Don't designers understand what needs to go into a leaflet?

People expect clear definitions about what kind of business you are. In fact, directories have boxes that state either one profession or the other when you apply, without an option for anything else. And if you join a networking group this rule also applies. You are supposed to be either a designer, or a marketer, and not something in between.

But things start to get a little cloudy if you describe yourself as a designer with a marketing twist, or as a visual marketer. People’s foreheads furrow and they may even turn to look for an easier subject to network with. If you don’t fall into those easily understood categories then that’s more hard work for them, and it’s more hard work for me to explain exactly what I do.

Let me provide you with two scenarios. First, decorating a room. There’s all that time needed to strip off the wallpaper, wash down the walls, make good the cracks, sandpaper down the door frames and skirting boards, and get it all ready before you put the paint on to make it look nice. If you don’t do all this the paint will peel off, the walls will not be smooth and the end result will look amateurish.

Scenario Two: have you ever looked at a cake in the café and salivated with the thought of eating it, but when you took a bite you were bitterly disappointed? Chocolate cakes have a tendency to do this. It all depends on the kinds of ingredients used, the conditions the cake was baked in, and whether the flavours matched up to the expectancy of the finished results. The humble carrot cake in the corner probably provided a better treat, as well as being healthier, because the ingredients were superior.

Scenario One demonstrated that a lot of preliminary work needs to be done beforehand that cannot necessarily be seen in the finished result. It is important to set up your foundations for a frame to hang the design on. Scenario Two showed that just because it looks fancy it doesn’t necessarily mean it will perform well. And make sure the contents of your leaflets reflect the purpose, are aimed towards your customers’ needs and wants, and provide a suitable call to action to make the project worth while.

So a visual marketer will combine the elements of design and marketing to make leaflets perform better. Rather than creating logos, I work with your logo (as well as any other imagery that’s relevant). I write copy that has a purpose and an understanding of the psychology of the customer. It’s not just how you position the words and pictures on the page, it’s what you say to gain the reader’s attention and get them to do something towards achieving a sale or buying into a service.

There’s a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ stuff that goes towards a successful leaflet. And that’s what this blogsite is all about: I hope to explain it satisfactorily in future posts, so watch this space!

It’s not always a good idea to do it yourself

I remember when we decided to redecorate our son’s room with a laminate floor. I thought I could try and lay the floor myself to save my husband the bother. How easy could it be? The slats easily locked together and I could get the majority done before collecting the kids from school.

How wrong I was. For four hours I struggled even to begin the first layer. My comments were not repeatable and I achieved absolutely nothing. On his return my husband took one look at my efforts, lined up the pieces against the wall, and in four minutes had completed a couple of layers. What? This was not fair!

I related this episode to a floor specialist I met with the other day as an anecdote. I explained it’s not worth struggling to do something you don’t know anything about, and I know nothing about laying floors, that was his speciality. ‘How does this relate to me?’ the floor specialist asked.

I looked at the advert he had given me to scrutinise. He had been complaining that, although it had cost a lot of money to produce and place, it had brought in no returns. It consisted of sumptuous pictures of beautiful floors above his logo and contact details, even if they were a bit small. It was certainly well designed and was appropriate for the kind of magazine it had been placed into.

‘But what have you asked your customers to do?’ I replied.

‘Err… I don’t know.’

‘Exactly!’ I said. ‘It’s all very well giving them something attractive to look at, they will treat it the same as all the other pages in the magazine, think it’s very nice and then turn over. You need to tell them to take action! Even if it’s just to call you!’

This is a common fault in adverts and leaflet campaigns. Never assume your readers will understand what you want them to do. Just because there’s a telephone number or webaddress it doesn’t mean they will actually take the initiative.

Play on your customers’ natural self centeredness and greed. Offer them something of value, such as a discount, free sample or whatever, if they make contact. Give them a specific time to accomplish this by, or they will forget, get distracted or find a better offer elsewhere. Even by just commanding they phone you: ‘Contact us NOW to find out more!’ will have a better result that saying nothing.

