While we offer a comprehensive design service backed by our team's many years of experience, we don't mind sharing some the lessons we've learned along the way so you can punch up your own work if you prefer to do it in-house. Also, if you're coming to us with your own designs we'd like them to be as effective as possible so the whole campaign goes well, so that's a nice bonus feature of us giving away our trade secrets!

So, here are three mini lessons in designing print media for marketing:

1. Start at the end. Before anything else, before pen is put to paper or cursor is clicked on Photoshop, you need to know, in a few words, what you're trying to achieve. Are you looking for more website traffic, more views on your YouTube channel, more social media followers, more walk-ins? Are you looking for immediate sales or is this a longer-term promotional exercise? When you know that, and you know the metric you'll use to measure it, you can begin.
    

2. ABC. Always Be Closing. It's the tried and tested mantra of the sales professional from time immemorial. And, don't forget, ultimately the design of your leaflet or flyer is intended to contribute to you hitting your sales targets. It all has to work to that end. So does your design close? Does it lead the reader towards that all-important call to action? Is it reflective of the tastes of your target audience? Are they going to be happy to keep it, to refer to it, to follow its lead? As a good rule of thumb, if you're considering including an element in the design and you can't justify it from a sales point of view, leave it off. Deliver the message, don't distract from it.
    

3. Consistency. This might seem like a simple one, but the goal of keeping your branding and style consistent or, at least, coherent can sometimes fall by the wayside if you're suddenly inspired by new and radical ideas. If you've already built up an audience over time, is a sudden shift of style going to confuse them, maybe losing some of the goodwill you might already have accumulated? Even though this particular campaign may feel like it needs some out-of-the-box thinking, remember that every time you sell anything, you're also selling your brand, so you don't want to undermine that for short-term novelty value.