As a business owner, you know how important it is to stay top of mind with your customers. One easy and effective way to do this is through the use of printed calendars. Not only are they practical, but they also serve as a year-long marketing tool for your business.
At QinPrinting we work every day with businesses just like yours, helping you design and print the most effective marketing materials possible. And we know from over 25 years of success in the business that one of the most enduring and successful formats is the promotional calendar. But there's a lot goes into making a successful calendar for your business. So, to get you off to a great start, we'd like to share with you seven inspiring design ideas to make your business stand out with printed calendars.
The importance of printed calendars for businesses
Printed calendars have been around — and been popular — for centuries, and for good reason. They provide a tangible way for people to stay organized and keep track of important dates. Even in the age of digital devices, printed calendars still hold a special place in people's hearts. When you, as a business, create, design, and print, your own branded calendar targeted with care to your customers' needs and interests, you put in their hands a physical reminder of your brand that they can use every day.
For businesses, printed calendars are a powerful, eye-catching, and cost-effective marketing tool. They offer year-long exposure to your brand, as well as a way to promote your products, services, and events. Every time someone looks at your calendar they'll be reminded of your business and the message you are trying to convey. People also tend to display calendars in prominent places where other people will see them, too. So, your promotional calendar becomes an effective brand advocate which has the potential to be seen by dozens, or hundreds, or even thousands, more eyeballs than just those of the one customer to whom you send it.
Different types of printed calendars
There are many different types of printed calendars to choose from, depending on your business needs. Some popular options include wall calendars, desk calendars, pocket calendars, and three-month-view calendars. Each type offers its own unique benefits and can be customized to fit your branding. Just choose your preferred size, paper type, layout, artwork or photographs, and add your logo and business details.
Wall calendars are great for businesses that want to make a big impression. They are large, eye-catching, and can feature beautiful imagery related to your brand or your core customer demographic's main interests. Desk calendars are perfect for offices and workspaces, and so they lend themselves as corporate gifts or additions to any B2B incentivization package, for example. Pocket calendars are small and portable, making them ideal for people on-the-go. Magnet calendars can be placed on refrigerators or other metal surfaces, providing year-long visibility for your brand. Which calendar type you choose depends on the specifics of your campaign. But once you know who you want to target, you should soon figure out which of the many basic formats will best serve your needs. If you're not sure, just get in touch and we'll be happy to chat through the options with you.
Benefits of custom calendar printing
While your top-level motive for developing a branded custom calendar for your business may be marketing and promotion, remember that a custom calendar allows you to showcase your brand in a unique and creative way. The more personalized, well-thought-out, and high-value your calendar is, the more effective it will be. You can choose the size, shape, and design of your calendar, as well as the images and messages you want to include. This level of customization ensures that your calendar stands out and reflects your brand's personality, but make sure that it also delivers information and entertainment to your targets.
Custom calendar printing also allows you to include important dates and events related to your business. This can be a great way to promote your products, services, and special offers throughout the year. You can also include your logo, contact information, and social media handles to encourage engagement with your brand. Adding scannable QR codes is an easy and effective way to use your printed calendars to drive web traffic, too.
Ideas for designing custom printed calendars
We hope you'll have a reasonable appreciation of the potential importance of printed calendars and the benefits of custom calendar printing for your business. But the question is, how do you make sure that your calendar is designed in such a way as to secure a positive return on your investment? Much of your calendar's success comes down to design. So, let's dive into some inspiring design ideas for your business.
1. Showcase your products or services
Feature your products or services in a creative way throughout the calendar. This could include high-quality images, descriptions, and special offers related to each product or service. We've learned over the years that an indirect approach is often the most effective. So, resist the temptation to turn all your pages into splash ads! A more subtle approach is better by far.
Let's say your company sells fishing gear for sports anglers. An effective approach might be to have beautiful full-color photographs of lakes and rivers ideal for fishing to inspire interest and provoke a positive emotional response in your targets — keen fishers who love the great outdoors. But then throw in other images, too, such as a group of friends having a drink in the bar, laughing and smiling and sharing fishing stories (we imagine); and sure enough the fishing bag, rods, tackle, and so on, on the floor, table, and nearby bench are from your range and clearly display your brand.
