Putting fliers up in restrooms (it works.)

[Jon Tees]

I put some fliers up in a local men’s room and noticed an increase in sales and affiliate sign ups coming from this area. So it really does work to put up ads in places where there isn’t alot of competition. Just a suggestion put them on the restroom door, on the walls of stalls and anywhere else where it’s high traffic with alot of people coming and going. This is very unconventional but if done correctly it can increase your business.


As far as I know this isn’t illegal as many organizations put up their own fliers telling people to wash their hands and do other things to avoid the swine flu. It’s no harm, no foul anyway as if there is an issue with it the fliers can simply be removed by janitorial staff but this rarely happens.

[Ryan700]

Originally Posted by Jon Tees

I put some fliers up in a local men’s room and noticed an increase in sales and affiliate sign ups coming from this area.

How are you tracking this so you know that your traffic is coming from there? I got my web site plugged on the back window of my car but I also have other places promoting it so I don't know if the car plug is working.

[Brad Gosse]

Flyer's are a great promotional tool

[mikeyman120]

I have used flyers in the past when I was broke and out of work. The have definitely made me a few bucks here and there. I used them to promote my ebay store which had smc products in it. Back when I used to deal with physical products. Now I'm all digital.

Mike

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Since your name is Jon Tees and this thread is about putting up flyers in restrooms, I thought you were going to say you used this tactic to promote an online t-shirt shop. I was going to see if jontees.com was registered.

Yeah, that's just how my keyword-focused mind works.

[barbling]

Yep, I remember offering that tip during one of my Internet recruiting seminars (along with putting up flyers in grocery stores, libraries, developing win-wins with complementary businesses, etc.).

Glad it worked for you!

[Marhelper]

This may work here and there but I prefer to look for a long term model. It may be more work up front but in the end it is easier.

[bgmacaw]

One of the more innovative marketers in the guitar business had urinal deodorizer cakes with his company's name and logo on it placed in the urinals at big music gear shows like NAMM. You couldn't miss it, well, at least guys couldn't miss it.

[JohnSauer]

Is this public restrooms?

You wouldn't get away with putting them in hotels or that, would you?

[Kay King]

I have an aversion to any kind of marketing that impacts someone else's property without their permission. I also don't want to impact someone's else's work (the janitor who must remove the stuff).

That's just my view. Without a promo code on the flyers, you can only conjecture on the effectiveness.

The deodorizer cakes are interesting, though - the person is providing a useful item in exchange for advertising his product.

kay

[Zeus66]

Don't want to sound like a stick-in-the-mud, but I gotta go with Kay on this one. It may not be strictly illegal, but you didn't get the permission of that property owner to put up your stuff there. You should do that. If they tell you to go pound sand, then you have your answer about whether it's a good practice or not. Yeah, I know it's not a big deal, but with so many ways to make money that's completely above board, why do something that's even a little bit on the wrong side? That's my honest take on this one. Small harm (if any), but really not the best approach either.

John

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Jon Tees

I put some fliers up in a local men’s room and noticed an increase in sales and affiliate sign ups coming from this area. So it really does work to put up ads in places where there isn’t alot of competition.

There's isn't a lot of competition in men's rest rooms? That's not what I've heard ...

[Jon Tees]

To answer a question, I am not the owner of JonTees.com ironically the person who did register that site is not even named Jon Tees and is just using the combination of his first name and the fact he sells t-shirts, and secondly they don’t even appear to doing anything with the site. This is why I went with .net and no I don’t sell t-shirts but have thought extensively about maybe having some shirts created with my web address on them. No permission was needed really, as this was very much a publically funded college with no single person having ownership over it. People put fliers and notices all over the place here. I tracked the results mainly due to the fact that this location is in a particular area and I didn’t really do any other kind of advertising in that area. That and the fact I was e-mailed by a few people saying they saw the fliers some did so after buying stuff and others wanted more information before hand. I will admit there are likely better ways to do things, but in this case it proved to be effective. I certainly felt less guilty than I would have if I placed fliers on private property.

[Mark Riddle]

There is a company in a resort town in southern Missouri that offers this service for about $20 a month per location.

The fliers are posted in restrooms.

They claim that they have a 80% repeat customer base with a waiting list for certain locations.

Have you ever been to a "Pilot Travel Center" Truck Stop or a "Petro Truck Stop" (am I am sure others) You will see that they use the restroom walls as an additional profit center.

