6 instant ways to use print marketing to increase business (for just a few quid).

There are lots of things you can do instantly to increase business with little expense, a small amount of effort and the right strategy! Here are six to get you started…

#1 Loyalty cards

As a small biz it’s much more challenging to keep customers coming back. You need a loyalty scheme. Online loyalty schemes can be quite expensive and complex to manage so why bother, keep it simple!

Print loyalty marketing is tried and tested. All you need is a simple business card with 10 boxes on the reverse for you to cross off each time your customer visits. We do recommend ordering a unique stamp of your own to prevent fraud.

When your customer has collected 10 stamps you ask for the card to be filled out with their name and contact details and give them their reward – along with their next card. Simple.

#2 Referral cards

When you have a loyal customer base (see above) you can guarantee they will want to tell all of their friends how great you are! Everyone likes to be the one in the know! So make it easy for them to recommend you and to encourage them to do so – give them something in return.

All you need is a simple business card (sound familiar?) with blank areas for your customer and recommended customer details to be added. Now you can trace the referral and collect your new customer’s details when they hand you the card.

#3 Vouchers

By giving current customers the opportunity to buy vouchers as gifts you are essentially offering another referral opportunity. You can either offer Vouchers for a monetary value – ‘Here’s a £25 Voucher to spend at….. Or you can provide service or product specific vouchers ‘Enjoy your massage at….. with no obvious monetary amount.

Whilst we mostly design and print vouchers at DL (99×210) or A5 sizes which, again, keeps your costs minimal, you do need to ensure they are not easy to copy. This can be done by ‘blinging your print’ using foil, metallic papers and clear security varnish (not expensive!) which also helps to give your voucher a higher perceived value as a gift item.

#4 Coupons

Everyone is used to coupons for supermarkets, so why not your business?

Coupons tend to stick around, particularly on fridges, for a long time and keep reminding your customers you exist. We can even print them on a magnetic paper to ensure they don’t lose the battle for the last fridge magnet!

Coupons can be as simple designed as a multiple business card (with me?) divided by perforations or you can use a leaflet format to carry more information and have a perforated coupon at the bottom. Again, it’s not going to break the bank.

Make a great offer and ensure that your customer has filled out the reverse with their details to redeem it.

 

Fratelli-Ampthill-Woburn-review-card

Fratelli Trip Advisor Review Card

#5 Reviews

If you are looking for a local restaurant or service, chances are, you’re going to look for a good review before making a decision. You need reviews to support your business, so just to keep it simple, again, use a business card to point your happy customers online where they can leave a review for you and make sure they don’t leave without one. You can even reward them, too.

#6 Posters

Now, that’s a bit off the wall compared with the above I know, but if you are going to run any or all of the above strategies in your shop or restaurant, you need to let people know about them.

Using posters around your shop, salon or bar will inform people of the existence of your new marketing campaign and encourage take up of your great offers.

Poster printing is not expensive for the few you need, so you can change your offer, or cycle the offer, rather than cramming three posters around one mirror. They also work well on the back of the toilet doors and above hand dryers in pubs and restaurants; and you could back it up with tent cards on tables.

Get started…

Each of the ideas above will work for most consumer based businesses, and even some business to business types too. They work particularly well if you have a local walk-in trade, and most importantly they are measurable, accountable and tangible items with a value. Digital printing, which is what Fidelity Design & Print do, is a low cost way to produce short-runs of printed marketing materials and is ideal for small business owners looking for ways to use print marketing for their own business. We also offer a compete design and print service in Bedford with marketing advice thrown in for free. If you are unsure of what offers to make or how to manage these schemes please do ask us. You also now have five more things to talk about on social media; your new loyalty cards, referral cards, coupon offers, vouchers and review cards. Always a bonus! Get marketing.

You may have noticed that throughout this article I have put emphasis on collecting customer’s information? What do you do with that info?

Find out next… How to collect and use customer data for more effective print marketing