Promotion and Marketing

Changes to university tuition fees come into effect this September, with students starting their undergraduate courses in the new semester now required to pay as much as £9000 per year – up from the government’s previous course cap of £3,375. With just three months remaining before school starts, new students are being encouraged to set up their own mini businesses this summer as a means of making money and cutting down student loan repayments by online leaflet printing firm, Cards Made Easy.

The leaflet printers have seen a marked increase in demand from self-employed entrepreneurs starting cleaning, gardening, dog walking, babysitting and car washing businesses over the last 18 months. It believes students getting ready for their first year at university can tap into this trend for micro-enterprises by setting up shop for the summer months.

Neil Forrest from Cards Made Easy says, “It’s very common in the USA for college students to spend the summer washing cars, gardening or doing odd jobs to save money ahead of university. With tuition fees now so high, UK students can also benefit from this approach to the summer holidays and make much needed extra cash for term time.”

Setting up a summer business can be quick and surprisingly low-cost. Cards Made Easy offers a range of economical leaflet printing and flyer printing packages, with prices starting from just £19.99 for full colour A4 sized leaflets.

Mr Forrest added, “Printed leaflets can be pushed through doors and left on car windscreens making them a great way to market a fledging seasonal business. Lead times on leaflet printing are also short with the entire process from design to delivery taking less than a week. We offer free design assistance too, helping to make sure the leaflet packs a punch and makes an instant impression.”

Leaflets are available in A4, A5 and A6 sizes with a choice of paper weight, finish and single or double sided printing. Flyers can be ordered in sizes A4 – A6, with or without fold and on a choice of stock. Orders for leaflets or flyers can be combined with other business printing services such as business cards or bookmarks to make an even bigger impact. Reordering can be completed easily online to keep stocks topped up.

I’ve been in the printing business for a long time and the first question on most people’s mind before they begin planning their leaflet design is usually: ‘how many new customers will I get from this?’

Return of investment isn’t as straightforward as it used to be with the rise of the internet, so this is not an easy question to answer.

Since the digital age boomed in like a rocket, most people picking up an A5 leaflet from their front door mat will almost certainly go to your website. They are likely to do this before picking up the phone and calling you.

Before the digital age, when everything was done at a much slower pace, anyone interested in your service would simply pick up the phone, mainly because there was no other option. This meant you could sell your service simply by the tone of your voice and choosing the right approach. For better or for worse, those days have gone which means a large slice of your success will depend on your website and, crucially, how good it is. Most people will check your company out online and ascertain how reliable you are.

So, yes you can make an excellent return on leaflet printing. Yet no matter how well you design your a5 leaflets, if your competitor has a crisp, clear and attractive site that is easily navigable, he is going to attract more customers.

If you don’t yet have a website, add a small line onto your leaflet to make readers aware. However, nowadays it is imperative to get a website and to get it written professionally with good search engine optimisation (SEO).

You can add further to your ROI result by engaging in social media activity so that people begin to comment and refer you to others. Supplement this by adding in regular interlinked blogs and articles, and you could be seeing some very good results.

The market for digital printing and printed leaflet campaigns is thriving; it is such a successful way to increase profits that it is worth considering, in an off- and online marketing mix. It’s simple, uncomplicated and often under-rated. Combine it with simple SEO and profits can boom.

Cheap printed leaflets require little capital investment and even if you cannot afford a website initially, you soon will as your business grows.

Let me know if I can advise further…

A bookmark can be a fantastic promotional tool for a whole range of businesses. E-readers may be gaining ground but there are still plenty of people out there that are sticking with tried and trusted paper, making bookmarks a highly desirable and practical commodity—give someone a well-designed and attractive bookmark and it could easily become part of their everyday life, and that’s something that few marketing materials can boast. Custom bookmarks can be a great way to advertise your business by keeping it at the forefront of people’s minds, and if you choose the right printing service (i.e. us) you won’t have to break the bank to get the results that you’re looking for.

