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What type of flyer works !!!!!

Posted by dave (dave), 23 November 2003
Hello all,

I'm looking to draft up a flyer that works and brings in the business and I need help.

                             WHAT WORKS?

I have had printed up a leaflet style with lots of information, looks very nice, delivered them, no replies!

What works for you?

What about local newspaper advertising, does that work?

Your help and experience will be much appreciated.

Regards Dave
Posted by ALEXDH (ALEXDH), 23 November 2003
Hi Dave

I would have look in depth on the CC forum there has been a lot of talk on advertising.

I am looking at flyers myself at the minute , just starting the next couple of weeks.

What I have learned so far is look quality don't offer too many freebys ,it makes you look less proffesional offering the earth for a few quid.

By all means though ignore my opinions as i have very little experiance.

Best of luck

Alex




Posted by A_to_Z_Clean (A_to_Z_Clean), 24 November 2003
Grin
It is a tricky ONe. Tongue
How the flayer look is important but most important is how many of them you will put in 1 area?
If you do 4000 having 4 calls is good( 1% ) Yellow pages is claiming they have 2-3% but this is bull......

So, you see put 40000 a month and 16 calls  Grin Grin

But on another hand you newer know. Last time i done 100 flayers in 25 minutes and have 2 jobs 200£ ich Grin Grin Grin

Target your area, put something different on your flayer etc.

Adam
AtoZ Clean

Posted by Ian_G. (Ian_G.), 24 November 2003
The trouble with all forms of marketing is some times it works somtimes it does not. But YOU KEEP GOING.

However try to find some good flyers and copy them.

Selclene have one that works

A lot of the Carpet and Window Cleaners have good ones
Posted by dave (dave), 25 November 2003
OK, Thanks for those replies.

Now, do I draft up a flyer which is going to involve a lot of expense of printing or shall I try out a local newspaper advert.

* If I deliver flyers, I can only target a small area. I have the cost of printing, fuel costs and time.

* If I have a one off newspaper advert I will cover my whole target area.

The thing is, I placed a very small advert for staff in the local paper and I was surprised the amount of people told me they saw the advert. so it amy work with a proper advert cost approx £75.00

Its not that I'm lazy, but I feel flyers could be just as expensive for very little response.

Let me know what you think

Regards Dave
Posted by A_to_Z_Clean (A_to_Z_Clean), 25 November 2003
Grin
You can put flayers in whole London if you like.
Adwert in a paper about cleaning is not a best  because :
1. it will be small size( or maybe you have 500-600 £ for 1/8 ofA4 page)
2. if advert is palced in free paper, how many people will see him?
3.You will don't know the area the caling form( cost of going to work-travel)

I'm using flayes all the time , weekly i try to put 1500-2000 of 1/8a4 page size, both sides printed.

Like i seed before they do work on they don't Grin Grin
Regards
Adam
AtoZ CLean

Posted by Ian_G. (Ian_G.), 26 November 2003
Ive put adverts in papers display type and returned zilch
Classifieds usually pay for themselves and give you flyers credibility.

If money is tight do flyers. If you are working all week pay someone to put them out if not do it yourself untill you have no time to put flyers out.

Hard yes.

Regards

ian
Posted by Ian_G. (Ian_G.), 26 November 2003
Acording to a leading Franchise what you get besides training equipment etc is 35K of flyers distributed in your Franchise area to launch your business.

Plus Cant remember number of letters to A and B type households.


Posted by Scots_cleaner (Scots_cleaner), 28 November 2003
Smiley
First of all put a free phone number on it with a business address. ( at the bottom).

Then put all the relevent information that you think customers require to make them informed as much as posible so that when they phone all they want to do is book your service.
Posted by karen (karen), 5 January 2004
Hi Dave,

I tried flyers when I first started and I had a few replies. It does not have to be expensive, I did mine myself on the computer.

I targeted two industrial estates to start with, just to see what response I would get. I picked up a few customers from it.

Good luck!!

Karen  
Posted by denzle (denzle), 5 January 2004
From what i have read on the subject of flyers i believe that you should not put too much information on them i.e Just put what it is you do, company name and phone number. People cannot be bothered to digest too much information and bin them without reading. I have found that the following works for me fairly well
Premier Window Cleaners

Work in this area every month, for a free quotation
Tel: 01234567890

If you get a 3% take up you are doing well.
Hope this Helps
Denzle
Posted by STEVE71163 (Steve Lowe), 5 January 2004
I agree with Denzle on this, I have put out thousands of leaflets over the years and i would say keep it simple but make sure you have your address as well as people like to know where you come from.

Steve
Posted by RAINBOW69 (CATMAN), 5 January 2004
Dave,

Flyers are better as you can target your market much better.

