Member Article

Promoting your business with leaflets and flyers

In the digital age, promoting your business through more conventional methods like leaflets and flyers might seem a little pointless. People don’t really read things that are put through the post, or handed to them in the streets, do they?

Well, actually, this isn’t true at all. Last year, a study conducted by Royal Mail Market Reach found that direct mail had a better return on investment rate than any other strategy – at £4.50. By comparison, search was £2.00, press £1.30 and TV £1.00.

The research also discovered that around 82 per cent of direct mail was opened in 2011-12, with that figure reaching 94 per cent for car dealerships and 96 per cent for pharmaceutical-related post. In the year following, 17.8 million people in the UK placed an order after receiving a catalogue at their home.

This data clearly shows people are still willing to engage with direct mail, and it can be an important factor in promoting your business, but why?

It’s Local

The majority of companies that utilise direct mail strategies do so on a small, local scale. Think about it, you never see Coca-Cola or Apple delivering flyers door-to-door – because they have a global audience, and there are more cost effective ways for them to reach that audience. But small businesses are only targeting people in their village/town/city.

In the same way, it’s not particularly common for individuals to visit the official website of their favourite pizza shop, newsagents or butchers – so owners have to try and reach customers in more traditional ways.

This is not to say that distributing leaflets and flyers cannot work as well for bigger companies – it can – but you will have a bigger area to target, which means investing more time and money. But if you’re confident in your product or service, then go for it.

Vouchers Will Monitor Success

Although the aforementioned study analysed in great detail how many people typically respond to direct mail, it took a lot of time and effort to research. Your business might not be willing to go to those lengths to track how successful these techniques are – but don’t worry, you don’t have to.

Vouchers are a great solution. Not only do they allow you to monitor how well your leafleting campaign is doing, but it will also improve the chances of it doing well. If you have something new you’re looking to sell, and want to gain intrigue, then vouchers are the way to go.

Are There Other Reasons to Use Leaflets and Flyers?

Why yes, there are. One of the great things about direct mail marketing is that it’s cheap. Paper is so inexpensive that you can print off hundreds (even thousands) of copies and send them off to as many homes as you like.

But this doesn’t mean you should simply grab some A4 out of the printer and start folding them up. Potential customers will expect, and respond to, quality – in terms of the paper, its design and the content. Spotprint can provide you with excellent leaflets, flyers and many other things at great prices – so get in touch for more information.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Farid Malik .