Local Advertising, leaflets and ideas

[Justin]

My intention is to officially launch my business in 2012. I've never been a great fan of leaflet drops but Shetland is a very different place in terms of advertising, community etc. The local newspaper has the best coverage along with radio but both are expensive and arguably effective.

My plan was to get a leaflet made to inform local companies of my existence. I have no idea where to start with this. I have a design team I can call on but thought I'd throw it out to the forum and see if anyone already has anything/any ideas. I'll probably follow this up with a newspaper ad. Once the words around I shouldn't need to do much advertising, word of mouth up here is phenomenal....this can be good and bad!

I'm also looking at another website. I have one from my last business still in operation. This could be adapted but is only based on a basic standard site, perfect for previous use which was pre-printed designs etc. but I now need to look towards a site where the customer can upload their own photo/design and ideally see this on the chosen item. I know we've discussed such sites on the forum before but does anyone know of any current solutions to this?

So, wondering if anyone has any advice on a marketing strategy, leaflet/website design etc?

[Ian M]

As for getting your leaflets out there you can try a few different methods. If you have a local chamber of commerce always a good idea to talk to them to see what help they can offer start up businesses. I've noticed a few leaflets coming through my letter box with the morning paper these days. The local newsagent has charged a small sum to companies wanting these delivering & a cheaper way than say the post office doing it.

There are various cheap ways you can market yourself as the aim is to get your business known & noticed. One way is using some of your products as prizes say at a local school event or maybe some kind of show or community event where people attend. Sometimes it's worth looking at any reciprical type of deals such as dicounts for free adverts etc. Sometimes if you do offer something as a prize on a regular basis the local newspaper wants a story about you & your business as a local interest story & a lot of times local radio pick up on what they read in the local papers.

A local photographers I do work for set up a Facebook group for the business & they add as many people they can to it mostly in the locale. Now they list any special deals they have going & also keep reminding people what they do. It does seem to be working for them but, does take a little time to build the group up at the start.

I'll leave the website & desighn to those who know better. Hope it helps a bit.

[Justin]

Appreciate your input Ian :-) Some good ideas there that I'll take on-board ;-)

[Paul]

well great post Ian! some good ideas there to pick up ;)

[Ian M]

Thanks Justin. I had to be good at marketing myself years ago to find sponsors for the rallying. Some of the things I had to do back then well I cringe at some of them now.

[Ian M]

well great post Ian! some good ideas there to pick up ;)

Thanks Paul.

[sarahjayne]

I live in a rural town and the main " local " supermarket has agreed to let me leave flyers at the end of their checkouts once I am up and running properly. I'm also going to target my daughters schools with a reciprocal advertising idea - they would use sports awards and as kids love photos of themselves on anything it seemes like a good idea. Another idea was to approach other small business that would attract my target demograph as customers and offer them a commission for sales - for example for christening, baby, communion and wedding gifts I'd make a tri fold brochure for hairdressers, beauticians, creches etc - with more busier places also being given display samples. When people are waiting they can have a look at your products and fill in an order form (and pay of course ;-)
And I was in a restaurant in Kildare yesterday and they had A4 posters up for someone doing personalised football gifts with a FB link (as an aside - he had premier club logos on his advertising which I thought was a strict no-no), I think in today's economy people are very willing to advertise local grassroots business.
Word of mouth is priceless though.

[Ian M]

Some brilliant ideas there Sarahjayne & thanks for sharing them.

[Justin]

Anyone have flyers/leaflets already and would be willing to show us?

[Ian M]

Anyone have flyers/leaflets already and would be willing to show us?

Something like this Justin.

[Justin]

Cheers Ian, just trying to get some darned inspiration! Before I go and get someone else to design it! :-)

[Ian M]

Justin, didn't Xpres have something from their marketing department that can be over printed? Might be a good source for some inspiration.

[Mattie]

This was the back of my last flyer i designed and had printed, can't find the front design but it was just logo and shop details etc.

[ASLCreative]

I always find marketing is the hardest part of any business.

What I have learnt in the past is:

You MUST have AIDCA.

Attention - grab the reader's attention, normally with a good headline.
Interest - get the reader interested in your product, features of the product.
Desire - make the person really want it. (People often want things if they think other people they respect or look up to have them already - hence film stars and footballers get paid a fortune for being associated with a brand).
Conviction - reassure the reader about your company and product - use customer testimonials.
Action - ask for the order or tell the reader how they can order - use a time limit to create a matter of urgency or offer an incentive to order there and then (first 20 people to use this code will get 10% off the retail value).

LISTS
Customer lists are very important, ensure you keep in contact with your customers.

FACEBOOK
Facebook is great for getting new customers if used correctly. Where else have you the chance to obtain access to your customer's friends. Plus you can get your customer to tell all their friends about your products - personal recommendations are regarded highly by people.

[Justin]

Brilliant advice there, many thanks, thanks also to other responses, some good food for thought :-)

[Sedg]

Hi - I always use print24 when it comes to getting the final design printed - in September I had 7500, DL size, 135 gsm, one-side, glossy paper, delivered for £50.57 - I really don't know how they do it, given that it's shipped from Germany.

http://print24.com/uk/?sid=4ee109fcae86d36a3dd55b922864c5a2

[printchesco]

Perhaps you can try coordinating your online and offline marketing schemes so that they would complement each other and fill up the gaps left by the other. If you can, have a professional make the necessary changes and upgrades to your site, and then spread the word both through social media marketing and through your leaflets.

