For many brands, giving out promotional calendars is an annual tradition. Other businesses may not be so keen on the idea of giving out printed desk calendars or stick-on calendars in today’s digital age. We get it! That’s why we’re here with some creative ideas to get more ROI out of the traditional branded calendar.
Distributors — here are a few case studies and ideas to share with your sales team.
1. Inspire a New Year’s Resolution – Think about how your clients’ services or products can fit into a new year’s resolution. How can their business improve life for their end-user customers? Can they help them decrease stress in 2019? Become more organized, or live a healthier lifestyle? Can they help them reach their business goals? What about improving family life or personal relationships?
Chances are, there’s a great way to position your client’s business in a way that will inspire their end-user customers to take action in 2019. Focus on the problems they help solve for their target audience. Mail a custom value stick calendar, desk calendar, or trifold calendar with a special, timely offer for a free trial, discount, or consultation to be redeemed by January 31st, with some creative ad copy about how the business wants to help them make 2019 a great year.
2. Track ROI with a special promo code or URL. We often hear how hard it is to track the ROI of promo, especially with printed items like calendars. However, with a little digital strategy, this doesn’t have to be the case! Talk to your social media specialist or web admin about creating a special landing page, promo code, or social media contest to tie in with a printed calendar. Print the unique URL on the calendar with a clear call to action you want your customers to take. We recommend using bit.ly to shorten a customizable, trackable link for simplicity.
Maybe you use the calendar to direct recipients to comment on a Facebook or Instagram post with a goal they have for 2019 in order to win a $50 gift card to your business. Perhaps you encourage calendar recipients to visit a special landing page to submit a form for an exclusive coupon. (Bonus: this can help you capture emails for your email marketing list, too) If you have Google Analytics set up (it’s free!) You can track all of your website traffic, and add some real ROI to any promotion.
3. Encourage Monthly Repeat Business in Store. Hand out value stick calendars printed with a promo code good for 10% off a customer’s next order when they bring in last month’s calendar page! Encourage repeat traffic in store for restaurants and cafes, retail shops, salons, and beyond. This idea also works with our premiere Desk Calendars, which have tear-off monthly pages and 3 imprint areas included, with NO setup charges.
Bonus: Once you knock it out of the park for your clients with custom 2019 calendars, they’ll want to repeat the promotion (or something similar) year after year. Calendars are the #1 annual repeat promotional product order – which means steady business and repeat orders year after year.
Have another creative case study involving custom calendars? We’d love to hear about it! Please leave us a comment here, or share with us on the Warwick Publishing Facebook Page.