Here is a great example of a 1 inch button being used to its fullest potential. Notice the clean bold font. This helps make this small 1 inch button stand out. This is a great example of making a small but, mighty button turn into a great promotional button.
First, I’d like to say I’ve seen a lot of great looking buttons over the years but, I’ve also seen some of the worst looking buttons over the course of time as well. Which is what struck me to create a post to help everyone create more successful buttons. Let’s face it, the better your buttons look the happier you will be and the more buttons you will sell!
- Less is more
I remember my art teacher back in high school always telling me that when you are working with small spaces “Less is always more”. I’ve included an example of a good promotional button below for you to see.
- Keep things short and sweet. (when it comes to text)
When using text, make sure the design flows. You wouldn’t want to have, on one line or even two lines ie. “ASK ME HOW TO GET FREE GAS” (Examples below). This would be using the space of the button poorly. Therefore, making your promotional button look undesirable. The idea of your promotional button is to spark conversation about the message you’d like to convey. (To draw in your customers and to ask a question about what message is on your pinback button).
Above, are a few poor examples of a promotional button
Here is how I would have laid this pinback button out. Notice how much more legible this is. Also, the worth of this pinback button was improved by simply repositioning the text.
(see digital mock up below)
- Use colors that flow.
Sometimes colors look great together on your monitor but, let’s face it sometimes when they print it makes the button extremely difficult to read. A rule a thumb I always tell our customers (when they ask me how there button(s) will look) I have them print their artwork out of there home or office printer. That way they can see if things are legible and the colors are what they are looking for.
- When using a smaller button try to keep the design detail to a minimum. As you can see in the example below this is a highly detailed button design, but also notice there is no text. If there was text on this, it would make it extremely difficult to read.
- Be sure to have a full bleed for your design. I believe pinback buttons that have a full bleed look better and have higher quality value to them. I would highly suggest always designing your buttons with a full bleed.
These simple tips will help your pinback buttons be more successful, and you will also be happier with your button order.
When the economy is having difficulties, many things change. Some recent examples of businesses changing to stay competitive is Ford, announcing that they will produce less trucks and SUVs to manufacture more small cars. In marketing and advertising, for example, you see PPC campaigns taking a hit. Google and Yahoo both failed to meet investor expectations and their stocks went down. Buttons, however, have grown exponentially during this state of the economy. As a company, we have noticed a lot of companies, big and small, placing more and larger orders for buttons. Interestingly enough, we have seen a dramatic growth in inquiries from marketing and merchandising companies interested in promotional buttons and advertising buttons. Record labels, as well, seem to be placing larger orders for band buttons. Campaign buttons are also extremely popular this time of year.
To confirm this theory, we were talking with our parts supplier, and they have also experienced enormous growth. What does all this mean? In a state of economic uncertainty, companies and record labels look for a cheaper, more effective way to promote or advertise. Another reason, is companies want to conserve as much as possible to stay competitive, in case of continued economic uncertainty.
Lessons to take away from this period in time. Buttons are the cheapest and most effective form of advertising. Band buttons are the best selling band merchandise. More people are willing to pay $5 for some band buttons than $25 for a t-shirt. Even better, for bands, band button packs. Also, button packs are great tools for a promotional.
The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is an annual gamer festival held in Washington state, USA. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the Penny Arcadewebcomic, because they wanted to attend a show that gave equal attention to console gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop gamers. No such show existed, so PAX was born.
Created in 2004, PAX has nearly doubled in size each successive year and has been hailed as a weekend-long celebration of gamer culture. Defining characteristics include an insider keynote speech, game-inspired concerts, panels on game industry topics, exhibitor booths, after-hours parties, tournaments, and freeplay areas. (thanks Wikipedia for this burst of content)
Furthermore, for this years show, they have decided to use buttons for identification. Here’s an exerpt from the forum:
Alright, here’s the idea guys. We need a form of identification for forumers at PAX. As Moe has suggested, custom made buttons with our name/avatar or whatever would be a great option, but to extend this idea and make it more Penny Arcade-ish I suggest that each get a bunch of buttons and trade one for one when we meet each other. Thus making it a game of “gotta catch them all”.
They continue:
Where do I get buttons from?:
PureButtons - Pure Win!
When purchasing, use coupon code “Winter0708″ for 15% off!* Custom 1″ button 50-pack: $10.00
* Custom 1.25″ button 50-pack: $12.50
* Custom 1.5″ button 50-pack: $14.00 *Most preferred size among Arcadians.
* Custom 2.25″ button 50-pack: $21.00
We thought this was pretty cool, a button trading game. It makes us reminiscent of pogs.
This post will be the final edition of our promotional buttons series. Everyone loves buttons, no doubt about it. This post will help you get the most out of those promotional buttons that everyone loves. First thing, think about who you are targeting. This is a very important step, that many look over and don’t give enough credit to. You need to put yourself in their position. In you ideal customer, what do they like? How much money do they make? What gets them excited? These are all very important questions, that you must consider before you start designing.
