Marketing Methods & Vehicles 5: Printed Promotions, Publicity & Ads

This continues our series on marketing methods and vehicles that increase your revenues

You use various vehicles to convey your promotions, publicity, or advertising. The dictionary defines vehicle as “an agent of transmission”. You transmit your message through a vehicle. Vehicles include print, radio, television, the Internet, parties and more. We will examine each one in posts over the next few weeks. Today we explore the various means of to transmit your message through print.

You may use a printed vehicle to transmit all three methods of marketing: promotions, publicity, and advertisements.

Types of Print Marketing

Print marketing includes any item that you print:

• Newspaper or magazine stories, articles, advertisements or coupons
• Fliers, posters, windshield clippers, door hangers, or mailers
• Coupons, gift certificates, or promotional takeaways
• Yellow page or phone directory advertisements
• Billboards, mass transit benches, or Plexiglas sign inserts
• Car, van or bus wraps (you see them as full-color ads all over cars and buses)

Tips for Laying Out Print Messages

Bryan Waldon Pope suggests the following elements for a successful lay out for your print item:

• Headline: Grabs the attention of your audience. Good headlines make the printed document immediately relevant to the reader with with pertinent short questions or applicable statements. Use the second largest font size for the headline and call to action.
• Offer: States what you want to give them, offer them, sell them, or do for them. The offer includes enough information to entice and intrigue them, without boring or dissuading them. A good offer makes them want to know more and take action. Use the largest type font for the offer.
• Information: Provides additional information of interest to the audience—information that persuades them to accept the offer by taking action. Type font for the information sections uses the second smallest font size (legal disclaimers use the smallest font size)
• Call to action: Tells your clients what you want them to do. Simple, direct action will serve you better than complicated action. Ensure that your call leads them to the action that gets results.

Saturday we will examine marketing through the radio vehicle