Repetition and Proximity are Important in Flyer Campaigns

I have my own flyer distribution service, and have found it to be a surprisingly effective means of promoting just about anything. Over the last few years I have put many thousands of flyers in letterboxes throughout the suburbs of Perth and Sydney.

Sure, it's not the most intellectually challenging job. And ultimately, response is determined by a basic law of numbers: the more flyers you put out there, the more leads you get! But there are other factors involved, and you certainly learn a few things about what works and what doesn't with this method.

Here are a couple of experiences I had, and the lessons I learned from them:

Case 1: I was distributing flyers for a piano teacher. She worked from home, in South Perth, which is a pleasant upmarket suburb. I did many flyer runs over the months for her. Most of them were in South Perth proper and the neighbouring suburb of Como.

I did try other areas further away such as Victoria Park and Manning. But while she got occasional calls from these flyer runs, none of them actually converted! Ultimately, all the people who actually became her students lived in quite close proximity to her.

I think there were a couple of factors that created this outcome. Firstly, at the risk of sounding classist, learning to play the piano is an upper middle class pursuit. The areas that were most fruitful - South Perth and Como - were certainly in this demographic.

The least successful areas were more working class. These people would, generally speaking, be more likely to enjoy other leisure activities. And they would also not have such high disposable incomes. 

I suspect that distance was a factor, too. I never went more than a ten minute drive away from the business location. So I doubt anyone would have been put off by the time spent getting there and back. But I do think that with such expensive oil nowadays, people are very mindful of this cost. And if they aren't well off to start with this is an even bigger disincentive. 

Case 2: I distributed flyers for a new cafe in Shenton Park. I must have done at least six runs of a thousand over a year or so. I didn't do exactly the same areas, but there was quite a bit of overlap every time. All the flyers were spread within a twenty minute walk of the actual venue.

Every time I did a run, the flyers had different offers on them (such as a free coffee upon presentation). And a couple of runs were used solely to advertise special events. 

I was concerned that there would be an overkill effect; that the campaigns would lose their effect because of repetition. But this was not the case. The owner said that response to the flyers was usually pretty good, and that general business seemed to increase as a result as well.

Clearly, repetition was important. Even if people didn't take up one particular offer, or go to a theme event, they were still being reminded of the venue's existence. (And this was a new venue, remember. It wasn't a place that locals were well aware of already, simply because it had been there for many years.)

The fact that these promotions would appear from time to time conveyed the idea that this was an active venue hosting diverse activities. The flyer campaigns created and maintained a bit of a buzz.

So, to summarize:

Proximity is important. If you distribute flyers close to your business location you will generally have more success.

Repetition is helpful. It raises awareness in the first place. And it keeps reminding people of the existence of your business and what it offers over the long term. (Although, of course, you can do too much in too short a time and it could backfire.)

Apply these principles and you should increase the response rate from your next flyer campaign.