Monday, May 3, 2010

Awesome Places to Buy Promotional Materials for Your Small Business

I don't know if you've noticed, but I recently rebranded my entire shop.

My blog has a new background, I have a new Etsy shop banner, and I even made a new Twitter avatar, all featuring these cute little rainbow glitter hearts I made with resin.

Branding is basically when all your promotional stuff looks the same.  Same colors, same design, same font, same graphics.  Everywhere.  Online, in print, in your shop, your sign at craft shows, etc.  It's important to have a specific brand because it helps people recognize you no matter where they find you.  If they see your rainbow glitter hearts in one place, they'll remember your rainbow glitter hearts when they see them somewhere else.

It has taken me over a year to get my branding down to a science, and I am REALLY happy with the result.  What do you guys think?  Did I do a good job?

I certainly hope so, because I just bought a butt load of new advertising and promotional materials.  I got new business cards, little magnets to toss in packages as freebies, and new ad blocks to use when I advertise online.  And I spent more money than I care to admit.  But I'm hoping it will be worth it in the end!

The following websites are my top favorite places to design and buy promotional materials for my Etsy shop.

These links are my gift to you.  This list is over a year in the making!




Regular Business Cards
123Print.com
Pretty inexpensive (100 single sided for $4 plus shipping, add $15 if you want double sided), and they have a lot of features.  You can upload your own design for free (VistaPrint.com charges a couple bucks if you use a custom design).



MiniBusiness Cards
Moo.com
Best little mini cards ever (100 for $19.99).  They have a sweet custom design program.  Mini moo cards look REALLY professional (IMHO) and they come in a free cute little plastic case instead of a crappy cardboard box.



Weirdly Shaped Business Cards
UPrinting.com
CIRCLES!!!  They offer circle business cards!  Crazy!  (They're expensive though, starting at $69.)



FREE Business Cards
VistaPrint.com
Limited selection and generally has the VistaPrint logo somewhere on it, but if you need something super cheap, go here.  But don't sign up for their promotional emails because they email EVERY DAY and it's really annoying.



Postcards
UPrinting.com  (again)
$40 for 100 full color, one sided postcards.  Best value anywhere.  Plus they offer a free graphic review process to make sure your images will work when they print them.  We actually used this company for our wedding reception invitations!



Buttons / Magnets
PureButtons.com
If you need inexpensive freebies to toss in your packages, use this company.  I highly recommend using the templates they provide for designing logos (requires some experience with graphic design) otherwise your images will turn out all weird when they print them.  I learned that the hard way.  Bummer.



Car Graphics
Etsy.com
I have a vinyl decal on the back of my car that has my Etsy shop and tag line.  I'm not sure if I've gotten direct sales because of it, but I have gotten emails inviting me to participate in craft shows from it!  The seller on Etsy that I got my decal from is no longer active, but there are lots of other shops that offer them (see link above).




Stickers
Zazzle.com
Really nice quality stickers, and they discount the more you buy.  You can upload your own designs for free and even sell your creations on their site.  I buy these to hand out, stick in orders for freebies, and stick on all my out going packages.




Where do you buy promotional materials?  Do you make your own?  What experiences have you had?
Share them in the comments!

6 comments:

  1. This is so great, Christine!! :D Man, I really wish I could afford those circle business cards - how awesome!
    Oh! And I absolutely love the idea of a vinyl car decal - do you have a picture of yours??

    ReplyDelete
  2. My brother just ordered the free Vistaprint cards for his computer business so I'm looking forward to seeing the results. I actually ordered some handmade ones for myself on DaWanda and they are beautiful, but turn out pretty expensive.

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  3. I just took advantage of the moo card promotion from etsy last week. Can't wait to see how the cards turned out!

    These are all great resources & I noticed your twitter background especially... because I'm part magpie & so attracted to shiny colorful things!

    :0)

    ReplyDelete
  4. The decals on my Cruiser:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuffbyxtine/3625208144/in/set-72157619189468266/

    June - I must be part magpie too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you so much again for sharing your list:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have you heard of Got Print.com? They are pretty awesome too!

    ReplyDelete

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