What Makes Good Business Stationery?
There are many options for communication with your customers and suppliers – the digital communications available through company websites, social media platforms and email all play an important part in these daily business exchanges. There is, however, an important and often overlooked role for the more traditional printed business stationery – branded stationery represents a personal touch and helps build and cement business relationships. Whilst digital media options transfer the relevant information effectively and quickly, a signed letter or compliment slip evokes that touch of extra care taken over that specific customer which can instil a business trust and loyalty the somewhat impersonal digital options don’t allow! Here are some aspects of printed business stationery for you to consider:
Establish Your Stationery Requirements
Consider the different types of stationery your business needs – most companies will want A4 letterhead paper for business correspondence, branded invoices, and receipt forms for transactions, whilst branded compliment slips are always a nice, professional touch accompanying other correspondence or products. Business cards are essential items of business stationery – they are the introduction of your company in many different environments and at corporate events. If your budget stretches, then branded envelopes will always make a good impression. Speaking of budgets, consider what volumes of these items you need – if you only require small numbers then, with today’s office digital print facilities, it may be feasible to produce them in-house – however, for larger volumes and, if you want your stationery to portray a truly professional image, work with an established online print company.
Relevant Information
Bespoke stationery is an effective brand reinforcement source – it represents and portrays your business in a positive and professional manner, whilst fulfilling a necessary business function. Keep the design simple and ensure that your stationery contains all the important contact elements for your business – telephone numbers, company address, email and website addresses, and any social media platform access information. Ensure the design is clean, relevant, and consistent with any other brand representation – corporate colours, company logo, and such – used in your other marketing and advertising materials.
Colour
Carefully consider the use of colour for your business stationery design – whilst bright, vibrant colours may be eye-catching, and effective for marketing and advertising materials they can also appear garish and cheap if not used properly. Include any company logo in the colour that it appears in every other branded source, but that may be the only colour aspect you need – blacks and greys against an expanse of white present a more professional image when used for letterheading and information text appearing on your stationery.
Quality
Another reason for working with an experienced online print company is the extra professionalism they can provide – the quality of the paper and printing inks you use for your corporate stationery is important. Whilst it may seem tempting to go for a cheaper option by producing your stationery items in-house, or on lower-quality paper, it is a false saving – premium paper options with good grades will present a much more professional image of your company and convey a higher quality image to your customers or clients. If your business stationery is of high-quality, then customers will assume that the service or product you are providing will be of equal quality – and vice-versa if the stationery appears cheap and low-grade!
An established online print company will not only produce the highest quality print on high-grade materials but will also be able to assist you with the important features of design for your stationery, ensuring that all your business correspondence portrays your company in a professional and quality manner.