You want your images to create a positive emotional response in the viewer and to link that response with your brand.
2. Highlight your team
Another great design idea we've seen work very effectively — especially for service industries or consultancies — in which a touch of the personal is a vital element of the business model — is to include photos and short biographies of your team members to showcase the people behind your brand. This can help build trust and connection with your customers through giving your company a human face. It's especially effective when you show your team doing what they do, rather than just the predictable head-and-shoulders “mug shot”.
3. Feature customer testimonials
You should always be soliciting feedback from happy customers and business partners. You can do that on your custom product packaging, your direct mail catalogs, via your email list, and in a dozen other ways. But don't just read the kind words and feel smug — put the testimonials to good use! Adding customer testimonials throughout your custom calendar to showcase the positive impact your business has had on people's lives is a proven and powerful way to build social proof and credibility. Of course, you may need to ask permission or you can build consent into your feedback acquisition mechanism. But people are deeply persuaded by personal testimony. So, don't miss a trick when you're designing your custom promotional calendar.
4. Use seasonal themes
Incorporate seasonal themes throughout the calendar to keep it fresh and engaging. This could include images and messaging related to holidays, temporal seasons, or special events. And be sure to make note of any significant anniversaries of relevance to your target audience. The opening and closing of the salmon fishing season, say, to use our previous example. Or the dates of significant national competitions, and so on. Including those vastly increases the chances of the recipient keeping, displaying and interacting with the calendar.
5. Include inspiring quotes
Everybody loves inspiring quotations. You only need to spend a few minutes scrolling through your favorite social media to see that! You can make the quotes discreet in the “footer” area of your calendar's pages or have them up front and central to the main media section of your spread. Overlaying quotes over a suitable image is a powerful technique often used online to generate viral memes. The same principle works in print, too. Link the quotes to famous personalities in your field or draw examples from popular culture.
6. Promote your social media
Don't forget about the power of your printed marketing to integrate with your online presence. use your calendar to promote your social media handles to encourage engagement with your brand. You could also feature user-generated content from your social media followers in the body of the calendar itself or run online competitions to help generate images, memes, comments, and feedback which could all be used to provide meaningful content in the next calendar you print.
7. Partner with a non-profit
Consumers are increasingly aware of the impact that their purchasing decisions have on social and environmental issues. Partnering with a non-profit organization related to your business or industry and perhaps donating a portion of the calendar sales towards supporting their cause, provides a way for your business to give back to the community, demonstrate a social and environmental policy, and further build a positive brand image with an engaged public. You could also choose to use only FSC-certified or recycle paper for your calendar. If you make that choice, we can provide you with a legal certification badge to add into your design.
Distributing promotional calendars for businesses
Promotional calendars are a great way to get your brand in front of new customers, but you need to think ahead about where and how to distribute them effectively. You can distribute them at trade shows, conferences, and other events where your target audience is likely to be. You could also include them in customer orders or offer them as a free gift with a purchase, leave them in-store for customers to pick up, or run a highly targeted direct mail campaign based on extensive research.
Tips for maximizing your calendar marketing efforts
To get the most out of your calendar marketing efforts, consider the following tips:
- Use social media to promote your calendar and encourage engagement with your brand
- Offer special discounts or promotions related to your calendar
- Use your calendar as a way to collect customer data, such as email addresses and phone numbers, for future marketing efforts
- Track your calendar's success by measuring engagement and sales related to the calendar
Interested in printing a calendar? Let's talk!
In conclusion, printed calendars are a powerful marketing tool for businesses of all sizes. By customizing your calendar with unique design ideas, you can make your brand stand out and stay top of mind with your customers throughout the year. Remember to choose the right calendar printing services, have a plan for distribution, and maximize your calendar marketing efforts to get the most out of this cost-effective marketing tool.
For the best pricing, highest quality, and quickest turnaround time on any type or style of calendar, printing with us is always a good business decision. No matter your target recipients or the purpose of your calendar printing project, we'll give you the best pricing, the most professional service, and the highest quality product you can imagine. So, let's talk. We can't wait to make your next calendar the most beautiful yet.
