How Effective are Posted Flyers for Early Small Business Marketing?

Marketing has always been a crucial aspect of any business, small or medium. Many professional enterprises are increasingly turning to the digital space for promoting their brands. However, this has, by no means, affected promotion with the help of flyers. Using flyers to get the message out to your consumers may be traditional, but it still works very well.

Online and social media promotion may be rampant and you may have people who say that you need to get acquainted with the best practices of the era. But you cannot simply ignore the power of flyers.

To emphasise more on this, let's take an example. Let's say that you receive a flyer handout. What are the first thoughts that come to your mind? You would want to read it.

So, there's no doubt that this old school marketing method still works. More so if you are a small business or start-up organisation. But with digital marketing rapidly picking up, there is always that question lingering around us. Do flyers still work?

So, why don't we try to answer this question by considering their advantages?

Cost-Effectiveness

With flyer advertising, you don't have to spend much on your marketing efforts. You can ask for a flyer designing service to prep your promotional material at nominal costs. Professionals can do a great job. But, of course, at a price.

Even then, you won't be paying as much as what you would for, say paid digital campaigns or even those advertising billboards. Moreover, professionals having experience designing and printing flyers will do the job in an hour at the most. That's quick, considering the amount of time you may need to spend on other types of advertising.

Demographics, Psychographics, and Geo-Targeting

The second thing that you can do with the help of flyers is to reach a broader audience in terms of demographics, psychographics, and geography. For instance, on a demographic level, you can hand out flyers to people of any age and gender, and even those with any level of education, income, and experience.

Similarly, on the psychographic front, you can design your flyers depending on your target audience's hobbies, interests, and desires.

Using flyers, you can also acquire customers within a specific geographical area. If you are a local business, then flyer advertising will help you gain customers from where you operate.

Another advantage of promoting your business or start-up with flyer advertising is that you can hand them out to anyone. You can leave them on the front door of the houses in your neighbourhood, or you can even head over to your local park or other such public places to let people know about your brands, products, or services.

Creativity and Tangibility

One of the most significant advantages of flyer marketing is that it is tangible, meaning you can physically hand out flyers to your customers. By filling them with content that has a more significant impact, you can get more people to be interested in your business.

You could also offer attractive incentives during the promotion. The incentives could be anything, including coupon codes or gift vouchers that you can include in the flyers themselves.

That way, when your customers look at the flyers, they will come seeking your products merely for those discounts or promotional offers. Moreover, by including such deals, what you are doing is that you are creating a ripple effect. To know how it works, let's take an example.

Let's suppose one of your customers comes across your fliers where they happen to notice the discounts you offer on your products or services. Now, this customer will tell their friends about the offer, who, in turn, will tell their friends. Likewise, many people will get to know about your brands, products, or services.

So when you organise a promotional event, you will have all those present who have heard about your business through the flyers you handed out to them.

The Message

It isn't enough if your flyer is creative and tangible. You also need to include a strong message that can get your target audience to take action. For this, you should do market research to know about certain aspects of your target audience. They include:

1. Location

You must know where your target audience resides. And then think about such a message to include that has a substantial impact. You can then choose your wording and method of distribution accordingly.

2. Interests and Needs

The other things that you should consider when you write your message are the interests and needs of your target audience. For this, you should do some research to know what the people who you think may be interested in your products prefer. Check if your products or services offer what your customers want. If not, then think about how strong a message you can include in your flyers so that it has a profound impact.

The message that goes into your flyer promotional material can bring you more customers, provided you get the content right. However, it can do the exact opposite and drive them away if it has the wrong message. So, tailor the content that goes into the message you want to deliver to your target audience to get the results you want.

Small Details

The layout, imagery, and colours that go into making your flyers can go a long way in making that first impression. So, make sure that your flyer has the right balance of colour, imagery and contrast for a more significant visual impact.

Also, don't forget to use that perfect blend of image and text. Almost half of your target audience would have visual learners. So, by using pictures and graphics, not only will you make your flyer visually appealing, but will also enable your target audience to get to know your intentions quickly.

As a general thumb rule, your flyer must include these details.

1. The Layout

The message that you include in your flyer should have a flow, where the headlines appear more prominent throughout the content.

2. Colours

You should include the colours in your flyers that align with your brand. However, it would help if you also tried to make them as striking as possible.

3. The Font

The font that goes into the message you want to get across must align with your promotional intent. But in general, you should focus on using bold and legible fonts that are eye-catching and easy to read.

4. Images

Your flyer promotional material should also include images, preferably those of your brands or products. So, don't forget to include pictures of your brands or products in your flyers, as they can have a more significant impact than words.

5. Essential Information

One of the most important details you should include in your flyer promotional material is your contact details. Your contact details include everything, ranging from your business address to your phone numbers to Email IDs and social media accounts.

If you plan to host a promotional or launch event, mention the date and time and the venue. You could also include other information, such as the specifications of the product you are about to launch, its pricing and any discounts that you are offering.

Conclusion

You can measure your flyer advertising campaign's performance, depending on the plan, the design, and the distribution method. Your flyer marketing plan should essentially begin from sound research about your target audience and its needs and preferences. When designing the flyer, you should also think about what you intend to do with it.

That is, whether you want to present a solution to a problem that your target audience is facing or that you want to offer an existing product or service at a discount.

Only after you identify the goal of your flyer advertising campaign should you proceed to the designing stage.

Remember that flyers are exceptional advertising tools that, if you effectively use will get you more customers. So, make sure that you plan and distribute them wisely and see the results for yourself.

Also read:

What are the keys to success when operating a small scale business?
Is Market Research Useful for a Small Business?
Top-20 small-scale businesses you should take a look at!
Why do so many small businesses fail?

FAQs

Q. To Whom Should I Hand Out My Flyers?

Ans: Before you hand out your flyers to anybody, you think o will use the product or services you offer. Alternatively, you can also hand out flyers to people within a certain radius from where your business operates, and gradually expand your campaign depending on the responses.

Q. How to Spell 'Flyers' or 'Fliers?'

Ans: Both the spellings are acceptable as far as the English language is concerned. However, you must always use the plural version, 'flyers,' most commonly associated with the word.

Q. Can I Track the Performance of my Flyer Marketing Campaign?

Ans: Yes. Various metrics and technologies are using which you can track the performance of your flyer marketing campaign.