Printing Essentials for Marketing Professionals

In 2021, marketing is about social media, email marketing, content marketing, and… definitely, print marketing. Since it’s still important to connect with customers in a physical way, print marketing plays a significant role in a company’s success.

If you are an expert in marketing, but less versed in print design, here are the top print design essentials that you need to be aware of.

PMS / CMYK Numbers

If you do not have a graphic design degree, you may not know what CMYK stands for.

CMYK are the colors used in the printing process: C – cyan, M – magenta, Y – yellow, and K – black. Designers use the values that are associated with these colors to create consistent colors on the web and in print.

Since the color of your logo is an essential element of the visual brand identity, you should ensure that color will not be distorted in printing. If the color of your brand is “navy blue”, you want your business card to be printed in “navy blue” not a “midnight blue”, right? To avoid any problems with the color distortion, it’s highly recommended to set CMYK values before starting the printing process.

User-Friendly Design Tools 

It’s impossible to create a publish-worthy design without using graphic design tools.  So if you are a person who is responsible for print marketing in your company, you have to learn how to use such tools as Adobe Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator. Adobe Spark is also a great template tool and extremely easy to use.

All these tools have a similar interface. However, you should choose the one that works for you the best.

Using these tools, you can tweak and retouch existing images or create new images from scratch. Also, you can use these programs to convert media files from one format to another. For instance, using Adobe Photoshop, you can convert JPGs to PDFs in one click.

Printer’s In-House Graphic Design Services

You should find a balance in your work and try to be involved in print design as much as needed, no more, no less. So you will have enough time to focus on your core activities. Omega has our own graphic designers on staff and they are very well-versed in getting your beautiful images from your computer screen to a outstanding printed piece.

Quality of the Paper

In online marketing, you should check whether your logo and other elements of design look great on your website. In print marketing, you should care more about how these elements look on paper.

So before you print your flyers, notepads, stickers, and catalogs, you should decide what paper to use. For instance, if you sell fancy furniture, you should use a paper that looks expensive and feels nice to the touch. If you sell eco-friendly products, you can’t use laminated paper, because it’s not recyclable. Instead, you should choose a compostable paper.

Print design is an essential element of your visual brand identity. So every brochure, business card, and bookmark you print should communicate the concept of your brand through the stock it is printed on and the finish. You should use a paper that is a perfect fit for your brand.

Suitable Fonts

In print design, you should be very careful when choosing a font. The font should be not too big and not too small – it must be readable.

There is a difference between online and offline marketing. If you choose a tiny font for your website, it will not be a big problem. Your website visitors still will be able to zoom up the page and read the text.

But in print marketing, the situation is different. If you choose a hard-to-read font, your customers will not even try to read the text. The chances are they will send your flyer to the trash. They will not attempt to use a magnifying glass to understand what you have written.

New Technologies and Integrations

Let’s clarify one important thing. Digital marketing and print marketing shouldn’t substitute each other. Vice versa, they should complement each other.

As a marketer, you should use new technologies to integrate print marketing with digital marketing. You should do it to maximize your efforts and get a higher return on investments. 

For instance, you can add QR codes to your business cards and brochures. So you will direct your prospective customers to a specific digital destination (e.g., your website, blog, or landing page).

Also, you can use digital lists and advanced printing techniques to customize your printed ads with the customers’ names. It’s a simple way to incorporate personalization into your print marketing strategy and achieve higher results.

High-Resolution Images

High-resolution images are large in size, so their usage may slow down the website. Marketers know that fact, so they compress all the photos they use on the web.

If you use compressed images on your website, you should understand that you can’t use the same images in print design. To get high-quality prints, you should use pictures of the highest resolution possible, especially when it comes to large-format offset printing.

So don’t hesitate to immerse yourself in the world of print design. Expand your knowledge in a new field and acquire new skills to compete with other marketers in your niche.

Omega Graphics and Print is happy to assist you with any of your design or printing needs. Contact us.