Blog
Importance Of Paper Calendars In A Modern Electronic World
May 11, 2015 by Jim Braaten
It might be easy to conclude how the heyday for printed calendars of all types has come and gone. Indeed, some might suspect that a paper calendar has become a relic from our past. No longer necessary. No longer a critical element of our busy 21st Century world. Relegated to mere novelty status for most businesses and households.
Wrong!
Truth is paper calendars have seen some decline in production numbers, but they are still very vital to many users and found in nearly every home and office. Even though calendars on our phones, tablets and computers can be linked and provide a very sophisticated planning system, the fact remains nothing beats the simplicity of a printed wall or desk calendar so they still get used.
Some industry studies have indicated that it will take another generation of calendar users to fully convert to electronic. Even at that, printed calendars will always be a trendy item hearkening back to the non-electronic age.
We specialize in calendars sold to promote your important message. When they are given to clients or prospects they are a gift that has year-long promotional value. Our customers find that money spent on calendar advertising is just as effective today as it was several decades ago.
Best of all…our calendars do not need customer login information with passwords. They are not dependent on batteries that are likely to go dead when you need them most. They do not get hacked by thieves trying to disrupt your life by interfering with it.
Nope, a good printed calendar has benefits that have been appreciated for centuries, not just a handful of modern day years.
The next time you are wondering if printed promotional advertising calendars still have a legitimate existence in this world don’t doubt it for a moment. While you may end up using several different calendar apps over the course of years to discover what you like best, the simplicity of a wall calendar for everyone to see and understand cannot be beaten.
Indeed, it is exciting times to be living in a world where our phones can seemingly do almost everything in our lives. Yet, a quick glance at a printed calendar hanging 3 feet from your face to look at an important date for planning will almost always beat the electronic device in your purse or pocket. Don’t give up on printed calendars quite yet. Our customers certainly haven’t.
Considerations On Adding Color To Your Advertising Message
April 16, 2014 by Jim Braaten
I’m often asked by prospective customers whether or not they should use color in their advertising panel on a promotional calendar. In the past, the answer was fairly easy. Color was costly and adding it usually meant significant cost increases to the calendar being used for marketing.
But not anymore. In fact, on many wall calendars technology has caught up with production driving costs way down on this option. Today, the additional cost for adding color can amount to as little as a dime more per calendar.
Color in your advertising message can capture immediate attention.
Then again, a nice clean layout using one color, such as black, can have positive impact just the same.
Yet, the question still remains on whether a person should use color for their advertising. The old school approach is to keep things simple. Consider this, most calendar styles contain lots of vibrant colors so having an advertising panel that is largely mono-toned using a single color can still have great benefits.
In other words, the whole goal to a promotional calendar is for the product hanging on a wall or sitting on a desk to capture attention. A colorful calendar sporting an equally colorful ad panel only adds to the chaos for the eye. On the other hand, a one-color promotional advertising message can deliver contrast and has a way to stand out.
Of course, this largely depends on the style of calendar being used. The ideal calendar might be a black and white photographed calendar that seems rather bland in appearance. Imagine, in this case, a colorful ad panel that sports a vibrantly colored message.
In reality, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to using color. It can be a matter of personal preference. It can be a matter of what the company logo requirements allow for. Many factors have to be weighed before the final decisions can be made.
Usually I tell people this. If you have used only one color for a series of years then maybe it’s time to jazz it up and show some flare. Show your prospects and customers that you’re not stuck in your ways and can live on the edge when you have to. Along that same line, maybe your business has a conservative feel to it and sticking with something simple and effective that has worked in the past is all that will be needed for the future.
No matter how you intend to proceed, give our experienced customer service staff the challenge of constructing an advertising message that works best for your company. We offer layout services that usually cost you nothing. All you need to do is ask us for help and the folks at CalendarsNow.com will make it colorful or simply just effective, your choice.
A Big Mistake With Calendars You Won’t Make Twice
April 2, 2014 by Jim Braaten
In my nearly 30 years in the calendar publishing world I’ve witnessed a lot of mistakes. Some are rather innocent and have little lasting impact. Others…well, let’s just say we’ve known about folks who will literally bet their house on marketing and using calendars.