Here at CardsMadeEasy we’re able to offer personalized bookmarks that are created according to your exact specifications, ensuring you’ve got a design that perfectly reflects your brand whilst appealing to potential customers. We’re able to provide full colour printing using a state-of-the-art printing process as well as a whole range of materials depending on your needs, but we don’t expect you to spend a fortune to get a service of such calibre—our bookmark printing service starts from just £19.99 for a pack of 50, and with affordable delivery thrown into the mix you won’t get a shock when you get the final price. Our printing service is affordable whilst being top-quality to offer the best of both worlds, so if you want to get a bookmark printing service that can meet your needs and budget just get in touch and see what we can do.

Lead generation, awareness building and promotion for a small-medium business need good advertising and good sense. Printed leaflet campaigns may well be at the top of your marketing agenda. Before getting a batch of A5 leaflets or flyers printed and delivered, take a step back and look at your company.

What are your company ethics? Do you know what the in-house philosophy of your organisation is and if so is it being upheld with pride? Are all your staff aware of the company image and, more crucially, do they see things differently to you? This is more of an abstract than a measurable item but it is important to think about before you go ahead with your planned marketing.

Ethics and philosophy play a giant role in business and even more so nowadays in our modern image conscious world; the massive rise in social media and the internet has exacerbated this still further. To the discerning potential client, it isn’t your fees or prices that will determine a sale and it may not be based entirely on your quality or value. More than ever, across every corner and path of your business it’s about your company ethos, customer service, integrity, fair approach, and care in doing a good job. These are the important assets for any business, micro, small or giant, to get right. This should be a big part of your corporate image, inbuilt into the very foundations of your company, defining your corporate integrity, embedded into your leaflet designs.

Consumers in the modern world are demanding better service, higher standards, more customer care and a friendly engaging image; they will often shop around for the service provider with the best ethical strategy, the highest moral philosophy…and not necessarily the cheapest. It is the face behind the business that interests them more, the core of humanity that will meet their needs.

So when you plan your A5 leaflet delivery campaign, think first about building and maintain a sustainable organisation, high on quality, fair on approach – and make sure your staff are aware of this. Your target market will identify with your ethical and philosophical values; they will be attracted by this image and feel reassured.

Use your leaflet design to communicate the most fundamental message of modern marketing, your corporate identity: your business strives to please, to be responsible, aware of the planet and nature, to produce the best work.

You can do this in your printed leaflet marketing and appeal to one of the deepest human emotions: the power of care.

In the digital works best era, it’s often assumed that anything that doesn’t act online must be a waste of time. I’m not out of touch and outdated but I firmly believe A5 leaflet campaigns really do help to double your online conversions. Why would the giant corporate companies continue to do this if online marketing had completely taken over and leaflet printing was out of touch? Door to door cheap leafleting services are more popular than ever in today’s digital-fits-all world.

I frequently get calls from business owners and marketing managers asking about the real mechanics of successful leaflet distribution; naturally they want to know if it is going to be worth their time and money to start a leaflet or printed flyer campaign.

This isn’t because they have given up on going digital or that they don’t believe an online presence works, it is because they want their online campaign supported by an offline presence. All these companies have websites and most are engaging in regular online activity yet they often report that they feel a digital ‘overload’ is the problem. In other words, too much emphasis on digital means missing out on the big catch of the market who will get to see or hear about you offline…and then go and look you up online.

The point about printed leaflets arriving through your letterbox is that you can’t just delete the thing. You have to pick up an a5 flyer or leaflet, and you have to do something with it, even if it is a walk to the bin. Few of us pick stuff up from the doormat without at least a quick glance through, in case we miss something important or bin good news.

Some things to think about when designing your leaflet template are:

• your business aims and objectives
• your focus market, where they live and in what type of home

Make sure your flyer design matches the design on your website, including your logo and definitely include your website address so people can go online and check you out. Choose a good quality printer who will advise on paper strength and quality and who won’t charge the earth – and don’t forget contact details like telephone number and e-mail address.

It’s not about dismissing digital, but it’s certainly not about dismissing cheap leafleting. A well designed printed leaflet or flyer can lead to a website visit, making contact…and a good sale.

Printed leaflet distribution is booming and most businesses report a gain in sales.

Get in touch with me anytime…I’m happy to advise