3D printing is a hot trend these days. Many hobbyists are jumping on the bandwagon and buying a 3D printer to experience the magic of what these printers can do. Certainly, large scale manufacturers are taking advantage of this technological advancement, and the health care industry as well, as they are printing medical devices that can save lives.

It seems hard to believe then that this technology can also help a marketing business be more successful but there are many instanced of companies creating promotions surrounding a prize that has been 3D printed, which can build up interest in a brand as well as offering an incentive. Keep reading to see how 3D printing can change the face of marketing.

Stereolithography

Stereolithography (SL) is used to create 3D-printed objects with the help of liquid plastic polymer. SL process uses uniquely designed 3D printing machine i.e. StereoLithograph Apparatus (SLA). SLA converts liquid plastic into solid objects. This is a patented process patented by Charles Hull in 1986, co-founder of 3D Systems, Inc., a leader in the 3D printing industry.

1. Fun Promotions and Contests!

While 3D printing technology has improved to be easier than ever, it is still a long way off from being as ubiquitous as smartphones. You can use this to your advantage by creating promotions that will benefit your clients and their businesses with a result being they can win a chance to 3D print something.

Coca Cola famously used this idea to offer a promotion to print a miniature replica of contest winners after they kept a virtual version of themselves alive for a while. While it seems silly to print small action figure sized models of people, it certainly garnered a lot of attention. Consumers want to experience outlandish contests and giveaways.

You can use a 3D printer to create any number of branded or personalized products you need. Let’s say you offered a custom phone case in a promotion. In many instances, customers without an iPhone wouldn’t enter, believing the cases were only for that particular phone style, but with a 3D printer you could print a case that could fit any smartphone that needed one.

Whatever you may want to offer as a prize can be done when you print the prize yourself. You needn’t be limited by what you want to spend or what you can find in the stores when you can create your own excitement offering something truly unique.

2. Consumers Love Promotional Products

As more and more marketing strategies move to online platforms a lot of companies have stopped focusing on promotional items to instead put their effort towards social media and customer engagement. While there isn’t anything wrong with these online resources, you can really be missing out by not using promotional products to your advantage.

Who doesn’t love getting free stuff? The absolute best part of going to trade shows or fairs is the potential to walk away with a bag of pens, yardsticks and reusable grocery bags featuring a bevy of logos from companies and brands.

But don’t keep paying someone else to print these items for you when you can easily print personalized key-chains and other products you can then offer as free swag to current and prospective customers. Having a 3D printer in-house can certainly be beneficial from a marketing perspective just by saving time and money on customer gear.

When you take time to engage your customers with free stuff, not only will they use their items but having them out in public will support the brand recognition you need and want for your company. When you get a heart on Instagram you’re interacting with one person, but when a customer is carrying around a tangible promotion, the potential for engagement is much larger.

3. You Know Best

Obviously, you know your company best and how you can best use 3D printing technology. This need is certainly going to vary depending on what industry you’re in. If you are a marketing firm, the possibilities for helping your clients are endless as you can custom print almost anything that will help their brand take off.

If you are a retail shop or restaurant looking for a new way to market yourself and you’ve stumbled upon this article don’t worry, 3D printing can still help your small business. While printing items probably isn’t going to help you drive your costs down to compete with larger businesses you can use it to make your location completely unique.

Why use napkin holders that look just like everyone else’s when you could have your logo printed in 3D to become a place to store the napkins? You will know how a printer can help you, whether it’s custom artwork, renderings of potential new products or just as a form of entertainment for people to observe while they’re visiting your location.

It can be really exciting to see what begins to take shape with 3D printing. You could even run contests for people to guess what is actually printing. Since nearly everything that is printed in 3D begins with a base layer, it can be interesting how everything looks the same during the printing process until it starts taking on it’s distinguishing characteristics.

4. Create Your Unique Identity

Don’t be fooled by the notion 3D printing is slow and incapable of printing a large variety of items. With filaments the range from glow-in-the-dark to metal to creating actual fabric, you can print almost anything you need in order to help your brand be marketed more specifically.

Having a 3D printer on-site will enable you to not only create custom items but can help you stand out from the crowd since some have shied away from 3D printing because they don’t understand the benefits it can present to marketing. When you have a printer at your disposal you won’t be waiting for someone else to create what you want.

5. Create Buzz

With 3D printing becoming increasingly popular you can stand out from the crowd and competitors by being an early adopter of the technology used not for manufacturing or for what kind of medical advances you can dream up.

By changing the face of marketing with a 3D printer you can show the industry what they’re missing and how to best help clients in how they can best compete and create new and exciting campaigns and techniques to revolutionize the current marketing standards.

Conclusion

The impact of this is still in it’s earliest stages and not every company or marketing department has figured out how to use 3D printing to their advantage, so you can really stand out from the crowd and help create the new standard for marketing as a whole. Don’t be left behind when you can easily be at the forefront of the new marketing era.

Many entrepreneurs can opt 5 Awesome Ways 3D Printing options in their businesses or they can start their 3D printing business, which is at the nascent stage at the moment and one of the best startup ideas.

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