Mother’s Day and Other Holidays — Print Helps Make a Day Special

As another Mother’s Day approaches (with Father’s Day not long behind) I stopped to consider just how many ways print helps us celebrate those we love. Whether for these specific holidays, for birthdays, or for other holidays or special occasions, it’s easy to forget just how many ways print helps bring a celebration to life and helps make someone feel that much more special.

1. Any list, for any holiday or occasion can’t start without acknowledging the piece of print that most immediately jump to: greeting cards. Did you know that Americans purchase roughly 6.5 greeting cards every year? That’s sales of $7-8 billion annually, according to the Greeting Card Association. That is a lot of print. And those numbers aren’t dropping — if anything, the association notes that greeting card volumes are going up, which means there are a lot of opportunities out there for printers. Mass produced cards might make up the bulk of those sales, but personalized cards are a great opportunity as well — how much more meaningful would it be to give a card to y our mother with her name and the names of her children printed right on it, than one grabbed at the store? A good web-to-print interface and online store can make this type of application a very easy addition to your shop’s application mix.
2. Promo products. This category has exploded in recent years — how many of you see the ads for personalized mugs, or shirts, or phone cases on your social media feeds all the time? There is nothing quite like having something tangible to hold with your photo or name on it, to make something as simple as a coffee mug suddenly seem like a priceless memento.
3. Photo books. While occasions like Mother’s Day is a great opportunity to sell personalized photo books, any holiday or special occasion could also call for them. Photo books are another category that have remained highly popular, and even if someone already has one, a new book with new photos to celebrate a new occasion is never going to be a bad gift idea.
4. Shirts are one obvious one here, but also think about things like hand towels, or pillows, or blankets. The same presses you use to create apparel can be used to create a variety of other items that could be very popular gift ideas.
5. Magnets/Blocks/Pins. These days, flatbed printers allow us to put ink on nearly anything. And this is a great time to get creative. Offer magnets with a favorite photo. Or wood or metal family photos. Or a keychain. Or a pin. The possibilities here are as endless as your creativity and press technology.

And these are just a few ways print helps make a day special. Whether you celebrate Mother’s or Father’s Day, a birthday, an anniversary, or a special occasion that only has meaning to a select few, print is an indelible way to help elevate the event into something memorable. And personalized gifts are a revenue stream that any printer, of any type or size, can easily add — just look at the technologies you already have, and think about new personalized applications you can offer to your clients and customers.