What a shame and what a risk! There’s a simple rule that must be adhered to no matter how you intend to use calendars as a marketing tool. The rule is simply this:
Develop your marketing strategy first and then afterwards design and publish a calendar keeping those distribution plans in mind.
Quite often we get successful photographers who come to us wanting to print a calendar. Usually what happens is they have been told repeatedly how good their photographs are and that they should be used on a calendar. In due time, the photographer succumbs to this constant ego stroking.
Now, that’s not to say they shouldn’t print a calendar. The point is being told your work is good enough for a calendar and actually walking down that path is a big journey. Moreover, a handful of clients who admire your work is great news, but it’s going to take hundreds if not thousands of people inspired to fork over money if the calendar is to succeed.
Several years back I had the unfortunate task of meeting with a calendar producer who was losing his shorts, so to speak, because he had invested foolishly. He simply designed a pretty calendar and reasoned it would sell like hotcakes. Guess what…it didn’t! In fact, he had a garage full of nearly 25,000 calendars he had taken a loan out on with his house as collateral. Think about it…you have to admire the moxy to be so confident in one’s sales effort to risk your home to print thousands of calendars.
Sadly, it failed miserably because he didn’t do his homework. Long before ink ever finds its way to paper the savvy calendar marketer develops his/her target market to ensure success and to minimize financial risk.
When potential custom calendar producers start telling me about their project and what plans they have I often stop them and ask…”so, how do you plant to sell or distribute it?” Usually there’s a slight pause as this is not the most appealing aspect of the project. Yet, it is by far the most important element.
Typically, I tell a potential calendar client how important it is for the cart not to come before the horse on these matters. In other words, we understand how the designing and printing of the calendar is the fun part. Still, for a calendar project of any kind to succeed the bulk of the work must come before the fun. In this case it means planning for success.
At CalendarsNow.com we don’t want to print and sell calendars that are destined for failure. We also don’t like to see customers struggle financially because they made some poor planning decisions. We’ve actually turned customers away because they didn’t heed our advice and we felt they were taking a path consisting of poor planning.
If you want to talk calendars with us we are only a phone call or an email away. Best of all, talking to us about your next calendar project does not obligate you in any way to do business with us. Each day we willingly share our calendar production knowledge with folks all over the world, and if they ultimately choose to do business with us that’s great. If not…well, we hope to have served some value to the calendar printing industry.
Whether you’re thinking of producing your own calendar or perhaps just using one of our many stock calendars with your promotional message, I can guarantee you that just 5 minutes of your time spent on the phone with our knowledgeable staff will prove to be time well spent. Give us a call.
Why You Should Give Calendars Even When It Seems Nobody Cares
November 14, 2013 by Jim Braaten
For nearly a decade Steve handed out imprinted promotional calendars advertising his hardware store. As time grew on Steve began to question the true value of distributing calendars when at times it seemed as though his customers no longer cared.
Then a few years back he decided to skip ordering calendars. He rationalized that the calendar was no longer serving a useful purpose. The money saved could be spent in so many more effective ways.
Unfortunately, Steve made a costly mistake.
You see, one of the customers who picked up a calendar each year and religiously used it in his shop was Larry. Now, Larry owned a small plumbing business in town and often times didn’t inventory a warehouse full of parts. Instead, he was a frequent customer of Steve’s hardware store picking up the supplies he needed for the day to complete the plumbing tasks anticipated.
It was early that next January when Larry had a visitor to his shop. It was a wholesale plumbing supply rep who had been pestering Larry for years to do business with him. As they were chatting, this rep happened to notice Larry didn’t have a nice calendar hanging in the shop yet. What an opportunity!
As the rep went out to his truck to get the usual coffee mugs, pens, notepads, etc. this time around the rep also grabbed a calendar. You see, in years past the rep always seen Steve’s hardware store’s calendar already hanging so he passed on leaving the gift of the calendar. But not this time around.
