Personalizing Your Professional Marketing Materials
Making it work for you

Using pre-made, quality marketing tools such as brochures, gift certificates and postcards makes good business sense. They help establish you as a professional, lend credibility to your business, and save you the time it would take to make your own. When you personalize your marketing materials, you take the next step toward presenting a professional face to the world.

What is personalization?

Personalization is adding your own business and marketing information to materials pre-made by companies who specialize in them. These can include gift certificates, brochures, and postcards as well as other tools like baseball caps, greeting cards, pens and newsletters. Depending on the size and style of your business, personalizing these materials could be as simple as handwriting your contact information or attaching a business card, or as detailed as adding a professionally-printed logo and personal message, such as an announcement or special offer.

Marketing materials not only let you communicate your contact information, they allow you to present to the community your own approach to the services you offer. At its best, personalization is your chance to do this with style and professionalism.

Tips for the most effective personalization

Whatever method of personalization you choose, here are some important basics to consider.

Be sure to include your phone number and other contact information!

We get calls regularly from would-be clients who say they picked up a brochure, but the only number they find on it is ours. Remember, even if you are handing your brochure, newsletter or other educational information directly to an individual, they may pass it on to someone else who will need to know how to get in touch.

Remember to proof!

Our experienced proofreaders recommend that you slowly read your information at least five times before it’s set in stone, checking separately for errors in:

1. Content or wording
2. Spelling & numbers (is it THERAPEUTIC or THERAPUETIC, MASSAGE or MESSAGE? )
3. Punctuation ( 222-555.1234 )
4. Capitalization ( APpointment )

Is there too much or too little information?

Consider using less text, so people are more likely to read it, and call you with their questions.

State benefits, not modalities.

Listing the modalities you’re trained in isn't likely to get people's attention.You need to know what myofascial release is — your clients don't. They need to know that your work will reduce their pain and tension, so tell them that. They need to know your work gets results, so state that it does.

Check for graphic readability.

Choose typefaces that are big enough and easy to read. And avoid the “ransom note” approach —use no more than two typefaces in any layout. Use different type sizes, italics or bold where they make sense (for example, to differentiate your practice description from your contact information), but use them sparingly.

Be consistent.

Throughout your marketing materials, have a consistent typeface and logo or graphic, not only on your postcards and gift certificates, but in your signage, ads and website.

Develop your own professional style.

Even though simplicity is usually best, your design doesn’t have to be boring. You can achieve a professional, easy-to-read layout that’s also interesting by using graphics, shapes, size, and alignment (not everything has to be centered).

For example, even if you don’t have a logo, your name or business name can be turned into a graphic element with an interesting font and appropriate type size. Check out the example for Joanna Franklin on our own personalization example page:

Now take these tips and run with them. Use your creativity and have fun coming up with a design that will make it easy for your clients to recognize your communications and readily respond.

Natural Touch Marketing offers a wide variety of postcards, brochures, greeting cards and gift certificates, which we can help you personalize with style, professionalism and affordability. Check out our personalization webpage for more information.

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