3 Stages for Designing an Effective Flyer

Sheryl Roush, an experienced graphic designer and speaker, asked me to share the following with you:

Marketing Your Services in Print:
3 Stages for Designing an Effective Flyer

You are talented, have great expertise, and offer a valuable service to others. How do you get their attention and generate a response?

When creating any promotion, begin by placing yourself in your potential BUYER’S shoes, think like THEY think. Become your buyer. A big mistake in most promotional pieces is that they are designed from the SELLER’S point-of-view. What is their “pain” and how is your service the “solution?”

There are three stages of rapport required in any promotion: 1) Relevance; 2) Confirmation; and 3) Action. These stages must be done in order for your promotion to be effective.

Stage 1. In the first 1-7 seconds the buyer is looking for the relevance of your service, the benefits, or “WIIFM?” Placed in the top one-third of your layout, the reader browses short body copy, graphics, images, and color. Name their pain in the form of a question to compel them to read further. Since 70-80% of readers are “skimmers” and quick decision makers, use subheads and bullets for this group.

Stage 2 is up to 90 seconds, where your reader is still trying to decide whether this is a “match” for them, or not. Avid readers continue reading the piece and require longer body text plus all the facts and details to make a well-informed decision. Consider adding testimonials from satisfied buyers. This stage utilizes the middle portion of the layout and toward the bottom of the layout.

Stage 3 is vital in your promotion. Based on how engaged your buyer is and how well you have addressed their needs in the first two stages, the reader will naturally “flow” into this bottom one-third of the layout. This is the Call to Action stage, where you instruct the reader how to respond affirmatively to what they have read. This is the best place for your logo, email, toll free phone number, website. Create a “sense of urgency” using bold italics (i.e., Call today for your free 15-minute consultation!).

After you finish your draft, show it to others, ideally in your target market. How easily do they follow it? Is it compelling enough for them to take action? What is missing? What can be removed? Is it buyer-centered? Minimize the use of “we” and “our” and maximize “your” and “you” in the copy and headlines.

To generate higher response, use all three stages in any promotion you create!

Sheryl Roush, International Trainer on Marketing Design
Author of Solid Gold Newsletter Design
www.SparklePresentations.com

 

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Best wishes,

Marilyn McLeod

http://www.CoachMarilyn.com

 

Importance of Connection

I’d been dating David for several months, when suddenly I had a feeling something had changed between us. Whenever I asked him about this, he told me it was my problem. But things just didn't feel right. I felt a painful gap in our connection. I was frustrated with conflicting messages and there did not seem to be anything I could do to get to the truth.

I happened to know the woman he was involved with before me, and I had respect for her, so I bravely gave Annette a call with an open heart. She was wonderful. She told me the two of them had gotten back together. Then she asked me how I was. She was sincerely interested in my wellbeing, and kept asking and being attentive to my feelings and needs until I felt supported and connected again.

I ended up feeling betrayed by the man who professed to care so much about me, and totally supported by the ‘other woman’. Who would I choose to be my friend in the future? The one who told me the truth and then was there to help me heal.

I’m not saying that approaching the ‘other woman’ with an open heart will always end up being a positive experience. I am saying that I learned not to assume someone was my enemy.

I learned that hearing the truth honestly allowed me to stay connected, and that being treated with respect and being included in the conversation were more important to me than getting my way. The truth allowed me to honestly understand the landscape I was in, so I had more power to chart a meaningful future course of my own.

Best wishes,

Marilyn McLeod

http://www.CoachMarilyn.com

Your Most Valuable Resource

If you are like most ambitious people who start their own business, you are driven and resourceful and you will keep going until you get the job done. You probably focus more on the task at hand than on the person doing the task at hand. You just want this task to be complete so you can put on another hat and take care of the next task.

I want you to look around your office and think about the machines your business depends on. Would your business run if you didn't have a computer or a telephone? What happens when something goes wrong with them? Everything stops until you get them fixed so you can get back in business!

Now, think about the ‘machine’ that runs those machines … your body! How well would the computer and telephone work if you were not there to use them, to make decisions about how to use them, to prioritize the work and get new clients and – and – and … ?

As leader of your business, especially as a sole proprietor, your good health becomes vital. When you don’t work, your clients don’t receive what you've promised them, and you don’t get paid.

How can you take better care of your most precious resource and still keep up with the schedule required to keep it all going? How do you take good care of your health?

You've heard it before … exercise, get plenty of rest, drink water, take food supplements, avoid junk food, be happy. Just do it!

Maybe you're like me and you think you're cheating nature because you can stay up all night and drive yourself better than the people around you - maybe you can, and maybe it won't catch up with you. Personally, I found there was a limit to how hard I could push myself without replenishing my resources. I still keep pushing for more achievement, but I’ve included in my list of tasks several items that keep my body healthy and strong, and activities that feed my spirit.

Best wishes,

Marilyn McLeod

http://www.CoachMarilyn.com

Leveraging Intention

In January are you like most people, thinking about your New Year’s resolutions? And are you like most people … by December has even the memory of what your January resolutions were faded?

I make no judgments here. Anytime you take a moment to look at your life and consider what to do in the future, it’s a major win.