So if you want to get good results in anything, it’s best to ask somebody who knows what they are doing, and that includes laying laminate floors.

How to convert warm prospects into hot customers

One of the most important parts of a campaign is the call to action. This is, in fact, one element that some leaflet campaigns actually forget to include! Not only does a single leaflet campaign provide just one shot at attempting to persuade customers to buy, but the command to pick up the phone, go to a particular website or send an email is somehow either omitted or presented in such a weak method it is bound to fail.

I used the word ‘command’, because that is what should be done. It’s no good saying “If you would like to know more, please call xxx xxxx”, as this ‘pretty please’ attitude will not induce the customer to pick up the phone. “Call NOW to find out more!” has far more impact, especially if it is combined with an incentive. This statement should also be followed by large, bold contact details on a separate line, not hidden within the closing text.

Unless your offer is so incredibly compelling, it is unlikely that the phone will be ringing off the hook. So the answer is to collect warm leads (people who may not want to buy now, but who may be interested and are sitting undecided on the fence) with a view to conversion at a later date. Marketing is essentially forming a long term relationship with your customers, so you need to be able to gather their details to communicate with them on a gradual basis.

Customers are, by nature, greedy and self-centred, so you should play along with those traits. It’s much easier to work with how your customers think than to try and mould them to match you. Therefore provide an incentive they can’t refuse, something of value that costs relatively little to you, such as a ‘Special Report’, ‘Early Preview’ or ‘Ten Top Tips’ that they can’t fail to resist, in return for their contact details.

Collecting details is made much easier through automation, as you cannot be there 24/7 to receive and send out requests. By setting up an autoresponder on the internet you can collect customer details into a safe and secure database to respond immediately to deliver any ‘free gifts’ you’ve promised, and be ready for later communications. Your marketing can continue with on-line campaigns, such as e-zines or e-newsletters, which are relatively inexpensive and much more versatile.

You may still need to continue with the multiple leaflet or postcard campaigns. This is because it can take anything between seven and 21 times to persuade your customers to buy from you. The on-line campaigns should work alongside the paper version for continuous gentle reminders, particularly with different messages or viewpoints, to avoid repetition and therefore indifference. As I said in Part I, create a storyboard to encourage a following, with cliff-hangers and new incentives, to entice a positive response. Each ‘episode’ should continue to have a call to action, especially if it is time-dependent, either to make direct contact or to receive a special offer in return for their details, as you will want to expand your database of prospects.

And an extra: Alice’s Actions #31 – Create landing pages to host sign up forms

When enticing prospective customers to sign up for their special offer or gift, make it easier for them by creating a special landing page (webpage totally devoted to the cause) to encourage a positive response. It should be devoid of all external stimuli such as links elsewhere, with its main focus solely on the matter at hand, getting them to sign up!  And to facilitate a better reaction, you could always add testimonials and case studies to back up your offer, as long as they don’t detract from the original purpose: obtaining your customers’ contact details.

What should you say and how to say it within your leaflet campaign

Quick reference:
How to get your leaflets to start working for you
How to get your successful leaflets to look good

It’s not what you say, but how you say it, that contributes towards a successful campaign. Be aware that your customers come first; after all, your business would not exist without them, so therefore they need to be the main focus for your campaign. This means you need to turn your mindset around to accommodate the fact that your business comes way down the pecking order of importance.

Each element of your message needs to be carefully planned, placed and executed. The first thing at the top should not be your logo and company name. Even though most leaflets and adverts blare theirs out from this position, this only works for worldwide recognised businesses; otherwise the reader’s reaction is ‘who?’ or ‘so what?’.

The main key element is the headline, which should be designed to attract attention. Begin your campaign with a statement or question that stimulates a positive response to your customers’ pain or problem. You should have done adequate market research to find this out, so position yourself inside your customers’ head and start to think like them. Work with something that will result in the reader saying ‘yes’.

