With paper costs projected to rise 25% or so, the increased price of paper could cost your program money. But you have to maintain the quality of your print brochure, and your brochure distribution. Your print brochure generating around 70% of your registrations and income, even with online registration and the digital age.
Here are LERN’s three-part recommendations for what to do right now.
I.Get printing estimates.
Check with your printer and find out how much it would cost to print the same size brochure, same number of pages, same number of copies. That’s your starting point. Now:
Estimates for Fewer Pages.
Ask your printer for additional estimates, one for 4 fewer pages, and one for 8 fewer pages. If you have had a carrier route analysis done by LERN, ask for same number of copies.
Get FREE Carrier Analysis.
IF you have NOT had a carrier route analysis from LERN, get one done – – no cost to LERN members. LERN’s exclusive carrier route analysis can generally cut your brochure distribution by up to 20% without losing registrations, and often gaining registrations and income with our more targeted data.
If you already have had a LERN carrier route analysis, keep mailing or ask for a revised analysis given the current situation. If you have not had a LERN carrier analysis, get one. And with LERN’s recommendations on trimming brochure promotion, then ask your printer for estimates for 10% fewer copies, and 20% fewer copies; for both 4 and 8 fewer pages.
II.Target your brochure distribution.
If your brochure distribution is targeted and efficient, hitting your best possible markets, then your strategy is to keep your press run up and not cut the number of brochures you distribute. Instead, cut 4 or 8 pages from your brochure to save on costs.
If you have not maximized your household mail distribution, and your program is in the U.S., get a free carrier route analysis by LERN. And then we can recommend how to trim your brochure distribution to target and maximize your promotion effectiveness. To be clear:
Keep mailing twice to past participants.
Absolutely positively keep mailing your brochure twice to each past participant and inquiry on your mailing list. This is the most cost effective, biggest ROI, you can possibly make to generate income with the least cost. The second mailing should go out 1-3 weeks after the first mailing. Ideally, the second mailing should go out 4 weeks before the first classes start.
We Repeat: Get a LERN Carrier Route Analysis
If your program is in the United States and you do household mailings, you must get a FREE carrier route analysis done by LERN. This analysis will cut your promotion costs by up to 20% and still maintain or even increase your registrations and income.
Do NOT cut randomly.
Do NOT cut brochure distribution randomly or across-the-board. That will decrease income and registrations needlessly and cost you more in lost revenue than you save in promotion.
III.Cut the number of brochure pages.
You can list the same number of courses and offerings, with almost the same amount of space devoted to each course description, in fewer brochure pages.
It is critical to income generation and registrations to keep course descriptions for all of those courses making you money, including logistics.
Also important are keeping images, registration page, and following the A-I-D-A principle with a high quality cover, generating interest with your Contents page, and encouraging people to register. You can cut the number of pages in your brochure- – without losing brochure quality, registrations or income- – by maximizing the use of brochure space. Here’s how.
1.Make logistics run-on copy.
Eliminate space between course code, day, time, location and price. Do not start a new line for any of the logistics. This wastes valuable space without increasing registrations. Instead, use a comma or semi-colon between course code, day, time, location and price. But do not start a new line or have space between them. This will save lots of space without hurting registrations.
2.Reduce blank white space.
The research is inconclusive as to whether white space increases sales. That means there is no proof white space generates more money. But white space does cost you money.
In these times, fill every page with course descriptions, marketing copy, images, testimonials, calls to register or anything else that might lead to a registration.
3.Get rid of the ‘widows.’
After you get the first draft back from desktopping, look for any words at the end of sentences that are the only word on that line. The rest of the line is white space. The single word on a line is called a ‘widow’ in the printing trade, because it is alone on the line.
Edit your course descriptions down just enough to move that widow to be on the next line up, saving you a whole line of space.
If you eliminate 14 or so widows, you have enough space for a whole additional money making course.
4.Trim course descriptions slightly.
The standard LERN recommendation is for every course to have a 40-120 word course description before counting the words for logistics. The course description is absolutely critical to generating income and registrations. And the instructor’s name, even if people do not know the instructor, is still important.
In these times, you can cut the number of words for a course of average profitability from 120 words to 80 words. Do NOT cut the number of words in your course descriptions below 40 words. That is at the point the print experts say you will lose the reader and hurt registrations.
5.Don’t cut copy and words for high profit courses.
Your high income, high profit courses are generally those with a high price. Don’t cut the course description copy for your most profitable courses. High profit courses, usually priced over $200, should get more space than lower margin courses.
A rule of thumb is 2-3 column inches for higher priced profitable courses. SuperStar hot offerings making the most money and profit for you are worth even more space.
6.Cut more words from descriptions of lower priced courses.
In general, courses priced under $100 are less profitable than your higher priced courses. If a lower priced course is generating big registrations and making big money, don’t cut the number of words in the course description. Leave it just as it is.
But for those other lower margin courses, you can trim the words in the course description to around 60-80 words without losing registrations and income. The rule of thumb is 1- 1.5 column inches of space for the course description of a lower priced course of average profitability.
7.Look at three columns.
For 8.5 inch X 11 inch size print brochures, move from two columns per page to three columns per page. Do a sample desktopping of just one page and see all the space you save.
Setting copy in three columns is also going to save you space with images, icons, subject categories and more.
8.Consider letter size 6X10 size brochure for community programs.
To save money on bulk postage, switch from 8.5 X 11 to 6 X10 for community programs in the United States.
For professional development programs, keep the brochure size at 8.5 X 11 as the image for business and those in the workplace favors the 8.5 X 11 over a smaller size.
9.Use slightly smaller images.
Do not skimp on images, as one image for every one (ideally) to two pages engages the reader and draws the reader to your courses. Two things.
One, make sure you have a 1-2 line caption under every image pointing the reader to a course on that page.
Two, you can reduce the size of images by either having three columns per page, or by wrapping copy around the image. For smaller images, look to less cluttered or complex visual images.
10.Keep that cover high quality.
Do not lower the quality of your images, especially on the cover of the brochure.
11.Consider changing your type font.
Most all sans-serif type fonts not only take up more space, but are less legible to the eye, according to the research. A serif type font, such as Georgian or New Times Roman, will both increase legibility and reduce space in your brochure, especially in the leading. One sans-serif type font that appears to be fine is Calibri.
Run a sample page in your brochure in 2-3 other type fonts and see what the type font, and changing the leading, does to saving space without reducing legibility.
If you have a specific question about your brochure or program, email it to us at [email protected]. There is no charge for answering your questions for LERN members.