I wouldn't recommend newspapers. From experience I have found that if there are five adverts, the customer is always looking for the cheapest, and even if you go and quote you soon realise that the people who  you are quoting for are not your target customer,  they want cheap. One man & a Vax in the back of a cortina. Also when a  marketing company sees your advert, they are on the phone, trying to sell you space in the latest calender, wall chart, mag, small sized credit card. The list is endless, getting the b*st*rds off your phone is like trying to get sh*t off a blanket  The only one who makes any money is the rep at the newspaper, begging for your column inches.

There is a bloke in my area who has been going for 25 years, he does a full half page advert in yellow pages, must be doing it for him as he has got 11 vans on the road.

Catman







Posted by denzle (denzle), 5 January 2004
Yellow Pages work well for me and do bring in some good quality work, you do get all manner of companies ringing you though trying to get you to advertise with them. There is a call preferencial service you can subscribe to free, that should stop these people ringing you.
By far my best form advertising are my vehicle's. I have them well signed up and they bring in loads of work.
Needless to say you need to do a good job everytime and that brings in the very best advert you can get.... word of mouth recommendation
Denzle
Posted by STEVE71163 (Steve Lowe), 6 January 2004
Hi Denzle,
              Do you do your flyers on your pc and then photocopy for window cleaning Huh

Steve
Posted by denzle (denzle), 6 January 2004
I do all of it on my pc, although it has been a while since i did a flyer drop. I can get 3 flyers per A4 and the great thing is that you can constantly alter them to suit the market you are after. If you get printed ones you are lumbered with them if the don't work.
Denzle
Posted by STEVE71163 (Steve Lowe), 6 January 2004
Hi Denzle,
              Do you use Microsoft Publisher Huh

Steve
Posted by Kevin_Whitlow (Pepe Le Pew), 7 January 2004
WinkIf you try and attract everyone,you will attract no-one.
Try and personalize your flyer, people want to do business with people they know and can trust,which means it is much better to target the same 500 prospects 10 times than 5000 prospects one time, your response rate will increase.
If you have to put out flyers dont forget people listen to the same music station- WIFM radio,thats Whats Innit For Me.Talk about benefits,benefits and more benefits.You don`t have to be Eistein to target 500 mums who might need a little help-they never take the baby seat out of the car these days.  
Don`t forget you have to monitor results and if one flyer doesn`t work, don`t give up, keep lists of your target market and target them
Whatever you do (unless your incredibly rich already!)is subscibe to the "I`ve got to tell everybody about my business as soon as I possibly can mentality" it doesn`t work,and gets very expensive.
Coca Cola,MacDonalds and the like have marketing budgets to run fancy ads on T.V and newspaper adverts,yellow page ads etc etc.
I suggest that 99% of businesses in the U.K throw money down the drain they can ill afford on this kind of advertising because they are told by a rep get an advert,build a web site blah de blah,been there done that,got the tee-shirt!
The best form of advert for any business is personal recommendation full stop.Talk to existing customers, they are more than happy to help you build your business if you do good work but you have to ask for their help! I`d rather give a free whatever to a customer who is already spending money with me for a referral than someone looking for a one off cheap shot,trust me you do not want this kind of customer.
Never give incredible discounts to attract customers you are digging a big hole for yourself.You can go bust just sitting at home, why chase your *** for 60,80 hours a week to go bust in 2,3 years?
Old Chinese proverb say:-
Cheap things have no value
Valuable things are not cheap
 UndecidedRant over

Posted by denzle (denzle), 7 January 2004
Well said Pepe..... good sentiments
Denzle
Posted by denzle (denzle), 7 January 2004
Steve,
Yes i do use Microsoft Publisher, but for Flyers i tend to use Word.
I just adjust all the margins so i can get 3 flyers per A4 sheet.
I shy away from silly clipart and keep it simple, just company name, the fact that we work that area monthly, free quotes and contact numbers.

Denzle
Posted by STEVE71163 (Steve Lowe), 7 January 2004
Hi Denzle,
              Thanks for that. I am putting some together over the next few days so i will give word a go instead of Publisher.

Steve
Posted by dave (dave), 10 January 2004
OK Guys,

Thanks for all the comments and advice, I've decided to print flyers off my computer.

I managed to scrounge four packs of A4 card off a friend who works in an office and a large paper cutter. I can get two flyers off an A4 card, then cut them into shape with the machine.

I took into account newspaper advertising and decided that as we are stretched to the limit at the momement, we would'nt be able to cope with a surge in new clients and having to find extra staff.

Therefore, with the flyers I can target the type of clients I want.

Regards Dave


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