March 2017

Business Branding Tips

Business Branding, Marketing Strategy, , , , , ,

imagesWhen it comes to successfully branding your business, you want to get it right first time. Creating a strong brand for your company is one of the most important aspects when it comes to marketing your services and if it is successful, you will be able to benefit from the trust and loyalty that comes along with attracting the perfect consumers.

As a leading leaflet distributor, we have come up with some helpful hints and tips on business branding to add more value to your business and generate those all important sales. So let’s get started!

Who Are Your Customers?

Ultimately, the main focus of your branding strategy should be to attract consumers to your business and forge a strong brand loyalty between you and your customers. You need to identify your target consumers and how they think when it comes to purchasing a product.

What do they want from your product or service? Identify that and you’re already halfway there. Tailor your product or service to match their needs and they will come to you.

Brand Identity and Market Position

imgresBrand identity isn’t just the marketing strategies that you adopt, or how well your publications look. It also includes how you operate as a business and what your beliefs and values are.

You need to make sure that you are consistent throughout the entire business branding process. Make sure that your values and beliefs are consistent and your consumers will be more inclined to stay loyal to your brand, rather than seek out a competitor. This consistency will also make your brand recognisable to your loyal customers, creating a strong brand loyalty.

You also need to establish where you fit in the market that your business operates in. You need to determine whether your business is quality or price driven to effectively market your brand.

Keep Your Business Branding Simple

Company names and taglines should be kept as short and snappy as possible. These will be the items which will feature on every publication and form of communication from your business, so it’s important that they can be easily recognised and read without the consumer getting bored halfway through your elaborately worded company tagline.

Be Consistent Across All Media Types

In today’s society, there are so many forms of media where you can showcase your brand. It is really important that you market yourself consistently across all media types to ensure that consumers can identify you from a wide range of other businesses.

No matter if you are advertising on the web or in print, make sure you have a consistent brand presence.

Involve Professionals

While you may believe you have the perfect business branding and marketing strategy, it never hurts to employ an expert to help you to get it right first time, as any mistakes or errors can be extremely costly, not only money wise but to your company’s credibility.

That’s where Hallway Distribution come in. We are industry experts when it comes to putting together successful door to door marketing solutions for your business. We will work with you to ensure that your marketing is targeting the correct audience, as well as providing a professional image of your company.

If you would like to find out more on how we can help you market your business, products and services effectively get in touch today.

Share Button

Make Leaflets Connect With Your Audience

Advertising, Leaflet Distribution, , , ,

Interacting with your audience is paramount when it comes to creating a strong, long lasting relationship with them.

As Gloucestershire’s leading leaflet distributor, we have seen a great rise in bright colours, witty slogans and attractive leaflet layouts to help catch the wandering eyes of target audiences, but what can you do to stand out from the crowd and make leaflets connect? How about exercising various degrees of interactions between you and your audience?

imagesIncluding your audience in your leaflets can help to keep their interests and spike their curiosity, it can help you transform your leaflet from simply informative to exciting and audience friendly, helping you create a strong, long lasting relationship you can be proud of.

Questions

Asking questions in your leaflets can spark thoughts and ideas in your audience. You can make these subtle questions such as ‘Ever thought of…’ or you can make them stand out from the rest of your content such as ‘Did you know…’. Of course you don’t want to interrogate your audience with copious amounts of questions which could make them feel inadequate if they don’t know the answer. Spacing your questions out allows you to give your audience information rather than question their knowledge. This careful balance will help you to keep your audience’s interest when reading your leaflet.

Surveys

One of the main ways of ensuring interaction with your audience is by tagging on a survey or questionnaire to the foot of your leaflet. If this is your first time producing a leaflet, a simple survey asking your audience what they think can spark an interest in your leaflet, thus allowing your leaflet to reach more people and keeping your audience interested in what you have to say.

Features

Including a small feature section, perhaps highlighting members of your business who’ve achieved something amazing, or even loyal audience members of your business, not only directly interacts with your audience, but will also help to spur on word of your business with the potential to be featured in your leaflets.

It’s not all about style and looks, though these initially capture interest; creating a long lasting leaflet is also about what you include and how you address your audience and how your leaflets are broadcasted. For more information on these key points to make leaflets connect get in touch with us here at Hallway Distribution.

Share Button

Increase Marketing Strategy

Leaflet Distribution, Marketing Strategy, , , , ,

Leaflet distribution is one of those things that you probably don’t ever think of when you hear the phrase “good marketing strategy”.

Many people consider the internet to be the best medium to market services or products because there are numerous ways to approach such a campaign. What these people don’t realise, however, is that leaflet distribution has evolved quite significantly throughout the years and nowadays it is a viable offline marketing strategy that doesn’t even cost much.

imagesLeaflet distribution nowadays has even more advantages in ways to increase marketing strategy than some of the most popular and common marketing campaigns. To understand what it really is all about we will have to take a closer look at how the professional companies handle the leaflet distribution process.

1. Price

What worries many people when they hear about leaflet distribution is the prices for this service because that involves designing, printing and distributing. However, some companies nowadays will not charge you for creating the design for your leaflet if you commit to order printing and distributing as well. And we all know that design can be the most expensive part of any marketing campaign. Finding a company willing to work on the design for free will save you money that you can use on ordering more leaflets for example.

2. Effectiveness

People usually worry about the effectiveness of a leaflet distribution campaign because they think that many of their leaflets won’t even be given to potential customers. Professionals, however, don’t allow this and supervise their employees to make sure all the leaflets have been handed to people. If for some reason there are leftover leaflets, they will be returned to you. In this case you can decide whether you want them to be distributed again or whether you will use them for something else.

