When was the last time you gathered all your marketing materials – business cards, flyers, brochures, posters, banners – and had a thorough review?
Chances are some will be out-of-date, others might not be branded correctly, and you might find some gems you’ve forgotten about.
Reviewing and updating your old marketing materials is a great way to make the most of your budget, it is quicker than starting from scratch and streamlining your marketing will make your message clearer too.
Read on for our top tips for auditing your print marketing materials.
How to Get Started
Gather a print copy of all your business cards, flyers, leaflets, brochures, posters, banners and anything else you might have. Go through them one by one and ask the following questions:
• Are they useful for your current target audience?
• Is your marketing message clear?
• Is the content up-to-date?
• Is the branding up-to-date?
• Does the format work well?
• Do you still have access to the electronic version?
By the end of this stage you should have a pile of materials that are still up-to-date, some that need to be rebranded, others that need the content updating and some to throw away.
Make Sure Your Branding Is Consistent
If you have branding guidelines you should be able to update the branding on your print marketing materials easily. Remember, it’s important to be consistent with branding across the board to make your business instantly recognisable and memorable.
If you don’t have clear guidelines for your brand identity, it’s important to create these, before you start updating your marketing materials. Our guide How to Rebrand Your Business in 7 Steps will help.
Make a Plan for Moving Forward
Before you spend time and money updating your materials, consider whether the format is right. You might decide that your business has moved on so much, it would be better to have a brochure rather than a leaflet, for example, so you can go into more detail.
Make a plan for each piece of marketing and prioritise the projects in order of importance.
See related: How To Plan a Print Marketing Campaign
Resources to Help You
We’ve gathered together some useful information to help you update or redesign your printed materials.
Business Cards are still the easiest way to pass on your contact details. Find out how to design a good business card here, and get information here about Spot UV, an innovative printing technique that we often use on premium cards.
Flyers are inexpensive to produce which makes them useful for letterbox drops and for leaving in places where your target customers will find them. Click through for our top tips how to design the perfect flyer.
Brochures are useful when you want to go into more detail about your products or services. Get some help designing the perfect business brochure here.
Posters, banners and other large format prints are great for in-house displays and for trade shows etc. Find out how to design a large format banner here. http://dev-socialmatrix.co.uk/sbsoriginal/blog-post/how-to-design-a-large-format-banner/
Need Help?
If you need help designing or printing marketing materials for your business, contact us. We offer a range of services for businesses at affordable rates and offer same-day delivery on many products. We look forward to hearing from you.