[Charlie_]

I'm new here, but a veteran at marketing. I can only say what I have found over the years in a different nitche.

Flyers....I have had many designs over the years, but only one worked cost effectivly, that was one that I carefully targeted at the target audience I wanted to grab the attention of. I did this by actually giving away product to world champions then had pictures of them using it on the front of the flyers, and ordering details on the back, this produced a conversion rate of just under 1% by far my best ever return on flyers.

Local/national papers...... People do still look at articles and eye catching adds, I have used this a few times, but on each add I use a different offer, so as to judge the respones.

Word of mouth........ This is worth a million flyers/adds, I get 60-70% of business by this method.

My list........... this is a list of all buyers going back years, I keep in regular contact with all customers from the last 10 years plus by way of a news letter (far cheaper now 98%ish are on email) from this I get 20-25% repeat business, and every one on this list is a happy past customer who bought from me. Hence I want to get into mugs just to give each one a mug with my details on so its a constant reminder of me and my business.

I hope I havnt waffled on to long here, and I can't say they will work within this nitche but they work in 100's of others.

Charlie

[WorthDoingRight]

I have found that a number of companies deliver a large number of flyers through your door. For example locally we get a lot of estate agency flyers and the usual wad of fast food takeaways. I was therefore able to find a guy that delivers all the estate agent leaflets locally and he charges a very reasonable rate for delivering other leaflets at the same time. So might be worth finding out if someone is already doing this and see if you can 'piggy back' your leaflet delivery with the other leaflets. Also some newsagents will let you put up a postcard sized flyer for a small sum per week on their windows.

[Charlie_]

Now the ad in a shop window is a cheap and quite effective short term way of getting your name out there. But how effective it would be can only be found out by trying it. For my other (main business) it wouldnt be worthwhile, as it is a quite small but mony spending nitche.

[mrs maggot]

i get at least 5 leaftlets a week "bulk delivered" and luckily using the "stuff it all through at the same time" method, i can easily pick it all up and pop it in the bin :wink::wink:

[Charlie_]

See what i mean about leaflets!.....

[WorthDoingRight]

i get at least 5 leaftlets a week "bulk delivered" and luckily using the "stuff it all through at the same time" method, i can easily pick it all up and pop it in the bin :wink::wink:

Yes, but don't you at least glance at it? Surely you dont just bin it all without a second glance?

[Charlie_]

I never look at them, in fact niether does my wife. In fact by my grown up daughters moan about them, they even moan about these charity collection bags that seem to all the fashion, they to get binned without looking at.

[mrs maggot]

nope i bin them all, the charity bags get recycled as bin bags in the office, i never ever look at them, years ago i did, but now there are just soooooo many of them,

[Charlie_]

I actually use the charity bags for putting shredded paper in. mind here now the dustman wont take that for recycling.

[mrs maggot]

charlie if you have shredded paper a lot of the animal charities will take it for bedding - just a thought

[Charlie_]

good point Mrs Maggot, never thought of them, at leasr 2-3 big bags full a week. Will have a ring round them......................

[Timothy]

I am agree with above posts, i have seen solid points. Leaflets and brochure are common ways to advertise. But there are many other ways to advertise your business like, SMS marketing, social book marking, E-mail marketing. These are cheapest way to advertise your business/brand or product etc. These are direct advertising techniques.

[socialgiraffe]

With direct marketing like a leaflet drop, as Charlie_ says, 1% return is actually a very good return for this method. But you also need to make sure you target your audience at the right time. For example it would be no good sending a leaflet in January with pictures of Santa Claus. You would be better to take a few shots of some valentine type products and then get it dropped end of Jan/ beginning of Feb.

Ask people to like your FB page to get a 10% discount is a good way of building friends who you can then target with special offers when you want (i.e. mothers day etc etc). I can not remember who it was on here but someone recently went on a FB marketing conference and they said they got a heck of a lot from it. If you are thinking this is the route to go (which IMHO it is once you have the name out there by more traditional methods) it would be worth you attending one of these sessions.

Also, tie ins with local media are a good thing. Local Radio often have something along the lines of office of the week. You could sponsor this by giving 6 mugs with the company logo on there or even the radio station logo. Sounds like a lot to give away, but then once you have given them 6 logo printed mugs they are very unlikely to go anywhere else for mugs. Hopefully if they see the first 6 they will want another few straight away.

You could sponsor a best baby picture sort of thing in the local paper. People submit their favourite photos and one person wins a free mug. This would be good as long as you get the names and email addresses of all the entrants.

Just a few ideas Justin. If you need help with the flyer then PM me with some copy and ideas and I am sure I can help.

[BruisJem]

Yes, There are many different Google local advertising promotion choices, it just relies on you what is going to work the best for you and most successfully help your seo. These days there are many smart methods that you can promote with the world wide web.

[Justin]

Digging up some old threads here without adding much useful info, I do hope you're going to start contributing :-)

[Ian M]

Digging up some old threads here without adding much useful info, I do hope you're going to start contributing :-)

Justin, guess who it is under another name. I think we need to say bye bye to him again.

[Tania]

Anyone have flyers/leaflets already and would be willing to show us?

1610

I use cartoons for all of my marketing and it works. My main website is full of cartoons and we have a big following on Facebook. I put leaflets everywhere, shops, vets and take them to shows.