Customize Your Look

Here’s a test: take the last few advertisements you printed and lay them out on a table. Next take the last few advertisements from your competition, however many companies that might be, and lay them out on that exact same table.

Now, when you stand back and look at the purely visual aspect of the ads, how different are they? Are certain ads vastly superior to the others, are they particularly eye-catching, something that leaps out of the grouping, or are you finding yourself blending them all together in your mind.

Is anything jumping out?
When I do this with various companies I find myself not really knowing anymore which ad came from which company. They all just look almost exactly the same, with maybe a minor color differences being the sole distinction.

How are you going to be noticed in the marketplace if your ads aren’t doing anything different from everyone else?
And this isn’t necessarily about coming up with completely different types of advertising either. If postcards have been doing wonders in your industry than you would be smart to keep using them, but that doesn’t mean you can’t vary up the postcards.

Custom printing should always be taken into consideration. Never settle for something unless it really grabs you. Maybe slightly altering what you’ve been doing might be enough to pull your advertisements out.

If brochures have been your things, why not try using pocket brochures? They’ll attract the same kind of people that the brochures were, but they’ll have the extra touch with pockets that allows you to put more information, and makes your brochures catch the eye in a way the normal brochures won’t.

Something very important to look at to is what everyone else is doing. Custom printing only remains custom if fewer people are doing it. If everyone in your industry started using pocket brochures, suddenly normal brochures would become custom instead.

That’s why I first suggested lining up your ads alongside everyone else’s. You need to do the research first to see what people are up to before you can change things up and do it differently than them.

You might start up a system of keeping careful track of everything the competition is putting out, that is if you aren’t paying attention already. Part of the trick is to stay ahead of the pack. If you alter your style and it picks up in popularity, you can bet the other companies are going to start copying you.

As soon as they do switch to something else, leaving them behind the times, and always trying to play catch up with you.

Those who lead the pack are going to be the ones getting all the business. You need to be sure that you aren’t just following behind someone else. Start innovating and get all the others to try copying you instead.