Print design essentials that all marketers should keep in mind

What is modern marketing all about? In 2020, marketing is about social media, email marketing, content marketing, and… print marketing.

Yep. Since it’s still important to connect with customers in a physical way, print marketing plays a significant role in the company’s success.

If you are an expert in marketing, but a newbie in print design, this article is for you. Here are the top seven print design essentials that you need to be aware of.

PDF Version of Logo

As a rule, marketers know a little about print design. So if they have a JPG version of the brand logo, they do not see the necessity to save the logo in any other formats.

But the truth is that when it comes to print design, a PDF version of the logo is essential. When a logo is available in this format, it’s easier to create printed products such as calendars, business cards, and letterheads.

PMS / CMYK Numbers

If you do not hold a degree in graphic design, the chances are that you have no idea what the abbreviation CMYK stands for. So let’s find out what it means.

CMYK are the colors used in the printing process: C – cyan, M – magenta, Y – yellow, and K – black. Designers use the values that are associated with these colors to create consistent colors on the web and in print.

Since the color of your logo is an essential element of the visual brand identity, you should ensure that color will not be distorted in printing. If the color of your brand is “navy blue”, you want your business card to be printed in “navy blue” not a “midnight blue”, right? To avoid any problems with the color distortion, it’s highly recommended to set CMYK values before starting the printing process.

Image source: Pixabay.com

User-friendly Graphic Design Tools 

It’s impossible to create a publish-worthy design without using graphic design tools.  So if you are a person who is responsible for print marketing in your company, you have to learn how to use such tools as Adobe Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator.

All these tools have a similar interface. However, you should choose the one that works for you the best.

Using these tools, you can tweak and retouch existing images or create new images from scratch. Also, you can use these programs to convert media files from one format to another. For instance, using Adobe Photoshop, you can convert JPGs to PDFs literally in one click.

Freelance Experts in Print Design

If you run a small business, you can’t afford to invite a print design expert to your team. But, you can afford to hire a freelancer. Visit freelance platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and PeoplePerHour, and you will find professionals who can help you to develop a print marketing strategy.

Different freelancers charge different rates, and it’s not that difficult to find an expert who provides affordable services. However, it doesn’t mean that you should hire a freelancer who offers the cheapest service. You should pay attention to the freelancer’s job success rate and his portfolio. It’s important to make sure that the person you hire is able to deliver quality work on time. 

Image source: Upwork.com

Balance Between Marketing and Print Design

Well, there is no need to hire a freelancer every time you need to edit an image. If you know how to use Adobe Photoshop and have enough time to complete the task by yourself – you don’t need outside help.

However, if your company wants to redesign a logo or rewrite the print marketing strategy, it’s better to hire a freelancer. Every time you understand that you don’t have enough skills or time to complete the work, you should ask for professional assistance.

You should find a balance in your work and try to be involved in print design as much as needed, no more, no less. So you will have enough time to focus on your core activities.

Quality of the Paper

In online marketing, you should check whether your logo and other elements of design look great on your website. In print marketing, you should care more about how these elements look on paper.

So before you print your flyers, notepads, stickers, and catalogs, you should decide what paper to use. For instance, if you sell fancy furniture, you should use a paper that looks expensive and feels nice to the touch. If you sell eco-friendly products, you can’t use laminated paper, because it’s not recyclable. Instead, you should choose a compostable paper.

Print design is an essential element of your visual brand identity. So every brochure, business card, and bookmark you print should communicate the concept of your brand. You should use a paper that is a perfect fit for your brand.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that the texture of the paper can elicit a specific sensation. There are types of textures that evoke raw or primal emotions such as joy or disgust, and there are other textures that generate subtle emotions like jealousy or guilt. So you should make sure that your customers will feel the right emotions holding and touching your brochures and flyers. 

Suitable Fonts

In print design, you should be very careful when choosing a font. The font should be not too big and not too small – it must be readable.

There is a difference between online and offline marketing. If you choose a tiny font for your website, it will not be a big problem. Your website visitors still will be able to zoom up the page and read the text.

But in print marketing, the situation is different. If you choose a hard-to-read font, your customers will not even try to read the text. The chances are they will send your flyer to the trash. They will not attempt to use a magnifying glass to understand what you have written.

Image source: Pixabay.com

New Technologies and Integrations

Let’s clarify one important thing. Digital marketing and print marketing shouldn’t substitute each other. Vice versa, they should complement each other.

As a marketer, you should use new technologies to integrate print marketing with digital marketing. You should do it to maximize your efforts and get a higher return on investments. 

For instance, you can add QR codes to your business cards and brochures. So you will direct your prospective customers to a specific digital destination (e.g., your website, blog, or landing page).

Also, you can use digital lists and advanced printing techniques to customize your printed ads with the customers’ names. It’s a simple way to incorporate personalization into your print marketing strategy and achieve higher results.

High-resolution Images

High-resolution images are large in size, so their usage may slow down the website. Marketers know that fact, so they compress all the photos they use on the web.

If you use compressed images on your website, you should understand that you can’t use the same images in print design. To get high-quality prints, you should use pictures of the highest resolution possible, especially when it comes to large-format offset printing.

In Conclusion

It may seem to you that print design is a tricky thing. However, it’s not.

As soon as you learn the basics of graphic design and figure out how to use essential tools, you will see that everything is pretty simple. You will enjoy creating new print designs. And you will find it easy to write a print marketing strategy.

So don’t hesitate to immerse yourself in the world of print design. Expand your knowledge in a new field and acquire new skills to compete with other marketers in your niche.

Author Bio

Donald Fomby is a self-taught content writer who’s enjoyed success with numerous popular blogs. Using his degrees in computer science and digital marketing, Donald writes quality articles and guides on content marketing, web design, UX, and SEO. Currently, he’s also a writer at TopEssayWriting and ClassyEssay. Donald focuses on sharing useful knowledge for small and medium-sized businesses on how to manage their web presence and content marketing strategies.

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