Case study showing why it is important to ensure that the message on your leaflet matches the message across all of your other media.

We recently distributed leaflets for a client and subsequently found that they had made a basic mistake in the design and/or implementation of their marketing campaign.

The leaflet was well designed, printed on good quality paper and was promoting a good offer.  In addition it was distributed in an area where their ideal customers were likely to live.   All of the boxed were ticked and everything looked good for a successful leaflet distribution.

So what was the problem?

The problem was that the offer that was being  promoted on their leaflet was different (better) to the offer that was being promoted on the front page of their website!  This was made worse by the fact that their leaflet was encouraging people to visit the website to get more information.  This caused confusion and, in some cases, mistrust, in people who visited their website after receiving their leaflet.  It also generated a lot of ‘phone calls querying the discrepancy which caused staff embarrassment, as well as taking up time away from their normal job.

The client eventually changed their website, which was not as easy as it may seem since they had outsourced the management of the site and it took time to communicate the changes to the web developers and for them to then implement them.

After some investigation, it turn out that our client had made a last minute change to the offer on their leaflet but forgot to tell their web developer about the change.

This is a good example of the importance of ensuring that the message your marketing is consistent across all media, including print, web and social media.   If you don’t you risk causing confusion in the mind of the prospective customer at best and at worst losing their trust as they may see the mixed messages as some sort of scam.  This may sound a bit extreme but remember that in today’s environment we are constantly being warned about on-line scams and while this example does not fit that scenario, people have been educated to look out for inconsistencies in what companies say so this sort of inconsistent message could cause problems.

The solution to the issue is simple.  Make sure that you have a very clear strategy with a message that has been agreed in advance and have someone with overall responsibility for implementing the marketing campaign.  Also make sure that you check all artwork, no matter which media it s for before signing it off so that you can be sure that it is consistent.  Finally, make sure that you do a visual check of all of your marketing channels to ensure that they are all the same.