It was the worst case scenario for Steve and he didn’t even realize it was happening. Not only was his wall space that contained his calendar taken over by a new calendar, but it was a calendar from a company that could potentially cost Steve lots of money throughout the course of the year.
Oh, it takes more than a calendar to cause Larry to lose his loyalty to Steve’s hardware store, but over the course of time that calendar reminded Larry just how convenient and time-saving it would be to have supplies delivered right to his shop early in the morning. Moreover, Larry realized after a few purchases how this convenience was also saving him money by using a wholesaler.
Of course, Steve went about his business unaware any of this was going on. Larry still popped into the hardware store now and then, but over time Steve’s store lost out on money–enough money, fair to say, that could have easily purchased Steve’s annual calendar supply.
What Steve failed to realize is that customers don’t always show appreciation for a calendar you give them as a gift. It’s easy to view the imprinted promotional calendar as something that a person is giving the customer. Obviously, it is human nature to expect an occasional “thanks” when handing out calendars. Yet, it doesn’t always happen.
What Steve failed to comprehend was how the calendar is more importantly a tool. A marketing tool that keeps your brand message in front of lots of people. In some cases it also keeps your competitor’s message from hanging in those key locations, as in the case of Larry.
When a business decides to give up on using calendars for marketing there can be a hefty price paid that is not easy to measure or to track. Nevertheless, with calendars costing a relatively small portion of most advertising budgets, a single lost customer is a risk not many businesses are willing to take. In most cases, it has taken years of continuity to gain that wall space promoting your message. Why lose it to an opportunistic competitor who still provides a calendar to a customer you want to call yours?
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Promotional Imprinted Calendars Work Hard During Tough Economic Times
October 28, 2013 by Jim Braaten
Ever since the mid-1800’s promotional advertising calendars have been showing up in homes and offices throughout this country. It makes sense…take a product that is needed by everyone to help manage a busy life. Add a message that business owners want to get out to the masses for promotional purposes, and you have a perfect marriage of product and function.
Indeed, for over 150 years the promotional calendar has survived many ups and downs in the economy and often came out of tough times thriving.
Take the Depression Era of the 1930’s when banks and businesses were failing right and left. Historically you will find calendars were very popular during these difficult economic times. Even when advertising budgets were practically non-existent for many businesses, they still found ways to put their name and message on a calendar product given to customers.
You see, when times get tough and advertising doesn’t always make sense in theory as funds dry up, that’s also the time many businesses see opportunity. Back during the 1970’s one popular soft drink company who was in second place in sales took the opportunity to expand market share by increasing advertising when the leader cut costs by reducing advertising expenditures. The result, by challenging soda consumers to do a blind taste testing and spending lots of money to do it, the distance between first place and second place shrank considerably.
That being said, a business that chooses not to promote their products or services essentially is shutting their doors to new opportunities. Moreover, even the existing customers when not reminded about a business can forget who to call when they are looking to buy.
Calendars are a good answer. Calendars are cost effective advertising. For about a penny a day a quality calendar can hang in the high-traffic places not only reminding present customers, but also prompting potential prospects.
Interestingly enough, over the past quarter century while we’ve been in this business of printing calendars we do not see much wild fluctuation in calendar sales. In fact, they tend to stay pretty consistent no matter what is taking place in the world.
There was only one year, during the tragedy of 9-1-1 (Fall 2001), when even calendar sales could not get businesses to focus for a period of several months afterwards. Hopefully that was a one-time, unusual time period in our history never to be repeated.
So, if your promotional budget this year is tight and you’re considering either how or if you should advertise, it would be wise to reconsider your options. Calendars can give you 365 days of promotional value while newspaper or radio advertising is come and gone in a flash. Same holds true for radio, newsletters or flyers. Customers and prospect may see the message, but there is no incentive to keep it…to continually be reminded of it.
If you’re new to using calendars give one of our experienced calendar consultants a call for free marketing advice. We’ll give you the suggestions and the tools necessary to make certain tough times doesn’t mean no advertising due to a limited budget.
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