Die-Cut Sticker Marketing Strategies

Die-cut sticker marketing is an incredibly powerful way to brand your company and promote your products. Unfortunately, die-cut stickers are often overlooked by small business marketers — presumably because they're unsure how to deploy them effectively. Here's how to leverage the power of die-cut stickers to boost your return on investment:

Identify your purpose

Before you plan your die-cut sticker marketing strategy, you must identify the purpose. Your die-cut sticker could be: 1) part of a branding campaign; 2) part of a special promotion; or 3) part of a direct-response solicitation. You should also define what it is you want your audience to do when they see your die-cut sticker. Using our examples respectively, you might want your audience to feel a specific emotion or envision a concept and associate those with your brand; you might want your audience to know about a new product that's on the market; or you might want your audience to immediately take the next step in the purchasing process by responding to a call to action on your die-cut sticker. The purpose of your die-cut sticker drives everything else: design, audience, placement, copy, colors and shape. This is why identifying your purpose is an all-important first step to die-cut sticker marketing.

Know your audience

Identifying your audience is the key to any marketing campaign, but with sticker marketing you can take advantage of very creative opportunities that command attention. You not only have to know your customers demographics and motivations, you have to know where they go, what they do, where they recreate, relax and reflect. Like the 40/40/20 rule of direct marketing, your sticker placement is like your mailing list — worth 40 percent of your success (or lack thereof). Good die-cut sticker placement drives excellent return on investment.

Get attention

As stated, die-cut sticker placement is crucial to success. Creative placement is even better, and creative design/concept with creative placement is hard to beat. Some real-life examples:

Dog footprint die-cut stickers in a retail pet store leading the way to special deals Die-cut mouthwash bottle on the ceiling of a dentists' office Stickers made to fit motorcycle helmets Stickers on the side of vending machines (these depicted people working inside them to fill your order, and directed people to a website to search for a better job).

The possibilities are endless, and you can often find super-cheap advertising space in the best places (the dentists' office, for example) by simply asking. Even if it takes a few bucks to get your stickers in front of your target audience, it's a wise investment. Your creativity here can pay huge dividends in return on investment.

Keep it simple

Don't try to overload your die-cut stickers with a lot of text. Your die-cut shape and design should work in harmony to command attention and set the mood, and a simple line or two is enough to elicit the desired response. You want your audience to know what your sticker says, how they should feel about it and/or what to do next at a glance. Die-cut sticker marketing is an amazing marketing tool when backed by a creative mind. Don't be afraid to break the mold and do what your competitors are not. In fact, that's precisely the reason die-cut sticker marketing is so successful.