I operate several different businesses under the same brand umbrella CUCO Apparel Co., CUCO radio and my personal brand CoachBru.com. And as a small business owner when it comes to advertising and marketing, I need to get as much bang for my buck as possible.
I find print/offline marketing is one of the most underrated means of accomplishing this.
Several effective strategies I employ are: leaving business cards with a QR code for my radio station at random places I travel to (and through) like bars, restaurants, and gas stations. And also, sending out direct mail postcards to customers and prospects announcing special promotions and our clothing brand’s new seasonal apparel collections have had great ROI.
But there is one simple marketing strategy that trumps all others- giving away custom stickers. We give away custom stickers to listeners of the radio station, customers of my clothing brand and readers of my books. I’ve found this to be by far the single greatest investment of my marketing dollars.
Why? I’m glad you asked.
One word…
Permanence.
Print media like flyers, stickers, postcards and business cards have permanence because they are tangible items which remain in a location for an extended period of time.
If a postcard gets hung up on the fridge or bulletin board, people passing through that room will invariably view it. The more people who enter the room, the more exposure that item gets. And if the same person, for example the person who occupies that office, passes in and out of that facility repeatedly then the brand message begins renting space in their subconscious mind.
This is one of the disadvantages of a TV or radio commercial or social media post. Radio is an intangible and lacks any type of permanence beyond the 15 seconds the message airs. Social media might be even worse as the posts often get scrolled right past. And there’s a concept called “banner blindness” where we’ve trained our eyes to ignore website banner ads.
Printed items will stand out even more today and, in the future, as more and more is getting digitized. Newspapers and magazines are moving to online portals (often behind a paywall) where permanence has been rendered non-existent. Gone are the days of seeing a brand name, logo or ad on the cover of a magazine sitting on a coffee table.
Every printed marketing item reaches more than just the person it was intended for. But stickers take that concept to a whole other level- they get prominently displayed for the public to see versus a brochure sitting on a desk or a postcard on the office fridge.
Custom stickers are like advertising permanence on steroids. They get placed on laptops, car windows and bumpers, reusable water bottles, walls, and countless other noticeable places. They are in essence roving billboards and have the ability to “go viral” offline far longer than anything goes viral online. Things that go viral online don’t stay in circulation very long. (Just look at the biggest global headline in the 24 hour news cycle, its here today gone tomorrow.)
In my humble but highly accurate opinion, the best way to keep your brand in circulation without investing in a massive billboard or sign is the permanence of a custom sticker. They stick around (literally) and have a subliminal effect of the viewer.
I could go down the advertising rabbit hole and preach in depth about how vital permanence is. But suffice it to say, beyond circulation, recall and retention the other important factors are versatility and flexibility.
Digital ads are mistakenly considered “flexible” but in reality are the furthest thing. Google and Facebook ads can only be placed in certain locations and must be certain sizes. There’s nothing flexible about restrictions like that. Compare that to printed decals, brochures, cards and posters and it’s advantage print as there’s no limitation aside from your creativity and imagination.
Final Thoughts:
- Consider the cost to return ratio on your ads. The print cost of a card, brochure or sticker is small and the permanence is great. Mix in the right call to action and you’ll have an inexpensive campaign with a high return.
- I’ve tried a bunch of different custom decal manufacturers and none of them compare to Sticker Mule. They have the best quality and price I’ve found anywhere. Did I mention they also make a kick ass hot sauce? Here’s the link to go get yourself some customer stickers now. You can thank me later.