Or How to Stop Wasting Money on Printing and Advertising
I remember a comic strip where kids were trying to promote environmental awareness. They had all kinds of (mostly) great ideas until “rich kid” came along.
What did “rich kid” do?
She got mommy to charter a small plane and fly over the city, emptying out many thousands of flyers. The message on the flyers?
“Don’t litter!”
I’ve seen a lot of small businesses and organizations do that — except with money. No. I don’t mean literally. If they did it literally, do you think I’d tell you about it?!? (Okay, mom. Yes of course, I would tell you.)
Experts tell businesses to print a brochure, do some ads, build a list, get followers – and then people will flock to you. Too often you spend time, money, energy and effort trying to do those exact things and everything works, everything but the “people flocking to you” part.
Have you ever had that happen?
When clients come to us and want a print piece, a banner, a website, a mail or social media campaign, they typically ask, “How much will it cost to___”
Our answer – “It depends. What do you want to accomplish?”
That may seem like a frustrating question. “Well, duh. I want to build my business (or increase sales or get new customers, ….”
Of course you do. We all want to do that.
But, attempts to do that can end like “rich kid” (without the rich part) – throwing away money, time and energy without moving the audience to action. So, whether you are communicating with prospects, customers/clients or even employees (internal customers), what do you want to accomplish with this particular communication piece or campaign? You know your end goal and that is important. Now is the time to ask, “What step towards that end goal do I want this communication to prompt my audience to take?”
In future articles, we’ll explore ways to answer that question so you can avoid throwing money out the window, maximize the value of your communication and (really) get customers flocking to your business.
And be sure to contact us before your next print marketing campaign!
