Family

Thanksgiving dinner is a common theme for marketing during this time of year, but rather than using a photograph of a family at the dinner table with a large turkey in the center, try a different approach. For a funny tone, use a picture of Uncle Ed snoring on the sofa with his mouth wide open. Or for advertising for a restaurant, use a picture of Mom dropping the turkey on the kitchen floor with a subtitle mentioning your delicious turkey dinner available for just such an emergency.

Pilgrims

Incorporate the Pilgrim story and legends into your promotional materials for touching on the heart of the holiday. You may want to include the first Thanksgiving story into your brochures or catalogs to entice readers to open the cover. Or you may want to use images from this historical account. Play on the message of the Pilgrim theme such as giving, sharing, and thanksgiving with free gifts or discounts.

Cornucopia

The cornucopia can also be called the “horn of plenty,” which can be spun into nearly any marketing message. Plus, a cornucopia gives many color options, from the orange of pumpkins to the purple and green of grapes. The harvest theme can also include autumn leaves, which give another array of color – greens, golds, reds, browns, and oranges are all options for a Thanksgiving graphic design.

Whatever theme you decide to use for your brochures, postcards, flyers, or catalogs this year, be unique but don’t stray too far from tradition. Thanksgiving gives plenty of options for creating a one-of-a-kind marketing campaign that still connects with the holiday spirit and with your customers.

Design tips by Susana Ortiz:

When designing an image take advantage of the Adobe Photoshop’s Eye Dropper Tool, as seen above. Below are the step-by-step instructions.

1. Select the Eye Dropper Tool
2. Change Sample Size to “31 by 31 Average” (or higher, depending on the size of image)
3. Sample different areas and create new swatches to use for text or design elements in your artwork.

Look for more design tips by Susana next week!

Select a Custom Greeting Card Template – Most professional printing firms will supply you with downloadable templates to help you lay out the design of your custom card.  Think about whether you want a horizontal or vertical card, flat or folded and the size you prefer. Then check the templates your online printer provides. Once you have downloaded the correct template, you can begin designing your custom greeting card using your favorite software.

Choose a Theme  -  Choose a theme for your greeting card, such as a holiday or special occasion.  This is an important step so that you know what kind of graphics and text to put on your custom greeting cards.  There are an abundance of themed images for public use that can be found on the internet and many that are often paired with certain software programs. The sheer number of available graphics can be overwhelming, so having an idea in mind helps keep you able to narrow down your selections. Think about designs you have seen and liked, and try to incorporate a few of those elements into your own card.

Get Your Graphics – Once you’ve decided on your theme, you can start collecting your graphics.  Keep in mind that most internet images are 72 dots-per-inch, but all professional printing should be done at a minimum 300 dots-per-inch.  Some software programs come with a library of images and graphics usually sorted by theme and category. However, there are also many excellent resources online for free and legal high resolution graphics, such as Stock Exchange.  The number and scope of graphics available can be awe-inspiring; so entering into your search with a good design idea in mind can help you narrow your search results accordingly.

Arrange Your Text and Graphics  – Once you have gathered your graphics, you can begin to arrange them on your template.  Keep your original theme in mind and use fonts that are easy to read.  Remember when designing your card to not over-do it – keep your design clean and readable, so your theme and message gets across easily. If these are custom greeting cards for your business, don’t forget to include your logo and contact information.

Proof and Print  – Finally, print off a test copy, usually referred to as a proof, to make sure what you see on your screen is what you’re going to get.  Once everything looks right, save your file, and send it to your favorite print shop.  Unless you are only printing only a few of your custom greeting cards, you should strongly consider using a professional print shop to print them as they will more than likely save you money and get you better results. Online printers also have a variety of paper stocks, coatings and other options available to make your custom card even more eye-catching.

BONUS TIP – Make It Extra Special – Check with your online printer to see what extras might be available to dress up your greeting card. A UV coating can make the simplest card look rich. A High Gloss UV coating adds a brilliant, eye-popping lacquer-like finish to the card, while a Dull UV coating gives the card a rich, matte-satin look and feel. Don’t forget to have your online printer  add scoring and/or folding to your card to make it easy to prepare for mailing.

