional items that extend into the creative and the “techy”. All of them ways to make your customers love you for your thoughtfulness and build brand awareness. Because people love to chat about good things that come their way.

Wendy Krause, owner of Minuteman Press in Silverton, South Africa, is a representative of the modern printing industry and her clients benefit from her expertise with unique abilities to combine both digital and printed marketing efforts into a highly effective campaign. Sometimes, clients who need it welcome the education about the kinds of impressive results that only printed marketing can deliver. 

As Wendy shares, “Simply stated, print is everywhere. Signage advertises your place of business. Branded vehicles advertise your business when they are out on deliveries. Branded packaging advertises your company at your clients’ site. A customer referral iniciate from seeing the branded packaging. If the delivery person is also wearing branded clothing and headwear the entire image of the company enhanced. The delivery note book used when delivering the goods will represent the company with customized details on each form and quality print.”

Wendy adds, “Promotional products are great client gifts. When they include your company branding it is another great marketing tool. USB’s and pens are very useful, popular items when it comes to branded gifts.  A gift passed on it is almost ‘paying’ your marketing forward.”

All successful business owners need to master the various methods of communicating with their target audiences. And that requires both printed and digital channels

Our customers continue to benefit from the wisdom of our experience as a contemporary marketing services provider. If you are working hard to show the world how great your business is, experts from Minuteman Press Burnaby are able to keep you up-to-date with the most effective means of communicating your essential message. Doing it across all channels, with excellence, is vital.

Dennis Beck, owner of Minuteman Press in North Palm Beach, FL, explains, “I would say that 10 years ago (or even more) print was more important for promotion. But today it is part of a total methodology of marketing and promotion. Today, we promote via print thru direct mail advertising, newsletters, and calendar handouts during the New Year, pads, sending thank you notes to customers, discount coupons and the like. However, print must be combined with web advertising. Web advertising is one of the most critical areas where a company can gain new customers. Email advertising is also another area.”

If you want to build trust and make your business POP in the eyes of your target audience, statistics say you need to do it with print.  Nearly 60% of customers find print marketing to be the most trustworthy type of marketing (Print is Big).

When you print your brand message, your logo, and the images that are designed represent your business onto traditional and creative items and serve them to your audience, it serves to boost your marketing efforts in a way that cannot be replicated through digital marketing alone.

Dennis Beck concludes, “Print is important because it has a permanency that other forms of communication do not have. If you send out a postcard the receiver has it in hand – as against an email ad that you can delete and never see again. Also, print has the ability to communicate in a more personal way. Using variable data the printed piece can be custom made for the recipient. Also, there is a certain beauty to well-constructed printed matter. You can use different papers and finishes, etc. In the end print is important because, aside from speech, it is the oldest form of continuing communication between people. People, even in today’s electronic world, still like to hold and read from a piece of paper.”

And the great thing about the modern printing industry is that paper is only the beginning…

About Minuteman Press Burnaby

Minuteman Press Burnaby offers a variety of printing and design services. Whether you need business cards, flyers, labels, or tent cards, we provide you with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about your products. 

We have been serving clients in the Burnaby area for years. As such, client satisfaction is our top priority; we discuss everything from the size, the material, and the quality, to providing professional recommendations catered towards making sure you end up with a product you are happy with.  

We can accommodate your printing and design needs, whatever they may be, so contact us today if you want to hear more about our services or have any questions! Email: contact@minutemanburnaby.com or phone (604)451.9185

One of the biggest challenges that business owners have to face is building their brand. Even if a brand is already established, consistency is the key to continued growth. When a brand is consistent across all platforms. It reinforces the power of that brand as well as the value that customers see in it.

Here are three reasons why brand consistency matters to your business:

1. Brand Consistency Shows Customers You Mean What You Say

No matter how a customer comes into contact with your brand. It is important to convey the same message to reassure them and reinforce your relationship with them. The promises you make on your website should be validated when a customer pays you a visit. And the way you portray your brand across all forms of media should always be authentic in its messaging.

For example, if you are running a social media campaign that promotes special offers and a link to your website. The landing page should directly reflect and relate to what the customer saw before clicking. Similarly, if you are one of the many businesses across various industries that are utilizing direct mail as part of a cross media marketing strategy to drive up sales… Postcard, flyer or catalog that you are using should invite customers to look for you and visit you. (online or offline depending on your business model). So that you can continue to build that relationship with them that will then lead to conversions on your end.

Pro tips: When sending a direct mail postcard, include a #hashtag to invite the customer to engage with you on social media. The key is to make sure that you have already used that #hashtag to populate branded content. This way they will see when they check their social media feeds and look for you. You can also use direct mail to invite them to send you an email if you have set up an email marketing campaign that gives them access to even more special offers and discounts.

2. Brand Consistency Shows Dependability, Which is Huge for Your Business

Being dependable is exactly how you want your clients to view you. For example, when a customer comes into your store or office or when you go out to meet them. It is important that they know who you are, how you can help. Also exactly what they are getting from you. The last thing they would want to see is erratic behavior, and the same principles should be applied to your branding. If you show signs of inconsistency, it could make customers think twice about doing business with you. On the other hand, if your branding is consistent, your customers will see your business as a dependable resource that they won’t have to second-guess.

