Break the Mould with Creative Ad Forms
For fledgling businesses and for those wanting to get their name out among the competition, there can often be the problem that, while the product or service is sound and even highly-specialized for its field, the business is quietly being overlooked by the majority of potential clients. Certainly, investing thousands of pounds of revenue into advertising would be one way, but what about cheaper, more involved ways of doing things? In this article we’ll discuss inexpensive ways to make sure your company is remembered above all the rest.
What we’re looking for is that indefinable element of interest that says ‘we’re different’, so what we choose has to be creative and, above all, new. There are several variations on traditional business promotion that we’ll look at, each one geared towards personalization that will ensure that you are remembered. Once your prospective clients are face-to-face with your company name, they need something to tether that name to – and here’s your chance; will they file it along with the other possibilities, or will they remember the gesture, the interesting way they came into contact with your services, that was unique in its manner?
The immediate area of contact where something can be done is the humble business card. Many providers will provide less-than-personalized templates, fonts, and other such variables. Despite this, most business cards look, essentially, the same. An alternative is to acquire your own business card paper, or even some exotic printable paper, and design and print your own highly-personalized business cards using a inkjet printer. With a bit of thought, you’ll have something that, when you present it, will really stand out from the clinical off-white bores.
A good way to keep your service at the forefront of your clients’ viable options is through promotional gifts. However, they have become so ubiquitous as pens, folders, and golfing umbrellas that they are barely noticed anymore. Choose inexpensive but unusual gift ideas: puzzles, USB devices, indispensable pocket tools – whatever you choose, make it applicable to your business, and make sure you would be prepared to carry the thing around personally! Having a gift idea unlike all the others will have a much longer shelf-life under the noses of your prospective customers or clients.
Now we’re moving with the idea of limelight, what about creating and printing your own unique business postcards? There are several office solutions to doing this, but the main thing to focus on is, again, creativity in what will show on the postcard front – wise sayings, sterling customer testimonials, or something entirely different and unheard of. There is a lot to think about when producing a business postcard, but remember that it’s essentially a mobile form of promotion, passed between one prospective customer and the next – sketch down some ideas and don’t be afraid to try them out.
As said before, there are a whole host of ways in which you can turn these tangible promotional forms into exemplary evidence of your business presence. The key to success here is individuality – take a look at the existing forms and see where you can diverge from here to make something unique with nothing more than the usual desktop software and a printer.
