- Home
- Packaging Products
- Custom Cardboard Box Inserts and Packaging Dividers
Custom Cardboard Box Inserts and Packaging Dividers
Custom box inserts, also known as packaging inserts, dividers, or inlays, do much more than secure products during shipping. They enhance presentation, elevate the unboxing experience, and build brand identity.
Inserts can be plain or printed with logos and marketing messages, using materials like paper, cardboard, or foam. Though simple, they deliver a big impact—strengthening your brand, increasing visibility, boosting customer trust, and driving sales.
What Is a Custom Packaging Insert?
Good question! Here's the answer: an insert, divider, or inlay is anything other than the product which goes inside the box. The simplest insert is a printed marketing flyer, an instruction booklet, a thank you card, or discount offer. But most often, we're talking about custom structures and packing which provide support for the product, protect it from knocks and shocks in transit, and enhance its appearance and presentation when the customer opens the box. So, custom packaging inserts can serve three purposes at the same time:
Position and protect the goods in transit
Marketing, promotion, and brand-building
Enhancing the consumer experience
As you can see, inserts can do a huge amount of work for your business. And because each insert is essentially simple, the capital outlay is low. Once you've fixed on a design you like that's proven its worth in the marketplace, bulk ordering lowers the costs even further.
What Are Box Inserts Made of?
Most inserts are made from cardboard or paper. These may be made from corrugated cardboard, gray board, or card paper. But foam products are also available and may be best suited to certain applications, such as glassware or heavy electronics. We can also make vacuum-formed PVC trays and holders.
Corrugated cardboard is light, strong, and adaptable. You can use it for space filling, blocking and bracing, and making corner pads and dividers.
Gray board is thick, durable, and made from low-grade recycled waste material, so it's environmentally friendly. It's inexpensive and flexible, too. Many companies prefer it for its rugged, natural look.
Card paper is lightweight, takes print exceptionally well, and can be used effectively even in the smallest packages.
Foam packaging (usually polyethylene or polyurethane) can be molded to fit any size or shape of box and product. It's very light even at a large volume. Foam creates a secure, shock-proof environment for sensitive materials such as delicate electronics, glassware, anything with a fine surface that mustn't be scratched, or that has fragile handles, buttons, switches, and so on. Polyethylene is also recyclable.
Vacuum formed PVC inserts can be made quickly and cheaply and offer a precise, snug fit to any shaped object. It's a popular option for many electronic products, foodstuffs, toys, and more.
Packaging Inserts Ideas
We've looked at the various kinds of custom cardboard box inserts, along with alternatives such as foam and PVC packaging. And we've highlighted several ways that your packaging inserts can do more than just protect goods in transit. Now, let's explore the top 10 most powerful advantages of custom box inserts.
1. Low Outlay, High Return
Compared to other options, inserts are cheap to produce and deliver on multiple fronts. While the most powerful inserts are printed with your branding and marketing messages to pack a visual punch and communicate directly with the customer, plain cardboard inserts still elevate your product appearance and enhance the unboxing experience for the consumer. You can go a step further at very little cost by adding a thank-you card or leaflet if you don't want to print the entire interior. And you can make a basic stock box into something special with even the most economical inserts.
2. Laser-Targeted Marketing Power
One of the greatest marketing challenges is reaching the right customers. But who could be a more perfectly targeted prospect than the person who just bought one of your products? Inside the box is a great place to capitalize on the sale to build a stronger connection with the consumer. Inserts can include promo codes, discounts on next purchase offers, requests for reviews, and more.
3. Printed Inserts
Printed inserts may be the most powerful of all as they empower you to communicate direct information about your business, your brand, your unique offers, and your values. As a marketing tool, why not use your printed inserts to suggest other purchases to the customer based on the product they've just unboxed? And you can claim bragging rights if your packaging is made from recycled or sustainably sourced materials. The only limit is your marketing department's imagination!
4. Ready-Made Direct Mailing at No Extra Cost
Direct mailing is still among the most effective marketing methods, whether the mail is electronic or paper. But it's all too easy for your marketing mails to get dumped with the ‘spam' or dropped straight in the garbage can. So, why not see your inserts as a highly targeted direct mail? Using a direct approach, you can drop a sales letter in the box. You can communicate more subtle messaging by the materials and colors you use: plain fiber recycled card inserts for your environmentally friendly product lines, perhaps black gloss card stock with your slogan in gold lettering for your luxury goods; or dense dark gray foam for your high-end electronics.
5. Product Education
It's not all about marketing. Your custom cardboard box inserts provide ample space and opportunity to explain important details about your products — materials from which they're made, where and how they're manufactured, a history of the product type, suggestion for use and applications — along with instructions and other information which will help to enhance the customer's experience with the product.
6. Build Authentic Connections
The quality of the packaging inserts also speaks volumes about how much you value your customers. It's a style of customer care and it helps build an authentic emotional connection between the consumer and your brand. Today, that personalized connection is crucial to set your company apart from the competition.
7. Build Loyalty
There are so many ways to say thank you and to show that you value your customers. Beautiful, thoughtfully designed interior box packaging is one way. But using inserts to offer discount codes, membership deals, and special bonus features can help build customer loyalty as well as drive traffic to your websites and social media. You can also add a gift or sample item as a thank you, which will add a memorable feel-good factor to the unboxing experience and may then lead to further sales.
8. Encouraging Social Interaction
Do you remember the statistic we quoted earlier that 40% of satisfied customers share product packaging on social media and 55% say they decide to buy after watching unboxing videos? That's a big chunk of the market. Making your packaging that bit extra special with printed boxes and custom cardboard box inserts is the surest way to guarantee that the customer will share their experience on their social media. Several unboxing videos have gone viral. In any case, consumer sharing on the socials can represent untold amounts of free, persuasive advertising and exposure for your brand.
9. Environmental Benefits
These days, whether because of a real concern for the planet's future or just to keep up-to-speed with market demands, most businesses try to be more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Cardboard and paper inserts can be recycled and recyclable and also save on non-biodegradable void filling materials such as plastic “packing peanuts” or Styrofoam.
10. Product Feedback
Customer reviews have become a vital aspect of the modern marketplace. You can use box inserts to encourage consumers to review your products. It's as simple as printing them with a review request and details of where and how to leave a review. You can even use a QR code on the packaging to make it as easy and immediate as scanning with a smartphone. A clear call to action with links to your social media is simple, inexpensive, and powerful.
QinPrinting Rated Excellent for Custom Cardboard Box Inserts and Packaging Dividers
Find Out More About Custom Box Inserts and Dividers
What's not to love? Beautiful, adaptable, robust, and affordable, we offer unbeatable custom box and packaging solutions for every budget. Contact us today for an informal chat or to ask for a quote.