Strategy #3

Your business if running well and looks healthy. Your customers have been given great care, and you're looking after your bottom line. But are you looking after your brand?

Here's some helpful tips to see if your design and print strategy may need a healthcheck:-
1) The way your brand appears varies. Your website has a completely different look and feel from your marketing literature, and your packaging is different again.

2) You're not even sure any more whether your branding truly reflects your company's vision and values.

3) There are multiple versions of your logo floating around the company.

4) Customers confuses your brand with another company's, hopefully not a competitor.

5) You order your printing from half a dozen printers, your costs are out of control and you have no idea who has ordered what. Not only would your printed materials look different, coming from different printers means you could have slight colour differences.

6) The content, look and feel of your materials change so much that customers think you've created sub-divisions.

7) The stationary room is full of boxes of forms with the date field featuring __ / __ / 19__, even worse, everyone is using them!

All Strategies
1. Is your Company Literature up to scratch?
2. Your designs are cheap -> your business looks cheap.
3. How healthy are you?

Strategy #1

How many times have you heard yourself saying you've been meaning to get your company literature up to scratch? You know how crucial it is to engage your potential and existing customers with every manifestation of your business.

So how come your company literature doesn't work quite as hard as it could? Here are some design, layout and content techniques for helping you get dressed for the party.

1) Make all your literature relevant and remember that in terms of the words and design - less is often more. No one's going to slog through boring reading material and cluttered page layouts just because you sent them - even if they like you and your product. Give them a tool they can use.

2) Use plain simple English. Your own working life might be immersed in jargon, but avoid letting them infiltrate your literature. Technical terms and complex scientific charts and illustrations will come across as technobabble. HUGE turn-off.

3) Don't overlook the basics. Essentials like contact details are often overlooked. Make sure the customer knows how to get a hold of you if they want more information - your address, a telephone number, mobile number, email address, website address. Make sure it is easy for them to find you, no one wants to research for your existence.

4) Insist that your designer uses a font which can be read easily. Calligraphy-style writing may look pretty on a gift card, but will you like to enjoy reading a whole page like that? Check your font size, not too big, and not too small.

5) Make the design easy on the eyes, fun and funky designs don't have to mean that paragraph one is nowhere near paragraph two. Looking good can still make sense.

6) When it comes to your customers, size does matter. Be sure that the innovative new product spec you've requested will still fit your customer's filing cabinet.

7) If you are going to be re-using old photographs - be careful! While the photograph may still be an accurate one of your product, the man in the 70's suit holding it may make it look decidedly dated.

8) Be sure to proof-read your literature carefully! Spelling mistakes look sloppy and will reflect the type of business you are.

All Strategies
1. Is your Company Literature up to scratch?
2. Your designs are cheap -> your business looks cheap.
3. How healthy are you?