5 Ways to Use Calendar Printing for Marketing Your Business
Calendar marketing may appear like a sure thing at face value. After all, everyone needs a calendar, and who doesn’t like something that is free? The problem is, you’re competing with Anne Geddes’ babies in giant peapods and Australia’s most beautiful landscapes… it just isn’t a level playing field! You need to have a well planned strategy for using calendar printing for marketing your business – it should be a well-defined method by which you’ll be promoting the use of your business. Branding is tough in the world of calendars – but there are plenty of other ways to make your printed calendars count! So lets explore them.
Provide as giveaways – insert your sale periods in the calendar
With just a little planning, you’ll be able to tell customers the best times to shop around at your store, and make the most of promotional offers. Don’t shade out the squares of your sales periods- compromising the usefulness of your calendar could cause it to be dumped completely. You can design a little reminder into the main picture area of the calendar as well, to help ensure it has reached to the target.
Provide as giveaways – insert car service or regular appointment reminders on it
Does your business regularly keep contact with your customers? There is a surprising number of businesses that can use variable data calendar printing to create calendars that are fully customized for the recipient. For example:
Mechanics can infix the dates of 3, 6 and 12 month services for their customer’ cars on a calendar and send it to them.
Dentists and doctors can add in the dates when cleans, checkups and maintenance is required for their customers
Farmers can mark the date of expected maturation of their different crops on calendars and send it to their suppliers and partners.
Provide as giveaways – mark public holidays where people might buy from you
If your business follows similar patterns to many, you will have several times of year when you are very busy and many weeks when you are quite. Use giveaway calendars for little marketing messages during the hectic times. You could say “Remember to pop into Sam’s Floral Shop for your Mother’s Day flowers today!”, or “Have you ordered your Christmas ham from Lovely Legs Butchers? Don’t miss out!” in your calendar printing.
As pure branding for sub-niches of your customers
If you are lucky enough to belong to an emotionally-controlled industry, you have plenty of opportunity to do branding for your business with calendar printing. Many people actually have plenty of emotion attached to their business – you just need to tap into what the consumer is using your product for, in emotional terms. If you are in the nut-and-bolt industry, have your calendar printing company design something where the Eiffel Tower, a Porsche 911 and a Harley Davidson feature evidently. Or if you sell televisions, then images of people relaxing and snuggling up on the couch or kids playing in the lounge are great starting points. Find the emotion that is appropriate for your business and use it in your calendars. Try not to be too persuasive with this tactic; ensure your logo is prominent, but don’t try to overtly push aside your products. They have to enjoy the images for what they are, and connect them with your business without feeling eccentric.
Use as a coupon delivery system
Good old McDonald’s… if you were young during the eighties and nineties, you probably remember the pleasure of a new McDonalds printed calendar coming out, with a different special for every week. Low-dollar value, high customer-satisfaction stores can do this very successfully.