Brand Dots

Posts Tagged ‘lead’

Flyers are a popular and effective way to market your company. However, there is a right and wrong way to create and distribute flyers. Over the many years that I worked in the property management industry, after trying countless methods of generating traffic, I found that one of the most successful ways to get prospects in the door was by distributing flyers.

This seems pretty basic and low-tech in today’s society, but it works! Nothing beats pounding the pavement, networking face to face, and getting the word out about your company with a small piece of paper.

I’ve created a list of dos and don’ts to guide you:

Do

• Distribute them in a place that will reach your target market.
• Have them printed professionally to ensure quality.
• Include a special promotion that is advertised on the flyer so you can easily track its effectiveness.
• Be consistent. Use the same theme, colors, and words as the rest of your brand messaging.
• Research your competitors and determine what is working for them.
• Include your phone number and website address.
• Use striking graphics. Use lifestyle photos and realistic images.
• Organize the content with boxes that have contrasting colors.

Don’t

• Include anything that is discriminatory (If advertising housing, fair-housing laws apply. You must advertise all sizes, kinds, and types.)
• Annoy potential clients. Beware of parking lots.  Most people hate getting flyers on their cars so if you must distribute them that way, consider putting a small flyer on the driver-side window, so it’s not as inconvenient and makes a better first impression on the customer.
• Go overboard on the verbiage. Keep the flyer simple. Include the top two to three features/benefits.
• Forget to proofread and double-check to make sure all of the information is accurate before your have them printed.
• Forget to include attention-grabbing headlines.
• Use hokey, cartoon images.

If you’re looking for inspiration and a few tips on how you can get your flyers noticed, check out this link.  UPrinting.com has several really creative designs.  In addition, HP offers some pretty nice templates that you can use if you don’t have a graphic design background and can’t afford to hire someone that does.

Yep, the economy sucks right now and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better any time soon.  Companies are cutting costs any way they can and, unfortunately, most companies cut the marketing budget first.  Right now, decision makers are more worried about the bottom line than investing in the future. 

This puts marketing teams in a tough spot.  Workers are afraid to loose their jobs because of cutbacks and others feel like they are stuck in positions that they hate, afraid to face the unstable job market.  And since companies can’t afford to invest in promotions to attract new customers, their focus is shifting to customer service so they can keep the customers they have.  

How are managers supposed to encourage great customer service, when employee morale is so low?

The solution?  Servant Leadership.  Servant leaders do the following:

•  Devote themselves to serving organization members

•  Focus on meeting the needs of those they lead

•  Develop employees to bring out the best in them

•  Coach others and encourage their self-expression

•  Facilitate personal growth in all who work with them

•  Listen and build a sense of community

The main idea of servant leadership is that leaders serve the staff.  Managers treat their employees how they want the employee, in turn, to treat customers.

One brand that embraces servant leadership is Chick-fil-a.  Their entire company is centered around servant leadership.  Founder, Truett Cathy, has built an empire around “seizing everyday opportunities to help others.”  He leads by example and this is reflected by Chick-fil-a employees.  They have the most cheerful and polite drive-thru operators I’ve ever seen!

As leaders, we have to start focusing on our employees so they are more willing to focus on the customer.   More and more executives are realizing that this is the most successful way to run an organization.  This approach to leading is evident in their brand messaging, employee benefits, and, most importantly, mirrored by the employees that interact with their customers each and every day.  

Servant leadership is the answer!  

Food for thought:   What companies can you think of that use servant leadership?  What leadership qualities do you find important?  In addition to servant leadership, how do you recommend improving employee morale?