Richard Odell

Invasion of personal property - minefield....

Less hassle to chuck them all in the bin (saves time in the long run!).

Old MLM tactic, waste of time and paper.

-Rich

What did my old windshield cards used to say? Oh-yes "please excuse the unusual approach" GAKK!

freudianslip27

I do think that this method of advertising can work for some situations such as restaurants and such, but I would definitely not suggest doing it to promote your offline business. I agree with what others said that it is not going to help you look credible.

Even if you are trying to bag your first client, you want to show that your services are valuable and limited. People should be lucky to be your client because you can help them increase their business. Putting flyers on cars (in my opinion) comes off desperate. Don't get me wrong, I don't get that feeling with restaurants, I'm just talking strictly for your business.

Matt

sylviad

In some places, it's illegal to put flyers on car windshields, so you might want to check that out.

I distributed flyers that way once and it didn't take long for someone to clue me in.

Sylvia

Oh, and I didn't get a single call from the 500 I did distribute.

AmyBrown

The OP apparently has a dance studio. Do you see "offliners" everywhere?

kellysharali

Check your city ordinance and make sure you are allowed to post flyers. Sometimes you might just have to get a permit which will cost you $10-$20. It's like posting up signs on the side walk. Some cities allow it for a price and others don't.

Just keep the ROI part in mind as it could work depending on your offer. Some offers might work better on college campuses rather than a parking lot outside a night club. I have seen it work in the past for plenty of people so just test it out and see what happens.

mrfixituk

It may work for a targetted market because if you have something someone is looking for you never know!

FaJeeb

So, I tried this last night with only 200 flyers promoting a weight loss product. Next I plan on doing it with 200 flyers and a MMO product in the same lot. Passed out probably 60-100 of them, the rest went on cars. The store manager didn't even care, he just asked I not make a mess. Then I'll give it a week and see my results.

Do I already have sales? Surprisingly yes.

Kelly Verge

Blanket statements rarely stand up to just a tiny bit of research...

dualdtmz

Think about this for a minute...how many times have you got into your car and seen a flyer on your windshield then say F*CK!! Gotta get BACK out of the car just to pull the damn thing off your windshield just to find out its something you dont even care about then throw it on the ground creating litter in the parking lot.

your supposed to put something here to try and sell something

Mr. Subtle

You're not seeing the forest for the trees.

January 7, 2010
Mail Spend to Rise
DMA report predicts $1B jump in direct mail spending

In defiance of predictions about its decline, spending on direct mail marketing is expected to increase by more than $1 billion in 2010, according to an annual study from the Direct Marketing Association.

The “Power of Direct” economic impact study released earlier this year reports that spending on direct mail will rise from the $44.4 billion doled out in 2009 to $45.5 billion next year.

The study also reports that noncatalog direct mail continues to boast impressive ROI. According to the report, non-catalog direct mail returned $15.22 for every dollar spent in 2009.

The report further points out that e-mail, once thought to be next big thing as a prospecting medium, drives fewer sales than most other channels. Commercial e-mail drove $26 billion in sales in 2009. Non-catalog direct mail, by comparison, drove $445.8 billion in sales in 2009. — Darrell Dawsey


Last year there was $44.4 billion spent on direct mail. Online (Internet) advertising came in at $24.5 billion. On top of that there are billions spent on Yellow Pages print ads, magazine ads, newspaper ads ($34.7 billion 2008).

Take out the fork 'cause the fat lady ain't singing yet.

FaJeeb

48 hours, and 6 sales made. I'm passing the other 200 flyers today.

Khalil Bashir

I've never really had a whole bunch of luck trying to distribute flyers anywhere. I have made a committment to myself to stay away from methods that don't involve some type of automated delivery process or at least a long reach if you are going to spend some time doing it. If I got involved in flyers I suppose I would pay someone else to deliver them. As far as response I've never gotten a whole lot of response from flyers. Especially going back to a website, I don't really like anything where I've got to spend hours in the street doing personal labor to deliver the message

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NewLevelMarketing

I've actually thought about doing this. My plan was to post flyers at all the local gyms.

