How to Make Professional Looking Marketing Postcards
By: Brad Kartel
Submitted: 2011-10-24 02:28:24 | Word Count: 591
If you need marketing postcards, you can easily hire a professional advertising company to do the concept, copywriting, and design for you. However, if you are saving on costs, you can actually do it yourself, provided that you follow some guidelines. Postcard printing is not that hard considering that you already know your message. It is just a matter of communicating it to your readers in a concise way.
Here are some expert tips on preparing your own marketing postcards that will look like they were prepared by a professional.
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1. Prepare the correct template settings - Postcards are small things, but you should prepare the template correctly. Set proper margins, printing bleeds, and also the image resolution. Low image resolution will result in pixilated prints. Make sure that your text and photos do not go out of the printing area, unless you want a bleed, so that all your elements will surely be contained in a single postcard.
2. Review your content - Review your content many times to make sure that all the contents are accurate. Make sure that there are no typographical and grammatical errors. Your contact information should all be correct. If you send out postcards with the wrong telephone number, that would be a major disaster.
3. Review your design quality - Next, review the overall design quality. Are all the contents working together to produce a coherent design and message? If the box containing your text sticks out like a sore thumb, then try changing the color. Is your slogan or title big enough? Do you think that your postcard can already stand out if it is placed beside your competitor's materials? Review your design many times both in draft printing and in color. It is better to do it this way than having to pull out thousands of printed postcards out there in the market.
4. Test the impact of your postcard – Before submitting your layout for printing, test the impact of your design by having several people read it. These people should be from your target market because it is no use testing it out with people of different demographics. Run some test prints and give them out to colleagues who will be able to give you an honest assessment of your work. Take note of their criticisms, study them and think of how you can incorporate them in your design. Just be careful with what you change because sometimes, too many cooks spoil the broth.
5. Choose good quality printing materials – After you have the design, go to the printer and look at their selection of papers. If you are not familiar with different kinds of papers, ask for suggestions. Most of the time, thick paper is used for postcards. That is because they are sent through the mail and so to protect them from being torn or creased, the board types are the preferred paper to use. You may also opt to use lamination on your cards so that they become waterproof and more durable. They also give a different look to the postcards.
Following these valuable tips will give you with good looking and durable postcards that will surely impress your target audience and get them to make a decision of buying and patronizing your products and services. And the next time you do it, your postcard printing will be a breeze.
Author Resource:-
Brad Kartel is a marketing executive whose passion is helping business owners build their campaign through postcard printing. Learn how to create postcards.
