How to Make Your Mark (and Boost Sales) With Bookmarks

Getting noticed in a competitive market requires quality products and services, but you’ll also need to make sure customers notice what you have to offer. Creativity in marketing is an ever-evolving field, but sometimes the old-fashioned in-person advertising methods work best.

Your business can make its mark with custom-printed full-color bookmarks with a memorable message. Depending on your industry, you can list contact information, services offered, a call to action, and even a photo to catch your customer’s eye.

However, your customer might be even more likely to hold onto your bookmark if it’s attractive and practical. Here’s what to keep in mind when making bookmarks for potential customers.

Digital Marketing vs. Printed Goods

In the internet age, companies have started increasing their emphasis on internet and email marketing. Although these digital methods are effective, they’re also so ubiquitous they are easy for customers to overlook.

Online ads are common enough that customers tune them out and scroll past without reading them, and emails often end up in spam folders.  Many case studies show that Search Engine Optimization for landing pages, paid website promotion, and content marketing tools go a long way, but for small and local businesses, an in-person touch is essential.

Printed goods leave a tangible reminder of your interaction with the customer, even if that interaction was brief. Business cards are an excellent tool for this, especially if they’re  double thick and high-quality enough to hold up to wear and tear. However, slightly larger printed goods, like full-color bookmarks, provide more value for the customer, are used frequently, and are less likely to get lost.

Small Business Promotion

When you’re a small business owner, your  profit margins are usually razor-thin. Making the most of your marketing budget requires you to know your target audience’s needs and interests.

For example, if you’re a landscaping company, you’ll likely reach out to homeowners who are interested in keeping their lawns and gardens beautiful year-round. Your bookmark could contain reminders for annual lawn service and care tasks, like trimming bushes.

Your bookmark should also include full-color examples or illustrations of the types of work you do when possible. A realtor’s bookmark can include an image of a beautiful home, and a fabric store can include a quilt-like design with beautiful fabrics. As long as the text is still legible against the background, your image will enhance the perceived value of the bookmark.

Reminder Cards

Dentist offices, accounting firms, and other companies that customers use regularly can also  make bookmarks that double as reminder cards. You can include a call to action on the card, reminding the customer to reach out to your business. If your service is one that customers will need regularly, this helpful reminder will be appreciated.

Bookmarks can also include a specific space for staff to write an appointment date and time on, along with the words “don’t forget” so your customer sees the date. This gives the customer the option of either using the bookmark in books or posting it in a visible location like a bulletin board or refrigerator. Also, make sure to include your office’s phone number so customers can call and change their appointment if needed.

Marketing for Creatives

Artists and writers need to add a personal touch to their marketing to build up their image and enhance supporters’ sense of investment in them. Bookmarks are a practical way to keep your words and art within arm’s reach of fans at all times.

If you write and publish physical works, bookmarks are perfect for helping promote your books. You can include a memorable quote from your works, a book cover, or another image or quote that solidifies your identity as an author. You can also include information about upcoming books, especially if those books are part of an existing series fans are excited about.

Artists can use small collectible bookmarks as an inexpensive way to stay in front of fans’ eyes. They work well for small, cute illustrations as well as cropped portions of larger works.

Consider having bookmarks on hand as freebies, especially for fans who pre-order your works. Having pre-order incentives can help encourage fan support. Consider promoting them on highly visual social media sites such as Instagram, especially if you have a custom illustration on the bookmarks.

What to Include

To keep customers from throwing your bookmark away, you need to make it useful and attractive. Your bookmark shouldn’t be just designed as an advertisement. Consider including a motivational quote or an attractive photo in addition to information about your business.

Double-sided bookmarks allow you to fit as much information as possible onto the bookmark. You can have a cheerful message related to reading or another theme on the front and your business’ services and contact information on the back. This may work better than trying to cram information about your business on the bottom of the design.

Avoid large walls of text, especially on the front of the bookmark. Since bookmarks are narrow, you’ll need to be careful how you arrange your text. Use bullet points, especially for lists of products and services, to make the bookmark easy to read.

If you’re a realtor or other independent professional, you can include a professional photo of yourself as well. However, keep in mind that large photos might not show up well due to how narrow bookmarks are. Consider cropped close-up photos if you want to include any images other than a professional headshot.

Memorable Printed Goods

Even though bookmarks seem small, they can make a big impression when they’re designed well.

Comix Well Spring is your affordable printing solution, thanks to our low order minimums. Whether you’re a local business or a teacher trying to encourage your students to read more, we are happy to work with you to make all your printing projects come to life. We provide full-color, edge-to-edge printing that eliminates white spaces that detract from your design.

We provide posters, flyers, business cards, and even printed books as well. We have templates available so you can set up your design files with no hassle. Count on us to make your bookmark printing as sharp and vibrant as possible so you can make your mark and boost sales.