Sell more by hanging around

How can your business sell door-to-door, gaining undivided attention to your offer, but without annoying or risking confrontation with your prospects? With so much emphasis on Internet marketing power, one of the most time-tested direct marketing methods is being ignored by many. Door hangers are your quiet sales team, capturing eyeballs right where your prospects are most comfortable, even when their computer is off.

First things first: Know your target market Advertising a lawn-care special would likely be wasted in neighborhoods with few lawns. But for the pizza maker, a “Second pizza half price” offer might resonate almost anywhere, anytime. Some businesses will need to think carefully about where their market lives. Creating multiple offers can help test and refine your marketing, as well.

Creating the offer Keeping in mind that impulse purchases and free items will usually get good response rates even though the offer expires relatively soon. Conversely, items for which budgeting and saving are required, will likely need more response time. This is especially true during economic downturns. Design your offer with a specific goal in mind. Trying to build traffic? Or outright sell a specific product? How can you test the effectiveness of your efforts?

Designing your piece Keep your design simple. Include only the information necessary to move your prospect to act, particularly if restricted to a certain day and place — “One Free Chocolate Donut per person, Saturday, June 6, 7–11 AM…” Include the address, a simple map, and phone number in a prominent place. Focus the contact information relative to its importance to this task. For example: If the prospect’s action requires a phone call, then make the phone number prominent. If you want them to land on your website, make the URL easy to find and read.

Frame or separate coupons with the traditional bold dashed lines to symbolize the cutting points, even if cutting may not be unnecessary. Use bold bright colors but eliminate fine print unless it’s truly necessary. Remember: You’re not creating a brochure.

Ready to distribute Minimize costs by hiring local students to distribute the hangers. Early hours on weekdays, when most adults are at work and kids are in school, provide quieter and easier distribution. Avoid distributing on weekends when prospects have more activities vying for their interest. And unlike with direct mail, you get to choose delivery days and times.

Whether you hire a service or individuals to hang your ads, be mindful that they will be seen as your representatives, even though you may be just contracting them. So it’s good practice to go over some behavior guidelines before they hit the streets.

Bringing it on home With the growing “Shop Locally” emphasis, prospects are now more open to offers from local businesses. Careful research and planning, coupled with good design, makes the venerable door hanger an excellent cost-effective marketing tool during economic downturns.

As always, to get an idea of the investment for implementing a hanger campaign relative to your situation check out our sponsor VI Printshop.com

How can your business sell door-to-door, gaining undivided attention to your offer, but without annoying or risking confrontation with your prospects? With so much emphasis on Internet marketing power, one of the most time-tested direct marketing methods is being ignored by many. Door hangers are your quiet sales team, capturing eyeballs right where your prospects are most comfortable, even when their computer is off.

First things first: Know your target market Advertising a lawn-care special would likely be wasted in neighborhoods with few lawns. But for the pizza maker, a “Second pizza half price” offer might resonate almost anywhere, anytime. Some businesses will need to think carefully about where their market lives. Creating multiple offers can help test and refine your marketing, as well.

Avoiding simple mistakes when managing print online

Ordering print through automated online systems is a growing trend but why is a large percentage of the print suitable for online ordering still being purchased by traditional means?

Confidence is a big factor in the motivation to buy print over the world wide web. Beyond the concern for quality and turnaround is the apprehension in assuming personal liability for order errors. Quality controls at the front end of most online print systems are automated, therefore anything submitted outside the confines of the grid is usually not reversible. Once you click “I accept” you’ve bought the farm so to speak.

Designers/marketers poll: Do you buy or manage the printing on print projects you have designed?

Through the years, attitudes toward managing print jobs for clients has varied widely. How do we stack up on this issue today? For bigger agencies — both design and marketing — it’s a good revenue source, as well as a tool to control the marketing and branding process.

But can small shops handle the extra responsibilities, not to mention costs? Taxes and regulations have driven many small designers out of this important role. Some have found the answer in printing brokers. How ’bout you?

Please, share your successes and failures on this topic. Got stories?

Update: Monday, 5/4/09 08:25

So far, our poll indicates that all or most of the time, 70 percent of designers or marketers control the printing for print materials they design. An added 10 percent handle print management at least some of the time. Thanks for your continuing comments on this topic. They are appreciated.

And don’t forget our sponsors: VIPrintShop.com

Let’s talk about print

Welcome to what we hope becomes a regular stop for designers and marketers, where we showcase and understand the role of printed media as a marketing tool in today’s digital age.

Is print really dead? How will the paperless office affect the medium? How can designers and marketers dovetail print into today’s many other tools, not the least of which is social media?