Over the past two weeks, St Paul’s has had a poster campaign running at Morayfield Shopping Centre. We used the same posters that we had up over the Christmas period last year – and I’d like to credit the record number of enrolments the school received, to these posters. Well… it may not have been to these exclusively, but nevertheless…!
And last week, I was inspired by @connectyou‘s post on the new Covers for the Facebook Page Timelines – to be rolled out on the 30 March, but which are able to be ‘published’ beforehand. So yesterday, I got busy. Evidenced by three cover photos. Check them out!
This week has been quite a huge one. Not only did the St Paul’s poster campaign finish at Morayfield Shopping Centre, we also ran our flyer campaign through the Australia Post, to several thousand homes in and around the Caboolture area. Unfortunately, non-stop rain – and at times the odd storm or two – prevented the brick wall at the front of the school from being painted, so even though the 3D signage was manufactured and ready for installation on Friday, unfortunately that’ll have to wait until the weather clears. Meaning that it won’t be installed before children return next week. Oh well. Can’t win them all. Friday also saw several last-minute phone calls organising a newspaper ad campaign in two of the local newspapers, so that’ll be some designing work to get stuck into, this weekend!
At St James in Hervey Bay students return on the 30th, so that leaves one more week for the newspaper enrolment campaign, which commenced last week, to take effect. Even so, there’s been quite a surprising amount of activity on the College’s facebok page, considering the term hasn’t yet commenced. But it’s great to see a school community so involved in engaging with their school through social media.
I was looking at Bushwacker EcoTour’s latest A4 trifold brochure yesterday, and noticed it sported a QR code. Interested to discovered what it linked to, I tried scanning it. To no avail. The QR code wouldn’t scan, leading me to believe that 1) it was too small, 2) the person who created the brochure should have checked it prior to printing, and 3) however many copies of the brochure they had printed, they printed that many too many. Because each one tells their customers that 1) their QR code is too small, and 2) their work wasn’t proofed prior to printing – possibly insinuating that the quality of their work isn’t that great, too!
I need to make a confession here – I am guilty of exactly this mistake. A QR Code made it through the printing process, and was too small to scan. Luckily, it was only 200 copies of a mailout letter. Also luckily, it wasn’t for a client, but my own (Bloxham Marketing) promotional material. Silly me, I still used them. And regretted afterwards the impression that I had given, to those who I had sent the material to. In my defense, it was the first time I had used QR codes. Nevertheless, it was a lesson I quickly learned – to check, check, and check again!
This morning I read an interesting blog post. In it, serial entrepreneur Marcia Kilgore commented, “If you don’t have 100 percent confidence in your product, it’s better to miss a deadline than to own 20,000 of something that isn’t quite right.” How true is this! I regretted those 200 letters. I wonder how many copies of their A4 trifold Bushwacker EcoTours printed and distributed?
My work today revolved around the opposite ends of the promotional material spectrum. On the “small” side, postcards, and the finalisation of a mailing list of potential customers for same, comprised my morning hours, whereas contacting signwriters and organising meetings to get quotes for the “large” brick wall sign for St Paul’s Lutheran Primary at Caboolture, and even “larger” billboard for St James at Hervey Bay, filled my afternoon ones.
And I found myself pondering the thought processes of the owners of the businesses who would miss out on the work due to their Christmas holiday period of ‘not answering calls’, extending to next week – or even the week after. Is it that those businesses don’t need the money? That they’re not ‘hungry’ for whatever business they can get? Or that they haven’t left a process in place where they CAN be contacted, so that they don’t miss out on the work?
Sometimes it’s good to learn from the mistakes of others…
Each Friday by midday, I submit a ‘weekly update’ to local newspapers. Each is a 200-odd word article, with photo, on a newsworthy event that has happened in the life of the client each week. Sometimes the paper/s run with it, sometimes they don’t. But you gotta love it when it happens! So thanks, Glasshouse Country News, for your 30 November publication of my St Paul’s story last week!
Also, I’ve been invited to a Casino Christmas party. Never been to one of those before! And it’s also the first time I’ve received an invitation the Sunshine Coast Daily, as one of their “valued partners”. (Early this year, Peter Slipper MP and his wife Inge, invited me to a cocktail evening where the Hon Bronwyn Bishop was the guest of honour, however other commitments meant I had to decline.)
So. What to wear? The perennial question. And do I gamble? Your thoughts?
So today began with taking photos. Lots and lots of photos. The principal of St Paul’s is keen to rework the huge brick ‘wall’ out the front of the school, that displays the school (and church) name. So that means research, and that means photos. Photos of signs he likes, photos of signs I like, and photos of anything which gives me ideas. Stay posted – I promise I’ll post a photo of the completed sign when it’s done! The aim is to have it completed over the holidays, so that when parents arrive back next year, it’ll look fantabulous. Well, that’s what I’m aiming for, at any rate!
Also on the cards was sorting out who owns the signs in the entryway from the southern-most car park at Morayfield Shopping Centre, as we’d (well, St Paul’s would, at my recommendation) like to advertise there. Trouble is, AdShel say they belong to Ooh! Media, and Ooh! Media say they belong to AdShel. So a visit to the site was in order, with the result that I’ll need to add AdShel to my list of people to call.
Home again, I got busy correcting the proof of the St James ad that The Hervey Bay Independent had sent through, ready for next week’s issue, then I uploaded their 30 second TV ad onto the YouTube channel I set up for them.
Finally, it was a case of promote it on facebook, respond to some emails and some comments on goodoldtalk.com, and call it quits for the day. Oh – after blogging, of course! And now to a lovely evening and weekend of pouring over the St Paul’s Yearbook proof that arrived today…
As I write, today has so far been all about emailing. I decided to jump the gun and switch across to the ‘new look’ for my main gmail account; and while I was at it, sync my 3 accounts into one, with the idea of saving time in the future. I’d also like to retrieve the email from my non-gmail email account that’s been playing up significantly over the last couple of months, but that wasn’t a possibility today.
Another interesting discovery I made today regards Australia Post. I am in the process of organising a DL advertisement to be delivered to certain suburbs in St Paul’s catchment area, and whilst organising the booking of said deliveries, was informed that 1) from booking day to delivery day takes around three weeks, meaning that had I booked today, delivery would be December 15 at the earliest, and 2) every year on December 1, Australia Post increases its prices from 15.5 cents per flyer to around double that amount. Rather interesting information! Suffice it to say, we’re now planning on booking a Jan 16 delivery day. So our DL’s will then arrive in people’s mailboxes the day after our signs come down from their AdShel spots in Morayfield Shopping Centre, where they will have been for a month. Pretty cool!
Later today I’ll finalisng the Weekly Updates for tomorrow’s midday deadline, and also talking billboards and Open Days in Hervey Bay. Oh – and discussing the potential inherent in QR Codes too, of course…
I would love to help you with the marketing needs of your business. I am contactable by phone: 0407 673 115 or via email: k.ridwyn@gmail.com
-- and I look forward to hearing from you! Ceridwyn
