These days, everything comes down to good marketing. While most shop owners didn’t get into the business to make ads, effective promotion has become integral to modern business. Unfortunately, it also requires a separate skill set.
You don’t need to become a marketing maven to be effective. If advertising is a mix of art and science, there’s no reason you can’t get the science right. Here’s a guide to mastering the practical aspects of marketing, built to help you wring the most value out of your advertising dollar.
Don’t sleep on physical media. Today’s consumers are accustomed to scrolling right past ads on their phones. Many people, especially those in the countercultural space, have embraced analog technology. And it’s not strictly record players and film cameras. For those exhausted by the barrage of digital money grabs, a print piece feels not only welcome but interesting. Big city print shops have reported an uptick in real-world advertising projects for the last six months. Window posters announcing sales can lure in passersby. Inviting half-pagers in the local alt-weekly are magnets for counterculture attention.
But for all its retro cool, real-world signage doesn’t operate the way it did 20 years ago. Modern physical marketing has been reborn in the language and attitude of the internet. Printed ads shouldn’t look like online ads, but they shouldn’t look like old print ads, either. They need to include QR codes, web addresses, and Insta handles.
To get the best results, start with a picture. High-quality visuals need high-quality image files. Even though your JPEGs may look fine online, printing requires higher resolutions. Professional-grade pieces that can be held in your hand (such as product packages, magazines, labels, stickers) must show fine detail, which means they should have a resolution of 300 DPI (dots per inch). For wall-mounted materials, lsuch asposters or large photo prints, 250 DPI is fine. Extra-large displays that customers will see from far away need less DPI; billboards require just 50 DPI, while banners will look crisp at 125.
Importantly, DPI can’t be scaled up. A small image with a 300 DPI resolution can’t be resized to make it bigger. For big projects, you need extra-large images. To determine just how big you can go, divide the image’s pixel count by its resolution. (For example, the printable h.) The best way to check your image’s DPI is to search for “resolution” in your photo editing software.
Choose colors wisely. Color schemes convey the emotion and tone of your collateral, but they can also wreak havoc at the printer. If you’re designing your print ads on your computer, be sure to switch your color settings to CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). This ensures the colors you see on screen will match what comes out of the printer.
It’s a good idea to keep your logo or store name in a familiar font and look to hardcode it in consumers’ minds. But the colors of individual ads simply need to work together. If you don’t trust your eye, online style guides can help you pick complementary colors.
File format matters. While you may not notice a difference between how an image’s format affects its look, rest assured that a printer can. Save your files in PDF, TIFF, or EPS formats to ensure that your file won’t experience a drop in quality due to file compression.
Web Work
Even though print demands seem ludicrous next to the needs of digital advertising, it’s not enough to simply blast your print ads out on social media. Consumers experience the web differently from print, and smart marketers take advantage of the web’s unique features to get the most out of their investment. Effective web marketing requires a different set of considerations, many of which stand in opposition to print needs.
Think dynamic. Unlike the fixed size of a print piece, digital collateral must fit a variety of screen shapes and sizes. Online collateral needs to look equally good on phones, tablets, and desktop monitors. Most digital images will look crisp at 96 DPI on most modern hardware. However, if you’re creating pieces for in-store TVs or trade show monitors, you’ll want to use images with 150 DPI.
Fonts that work. For any text that’s not part of an image, you should use “web safe” fonts. Those are standard typefaces that exist across all browsers. They include Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, Verdana, Courier New, and Tahoma. Sticking with these fonts ensures that every user will see your copy the same way. If you use a niche typeface, such as Comic Sans or Papyrus, consumers may not be able to read it. There is a workaround, however. If you love the look of whimsical lettering, you can simply embed your font in an image and save the entire piece as an image file to bypass this issue.
Consider colors carefully. Unlike print, most digital screens use the RGB (red, green, blue) color model. Be sure that your settings reflect that. Most design programs will naturally start in RGB mode, but it’s a good idea to double-check. Design your online pieces in RGB to ensure you’ll see the same hues that show up on your customers’ phones.
Take advantage of the medium. Web ads provide options for interactivity, motion, and sound. The best ads combine any two of those three. Videos with sound are great for catching the attention of bored scrollers, but turn off busy folks who are simply passing a few minutes in line at the grocery store.
Test and retest. Don’t expect technology to function correctly; ensure that it does. If you’re experimenting with a new medium, like TikTok, check how your ads work on a computer, tablet, and phone before launching them into cyberspace. If possible, check the difference across different operating systems and browsers.
Good marketing comes from smart decisions, not a penchant for creativity. It’s something everyone can master. You already know the reputation you’re working toward. Advertising is one more way of building a brand. Good marketing is, and has always been, simply good business.
