PsPrint is now offering three paper stocks to choose from:

• Top-quality gloss sticker paper with crack-and-peel backing (for indoor use)
• Premium vinyl sticker paper with glossy UV coating (for indoor or outdoor use)
• Clear polyester sticker paper with glossy UV coating (for indoor or outdoor use)

Marketing your business with stickers is easy-peasy because you have a smaller space, and you don’t want to overload it information. Here are some ideas:

Pique your audience’s curiosity by including your logo and website – no company or band name.

Make sticker business cards.

Create a custom die cut to make your sticker stand out.

Bumper stickers never go out of style! What easier way to grab attention than when a driver is stuck behind you in traffic?

K.I.S.S. = Keep it simple, stupid. That’s a crude way of reminding you to not go crazy with your stickers. Stick with just a couple of bold colors, such as a white background so that letters or graphics show up clearly.

Think of your green efforts when it comes to stickers. Maybe your business is already well known, but stickers are a great way to remind potential new customers that you recycle or switched to energy-saving light bulbs. Hand out stickers and paste them on your store windows. Green sticker marketing goes both ways, too, since you can choose soy-based inks, and stickers aren’t as easily tossed away as other printed marketing materials.

What are some of the creative ways you’ve used stickers?

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Stickers are fun to design and a unique way to promote your business. There also happens to be a sticker printing sale going on until mid March, which gives PsPrint.com customers a nice discount to boot!

Here are a few ideas for designing and printing your own stickers:

Custom die cut stickers
Choose from a gallery of die cuts that the printer has ready and waiting to go, or work with a print vendor to submit a new custom die for sticker printing. Some companies will choose a basic shape that’s associated with their business, such as a diamond for a jeweler, crayon for childcare or a star for public relations. You can also create a more abstract shape such as a cloud, dialog bubble or an explosion. If your logo is simple enough, try creating a sticker in the form of your logo or one where your logo design stands out as one of the sticker’s edges.

Sticky business cards
Stand out from the rolodex of business cards by creating a custom sticker business card. Sticky business cards help you remain on a customer’s radar. Hopefully they will stick your card somewhere within sight, on their day-planner or by their desktop. For sticky business cards, try a traditional rectangular design or a rectangle design with one rounded-out corner so folks will know to peel the sticker back. You can imitate your regular business card design, or make the sticky card a bit more inventive. It’s best to keep your logo, taglines, information and any branding similar so as not to confuse customers.

Clear window decals
This is a bit morbid, but I came up with the idea to design custom window decals when I installed a bird feeder the other day. I opened the blinds on my picture window to get a look at the birds, when one flew right into glass! (Thankfully he was OK and got up and flew away). Later that afternoon, a friend suggested sticking some decals onto the window to give the glass more dimension and prevent further bird accidents.

Whether or not you’ve got crazy birds flying into your windows, using a clear background sticker, you can create custom decals. Seasonal decals such as sun-shaped stickers for spring, leaves for fall and snowflakes for winter are always fun. For business use, you can create clear stickers with your logo or website outlined in black, and stick them on a glass front door or window, or throughout the office. You can even stick them on your car’s back windshield!

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Eyeing that headline on Monday morning made me think of how important graphic design is – the choice of font, color and size. When an event has already occurred, designers and editors on newspapers have to come up with a way to lay out a story that will still draw readers in the following day. That’s why when a massive earthquake struck San Francisco on April 18, 1906, The Daily News published the next day with a front-page headline stating, in large type, “Hundreds Dead!” and left the longer word “earthquake” and an explanation for the subhead.

The Sept. 12, 2001, New York Times reflected the fear and paranoia of the country with its “U.S. Attacked” headline following the plane crashes the day before into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. You couldn’t pass a television or radio on 9/11 without escaping the news, so the newspapers the following day published short, terse and huge headlines:

• “Outrage” (.pdf; Chicago Sun-Times)
• “Attacked” (.pdf; The Cincinnati Enquirer)
• “Terror” (The Des Moines Register)
• “Massacre” (.pdf; The Palm Beach Post)
• “Nightmare” (.pdf; San Francisco Chronicle)
• “Bastards!” (The Examiner)

Those one-word headlines state what readers likely already felt, yet the size of the letters packed an emotional wallop.