3. Brand Consistency is Important Because Customers Trust Brands They Recognize

This might be the most important part of the branding equation. With all of the time and money you are spending to secure clients and have them place orders, one of the biggest reasons that customers make any purchase from any business in the first place is because of trust. The more visible your brand is, the more potential clients will recognize your branding; and the more recognizable your branding is, the more they will trust you.

Are you looking for professional branding solutions to promote your business? Visit www.minutemanburnaby.com and get your quote!

Through history, adapting through technology and confirmed by science. Branded pens will continue as an inexpensive but forceful tool in marketing.

The Power of the branded Pen: Once upon a time, every story was written by hand, not by keyboard. From fountain to ballpoint, we still love to put pen to paper, particularly when things get personal. Called mightier than the sword. And in business it is far mightier than an email or a pop up ad. 

According to ASI, 56% of consumers in the U.S. owned a branded pen and can be expected, on average, to use it for around 6 months. As they take notes from their desks or jot down numbers or lists at home. They will use it 3 or 4 times a day during those 6 months. On average and typically pass it to a friend or colleague.

It is true that the concept of branded pens is not new. There are literally billions of writing implements in use, but go ahead… Pick up a pen today and as has been true for decades now. It will probably display a business name and logo. The simple reason is that it works to draw the right kind of attention. It continues to work for a long time. Helping your business gain a little extra kick in the popularity game. 

From clickers, to ones with caps, to pens that come with built in styluses. This classic tool has been influenced by trends and technology in our culture. Therefore, branded pens remain a smart place to imprint your company name and logo.

4 reasons why the power of the branded pen will not be outdone by the lure of the keyboard:

Putting pen to paper is superior to putting fingers to the keyboard.

1. Pen to paper = greater FOCUS: Let’s be honest about the computer. We all need to be connected online and if you need to churn out a lot of copy. It’s handy to do so with a keyboard. Yet, a computer is a major time-thief and it can be a black hole of distracting videos of kids who sing like Janis Joplin, puppies, microwave experiments and mind-numbing political debates. In this sense, the classic simplicity of a relatively clear desk. A pen and perhaps the elegance of professionally printed stationery is a gift to your focus and your inner peace.
2. Pen in hand =greater retention: When you put ink on paper in the process of taking notes by hand, you are stimulating a part of your brand called the Reticulating Activating System which is the head boss in charge of studying and retaining information. Lifehack.com reports simply: “We retain information when we take notes by hand”.  And many of us gravitate naturally towards traditional note-taking for that reason. The RAS part of our brains are like a filter that sifts out the most important things that you are supposed to be focusing on at the moment and the mechanics of writing lights the RAS right up.
3. Pen use = greater creativity: The University of Washington did a study in 2009 during which elementary school students demonstrated the ability to write with more substance than their PC-composing peers and they also did it faster with a greater number of complete sentences.
4. Pens = perpetual brain health: The act of writing puts not only motor skills to work, but your memory and a lot more, according to physicians…so consider it a neurological fountain of youth to let the keyboard rest and put ink to notebook. If you want to have an easier time absorbing new skills when it comes to math, music or foreign alphabets. The Journal of Cognitive Science can assure you that symbols written by hand are more likely to be retained by your brain.

The power of the branded pen is a gift that keeps on giving to your business

Every society on the planet agrees that part of receiving a gift is not only gratitude but the honor bound action of giving something back in return. Human programmed by nature and nurture through the law of reciprocity. And the norms of culture to respond favorably if we give something, even something small.

Integrated marketing is wise and to strike the right balance. Requires the assistance of a marketing specialist. Who can tailor your digital and print campaign into client luring perfection just for you. However, as companies pour money into media and giant marketing techniques believing they are most effective. They may be wasting time and money. Your basic branded pen is a formidable ally towards growth. It can lead the way in front of an array of other key marketing tools from complete professional stationery and business cards to other promotional items such as apparel to tech items.

If you are still having a hard time believing that something as simple as a branded pen can be such a strong force for your brand recognition. Here are 2 reasons you should be a believer:

1. Always at work: For as long as there is ink in a pen (and that’s a very long time), they continue to hustle in your name. Long after deleted email advertising or scrolled ads. They are promoting your brand with each thoughtful stroke. Even if the user isn’t making the conscious effort to pay attention to your company name on their pen. The more they use it, the more the connection strengthened subconsciously. This link will help ensure that they will seek you out when it is time for products and services they need that you can provide. Credit goes to a humble, personalized pen that you were kind enough to give to them at no cost.
2. Pens prove high demand = high exposure: All people, across all demographics want to use them in various scenarios from work to school, to jotting down notes on the phone at home. This desire will not stop any more than our busy lives will slow down and this is fantastic news if you want to promote yourself without spending a lot of money.

If you take a look at a study released by ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute) it will encourage you to compare the cost of branded pens to other types of marketing.  The study says that imprinting pens costs around 1/10th of a cent per impression. Which equates to approximately $1 per thousand impressions. To compare, your average online advertising costs about $20 – $30 per thousand.

It might not surprise you to find out that going to a marketing services provider and printing sharp looking professional branded pens is inexpensive, but the payback in terms of gratitude, brand recognition, positive reputation boost and recall makes the power of the pen too great to turn down.

Let Minuteman Press Burnaby help you to promote your business. Contact us at 604.451.9185 or contact@minutemanburnaby.com.