Business calendars are an entirely different story than the standard store-bought varieties that can be found in every supermarket and newsagent up and down the country. The reason being that while standard calendars make nice decorative touches for the home or can be offered as gifts from one person to another, corporate calendars are essentially crucial marketing tools in their own right. When a business hands out corporate calendars, it is doing so not simply as a gesture of goodwill, but as a means by which to further both brand recognition and the company’s reputation in general.
Needless to say therefore, when it comes to designing and printing corporate calendars it’s really not a good idea to take anything at all for granted. Get it right and you’re looking at a wonderfully beneficial asset that will pay for itself several times over throughout the course of the year and beyond. Get it wrong however and it may just stand as a reminder why the recipient does not want to do business with you.
Here’s a quick guide to avoiding the latter scenario:
Use Images of Quality
First and foremost, you need to think carefully about the quality of the imagery you intend to go with. The reason being that these days there really isn’t any room nor is there any real excuse for lacklustre, pixelated, blurred or generally low-resolution images – especially when looking to impress the recipient. It’s highly unlikely that a calendar featuring low-quality images will ever make it onto any wall or desk at any self-respecting business, which is why it’s always in your best interests to go high-res or not at all.
Images That Inspire
Sticking with the same subject for just a moment, what’s equally important to image quality is the actual nature of the images themselves – creativity playing a key role in this department. It’s crucial to make sure that your images both inspire and catch the eye, as these will of course be the primary features of the calendar and will therefore say a lot about you and your brand. If possible, either use your own imagery or speak to a professional calendar printer that may be able to provide 100% unique and exclusive imagery. If the client has never seen such pictures before, all the better for you!
Keep It Consistent
It’s really no good to start your calendar off on a high and gradually have it lose quality as things move forward, or vice-versa for that matter. Consistency matters a great deal with gifts like these as you have to remember that the office or business you hand it to will hopefully be both displaying and using it for a whole year. As such, it’s up to you to hold onto their respect and attention for the full 12-month cycle, not to have them sick of the sight of you by March.
Ample Space for Notes
It’s usually safe to say that calendars with insufficient room for making notes are pretty useless for most offices – their main purpose being to write notes and issue reminders. This is a crucial point to bear in mind as the more useful and functional your calendar is, the higher the chance of it being used consistently throughout the year and looked toward with genuine respect. It needs to look pretty of course, but making it genuinely useful is just as important.
More Than Pictures Alone
One of the best ways of making sure your calendar stands out from the crowd as something special is to look beyond the pictures themselves and think about adding some written content into the mix. This could take the form of anything from a famous quote to a little-known fact to a piece of history to really anything else at all – anything that’s interesting, relevant and will capture the interest of those reading it. Just be sure to stay away from flagrant boasting and shameless self-promotion – it’s guaranteed to get very old, very soon.
Quality Bindings
Ask the corporate calendar professionals about the most important matters to address and chances are the vast majority will say little matters more than quality hardware – in this case referring to hangings and bindings. There’s really nothing that can dilute the appeal of an otherwise superb calendar faster or more wholly than a binding that comes loose and falls to pieces in a matter of weeks, or a hanger that performs similarly poorly. If you plan on making any effort at all with the calendar itself, make sure this is reflected in the hardware you choose.