The next time you sit down to design marketing materials for your business, think about what you want to say. Can you be more concise and take out some words? Consider what it takes to get your point across and who your audience is. Whether you’re creating a banner or a sticker, your audience will be viewing these from different vantage points – keep that in mind when trying to pack a lot of information into the space.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Here are some ideas for promoting your company with stickers:

Make bumper stickers. They’re larger than your average sticker, so you have more space to print your message. But be sure it’s legible from the view of the car behind it – you don’t want to cause an accident with your sticker!

Print a lot. Order a big ol’ bunch of stickers and hand them out like crazy. People love posting stickers in random places, and a well-designed sticker will stay inside viewers’ minds until they look up your website or logo. Stickers are an inexpensive way to conduct a viral marketing campaign, since your fans will do a lot of the legwork for you.

Try unique placement. I’ve seen a number of stop signs that people have added this sticker to. Yes, now the sign reads, “Stop – Hammertime.” While I’m not encouraging people to deface government property, it does spark the advertising possibilities that stickers bring.

When printing your stickers, keep a few things in mind. One is to make your stickers stand out by choosing a unique die-cut shape – say, a sticker in the shape of a bone for a pet shop. Also be aware of the different types of paper and where your sticker will be displayed. Perhaps choose vinyl or clear polyester with UV coating if they’re likely to be stuck on windows or cars.

Also, don’t think that stickers can’t be environmentally friendly – be green by ensuring your printer uses soy-based inks that use fewer volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than traditional, petroleum-based inks.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Here are my top five creative stickers that captivate passers-by:

FedEx ships UPS trucks – One of the challenges marketers face is how to position one’s company as better than the competition. FedEx accomplished this quite handily with these trailer truck creative stickers.

Domestic violence is an unfortunate reality, and episodes are often exacerbated by drinking binges. While I don’t appreciate abuse, I do like the in-your-face style of these anti-abuse beer mug stickers. Even the most inebriated can’t miss the message here.

This creative sticker gives new meaning to the term “port-a-potty.” Though it might not be the most elegant image, you can’t deny that it turns heads and makes you remember that AIM employees are “comfortable living specialists.”

Some stickers play well with others, such as these giraffe neck stickers that crawl up utility poles and work with large-format banners at the top. Giraffes in downtown? That’ll turn gawkers into zoo patrons any day!

Last but not least – and my personal favorites – are the creative stickers affixed to the sides of vending machines that depict people working inside to fill orders. A genius way to promote a job search company.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Stickers are eye catching and cost effective. You can produce tons of stickers and distribute them at an office, store, event or in the street. A sticker generates great word-of-mouth marketing, as people will pass stickers along to friends and post them in easy-to-see places at work or home.

If you are a graphic designer, a custom-printed sticker is an especially great way to promote your design skills and really stand out from the pack. To get the most out of a promotional sticker, try these three custom sticker printing suggestions:

1. Experiment with custom shapes
With sizes ranging from two inches to up to a foot and a half, the possibilities for custom die-cut stickers are endless. A die is basically, a cookie-cutter for printed materials. You can select from pre-made die shapes or work with a vendor to create your own uniquely shaped sticker die. Remember to think about the purpose of your sticker, if you’d like customers to be able to stick them on a calendar as appointment reminders, then keep them small. If you are going for a bolder, more promotional design then the bigger, the better!

2. Try printing sticker business cards
No one will ever lose your business card again! Well, hopefully that will be the case, if you print business cards as custom die-cut stickers. This is a great way to make an impression on potential clients and customers. Be sure to choose a sticker size and shape that is suggestive of a business card. You can try using a rectangle with one rounded edge, or one cut-out curved edge, to suggest the feeling that the card is peel-able and adhesive. Sticker business cards are guaranteed to make you look creative and to spark conversations.

3. Use stickers to promote landing pages
Stickers can work really well with landing pages. First you’ll need a dedicated landing page URL for prospective clients and customers to visit. Make sure the URL is not just for your homepage, but a special page dedicated to the offer or service that you’ll advertise on the sticker. Then create a sticker that piques people’s interest. Use copy to advertise what you have to offer, for example, “Save 20% on Beauty Supplies” or “Affordable Personal Training.” Then below the copy, show the landing page URL in easy-to-read type. If your URL encompasses an offer in itself, such as www.discountfamilyhaircuts.com, then you can simply print a sticker with the URL or the URL and a related image, in this case, a scissors, a barbershop pole or a can of hairspray. Finally, place your stickers around town, give them out for free, get them circulating and look for an increase in traffic to your URL.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.