When Not to Print?

Reasons not to Print Marketing Materials

by Staff Writers    Posted 05/23/2008

There is a pronounced obsession with printing marketing materials in Theatre. This article does not suggest that you should never print materials. Printing is in many ways extremely necessary to theatre, but there are times when it is probably wiser not to print. Let me illustrate with a real example. A writer who shall remain nameless was holding a small showcase reading of a new play in an effort to gain interest from producers. Most of the audience was invited through an e-mail e-vite. He had managed to fill all but six seats out of forty at the time he e-mailed me and asked for the name of a good printer. When I asked him what he wanted to print, he said he wanted to make postcards to hand out and entice enough people to fill the empty seats. I suggested he might as well build postcard towers in the remaining seats. Why not just e-mail more people or have friends come as seat fillers? He took my advice and filled the seats within hours at no personal cost. Why would anyone print 500 postcards to fill 6 seats? And then I realized it was because in Theatre, we rarely discuss reasons not to print. Here are some reasons not to:

When your target audience won't be hit, don't print.

Only print items your target audience will want, see, and care about. If you e-mail updates about shows to everyone, don't suddenly break character and send postcards. If you are trying to attract older audience members, don't hang posters in a high school. If you want to attract students, don't hand out flyers in front of a commercial building. While this may sound like a location issue, it is also about the materials being printed and whether printing is really even the way to hit your target. You will reach more students at a college by joining a listserv than standing in the quad/common area/park handing out flyers or postcards.

When price and quantity don't match, don't print.

If you don't need 2,000 fliers, but that makes them cheaper, don't print. Either print a smaller run or find an alternative strategy. Forgetting about the trees being wasted, the money being wasted should be the real concern. Yes, printing materials in large quantities usually reduces the price per sheet. But if you only need half the sheets, you are still wasting money. Think of it this way: when you hand out flyers or postcards, at least half usually end up as trash. Suppose you buy double the amount you were originally going to because the price per sheet is just so much cheaper. The likelihood of improving your rate of return on the flyers is very slim, as you have not increased the amount of interested people. It is likely that instead of 500 flyers being thrown out, 1500 will now end up in the trash. You literally just threw money out.

When it says "post no bills," don't print.

If you are not sure you are allowed to hang posters, don't. There are varying penalties for hanging posters where you are not allowed. But, the most likely outcome of all will be the poster getting torn down and thrown out. If you plan on printing posters, do some research. Find where you will be able to hang posters to determine how many you need to print. Professionally printed posters are expensive. Posters can be very successful in gaining attention, but only if they're not in the trash.

When an audience surfs more than they read, don't print.

If your potential audience is on the web more than they read newspapers, then follow your audience. Yes, people receive many e-mails every day. But, if your target audience is already looking through their inbox, hit them there. Besides, the web is usually free or much cheaper than print materials and is accessible from nearly any location at any time. Plus, it is a lot harder to lose a web address or an e-mail than a small 4X6 postcard.

When it's under-designed, don't print.

If you are going to spend money printing something, it had better look professional, not to mention interesting. You have roughly 2 seconds of someone's visual time when you hand them a postcard or flyer. If it looks unprofessional or is boring or hard to pull important info from, you might as well hand them a blank piece of paper or throw it in the trash yourself and save them time. Always get other people's opinions before paying to print anything. Also, always proofread your work. The only thing worse than having a typo is handing them out to 2000 people.

When you could sell tickets instead, don't print. (Well, actually print the tickets)

If you are going to pull someone aside and chat them up about your show, have tickets handy to sell to them. Don't get someone excited to see your show and then give them a postcard and send them on their way. Sell the ticket if you can. Any time a person is handing out printed materials, tickets should be available. Why waste your time and theirs, not to mention paper, when you can give someone the only piece of paper that really matters: the ticket. Printed materials are there to market something you want to sell, please don't be afraid to go straight to the sale.

Don't be afraid to not print when the time is right. Keep in mind that printing costs money and produces materials that are pretty much a waste of resources when unsuccessful. If you can think of alternatives to print advertising that may be as successful, give them a try, especially if they're low-cost. For some, there is nothing like getting a postcard about a new play in the mail, but others would rather not get any mail at all, unless it's necessary. So, print when necessary, but when it's not, don't print.

Staff Writers

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The staff writers of Theatre-Inc are comprised of former and current Theatre professionals who work with the company and write regularly as well as other professionals within the company with experience to lend to the Theatre World. Many of the staff writers have worked in multiple disciplines in theatre, ranging from directing, producing, design, acting, stage management and general management. These unique perspectives provide them with a depth of experience to address issues that often frustrate theatre professionals. But, sometimes we just like to share fun experiences and things that we ourselves find humorous, frustrating, or just outrageous.