Do you drool over a competitor’s slick, glossy, artsy, incredibly gorgeous full-color multi-fold brochure, thinking, “If only I could afford a fine print piece like this…?”

I don’t. Instead, I often wonder why they bothered to waste so much time, effort, and money to create a fancy piece of trash! Yes, trash.

The hard reality when marketing yourself or a product is that most of the print material you produce and distribute – no matter how classy or flashy – will end up in the trash can. Whether ugly or beautiful, all meet the same fate eventually.

The quality and success of a print piece can’t be measured by how much you spent to develop it. The only thing that counts is, before it’s trashed, what kind of impression did it make?

Did it communicate your message clearly and effectively? Did it implant your name in the mind of the reader? Did it earn you a place on someone’s list of potential resources and get you added to their contact book? Did it create a positive impression of who you are and the services you offer? Did it portray you as being professional and competent?

These are the issues that really count. Not the weight of the paper or the color of the ink, although both of these elements are important as well!

When it comes to marketing yourself, your product, your business, here’s the one rule you need to remember: In all you do, BUBNU!

What’s BUBNU? Be Unpretentious But Not Unprofessional.

We’ve all met the man or woman who overdresses, over-accessorizes, or over-scents, trying to impress. They actually do just the opposite. Print materials can have the same effect! They can be over-written, over-designed, and generally over-developed for their intended audience.

Years ago I received a plastic airplane packaged in a box that looked like an airplane hangar. The plane was actually a clever set of desk tools (pencil sharpener, small stapler, scissors, tape, etc.) disguised as the wings, tail, and other parts of the plane. I still have it. The company was AT&T and they were promoting a special long distance plan for small businesses. The piece was costly to develop and mail, but appropriate coming from AT&T. For them, it was unpretentious, and very professional.

If I were to do something like that for my little business, it would be really stupid! Why? Because it would be way over the top for who I am – a one-person operation. Those receiving the piece would think that if I can afford such elaborate direct mail, my rates must be outrageous!

And think about getting such an elaborate piece from a charity asking for donations! It would totally miss the mark, making you wonder why a charity would “waste” so much money to ask for money!

While many are pure trash, some of the best marketing pieces I’ve seen are flyers done up by kids and mini-businesses and stuffed in neighborhood mailboxes. These one-page flyers are touting services such as babysitting, yard work, home repair, and painting. The most effective are simple, cleanly laid out, and to the point. The flyer is in tune with what’s being marketed and the person behind the business – they are being unpretentious, but not unprofessional.

Because of the technology tools readily available, it’s really easy to develop professional and unpretentious materials, even in very small quantities. You can print great looking letters, business cards, brochures, labels, postcards, and more all from your desktop inkjet or laser printer.

Not only is there software available to make it easy, but you can buy blank materials in a variety of paper types, weights, colors, sizes, and all pre-perforated! Using these materials, you can personalize and customize each piece or package to be specific to each recipient.

You can also have multi-colored materials, like letterhead, professionally printed, but without your name, address, and other information included. This allows you to use your letterhead for more than just letters, and if you move or change phone numbers, you can still use up all of the pre-printed stock you have on hand.

You don’t need color either! Black, white, and gray scale designs can be very striking and unique. Using color isn’t the only way to stand out. In fact, color can be over-used just like anything else. Plus, printing your materials on a laser printer can produce crisper looking copy faster and at a lower cost.

When you need marketing materials, but the funds are limited, remember to BUBNU!

Even if you can afford the gloss and glitz, you still want to BUBNU! If your message isn’t clear or your product sucks, all the glitz in the world won’t help. You’ll just be wasting time and money.

Regardless of your budget, if you remember to BUBNU, you’ll produce a printed piece that will still hit the mark before it hits the trash can!