The subhead should provide the resolve or solution to the headline, and there you can subtly drop in the name of your company.  I mean subtly, as the solution should always come first. The result should be to increase the readers’ empathy towards what you are offering.

Next highlight your benefits in bullet points. Here most businesses happily list their features, but remember since you are focusing on your customers, turn these features around to their point of view, so that they become customer benefits. Take out all the ‘we’ and ‘our’ and substitute them with ‘you’ and ‘yours’ to achieve this.

Why use bullet points? Readers find it easier to scan or quick read through a list than to trawl through a dense paragraph. In this fast moving 21st century, bombarded with stimuli from every direction, people don’t have the time or inclination to read everything. A list containing concise, focused and relevant points is more likely to be absorbed.

If you don’t ask, you don’t get. How many campaigns forget to include a call to action? The remainder of your leaflet could contain all the right ingredients, but if you don’t ask your readers to do something, even to tell them to call you for more information, then what is the point? And by making this time-dependent you are more likely to stimulate a response, otherwise, even if they have the best intentions towards your campaign, there is no stimulus to demand a quick reaction and your leaflet could get forgotten.

And last but not least, make sure your contact details are large, clear and easily accessible. If your telephone number doesn’t jump out to hit them between the eyes, your landing page web-address is not clearly visible, or your email is hidden amongst other text, you will not encourage your customers to make contact. And no customer contact means no sales.

How to get your leaflets to start working for you

First, we must consider the purpose of a leaflet: to promote a product or service and bring in sales. Unfortunately that is only half the story, because in today’s world a single ‘blast’ of marketing will not work. We live increasingly rapid lives, bombarded with stimuli and competition, ever filling in-boxes and constant distractions. Unless your leaflet is so ‘whizz-bang’ it cannot fail to draw attention to itself, it will only end up buried. So the answer is to up the anti, and create a series of leaflets that will eventually get your message across to encourage a response.

OK, this may be more expensive, but wouldn’t it be expensive to print a load of leaflets that bring in no or little response? Wouldn’t a well thought out leaflet campaign (or postcards) sent over a series of days or weeks to a small but well targeted audience, designed specifically with them in mind, bring in a better rate of return?

This is because you will be creating a relationship with your leaflet’s readers, which is what marketing is all about. OK, the first one may well go the same route as your competitors’ leaflet: bottom of the pile or more likely the bin. But subsequent literature is more likely to draw in more attention, as long as the message is compelling and the headlines are relevant and follow on from their predecessors.

The idea is to tell a story through your campaign that eventually climaxes in the final instalment with an offer so great, it cannot be missed. Actually plan your campaign through a story-board, then you will be able to work out how many leaflets will be needed and what kind of customer you are aiming at. Develop your message from many angles, or offer interesting ‘nuggets’ of information that come together at the end, like pieces of a jigsaw. If you can get your customers looking forward to their next episode of your campaign, you’ve got them hooked.

Another tip is to really focus on your target market, and actually create your ideal customer. Give them a name (say David or Susan), create a cut-out figure and think up their lifestyle. This is because it is easier to market to one person rather than many, and you’ll find your customers can easily adapt their way of thinking to match up to Dave or Sue, rather than the other way around. Base your story around your characters to give you more inspiration. You could extend your campaign more long-term, like a little soap-opera, bringing in offers and concepts along the way. If your customers have something to latch onto, they are more likely to remember you or your product next time you start another campaign, making it that much easier for you.

It all comes down to quality in the end

This morning we all woke up to the news that Woolworths and MFI have gone into administration. Such well known institutions in the market place now reside in the hands of the receivers. But where did they go wrong?

