Custom stickers are an easy and affordable way to connect with your customers - especially if your personalized decals showcase fun and creative designs that serve double duty advertising your business and showing off your company values and personality.
These days we are seeing stickers used to accessorize all kinds of things – from Kindle, laptop and phone cases to water bottles and car bumpers.
Giving out stickers to your customers gives folks the chance to show them off on their favourite items – and turning those things into marketing tools for you! Coming up with an awesome design that matches your customers' aesthetic is key, so that they will want to display them on their own stuff.
This is a fantastic way to connect with your ideal customer - your stickers can advertise your business while also bringing value to your audience!
Why you should use stickers as part of your marketing strategy
There are tons of ways in which small business owners and entrepreneurs can utilize stickers in their marketing strategy. Here are a couple of my favourites:
Packaging
Stickers are an easy way to make packaging more cost effective, accessible and versatile. You can use them to customize any kind of packaging that you use for your business. That way, you won't have to invest in getting custom printed boxes, bags and envelopes in different shapes and sizes – you can simply add a sticker to any blank packaging to get a custom look that is effective and eye catching.
Giveaways
Stickers also make a great giveaway item! If you are thinking of adding a little something to packaged online orders, or something to add to bags, stickers are a fun option! They are also a small enough item that makes them easy to bring along to networking or trade show events. Bringing a set of stickers with you is much easier than lugging around a huge box of custom printed merch – both for you, and your customers who receive the item!
How to
How do you come up with a great sticker design? If you have the budget, it's always a great idea to consult with and work with an expert in graphic design who can design and prepare the files for you. If you are looking for a graphic designer for a sticker design, especially one based in Toronto and surrounding areas – shoot me a message!
Here are some ideas to help spark your creativity for a great sticker design:
Use your logo, mascot or a recognizable slogan You can always use your logo file for the most recognizable and versatile sticker. If you want to try something more out of the box, you could use a slogan for a text based sticker design or an illustration of a mascot.
Utilize your existing branding Everything from your brand colours to the typography (ie. Fonts!) should connect to your business's look and feel
Take advantage of interesting materials, like holographic stickers or kraft paper or art paper to grab people's attention Many sticker printers have a variety of materials available. For this post, I collaborated with Sticker Canada – and LOVED all the options they offer for sticker materials. Below is a quick peek at their sample material kit! I decided to go with the holographic sticker because it's super eye catching and works well with my whimsical illustration!
Preparing your files
If you are unfamiliar with printing processes, I highly recommend working with a graphic designer – but a printer will also be able to guide you through the process, to ensure you end up with a high quality print.
Here are some general guidelines and things to remember when preparing your stickers:
Any image or logo that will be printed should be in CMYK colour space If you are unsure what colour space your file is in, open it in Illustrator or Photoshop to confirm! Adobe applications will show the colour space next to the file name under the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Export a high resolution file to share with the printer Make sure your design file is set up at 300dpi, so that you don't end up with pixelated or blurry stickers!
Make sure you are aware of safety areas and trim size Many printers have templates available that have guides to show you where your design should be located. You want to make sure nothing important gets cut off!
Add bleed to your file to ensure that any colour or design that should go to the very edge, really goes to the edge of the sticker If you don't add bleed, you could end up with a white outline that you didn't plan on!
There are tons of reasons to utilize custom printed stickers in your marketing strategy. Stickers are a super versatile item that you can use in a number of ways for your business. They allow you to connect with your audience and advertise your business in new and interesting ways.
I loved how my holographic stickers came out – I decided to showcase one of my bestselling (and personal favourite!) illustrations. I added my business name along the edge, following the curve of the sticker shape. The holographic material really emphasizes the movement in the illustration, and I love how eye catching the colour change of the holo effect is!
If you are in the market for a new sticker provider, I suggest checking out @Sticker_canada on Instagram – I had a great experience working with them for this post, and have loved my set of holo stickers from them!
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