5 “Share Buttons” for Print Marketing

Most online marketers wouldn’t think of creating a web page without including a way for users or visitors to easily share it with others. Web pages can have multiple “share buttons” which enable users to send them to a variety of targets: Facebook, StumbleUpon, email, and many more.

But there’s no share button when you’re dealing with print media. So how can you achieve the same level of “shareability?” Here are a few ideas.

1. Tear-Off Sheets

   

   When I was in college, I saw tons of flyers with tear-off sheets posted on bulletin boards all over walkways and hallways. They usually included discounts on products and services such as guitar lessons, rooms for rent, or tutor lessons. If you were interested, you would tear off a tab containing contact information and call that phone number at your convenience. Tearing off one of the many tabs would leave plenty for others to take advantage of the same opportunity, multiplying the effect of one single flyer.

   A tear-off sheet has two major elements. The first element is the promotion which has to be eye catching, engaging, and compel an individual to take action by tearing off a tab. The second is the tab which is like a portable reminder of your promotion complete with contact info. Don’t forget this reminder; many people tend to forget what the promotion is about hours or days later when the opportunity to act on that offer arises. When done properly, it is easy for ten flyers to do the work of a hundred.

2. QR Code

   If you’ve never seen a quick response code before, it might just look like a random jumble of pixels. Actually, a quick response code (or QR code) is like a bar code for your cell phone. They can be placed on almost any print marketing material, and enable a cell phone to take a picture and have it automatically route the person to a specific web page where they can follow through on that promotion or opportunity. After they are online, there is no need for them to keep the brochure, flyer or poster, making them reusable.

   This tactic is widely used at seminars where someone can sign up for something quickly by reading the poster and taking a picture of the QR code. That’s it – and the next person in line can do the same thing.

   QR codes can be used to send an email or text, add an event to your calendar and much more.

3. Pass Along

   Have you ever grabbed a flyer or brochure, used it, and passed it to another person? It’s a form of distribution similar to a viral video, or a book that gets handed from one person to the next.

   This method can be difficult to accomplish and track, so it’s best to only make use of it in certain situations. For this to work, the message or offer has to be truly compelling. I have only passed along a few messages like this in my life, involving a drawing for a prize. There’s no magical formula to creating this multiplying factor. It really comes down to an exceptional promotion and message.

4. Group Participation/Group Signup

   This one is very simple. It’s based upon the same principles as Groupon; for a person to take advantage of a discount or promotion, they have to get others to join or buy too.

   Let’s say I get a postcard from GM offering a 50% discount on a new car if I can get three other people to buy one too. This is truly an unbelievable deal (and yes, this is just hypothetical; otherwise, I would have a new car). Almost anyone who received this deal would start making phone calls, sending texts, emails, instant messages and so on to everyone they knew. It’s likely that they’d be able to reach at least three other people. So from this one post card, GM would receive four orders and tons of free word-of-mouth marketing.

   Use this technique sparingly, because it can cause a person who would normally take advantage of the promotion not to because of the extra work involved. They also might just completely forget about the offer. I would only recommend this technique when your promotion is almost too good to be true.

5. Referral Sign-Up

   Why not ask for a referral? It doesn’t hurt to ask as long as you do so properly. I wouldn’t start off asking for one right away, but there are times when it makes sense. Lets say you’re using a brochure for lead generation, so your call-to-action on the brochure is “sign up to win a prize.” Why not add a small field in the form that allows them to recommend the offer to others? Not everyone will fill it out, but at least a few will. By adding that field, you could acquire a few extra leads with very little effort.

   You can also use this technique online. For example, I print a flyer that highlights the URL leading to my website. Once there, people are invited to recommend the product to others. In other words, it’s possible to use printed materials to help generate online buzz.

Conclusion

All of these marketing techniques can be thought of as “multiplying factors.” They make it so that a single piece of marketing collateral can used by multiple people. Without using these techniques, you’re only limiting your promotional power and efficiency.

Posted in Marketing, Marketing Ideas