Feel Conned - Sometimes DIY approach is best...

[Canadoz]

The Power of Print Advertising
As much as people like to say that flyer marketing does not work - it has worked absolutely great for my business over the years. It has brought in the loyalist highest paying customers of all marketing. I've always done it myself with two helpers but it takes a lot of time and is exhausting work. I would distribute a nice postcard type flyer in affluent areas and would always get a payback.

Manna from Heaven - This is going to save to much time....
About two months ago, I was having a coffee in my car and a van past me which said "Flyer Marketing" great I thought. I will give these guys a try. On their website, they had the whole city divided into about 20 zones and looked very professional.

The Result

They wanted $400 upfront and it cost another $400 for the printing. About 10 days later, I got an email to my complete astonishment with a "report" saying "distribution complete". I just got one phone call. Normally for 1000 I get at least 3-4. But this was 10000 flyers and one lousy call. No spikes seen on website either. I'm sure they were put in the bin.

With over 10 years in business, I've never really got burnt by a supplier but feel really conned by this firm.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[minivanman]

When I had my house cleaning business I only advertised 1 way.... flyers! They worked great for me! The people that say flyers don't work are the same people that say every type of advertisement doesn't work when in reality.... it's their crappy ad that doesn't work.

Here is why I was always tempted to use a service like you mentioned but knew better..... think about how long it takes YOU to pass those flyers out. Why would they charge so little when it can't be done any faster? It's not like they can fly from house to house.

I actually started to start a company that passed out flyers but it was going to be too much work on my part for so little profit. I used to love passing out flyers because of the exercise. I'd even ride my bicycle sometimes.

 

[Canadoz]

When I had my house cleaning business I only advertised 1 way.... flyers! They worked great for me! The people that say flyers don't work are the same people that say every type of advertisement doesn't work when in reality.... it's their crappy ad that doesn't work.

Here is why I was always tempted to use a service like you mentioned but knew better..... think about how long it takes YOU to pass those flyers out. Why would they charge so little when it can't be done any faster? It's not like they can fly from house to house.

I actually started to start a company that passed out flyers but it was going to be too much work on my part for so little profit. I used to love passing out flyers because of the exercise. I'd even ride my bicycle sometimes.

Yeah, a well designed flyer will bring in amazing customers and results. Certainly not the transient type of customers from some random Google search.

The exercise is great but I would be more mentally tired than physically tired after it. Watching out for ice during the winter, crooked steps or mossy walkways meant that one foot wrong and you could easily end up with a broken arm. But podcasts made time just fly...

So from you knowledge of the flyer distribution business - do some operators just bin them?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

So a flyer you use that normally gets good results suddenly got ya none?

I'm guessing 1000s of flyers are in a dumpster somewhere.

They offered no proof of delivery?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Canadoz]

So a flyer you use that normally gets good results suddenly got ya none?

I'm guessing 1000s of flyers are in a dumpster somewhere.

They offered no proof of delivery?

None...it was like:

Zone 5B...complete
Zone 4G...complete
Zone 7A...complete
Zone 7B...complete
Zone 8A...complete

There was no timings, dates, nothing. I'm livid! I might have well have tossed 800 bucks onto a bonfire.

The guy's business only has Google Reviews from the last 3 months also which is highly suspicious for a business that has been around alledgedly for 9 years.

 

[Walter Hay]

I would never trust a flyer distribution business. Unless you have paid a reasonable number of people with letterboxes in the area being covered, to report receipt or non receipt of your flyer, you have no way of knowing if they all went in a dumpster.

Except for using my "warm calling" method, I only ever used the postal service for distribution. What our business sent was not merely a flyer. It was a sealed envelope, addressed to a title, not to an individual, and it contained:

• A letter. This was signed. At least, with a copy of my signature printed in blue, it looked as though it was signed. It had a headline that was near enough irresistible in meeting a headline's objective of making the recipient want to read on.
• A sample. It was small and flat, being a miniature copy of a product. Its presence was obvious because it more or less embossed the envelope as a result of pressure in the mailing process.
• A single page, double sided brochure.

The cost was high, but results were worth it. A very high conversion rate, with average sales around $700 yielded a great ROI.