One idea banded around at a breakfast networking group I attended this morning was due to the concept of ‘quality’. Both shops piled it high and sold it cheap. Inexpensive materials went hand in hand with trying to give the impression of quality, and advertising usually declared the latest incredible savings that could be made. Sometimes I wondered why MFI were offering over 50% off their sofas – is it because they couldn’t sell them? The quality of Woolworth’s stock sunk lower and lower, and the layout of their shops made it almost impossible to find anything you wanted.

Don’t be tempted over price compared to quality, especially in today’s economic environment. You can easily get your business stationery over the internet from interactive websites that seem incredibly cheap, but then the products they produce certainly are! The quality of card is inferior, the quality of print thin, the portrayal of your imagery is flat and uninspiring, there is no guidelines in how to place your information correctly, the templates are overused and easily replicated at networking meetings, and because the process is totally automated, I known some stuff to come back that was totally unsuitable because their machine broke down and a vital colour was not included!

When you’re handing out your networking stationery, you need be proud of your business cards. Potential clients are impressed by the ‘feel’ of the card, clarity of the layout and zinginess of your colours. This also goes for your letterheads, compliment slips, brochures, postcards, leaflets… in fact, all the promotional literature you produce needs to send the message that you are of the highest quality, and therefore the work you produce is the same.

During a credit crunch, it is important not to stint on your marketing, and certainly not to compromise on the quality of your message and the special offers you are broadcasting. Think quality and therefore deliver quality – it will always win in the end.

Include your imagery everywhere!

Continuing on the images theme, I was advising another business about their leafleting campaign, and as well as following the AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action) marketing system, suggestions were made that the same pictures should be incorporated into other areas of their visual presentation. They owned a shop, so the window should be dressed to include the same ideas taken from the images on their leaflets. This would add to the continuity of their visual identity and overall message, and would allow the recipients of their leaflets to recognise it whenever they drove or walked past their premises. This stimulation should encourage them to enter, ask questions and eventually make a purchase.

Start stocking up for stocking-fillers

Ah, September, a time for a new start!

My website has had a revamp and I’m starting out in my new venture in combining design with marketing to see what wonderful explosions that will create.

Meanwhile I have included a picture of some chocolate that was kindly made for me by Graham Harding of My Little Wrapper (tel: 01276 33718) – I know the design is very plain, but that was because I didn’t want to detract from the message: you must give your customers something that they would want and is of value to them, not what you think they need. OK, chocolate may not be essential, but nearly everybody would want a piece, surely?

How this applies to your leaflets, brochures, etc, depends on your target market, the product or service you are promoting, the purpose of your message, and the over-all purpose of the leaflet – to get customers now; to arouse awareness of your brand; to capture all prospective customers whether or not they are have an immediate interest; to act as a forerunner or teaser for something bigger in the future; the list could be endless.

Starting thinking about the message you are giving out – is it only banging on about how wonderful you are or your company is, and not concentrating on your customer? Could you turn your features around into benefits so that your customer will start to really understand what you can do for them? Don’t you think the first thing your customers should see is something to appeals to them, not yourself or your organisation?

Hey – I’ve just noticed the first thing you see on the chocolate is my name and logo – so I’m not practicing what I’m preaching – but make sure you don’t fall into that trap too!

More on chocolate in another post…

Colours, carstickers and pigs!

At a networking meeting this morning I had quite a number of thoughts come to me. One was stimulated by some vibrantly pink leaflets one lady was handing out. They were very noticeable, especially when everybody seems to be sporting one amongst their piles of business cards they were clutching beneath their cappuccinos. Maybe colour is important when it comes to being noticed.  An eminent marketing adviser told me last week that he sends out bright orange postcards with handwritten notes to follow on from his telephone information calls.  He doesn’t expect the readers to remember everything that is written on them, but that the colour should make such an impression he is remembered as ‘the man who sends out those orange postcards’. They are ideal, of course, for those fervent searches for his information amongst piles of other papers.

