Written by Lucy Guthrie, www.wearemadcreative.co.uk

 

Printed matter: letters, flyers, leaflets and brochures – are they still a relevant marketing resource?

Interestingly, as I sit to write my thoughts on the value of printed advertising I have just picked up two advertising leaflets from my doormat.
One is a new takeaway menu – this will most definitely find its way into a kitchen drawer for future drunken reference or a lazy Friday night – these events may even fall on the same day!
The other, a list of local events, basic in design, but with all advertised dates placed on one side enabling a keen potential attendee to add this to their fridge noticeboard but in my case this flyer will go in the recycling bin.

The growing popularity of monetary on-line advertising opportunities has grown due to its promoted targeted audience appeal and available analytics that can be gathered then regurgitated with supporting stats, to produce evidence as to whether the campaign was successful or not. Fundamentally did people visit your website, come to your event and engage?

A printed leaflet or advert in a newspaper can be less easy to monitor unless it is the only used resource with traffic, attendance or orders carefully monitored.

But we do still all like something tangible to read, ponder over and consume at our leisure. This is when eye-catching beautiful professional design and presentation can be key to engaging our would-be customer and make them spend a few precious seconds reading our message and deciding whether it is of interest. According to stats – you have exactly three seconds to strike lucky with your audience, so you need to make an impact.

 

Some things in life still need and warrant a bespoke carefully designed printed invitation, leaflet, flyer, advert or brochure.

 

Imagine being invited to an expensive wedding via a Facebook Event post, what does that say about the event and organisers, not to mention the would-be bride and groom. Certainly, I would wonder if they really cared enough if I did attend.

Or perhaps you are being shown around a beautiful new build dream home, you would absolutely want to be presented with a shiny expensive looking glossy brochure with lifestyle images, that you can drool over and then show your friends and family. Any developer will want to ensure you feel compelled to sign up and commit, therefore the brochure would be designed to reinvigorate your desire to want to live there and aspire you to putting down a healthy deposit quickly.

As a design business we still find there is a need and market for graphic designed printed material, but more thought is now being taken with content and prospective reach. We would agree this is a wise move, and often recommend our clients to not only create a business leaflet but support it with an addressed printed letter to a particular person within an organisation detailing their offer, the leaflet can act as the visual reminder with highlighted key services or event details.

If businesses want people to buy into their products, services and overall business offer they need to demonstrate to their customers that they do matter, that they care and reach out to them.

Therefore carefully choose your advertising method and consider your message, your potential audience and ensure you do yourself justice with design – remember you only have three seconds, make them count.