As the end of the year approaches, we get more inquiries about how to print a calendar. Calendars are a popular marketing tool, so many businesses will print a calendar for the holiday season, for a few good reasons.
Branded calendars make an excellent marketing tool and often a business will print these and hand out to clients as end-of-the-year thank you gifts, and it works because;
- Everybody uses calendars
- The sooner someone gets something for free, the sooner they will use it.
- Make a great tool for brand awareness as it keeps your brand in front of your client all the time.
While you might think to go the DIY route, having your product manufactured by the professionals will result in a high-quality end result that will do your business proud and actually work out cheaper per piece. Keep these pointers in mind:
1.) The design should uniform and in-line with your brand
You want the calendar to serve as more than just a tool to track dates but also to be something that will show off your business and brand in the best light possible.
Choose typography, images, colour and layout that communicates and connects in a visual way with your business. For instance, if your business is a top echelon interior designer, you are not going to choose gaudy colours and cartoon images and fat childlike typography. You would choose muted, elegant colours, clean and elegant fonts and high-resolution images that showcase some of your work.
2.) A template design might do the trick
Finding a template online that is exactly what you are looking for, or at least, goes a good long way towards your envisioned design, is super easy. Using a template also eliminates printing challenges such as incorrect alignment and bleed and trim lines. Even if you give the final design work to a professional, playing around with a few templates will get your creative uses going.
3.) Images – size matters
Because of their size, this is especially important for poster calendars but also follows for other calendar formats as well. Low-quality images will often appear blurry or pixelated when printed. Professional printing services are capable of creating photo-quality prints, but you might not be able to make the most of it when you use low-quality images. When possible try to use only high-quality, uncompressed image file formats or vector images as recommended by your printing service.
Often calendars, such as wall mounted calendars, will require large images and it is crucial to use high-resolution images to avoid ending up with images that are pixelated, blurry and simply looks ‘yuck’. Using good quality uncompressed images file formats or vector images will do the trick. Whether your calendars are large or small tented calendars, the image quality will convey the subliminal message that your business is a quality business as well.
Also, keep in mind that most monitors use an RGB colour model while most printers use CMYK. This is automatically accounted for when you print. However, if your monitor isn’t calibrated properly, the colours you see on your screen might not match what finally comes out on print. Another reason to let the professionals do what they do best.
4.) What will the use be?
Consider where in the sales funnel the potential recipients are. Are they in the middle of the funnel and you are only trying to catch attention? Don’t waste money on expensive high gloss wall calendars but rather consider card calendars of even magnetic options.
In contrast, poster calendars and wall calendars would be practical for more targeted distribution at the bottom of the funnel. At this point, you’re fairly certain your customer is closer to a sale, or has already gone through with a purchase and may be close to buying again.
On the other hand, if you know your customers are at the exit-end of the buying funnel, they have purchased before and you want to keep their loyalty, then top-of-mind-awareness is key. Consider high gloss, superior quality calendars of large proportions that client would not mind hanging in their office because of the visual appeal.
Be sure to ask yourself all of the above questions before you commit to the printing process. I hope these tips were helpful and that your calendar printing project will go off with flying colours!
