Pro Tips for Designing Killer Marketing Materials

On-premise signage and printed advertising materials will always hold one key advantage over digital assets: memories created through sight and touch tend to last longer. Today’s consumers have mostly learned how to tune out the onslaught of digital advertising that accompanies online life, but tactile experiences, like reading from a printed page or poster, still have staying power. 

But competition in the physical realm remains fierce. How do you give your marketing materials the best possible chance to make a lasting impression –– on time, on budget, and error-free?

A creative team that understands graphic design, industry standards, and the complexities of multi-unit marketing will help you achieve the best quality in a shorter amount of time. That’s why we like to say that our creativity doesn’t end with graphic design. A great creative team brings their marketing, design, and print production expertise to every step of the process.

Without further ado, here are four tips from our Creative Team:

1. Choose the right file type. Image files like JPEGs, PNGs, and Photoshop run the risk of pixelation, and the last thing you want is blurry, blocky images.  
2. Use the right tools for the job. Utilizing professional design programs such as Adobe Illustrator or InDesign helps to ensure that the final product is the best it can be. 
3. Legibility is key. Signage needs to capture attention, but don’t let flashy design get in the way of clearly delivering your message. 
4. Know your specs. The more accurate the size, the more accurate the final file is going to be. Width comes first, height comes second. Always include a little extra around the outside that’s safe to cut off. This is what’s known as bleed, or the practice of extending artwork past the final dimensions to ensure that there’s a little extra of the desired color all the way to the edge of the final piece. 

We know client communication is crucial. Our entire creative team is good at listening, which has helped us to build an extensive knowledge base of client styles and preferences. That foundation allows us to ensure that all requests are completed to the highest standard as efficiently as possible.

Crops, bleeds, resolution, dielines. Is that Greek to you? It’s not to us. We’ve got a decade of industry experience, which means we know the lingo, we know the territory, and we know how to anticipate –– and find solutions to –– common design and production issues. Even with years of experience and knowledge the best creative teams will still encounter challenges. The right partner will do their research, and raise the bar, learning while they are doing. We’re happy to take on a project we’ve never done before (although with 23 years in the industry, that’s pretty rare) and we’re proud of how we’ve grown and expanded our knowledge over time. And, of course, we always bring our commitment to excellence to every project we touch.  

These years of experience benefit your brand, too. We empower franchisees to take ownership of their local marketing efforts through one-stop online portals that make it easy to manage custom requests. We’re adept at speeding up brand-to-local communication, which means less work for corporate and more flexibility for franchisees.

Ready to learn more about what UMI can do for your brand? Get in touch!