Using these six steps will help you design and create a custom greeting card your business will be proud send to all your friends, clients and business associates!

Custom folders are an attention grabber – A beautiful design on the glossy cover of your presentation folder will catch the attention of your audience. The design can be customized to the presentation of a new product being launched or simply a representation of your business logo, large and prominently placed.  Custom folders immediately give your audience something to focus their attention on and can help guide their attention throughout the presentation. Instead of the audience’s mind wandering, they can focus on your folder and the information it contains.

Custom folders inspire confidence in your product – Selling is all about the confidence you have that your product can meet your customer’s needs. In addition to your spoken presentation and the points made in it, a custom folder gives the audience an impression of the confidence you have that your product will meet their needs. When your customers have confidence in your abilities, having your name and logo on the cover of a custom folder gives credence to all that it contains. Customers will trust your recommendation because they trust your judgment.

Custom folders hold information – Without the use of custom folders, at the end of your speech the audience will stand up and walk out perhaps never again thinking about the information you presented. With a custom folder, all of the information your customers need can be placed inside ahead of time, and when they prepare to leave they can take all of that information away with them. Custom folders are often printed with the business name and have a place to hold business cards inside in addition to product brochures and other marketing information. Organizing all of this information neatly for your customer helps bolster their confidence that you can manage their needs as well as you can manage your presentation.

There are many different areas that marketing practices can be greened up as well as many areas of green responsibility that your business can market. Trends of conservations, responsibility, and value will continue to grow in the business marketing arena. Use the ideas below to help form a strategy of green marketing practices for your business that will be better for you and your customers.

• Choose the Right Vendors – A large part of marketing is printed material in the form of advertising brochures and posters, direct mail advertising, labels, and packaging. Many of these items are sourced to other vendors. Make sure you are aware of the practices of vendors before hiring them. If you are not sure, ask about their green practices. A printing company should be managing waste in two ways: by avoiding it and by recycling it. The paper stock they use for brochures, posters, labels, etc.,  may have recycled material in its composition. Inks should be vegetable based inks and inks with low volatile organic compound emissions being used, as opposed to petroleum based inks.                                                                                                                                                                       
• Eliminate Your Office Waste – In addition to choosing vendors who are environmentally responsible, find ways you can eliminate waste in your own business. Take note and ask employees to report environmentally responsible practices they notice around the office. From energy efficient office equipment to healthy green grounds that help clean the air, measure and document as much as possible the savings your business is  doing.                                                                                                                                                                  
• Alert Your Customers – Finally, be sure to let customers know about the efforts you are making to use and encourage green practices in the marketing realm and in business operations. Add a little note to brochures, posters, and labels that they are printed on paper using inks with low volatile organic compound emissions. Add a paragraph to your sales brochures about your business’s green marketing and operations practices and about how you encourage vendors to use them as well. The collective reduction all of these little changes make adds up to be a big difference for you, your customers and future generations.

• Stand out in a crowd – At any business event where everyone is passing out their business cards, attendees usually come away at the end of the day with a handful of contact cards. Yours should accurately and uniquely represent your company. Don’t make the mistake of creating a design that gets lost in the crowd, but rather one that stands out.
• Subliminal messages – The meanings of colors is a powerful way to convey certain feelings. Taking the time to research the different messages that each color sends will result in more than just a colorful card, it will also send the right kind of message.
• Tactile advantages – One important aspect to business card printing that many people forget about is the feel of the card. When touching your card, a client will associate any unusual tactile sensation with your personality. Try velvet for a more gentle message or sharp edges for an “all-business” corporate association.
• Quality stock – Using cheap paper tells others that what you have to offer is cheap. Prospects will have trouble believing that your product has the best features of any available if your contact information is printed on flimsy, low-quality stock.
• Speak clearly – The typography you choose for your text needs to not only represent your business image but should also be easy to read. Business cards do not allow for large a font, which means that the type of font you use should be easily readable in a small size. Too many curlicues will hide the shape of the letters, so opt for something a little more easy to see.

Always consider these five aspects of design before printing business cards to insure that yours accurately and uniquely represents your company image.