How to Utilise your Leaflets Effectively

Leaflets are one of the most popular ways of promoting your business; they are great to boost sales by getting your message out in a hurry.

But leaflets should also be used as a part of an on going marketing plan as they are a cost effective way of disseminating your information.

It has been proven that most customers will only make a purchase after they have seen a company’s marketing message 6 times and by specifically targeting your potential clients and tracking the results you should be able to increase the normal low response rates of leaflets from 1-10% to 25% and above.

Before you go any further you will need to think about how you want to disseminate the information. Are you going to business shows, networking, door dropping, magazine inserts or just handing them out in the street?

Who is your target audience and where are they based? Think about who your ideal client is.

Design and layout used to be the realm of a professional graphic designer but these days there are many pc based design programs such as Word or Publisher. These are great for a basic leaflet design but please be aware that most printers prefer print ready pdf (portable document format) files set for CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) and most home PC programs do not have this capability. If you are unsure it is always worth having a chat with your printer as they can help you with this as well as give advice on size and paper weights along with colours and fonts etc, and If you don’t wish to go down the self design route they should be able to put you in touch with a reputable graphic designer in your area.

Make sure if you are taking your own images that you use the highest resolution your camera allows. Be aware that most camera phone images are not of sufficient quality for printing. Always check the resolution of all images used as they must be at least 300dpi for printing (your printer can help you here if you are unsure), just because an image looks good on screen does not mean it will print correctly.

If you are stuck for relevant images you can download royalty free images from websites such as istockphoto.com usually for a small fee.

When designing your leaflet always think AIDA

Attention – does your leaflet grab your audiences attention, open with something that pulls them in not pushes them away such as a question:

“Are you paying to much for…”

“Have you ever…”

“Can you see…”

Interest – now you have their attention you need to sustain it by getting them interested.

What is your USP?

Convey the benefits of using your services, if you don’t know then ask your existing customers why they use you.

Cut out jargon and waffle

Desire – now you have their interest you need to make them desire your services:

Obtain customer testimonials.

Show them how what you have to offer will solve some of their problems and appeal to customers by always using ‘you’ and ‘your’ in your text.

Can you offer a guarantee – money back/lowest price/100% satisfaction/quality etc.

Action – lead your customers towards taking a specific and measurable action:

‘Call now, on ….’

Give a discount if you are contacted before a certain time.

Have a voucher with a deadline etc.

….and make sure you track your results.

By having different special offers or leaflet designs going out to different areas/target audiences you can track your results and concentrate on areas that work and discard those that don’t.

Remember to include all the important information such as phone number, email/website address and always allow plenty of time for checking and editing. Let someone else do the proof reading as it is commonly known that you cannot proof read your own work. Check and double check all contact details, and finally, make sure you have permission to use all images and quotes.

RGB & CMYK

RGB Stands for Red, Green and Blue and they are know as 'additive colours'. Additive colours are used for light projection or for displaying images on a screen and are primarily used in web design. If you combine the three colours of RGB, in the middle, white will appear. RCG is the principal behind TV screens and computer monitors and uses light to produce its images.

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and 'Keyplate' Black. They are mainly used in printing and graphic design. They are different from RGB because if you combine Cyan, Magenta and Yellow it will form Black, however this black is not always acceptable during the print process hence the reason why Keyplate Black is used. Printers prefer files in CMYK because the majority of their print machinery is geared for this process.

The Digital Print Process

Similar to your office printer or photocopier. Is very cost effective and is usually used for quick turnaround or short run jobs because the process is very similar to sending a job from your PC to your printer. The quality of digital print has improved dramatically over the last few years and should soon be comparable to litho printing. They are limited to printing in four colour process (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black - CMYK) and therefore cannot use single Pantones or metallic inks.
Other uses are poster printing and large format vinyl printing.

Do you know which printer is the right one for your project?

Do you have time to go through the yellow pages to look for a printer? There are so many different types of printer out there that you could probably call every single one in your area and not necessarily get the right one for your print requirement.

I have worked for many years in various print companies and each is geared up to produce a limited range of products cost effectively and if they couldn’t produce it cost effectively they would broker the job to one that could, put a mark up on that job, and sit back and let someone else do the work.

There are many types of print processes and I will go through these with you over the next few weeks.

Print Management is not Dead!

Print management has had a bad reputation over the past few years.

There have been too many individuals taking back handers to place clients print and people jumping on the print management band wagon using cheap overseas suppliers without really understanding the print process or their clients needs.

A print management company should always add value, its not just buying and selling print, done properly it encompasses every aspect of a clients business.

For a print management company to be effective they must do all of the following:

They must build strong ongoing relationships with their clients

Keep abreast of new print and production technologies

Respond quickly and efficiently to their client’s changing requirements

Be proactive and take responsibility

Be flexible and accountable

Save clients time and money

Meet tight deadlines