Why printing diaries and notebooks is the secret weapon to market your company

Posted by Printip on March 19th, 2021

To thrive in an increasingly competitive environment, tech companies are forced to squeeze the most out of their marketing budget. There are many actions that a marketing department can undertake: advertising in mass media such as radio or television, organization of events, sponsorships, digital marketing... always with the goal of getting a good return on the investment made.

Large companies have a great capacity to devote human and financial resources that drive large and expensive marketing campaigns but SMEs, on the other hand, often face budgetary and staffing constraints that prevent them from competing at the same level.

One of the techniques that can be used in a marketing plan is Presence Marketing whose objective is, as its name suggests, to strengthen the brand's presence in the customer's mind. And this is where planner and notebook printing comes in as an excellent solution for tech companies.

Why you should use diary printing as a marketing strategy

If you want to stand out in a world of digital information overload like ours and get top-of-mind in your field, the smartest thing to do is not to do what everyone else is doing (!)

Diary printing is one of the "secret weapons" that paper-based marketing provides you with.

Indeed, printing corporate planners will allow you to stand out in this confusing, fluid and changing environment that is so characteristic of today's business world.

Diaries have a number of advantages as a marketing item that make them very interesting... let's see them:

First of all, by using diaries as a basis for your marketing you will achieve:

1. Attract more attention from your target audience.

In an environment where all brands are oriented towards digital marketing actions, you are going to attract attention by printing notebooks and diaries: dare to be different!

2. Impact your future buyers

The impact of a well-designed and well-printed diary or notebook is spectacular.

Think that a diary or a corporate notebook is able to activate several senses at the same time: sight by means of the product's design, touch and smell thanks to the texture and smell of the paper... all this results in an overall aesthetic sensation that is able to convey your company's values using a physical object... neuromarketing studies highlight how important it is to activate as many senses as possible in order to influence the buyer's mind. 

3. Add value to your customers

Both diaries and notebooks are objects that have an undeniable practical utility: by using them as a marketing element you are not only advertising your brand but you are really adding value to your customers. And that is a fact that they will not forget at the time of making decisions...

4. To be remembered at the time of the purchase decision

Think of diaries and notebooks as objects that many people use on a daily basis: users will have the diaries/notebooks in their work environment, so your company logo and contact details will be visible and easily accessible to your potential customer throughout the year.

As a consequence of all of the above, you will have positioned yourself as "top-of-mind" in the minds of your buyers and therefore, at the moment of deciding on one brand or another, they will be more likely to choose yours.

Some things to keep in mind when printing diaries or notebooks

So you've decided you're going to print diaries or notebooks.... Wise decision! Here are the steps to follow to make your corporate diaries/notebooks a success:

Steps 1 and 2 are only applicable to diaries, so if you want to make notebooks, you can jump straight to step 3 ;)

1. Concept (i.e., the type of diary: daily, weekly...)

The first thing you need to be clear about is the type of diary you are going to make. There are several types of diaries, depending on the way the calendar information is presented. For example, although it is most common for a diary to cover from January to December of the same year, this is not always the case with a school diary, which usually begins and ends on the dates on which the school year begins and ends.

In addition, you will have to decide whether to opt for a daily or weekly diary, i.e. whether each page will display the information on a day-by-day or week-by-week basis:

• Daily diaries usually present a day's information on one page, usually showing time slots within the day (distinguishing between working and non-working hours) and sometimes include an additional space for notes.
  
  
• Weekly diaries usually display a week's information on two diary pages, so that when you open the diary you get an overall weekly view. Weekly diaries do not allow as much space for writing but have the advantage of having fewer pages and are comparatively cheaper to produce.

2. Content

At this point you know what kind of diary you are going to make. The next step is to put together the content for your diary.

Yes, you could print diaries simply by adding next year's calendar but that will not help you to be different... if you want your diary to be memorable, apart from this basic and essential content you should include at least some more pages, specific to your diary, so that your users can find some practical use in them.

For example: for an industrial company it might be useful to include several pages with equivalences of measurement units.

And of course these additional pages can also be useful to showcase your products with eye-catching images...

These additional content blocks are usually added at the beginning or at the end of the diary, although they can also be interleaved with the calendar pages.

3. Design

Design is key. We recommend that you hire the services of a good graphic design professional and tell him/her your idea: Based on your company's profile and target audience, your designer will develop several design proposals from which you will have to choose the one you consider the most appropriate.

Keep in mind that we are talking about a presence marketing tool, so it is important that the design can be associated with the company's corporate image, especially by choosing colors and logo. The idea is that your brand be present in your client's day-to-day life.

The most effective way to do this is by including your company logo on the front and back cover of the diary or notebook, and even on the inside pages as a watermark. And don't forget to highlight your contact information!

4. Kind of product

 Here we look at the diary and notebook as objects. There are several decisions to be made about the:

• Cover type (hard/soft).
• Binding (wireo/spiral, color of rings)
• Format
• Paper
• Printing
• Finishing ( lamination, UV)

Cover type

Covers (front and back covers) can be hard or soft. Hard covers are made from pieces of stiff cardboard lined with paper.

What are their advantages? Basically:

- They convey a greater sense of solidity.

- They better protect the inner pages, so they allow a more intensive use of the product, but they have the small disadvantage of making the final price a little more expensive.

Binding

Binding has a great influence on the final appearance of the product. Although you can find paperback or hardcover bound diaries on the market, that is, bound as if they were books, the truth is that the most practical type of binding to be used for a notebook or diary is undoubtedly ring binding. Why? Because both types of binding allow you to turn the pages 180º, so that the notebook or diary remains completely open without any difficulty.

There are two types of rings: the single ring or spiral ring and the double ring, also known as Wire-O. Both fulfill their purpose but possibly Wire-O binding conveys a more aesthetically pleasing sensation.

Format

Regarding the size of your diary, we recommend you to choose a format convenient for the user. Keep in mind that this is an object that takes up a considerable physical space on a desk but nevertheless we want it to be used frequently... our recommendation is that the size of your notebook or diary should not go beyond a DIN A5, that is, 14.8 x 21 cm.

Paper

It is important to keep in mind that users will be writing on the pages, so when choosing the most suitable type of paper we will have to choose one that allows easy writing on it. In this case we recommend the choice of an offset type paper as opposed to others (such as coated).

Printing

When we talk about printing, we mean whether the pages will be printed full color or black, or any other color. Full-color printing allows for more attractive designs but has the drawback of a higher cost, so it is very common to find diaries printed using just one or two inks. It is a matter of taste and budget.

Finishing

What is finishing? It is any process that is performed on the covers of diaries or notebooks after printing, with the purpose of improving the aesthetic qualities of the product and conveying a sense of higher quality.

Although there are many different finishings that can be applied to diaries and notebooks: (stamping, embossing, lamination, die-cutting, etc., etc.), the most common (and which do not particularly increase the final price) are lamination and UV varnish.

Lamination (glossy or matte) consists of a layer of transparent plastic material that is placed on top of the cover paper. The purpose of lamination is to protect the paper from continuous use, and also to obtain a glossy or matte effect, depending on the type of lamination.

UV varnish is usually applied only after lamination, and its purpose is to contrast and highlight some of the elements in a design. For example, a very common combination would be to matt laminate the cover of a diary, and apply glossy UV varnish to a part of it (only the company logo for example) in order to highlight it from the rest of the design.