One business card I was given I noticed had a shape of a pig stamped out of it. Of course I soon realised it matched the pig logo, but this ‘hole’ marked it out from the sea of other business cards that get stuffed into your pocket during networking meetings. It belonged to Sue Wilson and her discount club. We soon got talking about marketing ideas, which led to the concept of how to get your website noticed without wasting your money on advertising. I asked her whether she had considered a car sticker, and suggested she designed one consisting of pictures of pigs displaying her website URL across the back window of her car.  The vision of a procession of five large pink omnivores nose to tail across her rear view tickled her imagination, and she promised to send me a picture of them once she’d had them done. Do you have a fun image you could use to display your URL on your car?

Pandora and the Video

I had my video done last week by Gillian Gee of Oceanwake Services Ltd.  Gillian has an excellent technique of getting the right kind of material out of you through her interviewing techniques, and combined with her superb editing skills with her latest equipment and technology, I am hoping for a piece of visual media I shall be happy to show everybody!

One of the things she managed to worm out of me was my idea about promotional literature being a  source of curiosity. It should be designed so that the reader not only gets the message, but wants to know more by being enticed into opening and reading the remainder of the leaflet. The reader should be ‘navigated’ through the material by the design, which should be clear, concise and uncluttered and have a good structure and curiosity factor. A cleverly constructed headline especially formulated to grab the reader’s attention, deliver the content’s gist succinctly and maintain interest in the product, should be backed up with a relevant and striking image, quick and easy delivery of your promotion’s benefits adapted particularly for scanning abilities, an enticing incentive to take action to find out more or make a purchase, and your contact details clear, large and visually marked for easy absorption.

Stimulating the reader into becoming Pandora with the leaflet as her box is the first step towards getting your message across – hopefully this time being good news and not heralding the end of the world!

Don’t divorce yourself from design

My friend Annie O’Neill (The Divorce Coach) took advantage today to have a free health check on her paper publicity.  She had produced three A5 four page leaflets, one which covered everything, and two others that concentrated on specific areas.

I advised her to have a large, relevant headline and her name and website address clearly on the front page.  This is so that the reader immediately understood what the leaflet was about, and even if they didn’t open it, they knew who the author was and how to find them on the web.

Inside I suggested the text should be put into columns. This is because quick reading benefits from shorter lines, especially as the leaflets were to provide information purposefully for fast scanning to see if it is relevant to the reader.  Sometimes putting benefits into bullet points is applicable here to facilitate the scanning process.

All the images should be relevant and colourful to draw attention to themselves.  Sometimes the pictures say as much as the words (as well as their captions which are also as important) and good quality in both content and presentation provide that professional edge for a good impression.

If your budget allows, getting your leaflets properly printed certainly contributes towards your public image.  But if you are unable to do this, make sure of the quality of the paper, the clearness of the font (typeface), the crispness of the printer’s performance and the colour control to ensure a better publication.

Don’t forget, if you want to know more, or to book your own health check, go ask Alice!

Check this out…

I just wanted a chance to direct you to this blog from After the Launch about design.

How to encourage your target market

I’ve been talking to my daughter Josie about marketing and how products are sold to customers. She is very astute and keeps on referring back to my business. Her main question is: ‘Who, exactly, are your customers, Mum?’ and I’m afraid I had to hesitate! All the marketing advice out there says work out who your customers are and then build your business around them. I suppose I have to find potential customers to match each of my products (at least I’ve pruned those down in recent years) – not exactly the right way to go about it.

I can say I am looking for organisations who want to have information, publicity and promotional material in paper form using graphic design, eg membership organisations who would like to have a well designed newsletter or magazine to promote themselves to their existing and prospective audience, or small businesses who would like to have some paper marketing material to promote their services or products in a colourful and eye-catching form to their target market – but how do you say that in only a few words?

