Our Favorite Things | Print Marketing Materials

As a creative, I just want to make videos.  That’s all.  But as a business owner, I end up spending a good amount of time (and money) on marketing.  After a few years, I’ve worked out a routine and found the companies who make the process of ordering print materials as easy as humanly possible.

I love video as a medium.  It is sometimes hard to pull out my work and show it to people on the spot, and in those cases, I rely on nice print materials that will lead people to open my website and watch my videos.  I’ve also learned the value of providing clients with material that show them that they really matter, to share educational material, and highlight our company.

First off, I’m not a designer.  After years of either trying to create something that looks good on my own (and failing) or settling for a basic looking stock template on a print site.  Then, I discovered Creative Market.  There are so many amazing templates to choose from, created by talented designers, that you can find something that matches your brand, looks amazing, and is unique.  Even better, you can find a whole suite of matching products (which is what I did) so that everything goes well together. Creative Market also has a couple of freebies that they offer each week.  It’s one of the few marketing lists I stay subscribed to.

The only drawback is that you will need to do the customization work yourself, in either Photoshop or InDesign.  I did our first Wedding Guide in Photoshop and for someone who doesn’t use the program, it took forever and made me half insane.  Last year, I tried an InDesign template, and it was SO much easier for me.  Of course, we already have these programs, so there was no extra cost for me to use them.  If you do not already own or use these, I would suggest hiring a designer to do custom work for you.  If you do already own these programs, it is worth it to learn, so that when you need to do small updates, you can get them done quickly.

For business cards, we print through Moo.  They are really amazing quality, and I love that I do not have to settle on one face for my cards.  I can choose different images to target different audiences or create custom cards to share with each client.  If you do not have access to InDesign or Photoshop, and just need a quick business card, Moo also has some very nice looking designs (some with matching suites for other marketing materials).  The quality is WAY above what I have received from other printers.

For my client guides and magazines, I print through MagCloud.  I have not used any other printer, so I have nothing to compare them to.  However, I researched a fair amount before deciding on MagCloud, and have been really happy with my experience thus far.  Both the quality and customer service are excellent. They have a lot of tools that I do not yet use (digital publications, etc) but I’m very happy with their print magazines.

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