Creating custom calendars is a great way to show appreciation to your customers, give a wonderful personalized gift or remind yourself of your past experiences throughout the New Year.
Ordering calendars has become easier and easier with online printers creating more user-friendly websites. But calendar printing does still have its own checklist, so you want to make sure you consider these points when placing your next personalized calendar order: What’s the point of your calendar? If you’re using a calendar for customer appreciation, or a family gift, you want to make sure that this theme radiates throughout the calendar from the cover to the month of December. A calendar project can veer off track if in January there are pictures of the family in the snow and by august, you’re showing photos of advertisements that you’ve created. Stick to a certain subject matter and make sure to emphasize it throughout each month. If you’re using the calendar as part of a customer appreciation campaign for your clients, you might want to include the work that you did for them as one of the month’s pictures. Be creative, but stay on track Collect all pictures beforehand and group them according to month When trying to organize your thoughts for your calendar design, make sure to gather the pictures that you’re going to use and categorize them by month. This is especially helpful when putting together photos for a family calendar or showing off portfolio work. Having 12 months worth of pictures can be daunting, so create a system where the best photos are chosen for each month and know why they are the best. Take note of all holidays that you want to include in your calendar Here’s a fun way to show your customers that you can really advertise. Not only can you include the regular major holidays on your calendar, but you can contact your clients for a list of events that they may put on annually. That way, you can send out reminders to everyone that gets a calendar about your client’s events … even your own! Make up a holiday that emphasizes your business such as a semi-annual sale or appreciation dinner. Whatever the case may be, you want a clear list of these days and make sure to check with the printer to see if adding personalized days is within their capabilities and won’t add extra dollars to your print order. Know your budget and consider the options There are a lot of different ways that you can print your calendar, but one of the most important influences on your decision is probably going to be price. Many printers only allow you to start at certain quantities when placing an order, so take that into account. Also, you may want a large glossy, full-color calendar when you’re on pocket-size calendar budget. Know this before you start designing so that you won’t be forced to change everything at the last minute due to lack of money. Check with the printer for customer orders first You might have a client that asks for a special request when it comes to their calendar idea. I had such a client and they wanted the world. Large full-color pages, custom holiday dates, and to top it all off, they wanted advertisement banners on the top and sides of every single calendar date page to show off sponsors of an event they were putting on. This was quite a big endeavor, and ultimately one that required a lot of planning and a lot of money. My client wasn’t ready for that type of project and after speaking with several printers about what would be involved, we ended up scrapping it. Know your options with the printer that you’re going to use and be realistic with your clients about what they can and cannot have or afford.
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