Graham McGregor on the marketing power of laminating

Laminating is a simple and effective way to promote your business and give clients information in a memorable and long-lasting format. Image: Thinkstock.

I'm a big fan of low cost marketing strategies that positively differentiate your business from all your competitors.

I also like marketing strategies that are easy to put into action.

So in this week's column I'd like to mention laminating as a possible marketing strategy you might like to try.

Let me explain:

A simple way to market and promote your business is to give your clients and potential clients helpful information in a format that is memorable, easy to use and will last a long time.

A great way to make information memorable and long lasting is to use matt laminating.

One of the great advantages of matt laminating is that you can also easily write on it and highlight key things even after it is laminated.

Here are some ideas on how you might use matt laminating:

Laminate answers to common questions:
Have a list of commonly asked questions and answers about your product or service and have this laminated.

This will give you a handy reference guide you can refer to on a regular basis and answer easily the common questions you get.

You can also give this list of common questions (and their answers) to potential clients to take away with them.

This is easy to do because matt laminating is amazingly affordable to get done.

Laminate some useful tips for your clients:
Have some useful tips about how to use your product or service laminated and give this to clients with their purchase.

Or you could mail this to them a few days later as an added value bonus.

Spa Pool Example:
A portable spa pool supplier has a handy two page guide on how to use their spa pool.

This guide is laminated and it has all the contact details of the spa pool firm on it.

Clients often refer to this laminated guide and use the contact information to order things like spa pool chemicals and so on.

And this guide still looks good years later because it has been laminated.

Laminate a helpful article or advertisement:
This is a great way to use matt laminating.

If you have an advertisement for your business in a magazine or newspaper, use laminating to get better value from it.

You can get your local digital printer to copy this article or advertisement, make it any size you want and then have it laminated.

If it's a positive article that you would like to show a lot of potential clients, have a few dozen copies made of this article and have them laminated.

If it's a great advertisement that works well, why not blow it up to a larger size, have it laminated and displayed in a prominent location in your business?

Use laminating as a marketing tool:
If you notice a positive story about a particular business in a magazine or newspaper that might have value to one of your clients you may want to cut this story out and have it laminated.

You could then send this to some of your existing clients or to some potential clients.

This is an easy way to add value and also make your business memorable.

Make sure you include a note like this:
"Hi John, I saw an interesting article recently on XYZ that I thought you would find useful.

"I've enclosed a couple of copies for you and I've also laminated them for your convenience.

"You may want to show this story to some of your team as well.

"Kind regards. Your Name."

Laminate your business cards:

This works very well because your business cards then last a long time and will always looks good.

And it makes them stand out as well.

My main point in this column is that sometimes you can take something very common and ordinary (like laminating) and use it in interesting ways to positively promote your business.

Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at.

American advertising executive Leo Burnett

Action Exercise
There are dozens of different ways to use laminating in any business.

Contact your local digital printer and ask them for advice on how laminating might work as a marketing and promotional tool for your business.

Graham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing. You can download his 396 page 'Unfair Business Advantage' Ebook at no charge from www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.com