A product has one-twentieth of a second to halt the customer’s attention on a shelf or display.1 That’s a blink of an eye. Research conducted by the secretariat of the Seoul International Color Expo in 2004, documented that 96.6 percent of respondents said visual factors were most important when deciding whether to purchase. Color evokes action.
Colorful Consistency
We’re big fans of consistency. In fact, we urge you to resist trendy fonts, colors, and layouts for your advertising materials. Think about the big brand names in the marketplace. You recognize their logos and advertising styles because they’re consistent. The company may change design elements—photos, banners, call-outs, etc., but their overall color scheme, layout, logo placement, font selection, and slogans—their brand identity—remains unchanged. A University of Loyola, Maryland, study determined that color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent. Color is powerful.
Colorful Conclusions
When you spread out your recent advertising materials on your desk and they don’t look like they all came from the same company, it’s time to talk to us. We can evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your current designs and recommend changes. We’ll create layouts that are flexible enough to accommodate changing messages but build brand identity for you. Doing this also takes the guesswork and cost out of your production process. If color can increase readership by 40 percent, and you bolster that with a consistent layout and branding scheme, you’re on your way to building a powerful, memorable market identity. Color has impact.
1. Color Matters, Jill Morton, 2005.
By Margie Church, Copywriter/Editor
You probably think of your newsletter as a worthy expense, but have you ever thought about generating a return on investment from it? Converting to an electronic newsletter can save money, and perhaps for the first time, generating income. How?
Green:
Be a good steward of our planet's natural resources.
ROI:
Saving printing and mailing costs is an obvious benefit, but there's more. E-newsletters allow you to embed hyperlinks in the copy. Readers can react instantly to your stories by clicking on direct links to pages on your website for more information, loan applications, sign-up for services, etc. Think of the income this could generate and the time it could save members!
Additionally, electronic communications indicate to members that you're efficiently managing your budget—their investments. Use the savings for other projects.
Efficient:
Your newsletter is packaged as a PDF or HTML document, whichever you prefer, and posted on your website. Delivery is instantaneous. Members read at their convenience and don't clutter their homes with paper copies.
Use a statement stuffer to alert members of your newsletter's availability. Create a banner or announcement on your home page with a hyperlink to the current issue. Add “newsletter available” to your customer electronic alerts. Create a library of previous issues for members' reference.
Electronic:
Have you ever wanted to add another page, but didn't because of the additional production, printing, and postage costs? If you're using electronic delivery, e-newsletters let you add pages with usually nominal production and copywriting charges.
Readers also have the ability to forward your newsletter with a click of the button, broadening your message exposure with no extra cost. Think of this as a personal endorsement. Forwards can increase membership and the success of whatever you're promoting.
Newsletter:
We'd like to hear what works in your newsletters and what your challenges are. How do your members react to your newsletter? If you had your druthers, what would your newsletter be like?
We look forward to hearing from you and perhaps even working together.