Now, that we have established and have clear understanding of what our ideal customer might be interested in, lets start desigining. It does not matter too much what you design, as long as it is something that will appeal to your ideal customer, you are golden. However, there are some things to keep in mind. Buttons are small, so you promotional buttons main goal, should be to grab attention. Once attention has been grabbed, it needs to convey a message. A good message is something that will puzzle your customer, or be witty enough that they will want to ask quesitons. In our earlier post, some good examples of promotional buttons, you can see some great examples.
Everyone loves buttons indeed, so why not make your promotional buttons a success. It all starts will a well thought out design.
Would you like 40 bucks? I know around the shop, we were all wondering what we had to do to get $40. These promotional buttons were successful because the color grabbed your attention and the text is BIG and BOLD!
Unfortunately (for us Ohio State fans), the Florida Gators did beat Ohio State in the BCS National Championship. These buttons were printed before the game to promote team spirit. They were successful, because there was a lot of them, they have a catchy slogan, and grab attention. These are a great example of sports buttons. On a side note, had Teddy Ginn not gotten hurt, we would have won (just kidding, they beat us fair and square).
Dude, where is the party? What party? Who’s going? What are you talking about? If these are the first thoughts that came to your mind after seeing these promotional buttons, enough said. These buttons peak you interests, and grab your attention.
Definitely, one thing that helps promotional buttons and sports buttons, is their ability to grab attention.
The primary purpose of any advertising campaign is to gain as many customers as possible, as cheaply as possible. Our previous post explained this to be Return On Investment (ROI). But what if your customers paid directly for your advertisements and advertised them everywhere. This can be achieved with promotional buttons. If your button is good enough that people will wear it, they will buy it and wear it. It’s that simple. An excellent example of this is the Hello Kitty buttons. Hello Kitty buttons are simple, but people like them enough and the show to wear them. Granted a lot of companies and brands don’t have the following that Hello Kitty has, but with some hard work, that can change.
The same concept applies to bands. This is why bands focus so highly on unique and amazing designs, because they want people to wear them and for others to ask them, “What is that button for?” For a very cheap cost, promotional buttons can potentially be exposed to a limitless amount of people.
An interesting idea that we have also seen some companies use, is using buttons to drive customers into their store. Most notably, Hot Topic has been doing this for years. They carry some cool buttons, and when others see them on their peers. They ask them, “Where did you get that button?” Now, that customer goes to Hot Topic just for that button. Once they are in the store though, they see their favorite bands shirt, then they see another shirt with a funny saying. Pretty soon that $.75 button turns into a $50 bill. Other companies like Victoria’s Secret have also implemented a similar strategy.
All it takes is a cool design or a following. In a later post, we will look at some designs and elements of buttons that will help you make better promotional buttons.
Promotional buttons, in fact, are an excellent form of advertising. Take a trip down memory lane, and try to think of how old you were when you saw your first button. What kind of button was it? Did it make a lasting impression on you? What was so special about it?
The first button was used in the 1896 for an election campaign. Since that time, buttons have been used in virtually every campaign. Why is that?
They are cheap
They stand out
They can effectively deliver a message
Buttons have been around for the a long time and continue to thrive today. Band buttons are extremely popular today. Fundraising buttons, promotional/advertising buttons, and still campaign buttons also thrive.
For this post we will focus on promotional buttons or advertising buttons. In marketing, the key to a successful campaign is Return On Investment (ROI). Basically, that means how much did you get for what you paid. If we look back to why buttons have been used in virtually every campaign since 1896, they are cheap. If we break down the ROI formula (how much you got-how much it cost)/(how much it cost)=(ROI), it will better explain our next point. PureButtons prices for 50 one(1) inch buttons is $10.00 or $.20/button. Basically, any sort of return, is going to be positive because they are so cheap.
Lets look at point 2, they stand out. This is one of the main reasons why political campaigns have used buttons for so long. When you see someone walking down the street, and something is attached to their shirt or hat. You pay attention to it, because it is out of the ordinary. Hypothetically, one person, who wears their button everyday, is walking down the street and runs into 3 people. One of the 3 people, sees the button and wants to buy one to wear every day. And this trend continues. In 30 days, 900 people are wearing that button. And if you selling that button for $.75, you profited $495, just in buttons. Not to mention, any other sales you made by people seeing you button.
As you can see, promotional buttons are very effective. In more posts to come, we will show you how to make better promotional buttons, and some tips on using you advertising buttons effectively.
Chris, from Print Brigade just sent me an email this morning thanking me for the buttons we just did for him. These buttons were for his painting show he just had this past Saturday. The buttons turned out great and it looks like they were a hit! This is a great example of how to use your buttons for promotional use. 
Promotional buttons put to use for a nice creative set of photos!
Painting show in deep thought. - Another Creative shot. Gotta love buttons!
A couple sneak photos of the painting show.
***All photos in this post are courtesy of Jeff Glagowski you can view his photos on Flickr.***
Promotional buttons can always add more flair to your events. Which is why buttons can be such successful promotional items.
Be sure to check out his blog! Thanks Chris for the email! It’s always great seeing our buttons that we manufactured put to good use!
Again, check out Chris Piascik’s blog