Who knows you might find a place that is agreeable for a small fee, especially if they see it as found money.

Mark Riddle

[Tom Brite]

When i head back over to the UK im going 'restroom shopping' with a friend to promote a dating site offer with flyers!

Hopefully while the guys are standing there taking a piss or sitting there having a s*** they will be reading the flyer and remember the address or even if i make them with the tears then they can take the site in their pocket and have some fun that night while earning me money.

If it makes me enough then a simply $20 or so to a college kid and they will all be re-done every month!

Tom Brite

[mojojuju]

Originally Posted by Kay King

That's just my view. Without a promo code on the flyers, you can only conjecture on the effectiveness.

You can use a variation of your domain name to print on the flyers, a domain that is not publicized any place else. The domain can redirect to whatever site you're promoting. Since the domain is only used on flyers, tracking it separate from the domain it directs to gives a clear indication of how well the flyers are working.

[LegitIncomes]

Originally Posted by Ryan700

How are you tracking this so you know that your traffic is coming from there? I got my web site plugged on the back window of my car but I also have other places promoting it so I don't know if the car plug is working.

You should be using a unique URL to track the results from your car.

Either a completely different domain name specifically for the car, or something like www.example.com/CarSpecial.html

[Jillian Slack]

Originally Posted by Mark Riddle

There is a company in a resort town in southern Missouri that offers this service for about $20 a month per location.

The fliers are posted in restrooms.

They claim that they have a 80% repeat customer base with a waiting list for certain locations.

Have you ever been to a "Pilot Travel Center" Truck Stop or a "Petro Truck Stop" (am I am sure others) You will see that they use the restroom walls as an additional profit center.

Who knows you might find a place that is agreeable for a small fee, especially if they see it as found money.

Mark Riddle

I live in southwest Missouri, and I've seen the restroom ads (in the women's room, mind you) in Branson, which is a tourist town about 30 minutes away.

The company seems to keep the ads stocked in the 8x10" picture frames they have hung in many restroom stalls.

The same company attempted to infiltrate my city, but I don't think it worked. I still see empty picture frames in some restaurants and stores. So either they didn't make a go of it here in my city, or they did and I just happened to be relieving myself after someone had ripped the ads out of the picture frames and the company hadn't had a chance to replenish.


As far as advertising on bulletin boards, it's pretty much non-existent in my city.

Very, very few businesses have a community bulletin board hanging up.

In fact, I have a very detailed spreadsheet listing all businesses with bulletin boards and where the bulletin boards are located in their establishments. It's a leftover hobby from when I was president of a regional writers' group here and used to hang up info about our meetings and conferences.

A few bakery-cafe establishments have bulletin boards here, but only allow non-profits to hand up their info.

We have several colleges and universities in town and they are full of bulletin boards, of course. That's the one big exception when I say we don't have many bulletin boards here. But they're full of info about bands and people needing roommates, and they are out in the elements to get blown away and rained on. The bulletin boards INSIDE the buildings require the poster to take it to an office on campus to get it approved, and then if it's approved they stamp it with an expiration date.

Just a few grocery stores around here have bulletin boards and they are not in convenient spots. I've watched and people hardly ever take a look at them. It's difficult to post on them or look at the ads when you have to climb over motorized carts, grocery carts for kids that look like race cars, the freezer full of ice, and a copy machine.

[Jillian Slack]

Forgot to mention --

There are companies that will print your advertisements on toilet paper.

Somehow, the idea of reaching my target market with their pants down just bothers me.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by Jillian Slack

Somehow, the idea of reaching my target market with their pants down just bothers me.

What would bother me more would be what those people will be DOING with my ad!

[Kay King]

The company seems to keep the ads stocked in the 8x10" picture frames they have hung in many restroom stalls.

I've seen those, too, - and they have agreements with management of the company to place ads there. I guess as far as reading material goes, the inside of the door to a stall in a john is about as captive as an audience gets.

But I'll pass.

[entrepreneurjay]

it can't hurt might get you a few customers. But i wouldn't go all gun-ho there's better ways...

[Andy LaPointe]

I agree,

Originally Posted by entrepreneurjay

it can't hurt might get you a few customers. But i wouldn't go all gun-ho there's better ways...

If you have an extra 500 flyers in your car, simply drop them off while your in the restroom, but I wouldn't spend all day driving around dropping them off. If you really want to follow this strategy, hire a local college student for $20 and they deliver them for you.