We stay on top of schedules with our smartphones and our laptops, but we need our calendars in front of us.
People count on calendars given to them by their local dentist or doctors’ offices, landscapers, real estate agents and favorite restaurants for offline organization. In fact, according to the ASI 2020 Global Ad Impressions Study, 62% of people own promo calendars and 52% keep them for 1 year or longer.
Your business should be the one that provides the annual calendar that people look forward to every year. With the right design, quality paper and help, they will take your branded calendar along with them if pocket-sized, on the wall, hanging in the kitchen and even jumbo-sized for convenient reference without glasses!
Getting your business designed and printed into a calendar connects you to your community in a functional yet personal way if you have a few clever ideas. If you don’t, fear not: Marketing experts DO.
Here are 3 reasons calendars work to keep your brand top-of-mind for customers:
1. The timing is perfect: People of every age and professionals within every industry must work with clock time to achieve goals, so a printed calendar represents a universally needed printed tool. It is common for many to become accustomed to yearly calendars from their favorite businesses and the timing is simply perfect. An upcoming year full of possibilities delivered by your brand is perceived as a generosity at just the right moment.
2. Lasting loyalty: Since you are guaranteed a year of freshly printed pages, each a chance to highlight something special about your products and services. Think about capturing the attention of current and potential clients every single day for a year. You become a fixture in their awareness and when needed you will not be forgotten.
3. “All that” AND not pricey: You will likely agree to approve printing a most outstanding design that is less expensive than fancier promotional items. Once you have a professional designer on your side you have 12 blank canvases within which you can boost sales. From there, they are easy to manage and give away, including by direct mail.
We all get the same days, weeks and months and the greatest branded calendars are the ones that stand out for all the right reasons. Those that your audience will choose to carry or hang up because they either want to show it off or they love your business. With the right help, both can be true.
Stunning calendars with photorealistic images: Thanks to digital printing, images so realistic are possible and may even prompt requests for a few extra copies.
Getting your design done well is an act of investing in the future of your business. In this way some people will come back to you in hopes of staying on your calendar list.
Here are 5 ways to print calendars that will entice people to use, show off, and hang them up in highly visible areas:
1. Let your customers “get their hands dirty” with the design: We live in the age of carefully planned interactions. Use this to your advantage by asking current clients for their best photos for potential use in your business calendar. You could outline specifics that include images related to your industry or not at all. Ask for photos that make people feel special and keep it personal such as their pets, kids’ art or their own profession in action.
You will be giving everyone extra special attention and you could take advantage of direct mail to initiate this enjoyable group project.
2. Print something of value on each month: August’s page may include a coupon for your latest product at a steal. October’s page may include a seasonal coloring contest for children that can win every participant a prize imprinted with your brand (with the grand prize coming in the form of a branded t-shirt). Or simply include coupons – lots of them.
3. You have 12 chances to show off with localized photos and illustrations … USE THEM! If you are located in the country, the skies will be painted with heavenly sunsets and lush fields or hills – all of them could be settings for your branded vehicle or logo. All of them will spark community pride.
The same powers to “take their breath away” is yours if you serve clients near a major city. Skyscrapers or other photos of local architecture help your brand rule the field of vision in offices and homes all year.
4. Be a storyteller: Facts and figures that are of highly-localized interest are another way to keep that community pride growing around your business. You could include how you started or grew your business and mention any obstacles you defeated along the way. (We all have at least ONE major obstacle that put a wrinkle in our recent growth.)
5. Personalize your printed calendars and add fun extras like stickers: People and businesses enjoy seeing their names in print and they will love seeing their branding on your calendar. Perhaps you can print some stickers representing the logos or names of top clients and include them on December’s page.
DESIGN TIP: Make sure your company information is imprinted on each page and trust your designer to make your brand visually appealing while keeping nice, white space for people to doodle or write in important dates.
Ultimately, if you print business calendars and are consistent every year with getting them done and making them great, people will love your business for it. And, most importantly, they will remember you when the time is right for them to contact you for your products and services.