What makes an effective brochure?

The change to how Royal Mail charged for us to post out mail has had a large effect on the chosen formats for brochures as many clients choose to get within the small letter dimensions, effectively A5 and under 100 grams. This and the growth of email as a chosen marketing channel, and recessionary pressure, has meant that consumers and b2b clients are not seeing the creative level of formats and materials they would have a few years ago.

This is actually the opportunity, as bucking the trend and using the larger formats and more creative materials can lead to a much greater ROI as customers appreciate and respond to the impact from more creative pieces that really sell the products and services with size and material creating a real statement.

This then leads to segmentation of your audience, as you may not want to send a more expensive format to all your database, you may also want to consider this as a lower quantity give away at shows and exhibitions.

Yes it does cost more to send out, but if enquiries and response from your play it safe brochures and leaflets are getting lost in the small letter fog, then it may be worth taking a risk?

The Shell Directional Policy Matrix and you.

This tool can be quite useful for deciding on where to put your resources, it is a corporate model, but it still has relevance even if you are a sole trader. Essentially there are times in any business when you need to decide which areas are worth pursuing and which areas you need to drop. Google it for a more thorough explanation.

Power of Women event success for Blackpool Council

Apple were recently asked to design and produce event collateral for the Power Of Women event for Blackpool Council's Young Peoples Services. This involved the design of leaflets and posters, as well as supply of promotional items. The event was held on the 8th of March as part of International Womens day.

International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

The Power of Women Event was a great success, attracting a full attendance, particularly from women in the community surrounding Blackpool.

Integrating social media into your marketing mix.

Social media is a great way of boosting your online presence, reaching niche audiences who can add a new dimension to the type of new enquiries you receive and the wide range of networks you can access. B2B companies have been fairly slow to take up social media as a viable marketing tool, but there are some very tangible benefits to investing in this area as a complement to your traditional marketing mix. An example of this is that within your friends, fans or followers, you will build up a network, within this network there can be powerful decision makers who you would not be able to get through to either by direct mail or the phone. Your social media channel gets straight through to these audiences in a different way, reaching them when they are relaxing and in a more relaxed state, late at night for example. Although enquiries often don't come immediately, as with any networking activity, what you put in is what you get out. You will often find this becomes an out-of -hours activity where you strike up conversations with new people, who undoubtedly know other people in their wider network, people who could be very useful to you. If you are looking for ways to start or maximise your social media activities, contact us to discuss the many ways we could help.