Printed Posters: Get the Word Out!
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Printed posters and printed flyers are an inexpensive way to get the word out about your product, service or event. At present, although there are some digital alternatives to flyers or posters, these options do not present the same flexibility or advertising efficiency as printed materials.
Let’s take a look at printed posters and flyers and compare them to the digital alternatives available.
Instead of printing a poster or a flyer, you could try one of the following electronic alternatives:
- Email advertising
- Banner advertising on websites
- Text message advertising
All three of these methods have a cost to them, and it is difficult to compare the cost to printing. Frequently, banner advertising is priced on a cost per thousand ‘impressions’. An impression occurs when the banner shows on a page the viewer is looking at. Email advertising pricing may be charged by the number of people who are sent the ad. In both of these examples, only a miniscule percentage of people will actually notice and/or read the ad. The vast majority of people ignore banner ads and they may never see email ads at all as they go into the spam or trash folders. Most of the appeal of this type of advertising is based on sheer volume of people who may get exposed to the ad.
In contrast, flyers and posters can be handed out to recipients, mailed to them or strategically placed on appropriate bulletin boards or other posting areas. They can also be handed out in a critical location where people may need the product or service. For instance, flyers for an ice cream shop may be handed out up the street from the shop on a hot day. To me, it seems much harder to completely ignore something which is either handed to you or put right into your hands, particularly if it has a strong design in full color and you may be interested in the service or product. Printed posters and flyers force at least two of our senses to be engaged (sight and touch), whereas electronic media only engage one.
There is another fundamental difference between printed posters and flyers and their digital alternatives. First, the electronic alternatives highlighted above are perceived as either intrusive or are demand driven. In other words, some of these methods, like email marketing and text message advertising are perceived by the public at large as a nuisance which is to be avoided. This is evidenced by the mere existence of programs which filter out spam from your email. Banner advertising is not so much of a nuisance (although some people see ‘pop up’ ads as annoying), but will probably not be clicked on by the prospect unless that prospect has a need at that moment.
In contrast to these, printed flyers and posters are not seen as an annoyance for the most part. Further, some prospects may retain the flyer or poster for later reference if they think they may have a need in the future. (Usually, electronic advertising is mentally ‘discarded’ once the user is off of the computer or other electronic device. There are just too many electronic messages for us to remember most of them!) Another way to say this is that it may be easier to “create demand” from a printed flyer or poster.
So…come up with your creative design, get it printed and get the word out! Your prospects will appreciate knowing about your product or service and you will benefit as a result!
Click here to see the pricing of our cheap posters.