Josie and I have been Christmas shopping and one place she took me was the Build a Bear shop in the Oracle in Reading. A fascinating place as regards marketing goes – and I got Josie to try and analyse them for me. She was aware of the range of different bear skins to choose from, the fun idea of stuffing them yourself, going to a computer to name your bear and get a certificate for its ‘birthday’, and then choosing your outfit for your bear. She recognised the fact that the rich range of outfits would encourage bear-owners to come back ‘for more’, the upselling of other products in the form of accessories for your bear or finding a ‘companion’ for it, and the layout of the shop encouraged young prospects to enjoy their time there with bright colours, ample space and fun activities during their stay. When she asked me where were the same ideas in my business I realised I had a lot of thinking to do!

Obviously I can’t be the same as a bear shop, but I can make the process of visiting my website a more enjoyable experience. Why not offer an insight into graphic design, the different styles of paper marketing material, the potential of each commodity in relation to small businesses or organisations? I need to encourage my visitors to my website to ‘do’ something rather than just ‘surf’ and disappear, through offering freebie information packs and a well-written newsletter explaining and reminding its readers about my services. Undergoing research to find out more to impart to my readership, and to enhance my own experience and design work, will, of course, benefit everyone. What a positive way to look forward to the New Year!

Alice’s Action #2 – keep your images relevant

My daughter Josie commented recently on some leaflets: “Shouldn’t the picture be relevant to whoever picks it up, so to grab their attention?”

She’s right – aim the visual aspects of your advertising towards your target market. Don’t reflect your personal favourites and be careful about your business’s image. The customer is king (or queen) and everything should be geared towards them and their preferences.

Take a good look at the pictures in your marketing material, and get feedback from your friends or past customers, to see if they work or not.

Sign up for more Alice’s Actions from my website.

Is all junk mail bin-fodder?

More junk mail plops through my letterbox this morning, but two leaflets catch my eye:

One is promoting a furniture store – acres of brown background with tiny, indiscriminate photos that would require a magnifying glass to study what they contained in any detail, plus whited-out text in tiny letters crammed into the corners as if they are an afterthought and you’re not really meant to read them at all. The same hideous design continues inside the brochure, except that some pages have butterscotch backgrounds which means the white text blends in nicely and illegibly like cream. If there are any headlines I can’t see them, the benefits or incentives are non-existent, and the whole effect is a 1970s look which I haven’t decided is meant to be retro or terribly out of date.

Alternatively, the other leaflet is wild and whacky! It folds out into a cube-net (a cross of six squares) and each side provides a benefit/feature of the product, plus excellent pictures for recognition and tear-off discount vouchers for your next purchase. The images are simple, colourful and fill each square brilliantly, the main message is clearly put across with legible, concise text in a readable font, and because it’s different you want to explore the whole product to see what’s next or on the other side. There isn’t a beginning or end, but that doesn’t really matter, as the product is presented smack bang in the middle so you can’t miss it! The whole leaflet is just fun, and such a breath of fresh air!

Separating Subject Matter

I’m always collecting leaflets for research purposes.  I had to get my spare tyre replaced (the car’s, not mine!), and while I waited, I noticed the literature the garage had on display.  Two factors were brought to my attention: the first was a repeat of the concept stated in a previous blog about cluttered versus simple information, in this case tiny dense writing in wide columns compared with clear diagrams of tyres with appropriate explanations and guides.

The second concept was something I had learned from a recent marketing course, which had spawned from the idea of headings and well laid-out details beneath: separate topics presented on individual leaflets and displayed together as a set.  This series of A5 glossy sheets were collated within a tiered-leaflet-holder, each exhibiting their subject in clear, concise and uncluttered terms using the corporate colours and corresponding imagery to best show off their contents.  These were suitable both as a group or  individually, as customers were able to choose which were the most useful to them.

This concept of separate leaflets enables you to focus on individual benefits for customers and how best to present your solutions in an easily digestible form.  Appropriate incentives can then be displayed to entice the public in, each relevant to the subject concerned and updated on a regular basis.  Jumbling them up into one 3-fold leaflet may not enable you to adequately get your message across, and is far less likely to get read and understood.