It’s that time of year again when we’re only a couple pages away from recycling our 2018 calendars and getting a shiny new 2019 model. For your customers, that means a spot is opening up on their desk or wall that gets looked at a dozen times a day. Wouldn’t you love to see your logo and contact information in a calendar that stays top-of-mind every day of the year? In this short article, we’ll let you in on five tips for ordering promotional calendars for your customer for the new year.
1. Don’t go overboard with the calendar branding
Yes, one of the goals of a promotional calendar is to make sure the person using it is seeing your name, logo, and contact info on a regular basis. But let’s not forget that the primary goal of the calendar is to be useful, and the utility of it should not be overshadowed by your gigantic logo. Keep it subtle, but also keep it consistently there. A great spot for the branding is along the bottom of the calendar in a nice, classy, consistent way that doesn’t get in the way of the rest of the calendar.
2. Pick a size and style to suit your customer
Calendars come in so many shapes and sizes, from the tiny desk calendar to the gigantic poster-sized wall calendars. Make sure yours is an appropriate size and style for your customer. We’ve found that the coil bound or comb bound wall calendars are popular because they take up less space, and the sweet spot for size is anywhere around 7″x9″ to 8.5″x11″. If you’re going with a saddle stitch calendar, 11″x17″ folded down to a 8.5″x11″ is pretty common and efficient. Wall calendars in general are great because they don’t take up that oh-so precious desktop space. Also, make sure the calendar is big enough for them to write notes in the squares for the days – lots of people like to do that.
3. Pick a design that stands out
We know we’re not supposed to go overboard with the branding, but that doesn’t mean the design has to be bland. Either pick an interesting design with some color, and/or use images that are pleasing and recognizable. We recommend you check out a stock photo site like Adobe Stock, or a free alternative called Pexels to find some amazing photography for the calendar. For example, a great idea would be to find some Montana-specific imagery to give the design a local flavor – we do live in one of the most beautiful states you know.
4. Personalize the calendar for extra brownie points
A promotional calendar is already kinda personalized in that it’s not just plain with labeled and numbered days. When you personalize it, it doesn’t necessarily become more useful to the recipient, but it can sure mean a heck of a lot more in terms of a relationship builder. If you don’t want to personalize it with something like variable data printing that’s ok – maybe just find your customer’s birthday and circle it in red with a sharpie, and add a little happy birthday message. They’ll eat that up. Don’t stop there – show how much your customer means to you by adding little dates that important to both of you like anniversaries, events, etc… just don’t be creepy.
5. Don’t wait too long to order your calendar
This is going to seem like a sales pitch (and it kinda is), but if you wait too long to give your customers a branded promotional calendar, they might just pick one up at a local office supply store, or even (gasp) print one out from Microsoft Word. Your calendar is worth so much more than a generic plain one – don’t let that happen! Late November and early December are the most logical months to start rounding up a new calendar, so get yours on their desk or wall before that!
There you have it, five awesome tips on ordering a promotional calendar for your customers. If you haven’t thought of it yet, you’d better get on it – the days are running out!
