Making Bookmarks That Sell Your Products, Services

Making bookmarks has more to do than keeping places in reading material. For savvy businesses, bookmarks can become a gateway to selling your products and services. Here's what you need to know about making bookmarks that can send your profits through the roof.

Relevancy sells

Bookworms are loaded with customers that, like any other industry, fall into certain niche categories. Cross-referencing those categories with your customer demographics can reveal trends that will help you identify what types of genres your customers regularly read. Once you've done that, you can design relevant bookmarks that speak to your audience. Let's say, for example, that you sell futuristic T-shirts and want to reach the book-reading market. You might find that your customers love to read Isaac Asimov, so you set to work learning all about Asimov's stories. It doesn't take you long to figure out that Asimov spent considerable time writing about robots, so you might design a bookmark featuring his robots to give away with all Asimov books borrowed at a major library. These bookmarks are relevant to your customers, so they will want them - and then they'll want your T-shirts.

Creative distribution

The library is but one example of a creative distribution point. You can also target bookstores, online booksellers, Ebay sellers, superstores such as Amazon and Buy.com, discount book stores, and mall book islands. You don't even have to target booksellers - movies have been made from Asimov's stories, so DVD and Blu-Ray distributors and retailers would be equally great places to start.

Add value for longevity

The best bookmarks have value for readers. One neat way to add value is, again, via relevancy. Using our science fiction example, you might include a short English-to-Klingon dictionary as a reference that your target audience will enjoy as a novelty. And if they enjoy it, they might pass it on to friends - or at least keep it long enough to firmly brand your company and begin to establish a business relationship and potential customer loyalty.

Include an incredible offer and call to action

Now for the meat of it: When making bookmarks, you can't just include neat novelties - you also have to include a sales pitch. Prominently display your products and services, along with their features and benefits, somewhere on your bookmarks. Craft an outstanding offer, such as an incredible discount coupon or VIP treatment, to create desire and entice your readers to want more. Finally, leave them with a powerful call to action that motivates response and leads to direct sales. This is how you can harness the power of making bookmarks into dollars. Last but not least, you want your bookmarks to look great and to last as long as possible - so print your bookmarks on a premium and thick paper stock such as 16-point gloss with a tassel for elegance, convenience and longevity. Your bookworms (customers) will love you for it!