Printing custom letterhead is not exactly a priority for many businesses, though it really should be. Custom letterhead is a crucial part of any business’s identity, bringing benefits that go beyond just sharing your brand. Here are a few solid reasons to get customized letterhead.
1.) Letterhead is a physical stand-in for your business
Correspondences and documents look “official” when printed on letterhead customized to your organization’s brand and image. Emails simply do not have the same psychological impact as a letterhead. Even phone and video calls do not have the same effect as the physical presence of a letterhead that the recipient can hold, feel, and smell. In many cases, custom letterhead is the closest a recipient can be to a business, short of them sending an actual human representative.
2.) It increases the value of your message
Another benefit of customized letterhead is that it makes your message seem more valuable, simply because you spent the effort to make nice letterhead in the first place. The attention to detail and the care with which you make your customized letterhead is always at least subconsciously understood by your recipients. And when your message seems more valuable, people are less likely to ignore it. As far as business mail is concerned, this means your custom letterhead has a huge impact on your response rates.
3.) It makes your recipients more interested in your letter
The average American household receives 848 pieces of direct mail a year. This is roughly equal to 1.5 trees worth of paper every year. Altogether, that’s more than 100 million trees for all U.S. households combined. Given that most of this mail remains unread, you probably want to make sure that whatever you send out is compelling for whoever gets it. Better letterhead means your mail is more likely to be read, more likely to serve its intended purpose, and less likely to contribute to the world’s trash crisis.
4.) It’s a simple way to set yourself apart from competitors
Most of the mail we get on a day-to-day basis kind of looks the same. It’s no wonder no one wants to take time and effort in reading them. The simple fact that you spent a few more minutes designing better letterhead than your competitors can very well be the key to getting a decisive advantage, at least when it comes to the mail you send out. As letterhead is a physical representation of your business, it’s an especially powerful tool in shaping how people see your business.
Conceptualizing, designing, and printing letterhead requires a lot of planning and attention to detail. However, with the impact physical media has on our psyche and perception, customized letterhead is clearly a worthwhile investment for any business. The quality and design of your letterhead can also have an impact on both professional communications and your long-term marketing strategies. Not only is it often the first point of contact with suppliers, customers, and other parties crucial to your organization, in many cases it’s the only physical part of your business a recipient gets to experience on a regular basis.