3. Planning

A leaflet distribution campaign usually starts with a good amount of planning with the goal in mind to increase marketing strategy. When you choose the location where you want your leaflets to be distributed, the company you’ve chosen will integrate that into a digital map. This map will have boundaries that the distributors will not be allowed to leave and addresses that they must visit.

4. Tracking and reporting

Being able to see where your leaflets are being distributed in real time is of utmost importance. This gives you control over how the distribution process is going and certainty that your leaflets are being delivered as they are supposed to.

A professional leaflet distribution team will be equipped with GPS trackers so that you can check the progress of how everything is going in real time. The campaign will also be monitored by the company and the supervising team to make sure that no mistakes are made. The location of each individual distributor will be marked with a time stamp of every 5 seconds. In terms of reporting you will be able to see which addresses were visited and which houses were missed by the distribution team if any.

5. See for yourself

Not many companies offer this service, but some do. You will have the chance to go in a car with a supervisor and check on the distribution process yourself. This way you can be 100% sure that your leaflets are being delivered to the exact addresses that you want to target in your marketing campaign.

Without a doubt, leaflet distribution is one of the most effective types of ways to increase marketing strategy campaigns nowadays. Even though online campaigns have their advantages, offline marketing is still alive and kicking. And the best way to measure results, achieve maximum effectiveness and reach a large number of people with a low budget is through leaflet distribution.

Share Button

10 Leaflet Distribution Scams to Avoid

GPS Tracking, Leaflet Distribution, , , , , ,

Every week businesses get duped into using leaflet distribution companies that quite literally fail to deliver. Below are 10 leaflet distribution scams to be aware of when selecting  your advertising door to door leaflet campaign company.

imagesDon’t forget that if you do your research properly and investigate a company thoroughly you should be able to avoid some of the more obvious pitfalls. However, here are 10 known scams to avoid.

The non-delivery leaflet distribution scams: Some unethical companies unfortunately have absolutely no intention of delivering your leaflets. They get away with it because in law you have to prove that they haven’t delivered them to get any recompense. Make sure you use a reputable company who has good code of practice terms and check their references prior to using them.

The postcode sector scam: It is critical to check how the distribution company has calculated the number of homes within a postcode sector. Many companies may sometimes overcharge as they use unadjusted generic Royal Mail postal code data which includes rural properties that are too costly for them to deliver to.

The low price scam: If it looks too good to be true it is too good to be true. If it takes a full day of walking to deliver 1000 leaflets and you are being offered a price of £20 per 1000 to have yours go out on their own then do the maths! Either the company is making a big loss, not delivering your leaflets or employing people well below the minimum wage (who will probably throw the leaflets away). Ultimately, you get what you pay for and any reputable company will charge you a fair price for a fair job.

The backchecking scam: Make sure the company you use has a genuine and reliable way of checking that the distribution has been carried out properly. We recommend you use a company who has invested in GPS tracking. It’s not necessarily cheap but it’s the best way of watching the distributors walk up and down the long driveways so you know they have delivered to specific addresses. The backchecking some less ethical companies say they will carry out can be in reality completely worthless… if it doesn’t seem convincing to you then stay well clear!

The targeting leaflet distribution scams: You may wish to target affluent areas or other demographic communities but how can you be sure that the distribution company will pick out the areas that will work for you? Some less ethical companies will promise demographic targeting of your leaflets but will have no means of doing so. Ask them what software they use to target areas and precisely how their targeting works.

The terms & conditions scam: Always read the terms and conditions of any leaflet distribution company. Some unethical companies will spend more money and time writing very one-sided terms and conditions to make it very difficult for you to proceed with action against them should they not deliver your leaflets. It’s sometimes a sign that something is perhaps not quite right so ask questions as to what their terms and conditions really mean.

The timescale leaflet distribution scams: Do you need your leaflets out really quick? If so, be wary of companies who offer unrealistic timescales to get leaflets out. If you need to get 20,000 leaflets out in one day then do they really have 20 willing distributors in that area available to carry the work out? Some companies may have but many will not. Some unethical companies may promise a speedy delivery service just to take your money so it is worth investigating what their true capacity really is and ask them what guarantees they give on any promised timescale.

The multi-drop scam: So you may have got a great price for your leaflet delivery going out on its own without any other items (referred to as solus delivery) but all may not be as it seems. Many less ethical companies often promise “solus” delivery but if given an opportunity will put the item out with other businesses without you knowing. That might be quicker and cheaper for them but not great for the visibility of your leaflets… We recommend that you always thoroughly check the references of your distribution company, we really can’t stress this enough!

The fake testimonial scam: With many review sites popping up all over the Internet watch out for companies that post their own reviews online. It can sometimes be quite easy to spot if the review site highlights the fact that the IP address of the company is the same as the person who submitted the review. Worth checking if the reviewer also gave a business name so that the review could be independently verified. Always corroborate the references of the distribution company you are using.

The Google complaint scam: There are disreputable companies out there who have so many catastrophic reviews online that it is amazing that they manage to stay in business. How do they do it? They create scores and scores of blog pages that rank highly for their company name combined with a word such as “complaint” or “review” so that genuine web forum reviews get pushed on to the second or third page of Google! Check for unusually irrelevant or contrived blog pages that rank for these keywords such as “Insert Company Name Here Reviews” it will be a sure sign that something is not right.

Share Button