Importance Of Paper Calendars In A Modern Electronic World
May 11, 2015 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
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.
Promotional Imprinted Calendars Work Hard During Tough Economic Times
October 28, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
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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Printing The Correct Color On Your Promotional Advertising Calendars
October 24, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
The printing industry loves color. We love color on our calendars. Customers love color on their advertising messages. Color is what makes our lives more interesting and exciting.
But how does a company with a very recognizable logo get the right color every time it is printed? Consider the logos used for popular soft drinks. Would you recognize if they were printed in the wrong shade of red or blue? Have you ever stopped to think how that situation is avoided?
Well, it’s rather simple. There is a standard in the industry called Pantone® that essentially assigns a number to every possible color. So, when a customer tells us they want their logo in #469 Brown and #109 Light Yellow we know exactly what colors the finished product should be. Essentially, to accomplish this task is the proper mixing of established ratios of quality inks. The system also provides a mechanism to ensure quality control of the printed product by using guides and monitoring equipment.
We often work closely with customers who desire these very strict standards when it comes to color reproduction on the products they purchase. It’s what allows one company on the East Coast to print coffee mugs with the very same appearance as the calendars we print here in Minnesota.
When a customer tells us to print their logo in Kelly Green such directions are really not that helpful. There is no standard for Kelly Green and what one printer might deem to be correct another printer might consider to be too dark.
To avoid such confusion the Pantone® system allows us to print colors correct the first time. Now, typically when it comes to mixing inks to precise standards there are some additional charges involved. However, we have an assortment of colors we consider standard that seems to suit most of our customers.
So, the next time you are looking for some color on your imprinted message don’t be surprised if we ask you what Pantone® Matching System (PMS) color you want printed. If precise colors are not that important, we can easily handle that. But when getting the correct color match is crucial, rest assured we have a mechanism in place to ensure those quality control standards will occur.
For additional information on promotional imprinted advertising message color possibilities please give one of our helpful customer service representatives a call. We have the resources available to get your colors printed correctly the first time.
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There’s More Than One Way To Put (Calendar) Art On The Wall
October 17, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
I’m guessing the need for art dates back probably to the caveman era when early man grew tired of looking at the same old blah-appearing walls all day long. Take a little blood from harvested game animals for some red, perhaps some plants to stain various shades of green, and I think you get the idea. Those early walls turned into rough examples of art in nearly no time.
Fast forward a few eons and that early need for color and style on our walls really hasn’t changed too much. Oh, sure, today’s art in most cases doesn’t resemble anything like what a person would likely have found on those early drawings, but the concept is still the same. We like color and style where we live and nothing serves that purpose better than art.
Now mind you there are many different forms of art. In fact, what one person considers to be true artistic beauty another person might find difficult to appreciate. Hence, another wonderful aspect to art–we don’t all appreciate the same things. What appeals to many people by stirring passions inside fails to have that same effect on many others.
When it comes to putting art onto calendars it is only a marriage made in heaven. Unlike most expensive art which a person might hang in their house for most of a lifetime, calendar art is different and made to be fresh. In other words, why look at the same art image for years when a new month brings a new adventure to the eyes and to the mind.
At CalendarsNow.com we have been providing customers with a wide assortment of calendar art for nearly 25 years. Some of our art offerings on calendars is new and fresh, but by design some others are old and very nostalgic. Here’s a few tidbits of marketing wisdom we’ve learned about art calendars you might also want to consider:
- If your customers and prospects are typically 50+ years choose an art theme that rekindles memories. While nostalgic art calendars can appeal to all ages, the typical target audience for this genre of calendars is the more mature class.
- Don’t overlook the power of wildlife art. As it turns out wildlife art when used on calendars can be a power attraction. Most people like beautiful, majestic animals in shown in their natural ecosystems. Wildlife artists have a flair for capturing this powerful presence and thus bringing an otherwise two dimensional image to life.
- Theme art, such as Western or Native American styles of artwork, works well on calendars because they offer both color and sometimes dramatic action scenes. When customers value freedom and open spaces this style of calendar delivers.
- We’ve also noticed how many people love the abstract. They don’t want art that mimics a photographic image…instead they want colors and shapes that spur their imagination into overdrive. This avant garde group of art aficionados tends to be bold in their personalities and their presence in life. If you have customers who do not fit the cookie cutter mold that majority of people fit into, then calendar art with an unusual appeal could be the perfect choice.