It’s too easy to keep moving through life, doing the same thing day after day, using well-worn strategies to avoid the pain of familiar things not working, and letting the years pass as we all grow older. Life is hard enough without stirring things up and making changes. Or so it seems.

We do grow older. Kids learn from what we do more than what we say, so if we’re meeting our problems with angry outbursts, drugs or alcohol, or distancing ourselves from the world, so will they. If we have given up on our dreams, they will not know how to find their own. If we settle for an uninspired life within the confines of what our early conditioning allowed us to explore, the world will never benefit from our true inner gifts, and we will always know we missed the part of life that could have been the most satisfying.

But it’s hard to shake things up. Our schedules are already overflowing. We are already behind in so many important projects. Why add one more thing to the list?

First of all, there are ways to create new habits that don’t take a lot of time, and that can have tremendous payoffs.

Second, it’s worth it to trade in a well-honed habit that takes you somewhere unsatisfying for a new habit that takes you somewhere more fun.

So if I have the intention of making some improvement in my life, how do I get from January’s resolutions to December’s results?

Incorporate Marshall Goldsmith’s advice into your thinking:

“What am I willing to change now? Not in a few months. Not when I get caught up. Now. Then get started on the activity within two weeks, or take it off the list. And quit tormenting yourself!”

Leverage those intentions by creating some simple accountability that will help you stay focused on your goal. The purpose … to help you remember to make a different choice when your old habit is ready to pull you into old results, and to give you a measurement in December so you can see your new results!

Best wishes,

Marilyn McLeod

http://www.CoachMarilyn.com

Celebrity Voice Coach Arthur Samuel Joseph Talks About Image

As I think about my friend Arthur Joseph coming to San Diego this weekend, I remember our past conversations about image.

How important is image to you? My natural style is to prefer function over form, and I have only invested time, attention and resources into my image because I notice how much outward appearances affect first impressions. What else do people have to go on before they've had a chance to know and trust me over time?

The way a person is perceived has something to do with neatness, promptness, and courtesy. It also has to do with inner confidence and posture. Cringing does not inspire customers to buy, and neither does grandiosity. Authenticity communicates most powerfully.

Do you know how you are seen? If you can watch the people around you as they respond to you, you can learn more than you might expect. My first experience with this was as a young member of a corporate team. I was invited to a meeting, and charged with taking notes on the white board.

I’d done my homework and read some books about how to make a presentation. I was dutifully standing with my arms at my side, hands clasped together in front. (Since I've worked with Arthur Joseph, I now know this as the ‘fig leaf’ position … not the most powerful!)

In any case, I was following all of the rules, ready to write the next point on the white board, when I noticed two young men in the back row pointing at me and having a grand old time laughing. It took me a few moments to realize I was holding the marker in a very perky way in my clasped hands in front of me!

Well, I can say I’ve successfully remembered to avoid that ever since! Luckily I always smile as I remember. Feeling ashamed is just debilitating and doesn’t do anyone any good. I simply allow myself to learn.

Another question: Can people tell what you're thinking, even if you don’t say the words? I thought I was safe with my judgments and disdain until a more mature co-worker informed me that it did not matter whether I said the words or not; I was communicating the message loud and clear. As I’ve paid attention over time, I can certainly see how true that is. Again, cultivating authenticity is valuable … even going so far as to give up on the judgment and disdain and have true respect and warm regard for each human being I’m privileged to meet, even if I don’t like what they do or what they are saying.

I’ve learned something very interesting from Arthur Joseph that goes beyond how I hold the marker when I’m in front of an audience. It has to do with what I hide from the world as a matter of course.

Arthur Samuel Joseph, vocal coach to top performers and leaders, encourages his clients to believe in their Self. According to Arthur, the secrets we try to hide from the world are only amplified in our voice and how we present ourselves, and we are much more powerful when we live authentically from the core of who we really are.

I asked Arthur to describe what he meant by the “Self”. He said,

“The deeper Self is who I am. It is connected to the Voice, the inner voice. I coach my clients to always be conscious of Self, though not self conscious. It is a very intimate part of us. I strive to always stay present within my Self to the best of my ability, which I achieve largely through deeper listening.

I speak about the journey always going inward toward discovery of the deeper Self, and never outward toward accomplishment and achievement of goals.

How do I get to deeper listening? Sometimes I begin with conscious-loving breath, because that is my connection, coming and going from one plane to the other, staying in contact with my spiritual self while living out here in this finite plane.

Simply allowing a conscious-loving breath is the connector.

The Self is also the state of being that I strive to always reside in. It is a very present, a very conscious place, but not based on egotism. It is not all about me. It is based in recognition and allowance that it is alright to claim my Self. I do not have to ask permission. I do not have to worry about what you might think of me being this Self.

But at the same time, it is not about the egotistical aspect of that, but the embodiment of it from a mind body spirit construct.”

Arthur Samuel Joseph, Vocal Strategist and Coach
Creator of Vocal Awareness SystemTM
Vocal Power
Voice of a Leader
http://www.vocalawareness.com/

Here's to your authentic image! 

My very best wishes to you as we begin this new year and new decade with the accompanying new challenges.  Let's begin 2010 being respectful of who we truly are, living as close to what matters to us as possible.

Marilyn McLeod
http://www.coachmarilyn.com/