Incidentally, the copy and design was all done by myself and one of my sons. I never entrusted advertising to others who couldn' t understand our business culture or the products.

Walter

 

[Canadoz]

I would never trust a flyer distribution business. Unless you have paid a reasonable number of people with letterboxes in the area being covered, to report receipt or non receipt of your flyer, you have no way of knowing if they all went in a dumpster.

Except for using my "warm calling" method, I only ever used the postal service for distribution. What our business sent was not merely a flyer. It was a sealed envelope, addressed to a title, not to an individual, and it contained:

• A letter. This was signed. At least, with a copy of my signature printed in blue, it looked as though it was signed. It had a headline that was near enough irresistible in meeting a headline's objective of making the recipient want to read on.
• A sample. It was small and flat, being a miniature copy of a product. Its presence was obvious because it more or less embossed the envelope as a result of pressure in the mailing process.
• A single page, double sided brochure.

The cost was high, but results were worth it. A very high conversion rate, with average sales around $700 yielded a great ROI.

Incidentally, the copy and design was all done by myself and one of my sons. I never entrusted advertising to others who couldn' t understand our business culture or the products.

Walter

So after they got the letter, did you phone them?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[EVMaso]

I once came back to my car from a trip into a shopping mall. In the slot to my driver side window was a small flyer, barely bigger than a business card. Not a big deal, just gonna glance at it and throw it away. But the second I tried to pry it from the window it slid down into my door! Every car in the lot had one of these, so I went to another one to find the name of the business so I could give them a piece of my mind. Unfortunately it was just some foreign "mystic guru" who was in town for a few days for a show, and the flyer wasn't even in English. I figured it wasn't worth my time.

 

[Johnny boy]

Small claims court with testimony from 100 out of 100 people that supposedly got delivered to that didn’t receive anything. You’ll get a judgement with damages.

 

[minivanman]

Yeah, a well designed flyer will bring in amazing customers and results. Certainly not the transient type of customers from some random Google search.

The exercise is great but I would be more mentally tired than physically tired after it. Watching out for ice during the winter, crooked steps or mossy walkways meant that one foot wrong and you could easily end up with a broken arm. But podcasts made time just fly...

So from you knowledge of the flyer distribution business - do some operators just bin them?

Yeah, we had a few problems but nothing turned out serious.... I think the best one was... I was walking up this steep driveway and noticed a Rottweiler sleeping. I couldn't tell if he was on a leash or not. So I quietly (I thought) turned around and was walking down the drive when these 3 poodles came running at me from across the street. So here I am running my @ss off down the street with the 3 poodles barking behind me. The 2 teenage boys I had helping me that day was laughing their @ss off! I actually didn't know if the rot was behind me or not so I was just running until I got to my van. I'm sure to everyone that didn't see the rot, they thought I was just running from 3 little poodles. lmao Over the years there were several funny stories.... or, atleast, they are funny NOW, maybe not at the time!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[NovaAria]

The cost was high, but results were worth it. A very high conversion rate, with average sales around $700 yielded a great ROI.

All these ecommerce hustles and digital marketing spammers ironically gave that much more value to good old brick and mortar stores and old advertising methods.
I read something similar recently where a guy did an experiment by sending about a 100 emails to past customers, and also sent a 100 mail letters to another batch of customers. The purpose was to thank them for doing business with him but also to upsell them some more.
The emails pretty much went unread while the mail (which had the same copy) resulted in a spike of sales and more than returned its cost in money and time.

Don't knock that mailman out just yet.

 

[minivanman]

I rarely read emails anymore. I skim over the title and might read 1 out of 10,000.

 

[Walter Hay]

So after they got the letter, did you phone them?

No, I have never used cold calling by phone. Even though they had received the mail drop I would still regard a phone call as cold.

The value of the mail drop was seen not only in the immediate high response rate, but more interestingly, it was common to receive calls as much as 2 years later from people who had kept the letter and attachments on file.

They did not need the product when they received the mail, but knowing that they would want some in the future, they were so impressed that they went to the to trouble of filing it.

Walter

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Matt Hunt]

When I was in the roofing business, I got a job by leaving only my business card on the front door!

