Five Fantastic Flyer Tips! Market your Online Shop Offline

When we said “soon” in yesterday’s post, we meant today. Our Spreaducation pages have covered how to create products for your shop and market it online. Most of the tips on how to market your online shop are, well, using online marketing. This is where many of your customers will be found and where online marketing methods will bring them directly into your shop without them having to leave the online sphere.

On the other hand, there is the fact that we (hopefully still!) spend most of our time offline. This is where an offline promotion can catch the attention of customers in the “real” world and bring them to the online one. When we say “offline promotion”, it is less about taking out a full page ad or standing out on the street and forcing a flyer into the hands of every passerby. We are thinking more about targeted use of flyers and stickers. We asked some of our partners in the forum about their experiences using flyers. Here are a few highlights:

1. Flyer Layout
Once you have come up with a concept, the next thing to consider is the flyer’s layout. Christbear’s opinion: It’s important that the flyer’s info is conveyed quickly while still making sure the flyer is pocketed.

The less advertising found on the front the better. A nice picture, a funny saying and always put the site’s address in small font at the bottom right (so it doesn’t get in the way). These are the flyers (or postcards) which I pocket, pin up on my fridge or set down on my desk for a couple of days. And these are the only flyers which I turn over and take a look at the other side.

2. Format and Printing
Quality over quantity: look for a good printer (we’ve had great experience with MOO), rather than worrying about the price. People will think twice about throwing away a high-quality flyer. And vice-versa – if a flyer looks like it was copied onto recycled paper, it is very likely to end up back in the recycling bin.

Popgarten shared the same opinion:

I see the normal flyers from your average online provider on glossy photo paper as problematic. These just get lost in the crowd of flyers – all having the same format and feel.
If you really want to get noticed, you have to do something noticeable. Perhaps an alternative format, or maybe use a remarkable design which really catches people’s eye.

3. Print runs
The print run question is related to the flyer’s design and distribution: larger print runs should rely on more of a timeless design – however, here the risk will increase that the flyers wear out their impact and are taken with a grain of salt over time.

Satanswerk thinks:

Last year I printed 5,000 flyers A7 format, 4/4 colour 170 g/m². Graphically they were okay, but it was a one-off and is not really up-to-date anymore. That means the first problem was a lot of flyers are not good for a varying product line.

Chrisbears recommends:

The print run should be distributed in 8-12 weeks. The supposedly more favourable price for large print runs isn’t so favourable when you have to throw half of them away. And nobody wants to have the same flyers in their store the whole year long.

4. Distribution
Some say: the more the merrier – but this might not be the best advice with flyers. There is a big difference between throwing one large set of flyers into the masses (where they quickly disappear) and offering your target group relevant information in its niche (perhaps on a regular basis).

Wildmieze writes:

I still have 3,000 A6 flyers for aquarienshirts here that I wanted to distribute in the seawater departments of pet stores … and none of them are accepting advertisement anymore.
Distribution concept or not, in my case you can see that even throwing flyers directly at the feet of your target group doesn’t always work.

Chrisbears defines the niche a little differently:

If you throw your flyers at the feet of your target group, don’t be surprised if none of them bend over to pick them up. Bring your advertisement where it is welcome. Most pubs threw me right out the door along with my flyers. The baker around the corner however was really excited to be able to give his customers a nice little bookmark before the Christmas holidays.

Romibello lets customers come to him:

Generally I think it’s a good idea to have a niche shop and advertise in the right spot. Here in my office I have 2 posters hanging in the window (with my designs on them) and people often stop by and ask where they can get the stuff.

5. Incentive and “Call to Action”
A good flyer also includes a call to action. For example, you can offer a product at a discounted price to help get customers into a shop. If you advertise this offer exclusively on your flyers, you also have a way to measure the impact that set of flyers had on your sales. However, you should not expect too much from direct orders. Popgarten writes about the response rate:

The problem with untargeted spreading of print advertising is the marginal response rate. This rate sits at 1% at the most and from that 1%, only 1-3% actually end up ordering something.

So, there are a few ideas about how offline marketing works (and doesn’t work) in the real world. If you have any other experiences, ideas or tips, the comment section is your soapbox!