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We talk a lot about designing on the web here (obviously!), but rarely mention designing for printed materials.

As bloggers, the majority of our promotion is online. Our readers are online of course, so that makes sense, but it’s also because online is what we know.

We know how to use Twitter, we know which Facebook groups to join, which forums are active, and what blogs to guest post on. That form of marketing is second nature to us, but print is a whole different world.

Would you be surprised to know that it can cost less than $70 to print off 1000 flyers though? And who here would say no to 1000 new readers?

Beyond handing out a few business cards, print marketing is something I haven’t done before, but something I plan on doing very soon. In this post, I want to share some of the ideas I have in mind.

You’ll also find details on one of the largest ever business card giveaways at the end of this post, 100,000 cards!

Types of Offline Print Promotion

Business Cards

Business cards are the most obvious. If your business or your blog come up in conversation, you must have a card. If you don’t, the person you are speaking to is not going to remember where to find your site when they get home later, if they remember you at all.

Everyone in business has a card. If you want you and your blog to be taken seriously, you need to have one as well.

You will find a guide to making a great looking business card very easily here, anyone can do it.

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My business cards, decorating the kitchen table. 

Flyers

Flyers are very cheap to print off in bulk. The other real advantage to a flyer is that it can be very easy to design as well.

All you need for an effective flyer is your logo and an image or slogan on one side of the flyer to catch the attention of whoever has picked it up. Then on the other side, fill in some information about your site and why its worth their time. Just use your site’s color scheme and you’ll be ready in no time.

The important thing to remember is not to bore them. On the web, we all know to write as succinctly as possible and not waste the reader’s time. The print world is no different. Tell them what they need to know, and leave it at that. Don’t feel that you need to fill up the entire flyer!

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Lots of flyers and print ads, by Choufi. 

Leaflets

Leaflets are very similar to flyers, but with more room for information.

They are a lot more expensive to print however, so they are much better suited to sites who are selling something and will recover their expenses that way. If your product is just your blog, then you might well be better off with a flyer.

If you are selling a range of services or products through your site though, leaflets offer you a lot more space to discuss them, and the folding pages allow for each product or service to get its own section.

T-Shirts

A plain T-shirt with your logo is very simple to make, and dozens of sites are availabe to print htem. If you then send these out to some of your most loyal readers who will wear them, then all their friends are suddenly going to hear about you and your site.

One of our clients at Pro Blog Design is launching a wine in the coming months. About a year ago, they began sending out T-shirts through their website to help promote it. Have a look at the photos on this page to see just how successful this has been.

At the very worst, it has made for a fantastic page on their site and likely made every one who sent in a photo into a very loyal customer.

The important thing to remember when designing a T-shirt however is that no-one wants to be a walking advert. Limit yourself solely to your logo or a cool design. You could even put the website address on the back of the neck or very subtly on the front, but any more than that and you will put anyone off wearing it.

If you wouldn’t wear it, no-one else will.

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Who wouldn’t want one of these T-shirts?? Well, Microsoft… But aside from them!
Photo by Laihiu. 

Novelties

Friends can be your most powerful supporters and there is no knowing who they will tell about you next, so there’s no harm in talking about your site with them occasionally. It can be awkward, or just plain rude, to force up your business in conversation though.

But what if you could get them to bring it up instead, without you saying anything?

There are a whole range of novelty items available, like mousemats, coffee cups, pens and greetings cards that will pique their interest. Just having these items around you should get a few conversations going.

At the very worst, you get to work on an awesome mouse mat with your logo!

100,000 Business Card Giveaway

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A few weeks ago, All Business Cards gave away 3000 cards on Pro Blog Design.

This time, the competition is much, much bigger! They will be giving away 10 sets of 1000 cards, every month for the next 10 months!

To enter, all you need to do is write up a blog post and then fill in the link on this page.

As an added bonus, Jeremy has said that at least one person who fills in ProBlogDesign.com in the referrals field is guaranteed to win!

So good luck to anyone who enters! With that many cards, you should have a great shot at winning!

Conclusion

There are a lot of offline methods of promoting your blog. In particular, for blogs which sell a product or service, it could be a great method of finding a whole set of new customers.

But will it work? Do you think turning to print methods is a worthwhile way of promoting a blog?

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