 

[MitchC]

It’s possible your flier was put in people’s mailbox in a big bundle with other fliers and catalogues, tucked inside a catalogue or something

 

[Canadoz]

All these ecommerce hustles and digital marketing spammers ironically gave that much more value to good old brick and mortar stores and old advertising methods.
Don't knock that mailman out just yet.

Exactly!

I wish actually the power of print marketing was kept secret! Let them do all their PPC, CPC, KPIs and CTRs.

Print still brings in the highest quality customers!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Canadoz]

It’s possible your flier was put in people’s mailbox in a big bundle with other fliers and catalogues, tucked inside a catalogue or something

Possibly.
Or
They were binned by door-to-door distributor(s)
OR
Or more likely, the business owner is operating a sham business. 10 days seemed like a extra-ordinarily quick time for distribution for those specific city zones.

Anyway lesson learnt. When an established supplier has a recent slate-wiped-clean Google My Business Profile - ask yourself why...

 

[MHP368]

Sounds to me like you just uncovered a hole in the market.

You hate doing it yourself with 2 hired helpers.

company didn't follow through.

Anyone reading this who wants a quick sweaty startup type business, may I present to you

"flyer distribution marketing"

 

[Canadoz]

Sounds to me like you just uncovered a hole in the market.

You hate doing it yourself with 2 hired helpers.

company didn't follow through.

Anyone reading this who wants a quick sweaty startup type business, may I present to you

"flyer distribution marketing"

Thanks for the suggestion.

Unfortunately, I know form direct experience, most small business people believe that flyer marketing does not work.

Trying to sell a service would be a very tough sell - also checkout the sage words of @minivanman above.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Roli]

The Power of Print Advertising
As much as people like to say that flyer marketing does not work - it has worked absolutely great for my business over the years. It has brought in the loyalist highest paying customers of all marketing. I've always done it myself with two helpers but it takes a lot of time and is exhausting work. I would distribute a nice postcard type flyer in affluent areas and would always get a payback.

Manna from Heaven - This is going to save to much time....
About two months ago, I was having a coffee in my car and a van past me which said "Flyer Marketing" great I thought. I will give these guys a try. On their website, they had the whole city divided into about 20 zones and looked very professional.

The Result

They wanted $400 upfront and it cost another $400 for the printing. About 10 days later, I got an email to my complete astonishment with a "report" saying "distribution complete". I just got one phone call. Normally for 1000 I get at least 3-4. But this was 10000 flyers and one lousy call. No spikes seen on website either. I'm sure they were put in the bin.

With over 10 years in business, I've never really got burnt by a supplier but feel really conned by this firm.

Have you spoken to the flyer biz?

Let's give them the benefit of the doubt for one second and say that your flyers weren't dumped, rather they were put in a bundle with 20 other flyers, that could explain why you didn't get any calls.

So with that in mind, I would call them up and tell them that you're extremely disappointed and that you felt that you had found somebody who could regularly do the work that you had so diligently done yourself.

Tell them of your usual conversion rates, make sure that they know these are pretty established and not just figures you got from one or two campaigns. Then explain that 1 call from 10,000 is impossible.

Come at it from an angle that you would like to use them again, if they can figure out what went wrong. Perhaps they'll end up offering to do it again gratis. Maybe they'll offer to deliver your flyers with no more than 2 others.

Or maybe you'll alert him to the fact that his employees are ripping him off. Either way, you've got nothing to lose by contacting him (without getting angry), and potentially a lot to gain.

I feel for you though, good luck, I hope it pans out for you.

 

[Canadoz]

Have you spoken to the flyer biz?

Let's give them the benefit of the doubt for one second and say that your flyers weren't dumped, rather they were put in a bundle with 20 other flyers, that could explain why you didn't get any calls.

So with that in mind, I would call them up and tell them that you're extremely disappointed and that you felt that you had found somebody who could regularly do the work that you had so diligently done yourself.

Tell them of your usual conversion rates, make sure that they know these are pretty established and not just figures you got from one or two campaigns. Then explain that 1 call from 10,000 is impossible.

Thanks for that advice.

Of course the multiple flyer effect could have diluted the effect - that will have to be taken into account.

I've not spoken to them yet but I will bit my tongue and phone them in the next week or two and see what they have to say.