Indeed, art as shown on calendars has many benefits. It not only draws attention to the calendar, but often it does so in a dramatic, mind-capturing fashion. It only stands to reason that when an imprinted promotional advertising calendar contains art it can stand out when hanging on the wall to get noticed. After all, if you are marketing your business or brand with a calendar isn’t the main goal to get noticed?
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Consider QR Codes When Advertising On Calendars
October 16, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
With the increasing use of smartphone technology comes both some conveniences and opportunities. No longer is it necessary to remember long or complicated website addresses or URL’s…not with the advent of QR Codes (short for “quick response” codes). Now, getting a customer or prospect to check out a new website is as easy as holding the phone in front of a square box of dots and dashes.
Yup, it’s really that simple. With the correct app on your phone (and there are many of them for all smartphone platforms) QR reader apps will turn a confusing web address into a mobile friendly link easily explored from any handheld device with an optical reader.
So, why use QR Codes as an advertiser on a calendar imprint for business promotion? Here are some quick thoughts you will want to consider:
- Allows the advertiser to turn a complex web address into something requiring no thought by the customer or prospect. In fact, a QR Code can direct folks to a specific landing page on your website which allows marketers to measure just how well the calendar is working as a promotional tool.
- QR Codes can be accessed (scanned) and stored for later use in the smart device. The traditional option is to hope calendar users remember the correct format for how the web address appeared.
- Moreover, once a QR Code is scanned into a device it will be an additional reminder to check out the web address if they didn’t have time initially to do so.
- QR Codes can be enabled so that when scanned the user is taken to a mobile friendly version of a company website where the online experience can be optimized.
- Use of QR Codes give the public impression that a company is very technology oriented and savvy.
- QR Codes allow a business to direct the user to specific sub-domains found on a corporate website where special offers can be targeting various customers and prospects.
Perhaps best of all, using QR Codes for an imprinted promotional advertising calendar order is available at no extra charge. We do ask, however, that customers supply to us their camera-ready artwork for the code.
Have no idea how to generate a QR Code for your business? No problem. There are many free services to be found on the Internet to produce such graphics. Just type in “QR Code Generator” in the search box of any search engine and you’ll likely be directed to several options. Most are even free, but be careful they are not tracking you or the hits you hope to get with the QR Code.
In closing, if you are still having difficulty understanding what a QR Code can do for you think of it as working similar to a bar code found on nearly all products purchased in the store. When you go to the check-out person they scan each bar code and can tally up what you want to purchase that day. QR Codes work much the same way, although they appear and function much different. Essentially when you have a QR Code for your business printed on a calendar it is a code for any smartphone user to find you and learn more about your company or products being offered.
Honestly, in this 21st Century why every business doesn’t have and use a QR Code is quite surprising. Especially when we will include them on your next calendar at NO EXTRA COST.
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Choose A Calendar Style Your Customers Can’t Live Without!
October 15, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
Did you realize how most of us are creatures of habit? We get into a routine and suddenly something in life becomes comfortable, predictable, and very familiar. We gravitate toward the things that provide those favorable emotions. Some might say…we get stuck in a pattern and that suits many folks just fine.
Same holds true with calendars. You would be surprised how many calls we get each fall from folks looking to buy just a single calendar. Now, as explained in a previous post we can’t do that, but it reinforces the extent some folks will go to not to give up their favored calendar. After all, they may have been using the same calendar for years and the prospect of going without or using something else is…well, let’s just say not acceptable.
One of the goals in marketing is to find that product that customers can’t live without. Now, in this case it is a product that you give as a gift to the customer, but the same holds true. When a customer or prospect uses an imprinted calendar you give out for promotional advertising purposes and they keep coming back for a replacement each year you have a good thing going.
So, what is the secret in finding just the right calendar to strike a chord with customers or prospects? Consider these points:
- Purchase calendars with a theme your customers like instead of yourself. After all, they are the ones whose wall it will be hanging on.
- Look for bright colors in the calendar images. Color builds excitement whereas drab colors tend not to stir passions as much.
- Determine if your prospects or customers have limited wall or desk space back in the office. Or perhaps most work from an auto or travel a lot mostly using a briefcase.
- Do your customers seek a specialty calendar? For example, many accountants or banks will give pocket calendars away that essentially include an envelope to place and organize monthly receipts.
- Some customers seek humor from their calendar. We offer several calendars that are sure to tickle even the most stoic funny bone. Humor, much like reading the comics for many people, is something people want to continue with year after year.
- A favorite artist can also make a wonderful impression on calendar recipients where year after year they come back asking for more.
