Usually when small business owners are making a list of all the marketing materials they need, they’ll forget about letterheads. It’s easy to forget that letterhead is yet another opportunity to market a business. Along with a business card, a nice letterhead gives off a feeling of a professional, established company. When sitting down to design your letterhead, remember the following letterhead design tips.

When thinking about your letterhead design, consider what kind of reaction you want potential customers and current clients to feel when they open a letter from you. Do you want them to feel happy and energized by seeing a bright, colorful letterhead design? Or a serious, strong company that doesn’t take anything lightly? Neither one of those choices are bad, and there are numerous choices in between these extremes. Whatever gets the feeling of your brand and your company across is the right design for you.

Be sure that whatever design you choose, it’s clean and clear above all else. Your design should leave ample space in the middle of the page, but all the margins are fair game. You don’t have to stick your design elements either at the top or bottom of the page. Don’t be afraid to use the sides (but not if you are also using the top or bottom). You don’t want your letterhead to look too cluttered.

When you write a letter to a client, you’ll have a cohesive look if your letterhead, envelope,  business card, brochures, etc. all have the same look and feel. From seeing many of your marketing materials at once, your prospect is more likely to remember your business if everything has the same look and feel about it. This will also make you look professional.

Using colors in your letterhead can make the page really “pop” and grab someone’s attention who might otherwise ignore your letter. Just make sure to use appropriate colors, like light blue (relaxing) for a spa rather than bright pink. If you can pull one color out from your logo design to use, that makes a nice design complement.

You should already have a logo to include in all of your marketing materials, but if you don’t, get one. Generally, logos are the centerpiece of letterhead design. Your letterhead will be seen over and over again in direct mail letters, invoices and other business communications, so you need to get your logo on there so people will recognize it when they see it other places.

Your company name and logo will probably be the primary elements of your letterhead. Don’t forget to include phone numbers, fax numbers, a company email address, your Web site and optionally, the name and title of the President or CEO. Many schools have letterhead with the Principal and Vice-Principal’s names and phone numbers. This makes it easy for parents (customers) to reach someone at the top of the chain.