Most businesses know that an effective print marketing campaign is essential to get their brand noticed by the broadest audience.

Here’s exactly how to plan, develop and manage your print marketing strategy, boosting your companies visibility and producing the most robust return on your investment.

Print marketing is any advertisement for your business that is in the physical form rather than online. A print marketing campaign is generally implemented to promote a specific product launch or to advertise a sale.

The best campaigns use a rounded approach and combine a mixture of marketing materials, including flyers, roller banners and window displays. Your print marketing campaign will also complement your online materials, allowing you to attract new customers from all angles.

For your print advertising to be successful, a thorough plan is essential.

Before you begin planning any designs, you need to focus on your goals and targets for the campaign. Your final target should be crystal clear to allow you to implement the best strategy. Some examples of clear, tangible goals may include:

• To sell 1000 products within 12 weeks of launch
• To have over 5000 customers on a monthly mailing list
• To increase sales by 50% over the next six months

With a solidified goal in place, you will be able to develop a campaign that allows you to reach this target and catapult your business success.

Understanding your target market is essential, regardless of whether you are focusing on print or digital marketing.

For example, if you are a hairdresser, your target market is likely within a ten-mile radius of your salon. Therefore, delivering leaflets and brochures in cities across the country will be entirely redundant.

Delving more deeply, ensure you are investing in the materials your ideal market will actually enjoy. Do they engage more with leaflets, brochures or business cards? Or maybe a combination of them all? Cohesive research at this stage will save you vast amounts of time and money in the weeks and months to come.

There are many costs involved with print marketing, and calculating a realistic budget is essential before any work gets underway. Expenses you will need to consider include:

• Hiring any freelancers or staff. This may include graphic designers or copywriters, who will ensure your final design is perfect.
• Printing costs. These prices will vary dramatically based on the type and amount of materials you wish to be printed.
• Leasing any space. The cost of renting billboard space or window displays will need to be factored into your overall marketing budget.
• Attending conventions. Depending on your sector, you may wish to participate in a convention or fair to advertise your brand. Here, you will need to consider the cost of renting the stand, the relevant materials required, and the budget for staff.

Of course, the materials need to look incredible.

Every item should encapsulate your brand entirely, highlighting the product, service, or offer this campaign was intended for. In addition, your logo and brand identity should be instantly recognisable, meaning your company colours and typography should be cohesive across the campaign.

Aside from looking incredible, the information on these promotional materials should be clear, concise, and engaging. Your reader needs to be drawn in by the text, and it should include a strong call to action.

If you choose to keep costs low and write the copy yourself, ensure you stick to short, snappy text which immediately conveys the information your reader needs.

The quality of your product needs to be excellent to grab the attention of your intended audience. You are likely trying to stand out in a saturated market, and therefore using the best quality materials is essential.

Launching your campaign at the perfect time is also crucial to success.

For example, if your marketing materials are seasonal, they must align perfectly. Launching a Christmas themed product in September will not be effective, but equally mid-way through December will likely be too late to encourage customers to act.

Teasers in the lead up to your campaign are a great way to create excitement, encouraging customers to act upon the advertisements immediately.

Monitoring the progress of your print marketing campaign is essential.

It allows you to understand the return on your investment and implement tweaks leading into your next strategy. Unfortunately, quantifiable results can be much harder to obtain in comparison to online marketing, with the results often being much less reliable. However, there are two easy tools to help your company produce a measurable report.

The first is to add a QR code to your marketing materials. These can be added to any document, including flyers, leaflets or even roller banners. This QR code will direct your reader to a dedicated landing page, where they will be prompted to buy your product or service. The analytics from this web page will then give you an insight into how successful your marketing materials are.

Alternatively, the marketing product could double as a coupon to be redeemed in your physical premises. You can then compare the number of vouchers issued with the amount brought back to the store, allowing you to determine how effective your campaign was.

Set out key points at which you will analyse the metrics of your marketing campaign. Monitoring at 3, 6 and 12 weeks is a great starting point, allowing you to understand how quickly the campaign attracts new customers.

For over forty years, IPW1 has been supplying top quality printing services throughout London and the South-East. We work with a spectrum of clients ranging from independent retailers to luxury brands in the west end.