Ten Tips for Fruitful Flyers

If you’ve ever been outside your house, you’ve seen a flyer. They’re old, they’re trusted, and they’re everywhere.

First used in the United States to alert colonists of the injustices of the British Stamp Act, flyers are now an integral part of American life and can be seen in grocery stores, Laundromats, and libraries around the country. They are relatively inexpensive to produce and distribute, and thus are a great way to catch the eyes of potential customers.

Take a look at these 10 ways to promote your small business using flyers. It’s a longer post, but they’re bite-size chunks!

1. Find Your Customers – In order for your flyers to have maximum impact, you need to post them in the places that your customers frequent. For example, if you run a business fixing car engines, post your flyers in a hardware store or auto parts shop.
2. Make it Pop – Your flyers will inevitably be competing with dozens of other flyers on community message boards, bulletin boards, and walls. Make sure you create a piece that stands out. If possible, scope out the competition first by looking at the flyers that are already posted around your area. Generally, you want bold type, colors that are eye-catching but not glaring, and enough negative space to make it easy to read at a glance.
3. Include A Question – Rarely will someone glance at a flyer, see the name of a business, and immediately decide to become a customer. Consumers’ minds are busy, and they often don’t take the time to make mental connections between their needs and what they’re seeing. You need to shortcut this mental process by forcing them to think about your business. Questions like “When’s the last time you had your gutters cleaned?” or “Don’t you think it’s time to be rewarded?” make the customer think about their life, and hopefully take a closer look at your business.
4. Explore All Avenues – While it is important to follow tip #1 and seek out your customers, you should also make sure to make your business as visible as possible. Place your flyers on community boards at the grocery store, gym, library, local college, ice cream parlor, coffee shop, hair salon, and wherever else you think makes sense. A person may see your flyer several times before he or she actually reads it, and several more times before that reading turns to action.
5. Use Flyers as Inserts – If you have a storefront, consider stapling a copy of your flyer to every customer’s receipt. This would work well if you mentioned an upcoming sale in the flyer. If you send your products through the mail, include a flyer along with the purchase. If you’re giving out samples in bags, do the same. These people are already your customers, and this will reinforce their loyalty.
6. Pound the Pavement – In addition to hanging flyers up in all the right places, go to your local mall or shopping center and hand them out in person (check with officials first, some areas have ordinances against direct leafleting). A customer is much more likely to remember a flyer given to them with a smile and a kind word than one stuck on a board.
7. Go Digital – If your company can support the content, consider putting a QR code on your flyers. Customers can take a photo of the code with their smartphones and receive more information, photos, and videos about your business. These interactive flyers are great for customers who are with your flyers for a short time in an enclosed space, such as a bus or train.
8. Less is More – No one likes a litterer. Make sure your flyers are securely fastened in their places so they don’t fall. The image of your business will nosedive if your flyers are blowing around a parking lot like tumbleweeds.
9. Be Creative – Having said that, sometimes you can have fun with flyers. Put them in places that allude to the strength of your business. For example, if you run a cleaning service, you could paper community trash bins with your flyers.  If you fix computers, you could advertise in the computers section of the local library.
10. Work Together – Teamwork makes the world go ‘round. If you have a small business that complements another business in town, unite your marketing. Perhaps you are a plumber. If you’re installing pipes into a new house, affix your flyers to the contractor’s signs by the roadside. Similarly if you’re a baker and the café in town sells your wares, post a sign to that effect in the café window.

Flyers are an often-overlooked piece of the small business marketing puzzle. Use these tips to up your flyer game.