6 ways to stand out (and boost sales) with a festive newspaper

Ho-ho-holy smokes, it's that time already. The holiday catalogues are rolling off our presses and brands are getting ready for the festive season. As retail revs up, your business has a chance to find new customers and reconnect with existing ones — and a newspaper can help you do it.

Whether you’re curating the ultimate gift guide or looking to add some seasonal cheer to your e-commerce packaging, see 6 ways a newspaper can put your brand at the top of customers’ wish lists this holiday.

Get crafty

A thoughtfully designed catalogue can be a gift in itself. Artisanal cheese and butter makers Vermont Creamery worked with lifestyle magazine Sweet Paul to produce this zine of seasonal crafts and recipes — which all call for top quality cheese and butter, naturally. They even included a page of labels (pictured above) for readers to cut out and use as gift tags or to label their cheese boards.

"Printing beautiful newspapers with Newspaper Club is so fast and affordable. It's an easy add-on to make a [campaign] extra special."

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Make it mobile

After you’ve captured your customers’ attention with a snazzy print catalogue, use a QR code to drive traffic to your digital channels. (QR codes are simple to create — Canva offers a free generator.)

Streetwear brand Goodhood (pictured above) used a QR code to promote a holiday giveaway, but you could also use it to send readers to your online gift guide or boost newsletter sign-ups ahead of holiday sales.

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Reduce, reuse, regift

Regifting gets a bad rap, but when it comes to your printed material designing with a second life in mind is a smart move. You can spruce up your e-commerce packaging with a promotional newspaper that doubles as wrapping paper, like the digital broadsheets above created by designer Tom Crawshaw. It not only cuts down on waste but can extend the reach of your brand when customers repurpose it.

This is a fun idea for freelance creatives and agencies, too. Tom used his newspaper as a holiday card his clients could use for "last-minute gift emergencies" after reading.

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Go big

From billboards to broadsheets, sometimes you just need to send a BIG message. Skincare brand Bangn Body used our digital broadsheets — available from 1 copy — for a supersized Christmas gift guide. Relying on a straightforward headline and eye-catching product imagery, it’s a modern approach for maximum old-school impact.

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Showcase your values

Championing suppliers from Yorkshire, Keelham Farm Shop is full of local, homemade food and personality. "When it came to the Christmas catalogue we knew we couldn't do the standard supermarket glossy booklet," they say, opting instead to use our 100% recyclable tabloid newspapers. Designed by creative agency Thompson.

"Newsprint allowed us to shoot our beautiful food on a grand scale, to include recipes, tips and the odd cracker joke. It's a beautiful result."

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Make headlines

Throughout the year, jewellery brand Daisy sends a quarterly newspaper with e-commerce orders and they kept the theme going with their Black Friday marketing campaign. To promote a site-wide sale, they printed a single copy of a “special edition” digital tabloid and used it for promo imagery on social media and in their newsletter. A clever way to leverage a brand element (the newspaper) that Daisy’s customers recognise and love.

Make your own newspaper with Newspaper Club. Print runs start at 1 copy!

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