Use Downloadable and Printable Posters to Get Your Word Out

The other day I came across a site that gave their users an opportunity to download posters that expressed their organization's cause. I thought it was a fantastic idea. Users were able to pick from 4 posters that were well-designed, well thought out and sent the message home. They were then free to print them out and place them around their workplace, school or community. This type of idea is pretty easy to do, but requires a bit of forethought and effort. It left me to think how to properly execute this.

When designing any print publication, most Non-profits are left with whoever in the office knows how to use their out-dated version of Publisher. This person then quickly throws together a logo, a picture (Stretched and pixilated), types out the organizations mission, adds contact info at the bottom and calls it done. This may work for getting it out there, but who is going to look at it? It's ugly and, if someone actually puts it up, it will be in a sea of other ugly posters.

Companies spend millions in advertising. Why? because it works. A well thought out campaign, can make or break a company. So, why do Non-Profits not spend the time doing this?

Its not to say that all non-profits aren't doing it. Take for example, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation's "Pink Campaign". This campaign is done just like the pros and everyone is aware of it. But it didn't start there. It started as one person's idea that quickly grew. People bought in and now it's huge. Companies are now selling hundreds of "Pink" products and partial proceeds go to support breast cancer. I am sure most of the companies that jumped on board support the cause, but it's a big boost to their brand to be a part of it.

I usually hear that Non-profits do not have two cents to put together to do this. Bah! Get a few people together, lock them in a room and tell them to think "Different". You don't have to be an advertising pro to figure it out. Think what the big companies would do to get their brand out there and come up with something.

After that, spend a couple of dollars to get a professional to do up your poster or utilize stock artwork and photography (See iStockphoto, Inkd or Stock Layouts. This little bit of investment will go a long way. (I hate to say it, "You have to spend money to make money.".)

Now put your posters up on your Website, in PDF format (There is nothing worse than having non-compatible files for your user). Express to your users that you need their help to spread the word and see what happens.

About the Author

Kimberly Jin

Developer / Super-fast Runner

Kimberly is a lead developer at Pixel Sweatshop, where she has used her talent of seeing how to make good tools better to improve some of our largest and hardest projects. Kimberly brings her insights to bear on guiding the development of semantic API's, leading large data management projects, and solving systems interoperability challenges, to name a few.