With just a little thought and perhaps some additional homework, it can pay big dividends to research what kind of calendars your business’ customers or prospects yearn for and desire to receive on an annual basis. The test is always to get them coming back for more. That’s when you know you have a customer-favorite calendar style on your hands.
Our customers are often surprised to learn that marketing with calendars and doing it properly requires some planning. If you strive to maximize your promotional value gained by handing out or mailing calendars to folks it often requires some strategy.
As always, the customer service representatives at CalendarsNow.com are glad to assist with your planning. We’ve sold millions of calendars over the past two decades which has afforded us to learn a thing or two about how our customers can succeed with calendars. All it takes is just a no-obligation phone call to get the planning started to see if calendar marketing is right for you.
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Customers Get More Than Calendars When Buying From Us
October 10, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
When you go to the car wash you pretty much expect to get one thing from the experience–a clean car when you drive away. When you go to the barbershop to get a haircut you step out the door feeling like a new person with stylized hair, but that’s about it. Certainly when you go to the grocery store to pick up a gallon of milk you walk away perhaps with the milk and a few other “essentials” discovered along the way.
But when you purchase imprinted promotional advertising calendars from CalendarsNow.com we don’t just sell you the calendars. We also offer friendly marketing advice and will even go so far as to put your calendars into your customer’s hands for you. Let me explain.
We realize when it comes to calendar distribution not everyone is an expert on knowing how to properly get the calendars into the correct hands. In other words, calendars need an appropriate strategy unique to your business to get the most bang for the buck marketing value. A short five minutes speaking with our trained sales staff will offer you many practical ideas on how you can best use calendar advertising.
We understand how calendars that never leave a box will not result in a repeat sale next year. Unfortunately, many printers only want to sell you the product, they don’t want to educate their customers on how they might use it to their best advantage.
If we don’t feel calendar advertising is right for your business we will tell you so. One of the hardest tasks we often do is tell a customer who wants to produce a custom calendar how we don’t think it’s a good idea–at least not yet. You see, especially with custom created calendars, a buyer must put together a marketing plan for using that calendar long before the calendar design gets assembled. Unfortunately, too many customers produce the calendar first and then try to find a way to use it. They have the process backwards.
On the same token, we often consult with our customers to ensure they are not overbuying. Nothing sours a customer’s mood more than ending the year with too many calendars that did not somehow get distributed.
Allow our staff at CalendarsNow.com to not only sell you the calendars, but to provide the right advice on how best to use them. Often times they will also provide suggestions on how one particular calendar style seems to work even better for a particular industry. We know this information, we see it in action 365 days each year.
Oh yeah, earlier I said we will even put calendars into your customer or prospect’s hands for you. Simply provide to us your mailing list and we take care of all the tasks of mailing. How easy is that?
Of course, all these options that are available to you can be discussed with our friendly and helpful sales staff. Keep in mind we are here to help you with your calendar marketing efforts by providing whatever information is necessary to accomplish that goal. While some companies may only want to sell calendars and nothing else, we take great pride in our products and strive to see our customers succeed using them.
So, the next time you are in the market for imprinted promotional advertising calendars give us a call to discuss your business. We want to learn about you. We want to assist in tackling your unique marketing challenges. And in the process don’t be surprised when we offer some advice you may want to consider. After all, we sell calendars but we strive to deliver much, much more.
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Yes, Our Promotional Advertising Calendars Offer Lots Of Color Choices
October 9, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
One of the comments we hear often is from customers who are looking for a calendar style that offers lots of color. In fact, color can be a nice marketing concept because people generally like to add splashes of color to their walls to make their environment more vibrant and emotionally uplifting.
“Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.” ~Allen Klein
These monthly images from the CN-1717 SIMPLICITY calendar shout colors and patterns.
Indeed, this world would be a pretty boring place if it were colored simply with drab tones and hues. Thankfully, color not only can excite us, but perhaps even more importantly it can even catch-the-eye, so to speak. A fact that has been in the marketer’s toolbox and used for ages. After all, if your message doesn’t get seen it stands no chance of having a desirable outcome to promote your cause.
That’s one of the reasons we offer a calendar so vibrant with color it appears almost to be dripping wet with fresh ink. Not really, of course, but the CN-1717 Simplicity wall calendar is designed especially for those customers who like lively colors and shapes–the sort of thing that speaks “LOOK AT ME!!”
