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Dear,
How are you?
Welcome to the June edition of Marvellous Monthly Marketing Tips from Guildford printing.com. June is always a favourite month for me. It’s our birthday (4 years old!), there’s the promise (or distant dream) of a long, hot summer, and those of you that are following me on Twitter will know all about my passion for my garden – which by June is just bursting with potential.
This month’s newsletter topic is all about great design. It’s something that’s so easy to overlook in a recession. And it’s very easy to dismiss it as something that you ‘can’t do’ unless you have some fancy-pants design software. Well read on and you’ll see just how easy it is. In whatever package you’re using: Publisher, Paint, or dare I say it, Word!
And if this whets your appetite and you’d like more information on how you can make your designs look more professional, then join us on the Design Rules Workshop – a fun, interactive workshop for the uninitiated! There are just a couple of places left so do book quickly if you’d like to join us.
Also, do you have a secretary that you’d like to recognise for their outstanding contribution to your business? Surrey Office Star is an awards programme all about recognising the unsung heroes of the workplace, and this year it’s the turn of the secretaries. Nominate your office star at www.surreyofficestar.co.uk by June 20th.
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Have a great month, whatever you’re up to.
I look forward to seeing you soon,
Fiona
PS. Are you, or anyone you know, looking for an office in Guildford. We have a beautiful studio of 200 sq ft overlooking the river. Contact us on 01483 401 818 if you’d like to know more…
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Design rules in action! How do you go from drab to fab in six simple steps?
I thought I’d better put my money where my mouth is and show you
just how simple it is to create something that engages your target market and makes you much more professional. So I’m going to turn this leaflet into something much more fabulous.
 So what’s wrong with the leaflet on the left (click on it to see it in full)? I picked it up at a local women’s networking event a few weeks ago and it’s very typical of many of the self designed leaflets you see at networking events, inserted into magazines or pushed through your letterbox.
My main critique of it as a piece of marketing is that to the busy reader, it’s very bland. The logo stands out as the biggest thing, and yet beautiful as it is, it’s not the thing that appeals to me the most. There are no images, the text fills the page, and it lacks that professional touch.
I’m going to show you some simple things that you can do to make your own leaflets much more engaging, inspiring and professional.
1. Work out what’s important
Clue: it’s not your logo. What’s going to appeal to your prospective clients the most? I’ve moved the logo to the bottom. It adds conviction and will help the business maintain brand identity. But it’s not the most important thing on there. I’ve also swapped around the text and made the important bits (headline and call to action) bigger.
And yes, it’s looking worse than it did before, but bear with me. I’ll make it better. I promise!
2. Create some space
 I want to put a photograph of a trug filled to the brim with earthy looking vegetables to really draw people in and give them a flavour of what they can get from the course. And that means I’ll need to create some space, because right now I have nowhere to put the image. So I’ve taken the font size down from 11pt to 9pt (still legible but if you’re working with older people you may want to chop down your copy instead of making the font size too small).
3. Add a grid
 Professional looking leaflet designs don’t use the whole width, they use a grid and they create white space, so I’m going to reorganise the layout a bit. This is the single biggest thing that amateur designers fail to do, and one of the biggest giveaways that you’ve done it yourself. And what’s wrong with that? Well it says to your clients “I’m not prepared to invest in my business” and if you’re not prepared, then why should your clients be? So use these simple tricks to make your own designs look much more professional.
Ok, so there might be more creative layouts than this one, but putting the bulk of your text off to the left gives a more exciting, dynamic and most of all ‘designed’ look. You could use a couple of columns here, and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with how the headlines are working, but I’m going to press on and primp and preen the colours and fonts. I can come back to the layout later.
4. Add an image
 I’ve just grabbed a couple of ‘positional’ images from www.istockphoto.com who are great for decent quality, relatively low cost images. If we were to go ahead and print this design then I’d download them (and pay for them) but as we’re at the proofing stage you can get an idea of how they’ll look without committing. If I’m honest, I was hoping for a much more organic looking, muddy pile of vegetables. And I’m sure if I had half an hour to spare, then I’d find exactly that. But at least you get the idea of where I’m going with it.5. Change the fonts
 Please avoid Times New Roman, Verdana, Arial and Comic Sans for your printed marketing literature if you want to be taken seriously. They’re too common and lack character. Instead, turn to your brand manual for inspiration. The Plant Passion fonts are Gill Sans and a lovely handwriting font called Balghat which captures owner Claire’s passion and flair.
Changing the font has also given me the chance to shifty around the text and bring that headline in line with the body copy.
6. Add some colour
 This makes all the difference. Lifts things off the page and makes the whole thing sing. Now as a professional graphic designer I’d usually go on to add a lot more flair and creativity but I think that everything I’ve done above can be done by anyone with a little understanding and knowledge. So there you have it. Drab to fab in six easy steps!
What this is all about is not trying to replace graphic designers, but just show you how you can create something that looks professional yourself. And if you’d like to learn more tips and tricks like this, then come on my Design Rules workshop on18th June or 22nd October. I’d love to see you there!
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