Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Importance Of Proofs For Customized Promotional Items

When it comes to your marketing & promotional custom products--sweat the small stuff. It's those minute details that can make or break your advertising campaign......or worse, make or break the public's image of your company.

Advertising is the main contact that you & your business have with the outside world. Therefore, you & your company must always be "on", making sure that your image professionally reflects your company & what it stands for. Above all, this must be consistent--don't waver. You have just one chance to make a first impression & once you make it, you have to keep it. Don't bank on your customers' loyalty.

Reputations & impressions can take a long time to build but can evaporate in an instant!


What do you think a client could do after spending $600+ on 1000 pens that read:

Jon Peters Hair Salon & Spa
Come To Our Saloon & Treat Yourself Royally


I changed the name of the hair salon, but that actually happened to one of my customers (before he became a customer of mine). He was terribly upset over the mistake, but owned up to the fact that it was his error & eventually saw the humor in it. Very few people have his forgiving temperament.

Below are some examples of errors in printed material--costly errors. These are actual, not made up. They're funny......we've all seen them & we've all laughed at them. Jay Leno constantly flashes them on The Tonight Show.  But they're far from being humorous when it happens to you. That's why it's so very important to be meticulously observant when you get a proof for the promotional imprinted products you order.


I don't have examples of the errors my customers have overlooked when they received their proof, nor would I ever show them to the public. So all I can show you are the mistakes that were made on other printed advertising material, but keep in mind it can just as easily happen with customized promotional items. The only way to avoid it is to carefully look at the proof.


The only cereal that can change your skin color......with that in mind, do you really care how many grams of fiber it contains?

So all it takes is a cool 5.5 million dollars & this could be yours!

Play your music & wash your clothes all in one cycle. Something I always wanted to do.

This gives new meaning to fast food......combine your entree & dessert in one course.

And just what are the 15 best things in these schools--anyone care to guess?

What a huge difference that 1 missing letter can make. Luckily the company that misprinted the billboard corrected it by the end of the day. This can happen with any printed item, including promotional products with your name & logo on them, but rarely can they be corrected within 24 hours. Some can't be corrected at all because by the time they were printed & noticed, the damage was done or the client's budget was exhausted.

It's not just typos you have to look out for. Check your graphics carefully.




Got an extra hand?





When my customers order promotional custom products, I ALWAYS make sure a virtual proof is emailed to them. It is imperative to ALWAYS thoroughly check over the proof for simple mistakes such as the above.


A customer may approve the proof after only a casual glance & like the way it looks. He'll then be irate when he gets the final product & it's misprinted. What about the proof he approved? Color looked great & the layout was what he wanted; but the phone number or the website......how conscientiously did he check the actual copy? Please make sure to carefully read all text & ensure the layout & spelling is 100% correct before approving your proof.


A proof will take the guess work out of your advertising specialty. I hope this helps you with your next order.
IT'S YOUR COMPANY........SHOW IT OFF!!!
Ronni Sherman

2 comments:

  1. Oh man, I think we can all relate.

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  2. About 10 yrs ago I purchased 2500 4color fold over business cards. I don't have to tell how expensive that was. The printer showed me the proof and it looked exactly the way I wanted it to be.

    When I picked up my order I noticed my last name was spelled wrong. My fault, I was stuck because I looked at the proof but didn't proofread everything.

    You have my sad story, but I think I'll remain anonymous.

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