Marketing

Print Marketing: The Tried and True Way to Share Your New Business

As the world becomes more digital than ever, most of the time people tend to focus all of their attention exclusively on digital marketing. While we would absolutely recommend you invest in high quality and comprehensive marketing materials, we felt it would also be good to address some of the more traditional methods of marketing: print advertising!

Print can be used to produce flyers, door hangers, postcards, brochures, newsletters, and yard signs used to advertise your business both locally and via postal mail. A quick google search will yield several affordable local printing options so you get the best deals, but we’ve provided some of the most affordable options from online vendors.

Download All our business resources

Who To Target

Repetition and top of mind is key. It’s far better to market to 1,000 clients 10 times than 10,000 clients one time. When you’re designing your traditional marketing strategy, you should abide by the rule of seven, or ensure there are at least seven opportunities for customers to see your advertisement as it generally takes that many impressions before they make a purchase. For example, a customer might pass by a yard sign advertising your business 1 or more times, see a flyer or stack of business cards for your business, see a Facebook or Instagram ad for your business, and then receive a postcard in the mail that talks about your business with a discount.

Ask to put up yard signs in neighborhoods you’re targeting
Go door to door in neighborhoods talking to people and leaving business cards on their door if they’re not home – especially if you just did work in the area. This is particularly effective in subdivisions where you perform outside services, like pressure washing, painting, or landscaping.
After performing work in an area, send a postcard to everyone in that neighborhood with a new customer discount.
Share your print materials with other tradesmen and local business organizations while networking. You can also keep them in the loop on any discounts or special offers you may be running, so that they’ll know to step on the gas when promoting your services!
Local stores and non-profits are also an option; some will allow you to leave your prints at one of the front desks, a bulletin, or will add a sign to the outside of their business. Churches, hardware stores, gas stations, law offices, gyms, and banks are particularly effective as they target new residents who just moved in and are actively looking for services like those you offer.
Brochures and card racks work for places like doctor’s offices (which seniors, in particular frequent), vets, mechanics, or hotspots where people will be waiting around for a while.

Design

It’s important that you take the time to fully flesh out the design strategy of your marketing materials before you start coming up with ideas! Ask yourself what you want to communicate with your design. Remember, certain colors, fonts, and graphic designs all elicit a different subconscious response from the viewer, so make your selection carefully.

Purchasing

There are a number of options for purchasing print materials – and oftentimes, you can have them created alongside your website and logo for a comprehensive design and cheaper price. Design contest sites where you can pick from a number of designs like 99designs and 48 Hours Logo in particular offer great deals by bundling offers.

Alternatively, if you don’t have the funds to have your print materials professionally designed, you can use pre-made templates from websites like DesignCrowd, Postcard Mania, My Creative Shop, or create your own custom designs using a drag-and-drop designer like Canva, which has templates, and VistaPrint for free. VistaPrint in particular offers the best deal for printing print materials.

Door Hangers: 500 at $75.74
Brochures: 250 at $165.74
Rack Cards: $92.20 for 500 $92.20 and brochure holders for $9 each.
Booklets: 250 @ $318.00

However, local printing companies will offer the best discounts on printed materials, are a great opportunity for networking, and can often handle mailing and distribution, which will save you time and money since you won’t have to purchase permits.

Continue your journey to a successful business

improve your business

Get top-rated features and support for a fraction of the price with FieldPulse’s all-in-one business management software for tradesmen.