So you’ve decided to invest in some marketing materials for your business. Good for you! That old adage, “You have to spend money to make money” really is true. The purpose of this post is to try to prevent you from wasting any.
And I’m actually going to suggest that you spend more than you had planned. No, I’m not crazy. Hear me out.
A crappy marketing piece can do more harm than good.
Let’s say you’re a local service provider such as a roofer or electrician. One of the major marketing efforts you make is to spread flyers throughout the neighborhoods you regularly service. You usually prepare a simple piece with some photos of your work, a coupon and some contact information. Sounds like an OK piece, right? It all depends on the design.
What you think looks like a nice flyer may have just convinced your would-be client to go with another service provider. Your original photos looked fine but when copied black & white, nobody can tell whether the quality of your work is good or horrible. And since you have no graphic design experience, your page layout is, well, bad. Your inability to create a professional-looking piece has caused your client to think about the quality of your work. Right or wrong, the poor design creates doubt — and when you deal in keeping roofs leak-free or preventing electrical fires, think about the message you’re sending.
Maybe you do most of your advertising online. Trust me, the same concepts apply, except it is even easier to display bad design principles on the web!
So don’t skimp on design. If spending some of your budget on the design means you have fewer flyers, try it. Response rate increases, even small ones, make spending on design well worth it. Professionally-designed marketing pieces can help clients get BIG increases in response rates. Converting those leads will still be up to you, but wouldn’t you like more leads?