Actually, several of the calendar styles we offer are intended to use color to capture attention. Consider these other colorful calendar options:
- CN-7024 Balloons
- CN-1122 Tranquility
- CN-1103 Folk Art
- CN-1116 Latino Art
- CN-1104 Native American Art
- CN-B105 Quarterly Colors Poster
- CN-6251 Time Management Span A Year Poster
- Magnetic Calendars
When contemplating a purchase for imprinted promotional advertising calendars it’s important to consider many factors. Obviously, you want to offer your prospect and customers a calendar they will take home or back to the office and use. Still, you want that calendar to get noticed once it is hanging.
Calendars full of color can ensure they get noticed. And when a calendar gets noticed with your business advertising imprint included, it means your calendar marketing is healthy and working as planned.
So, the next time you purchase calendars, give some thought to what will be hanging on your customer’s walls for a month at a time. It can certainly work to your benefit by adding more color to the calendar you distribute to prospects and customers for their use.
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Our Imprinted Promotional Advertising Calendars Are Made In Minnesota
October 8, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
Well over 90 percent of the imprinted promotional advertising calendars we produce for customers are manufactured and shipped right here from Minnesota. Does that mean anything to you? There was a time when Made In America meant something special to many consumers.
Now it seems as though we have turned into more of a global market. Items once considered ridiculously cheap and poorly made from sections of the globe are no longer viewed in that same manner. Quality products can come from half a world away just like they can come from the shop owner on the nearby street corner. Times have certainly changed and along with that so has attitudes.
And while all this is true we still feel that products made right here in North America are some of the best to be found anywhere on the planet. In a printing world where it’s commonplace to find imports from overseas, we feel that you can see and feel a real difference in the products we manufacture vs. the imports.
In fact, when it comes to printing calendars for advertising purposes no other state in the country can boast it employs more people within this unique industry than Minnesota. All combined, over 1,000 full-time and seasonal part-time employees live and work in Minnesota to bring imprinted promotional advertising calendars direct to your door.
Indeed, for over 4 decades Minnesota has been the epicenter for the production of quality calendar products serving customers worldwide.
Here in the Gopher State we take great pride in producing quality products at a value price. The calendar producers in this state, some of which are our friendly competitors, all have a solid work ethic and take great pride in producing a top-notch product that we would be proud to hang on our walls. We all understand how the calendars we produce and sell to you represent your important business image and brand so it pays dividends when they only look and perform the very best.
Certainly the next time you are in the market for a promotional advertising calendar you have many options in which you can choose. We encourage our customers to buy local, when available for many reasons, not the least of which it keeps Americans employed. But we also think when you are looking for superb quality to promote your brand it’s not necessary or always practical to be looking half way around the world when you can get the best imprinted promotional advertising calendars right here.
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Buying Calendars Is Much Like Buying A 3-Legged Stool
October 7, 2013 by Jim Braaten · Leave a Comment
We often tell people how when buying calendars from any calendar printer it is like buying a 3-legged stool. Perhaps the analogy sounds sort of silly, but let me explain. It’s based on a very sound business concept that could apply to many different products.
Consider the three legged stool that is solid and stable if all legs function properly, but subject to tipping over if problems are encountered in weight distribution or the strength of one or more legs. When properly used and maintained, the stool is a dependable piece of furniture.
Now, consider how one of those stool legs is product quality. Another is price. Perhaps the third is the customer service itself. So, holding up the stool is product quality, price and customer service.
Assume a customer gets an insanely great price but the product quality is questionable and the customer service is deficient. If that stool is a calendar will it function in the manner in which it was designed with two unstable legs?
Perhaps the situation is a decent price and a fair product quality, but the customer service is atrocious? Again, do you have a stool you can depend on?
One final scenario. You find a decent price and friendly customer service, but the product quality just doesn’t quite perform to your satisfaction. Once again, this stool just doesn’t quite hold up to your needs and will easily topple over because expectations are out of balance.
We try to educate our customers how a good calendar product should not be judged by price alone. There are other important factors such a product quality and a helpful sales team who will stand behind that purchase.
At CalendarsNow.com we strive to deliver fair prices, great quality and friendly, helpful service to each and every sale. Our customers are not a one-time event, they are building a relationship we hope to grow for many years to come. Part of growing a strong relationship is understanding how when corners are cut in either quality, price or quality staffing it means a shaky existence.
So, the next time you are contemplating an imprinted promotional advertising calendar purchase make sure you are getting a reasonable price. Make sure the product quality is adequate by perhaps requesting a sample for inspection prior to ordering. But above all, talk to the folks trying to sell you the calendars. Two minutes on the phone discussing your calendar order can explain a lot about the type of company (and it’s people) you will be dealing with on the transaction.
The next time you think about calendars don’t forget about the 3-legged stool, too.
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