(With appropriate thanks to Bananarama!)
For every collection of post that drops through your door each day, there will be some pieces that catch the eye and deserve a second look and those that get instantly dropped into the bin without further investigation.
What creates that need for a second glance and how can you recreate it to maximise your campaign results?
Five key things to consider:
- Grab attention
This can be done in a using a great image, an offer, or by looking different and standing out. - Strong headline
This is your one chance to SHOUT something. Make it of interest to your customer. (By the way, a logo or business name is almost never your headline!) - Create interest
Be very clear what you are offering . Give reasons read it, keep it, look at it and be interested in it. - Make the offer
Include a meaningful and compelling offer. Be imaginative. Got a special event? New stock arriving? Celebrating a season? With so many offers around, 10% off may hardly register or motivate. - Have a deadline
Put an appropriate deadline on it to suit the campaign, run it hard and then withdraw it.
Touch and Feel
Imagine standing at the entrance to your business, personally greeting and then handing each customer the flyer as they walk in. What does it say about you and the business? How does it feel? Is it pitched at the right level? Does it ‘fit’ with the impression your customers should have?
Print costs do vary with paper quality or weight, but this is a relatively minor consideration in terms of maximising responses – which is after all the whole point of the exercise.
Monitor and Measure
There is much to be gained from any campaign in terms of testing, learning, trailing and then improving. There are simple, accurate and very cost effective ways to measure response for a few pounds. Most smaller businesses don’t do this well and are missing out.
The information and intelligence you get back is well worth it and goes into enhancing future campaigns.
Professional Design
Investing in professional design doesn’t have to be an expensive additional cost – especially if you have outlines together, files and pictures organised and key information ready to go.
A good designer is worth every penny and will introduce the qualities of balance, layout and emphasis to the leaflet.
Have a plan
Successful campaigns are planned and considered.
Areas: Select areas to target by considering where your different customer groups live. We tend to live in and around people with similar profiles, so there is a good chance new customers live near to existing ones. When businesses have a robust customer database, we can do some quick postcode plotting from them. It can be very revealing.
Frequency: Watch TV any evening and you will see the same ads repeat multiple times. It’s no different with leaflet campaigns. Get known and be familiar! I have seen many occasions when second and subsequent campaigns into the same areas start delivering better and better results.
And that’s what gets results
Leaflet campaigns should feature as a part of on-going marketing and customer acquisition plans. We often assist with planning, design, campaign monitoring, analysis and printing as well as the distribution.
At Dor-2-Dor we know that we are really in the ‘getting results business’ – rather than just in the leaflet delivery business.
