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Your Business Stationery… how to use it as a tireless workforce for just cents per piece.

Business stationery - not to be confused with "stationary"… which means static or going nowhere - should be a dynamic component of your selling team.

Just as you wouldn't have staff members standing around stationary, so you need to build into your business stationery an action message that encourages the reader to do something that is to their benefit, and hence will benefit your business also.

Aim for a balance between a clean, focused look for your stationery, and a cluttered, hard to read and decipher mass of graphics and words. Your goal is to give the reader sufficient information that enables them to immediately react in the most appropriate manner.

So rather than just slap down a few words, or worse still, leave it up to your printer to decide on the presentation of your business stationery, you must carefully consider the who, how, where, what and when of the stationery items arriving in the hand of the recipient.

Deciding what to include on your stationery.

Who you are should be visibly represented by the name of your business or company, according to the importance of the service or product you provide. In the case of a one-time sale, with no repeat sales, there is no point in making your company name prominent when the space could be better used for your selling or action message. However, your name should be clearly visible, and readable, to provide credibility.

Your business logo or graphic will provide fast identification but do consider carefully whether or not the size of the graphic or logo is too large and only makes you feel good, rather than serve any useful purpose for the reader at that size.

The name of an individual who can be contacted should also be clearly visible, if appropriate to your business. Otherwise, use a title so that an enquirer has a reference point in order to engage the most appropriate staff member to meet their need.

That leads to the next piece of information required on your stationery, a method to provide a location or other contact details. If your business chooses not to use a bricks and mortar street address for whatever reason, then you would certainly include a postal address for contact purposes. By showing a location, even if it is a Post Office box number, you provide a measure of credibility for your prospective client.

So what is your preferred method of contact? If you have a very specific choice then you may decide to only include that contact information. This may be just a mobile number, or any other method that guarantees a prompt response. Otherwise you may decide that you should provide as many options as possible and include fax, phone, mobile, email and website address in addition to your postal and street addresses, as your printed items permit. Your goal is to be able to ensure a prompt response to the method the client uses so they don't give up on you.

Don't make this mistake!

Over the years I have had in my possession stationery, particularly business cards, that produces some head scratching. No, not parasites, rather, anonymity. I have no idea what the business or individual does, nor why I have their stationery. They fail to make clear what it is they sell, or provide as a service.

So, as you reflect on your brilliant letterhead, business card and so on, just what information do they provide to the person receiving them?

Alas, your fame may not be a great as you think, but if you have put in the preparatory work on the design and purpose of your business stationery, you leave the reader in no doubt as to why they should contact you, how they can contact you, who to ask for, and what result they can expect from the contact.

If you have also managed to include the solution to their problem as part of your design, then you have a very powerful salesperson in print in your business arsenal.

Your selling message

You are the one who knows what that should be, because you have carefully thought about the reaction your prospect or client will have when they grasp your stationery and quickly scan the contents before processing (binning?) it.

That's right! The selling opportunity you have could indeed be that brief. So unless it is communication they expect to receive, you only have seconds to put across your message and provoke a favourable response.

What we are talking about here is the skill of a copywriter to produce the ideal and brief attention grabber that will generate the response you want from the reader. That doesn't happen by chance. As any copywriter will tell you, the "magic" phrase comes about from testing, testing, testing, and then some more testing!

Right, you've got all that, so where to next?

Now we have looked at the overview of business stationery, I invite you to head over to the menu on the left or below, and select the individual stationery items that you want to investigate for use in your business. See you there! If you don't have time right now, then bookmark this page and return later.

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Business stationery, your non-stop workforce.