I was going to test different clickbank products and CPA offers on weight loss. I planned on sending my offline traffic to my squeeze page or my review page. Basically test different marketing tactics.

I never got around to it though.

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BigHef

Personally if someone puts a flyer on my windscreen, I make a note to never do business with them ever ... I hate having to get rid of the bloody thing, and don't want to just throw it on the ground for someone else to clean up.

Jimian

Untargeted. Unless it's a parking ticket on my windshield, I toss it.

FaJeeb

I was checking my Clickbank account today, and I thought of this thread. Sorry for digging it up.

I handed out flyers on 2/8/10 and a couples days off and on after that, maybe 1000 of them, maybe a little more.

Does this method actually make money? Absolutely. I urge everyone to try this ONCE and you will be surprised.

Rocketguy

Putting flyers on cars is definitely NOT going to work. It must be targeted and if you are targeting business owners then putting the flyer under their door so the next morning when the boss opens up it is the first thing he sees. An even better approach is walking into the business and talking to the owner.

FaJeeb

I obviously disagree with you. If you want an easy, cheap, and pretty simple way of advertising affiliate products... well this is it. Make Money Online, and Weight Loss are pretty general broad markets... however you COULD target it... which is what I did, by doing things like going to the gym (but of course, those people are already losing weight) and placing flyers outside of fast food joints and restaurants... which is what I did. Like I said in my previous post, I made an alright chunk of change for doing almost nothing. I did this and made probably twice as much as someone would at a 9-5 flipping burgers.

RentItNow

$25 Custom Lawn Sign or Print Ads in Local Advertiser are more effective. Flyers cause too much liability issues.

shabit87

I know when promoting club events...at the club, its super effective but thats because 1. flyers are the gatekey into these clubs and it isn't unasually to have flyers everywhere at clubs and 2. prospects are custom to receiving these promos as so

but unless your prospects are looking for your particular offer on a flyer, i'd say stay away from that method of marketing

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socomplete

Aw man, time to get rid of that route I had.

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urban renewal

I would only do it if I was promoting something that had to do with cars.

Otherwise it is really a waste of time, money, and energy.

What do you know about these people? Only that they own (or lease) a car.

That's it.

You don't know if they're old or young, married or single, employed or broke, overweight or skinny, if they live in town or are just passing through. Nothing.

I get these stupid things on my car all the time and it really pisses me off. Some stupid night club or tattoo business leaves them on my windshield or stuffed in the driver's side window. Then it rains and the flier sticks to my car and I have to peel little bits of it off for days.

-Clayton

http://www.journeyofmyown.com

socomplete

Really? that is hilarious, I'm glad I read this post because I used to try doing the whole prospecting thing, the best thing is targeted traffic to your business. Most people are suspects not prospects, you could spend all day doing this, or you could send targeted traffic and see more results faster.

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WD Mino

James,

I am very surprised by your post that just made you look very silly. Print media is far from dead. I am going to get some T shirts made up for advertising.

Having said that. DO NOT use flyers on cars I did that way back when I was promoting my tech business in edmonton canada I got a phone call on my cell while I was still in the mall saying your violating our rules etc get these off or we will and charge you 10 bucks a flyer.
LOL needless to say way I went they are both infringing on a person`s space and extremely irritating not to mention if you do it at a business you can get in trouble as the business may or may not own the land your advertising on. so best to stay away use bulletin boards throw in a class ad in the paper etc .
-WD

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thunderbird

This is a biodegradable flyer printed with soy ink. Stick it in your flower pots to fertilize your plants.

A gift fro Ye Olde Plant Shoppe

seasoned

I generally don't follow them PERIOD! In some areas of the US, placing flyers on cars, or public property or cars on public property is ILLEGAL! Many private areas DON'T allow it.

Some fines I have heard of exceed like $400 per incident on things like telephone poles. They MAY even cite you for LITERING, and THAT can cost a lot.

Steve

seasoned

Technically, they DO own the land! Case in point, I have known several companies that may not have "OWNED THE LAND"(They didn't hold title, or pay directly for it, etc...) They DID however have cars towed, people kicked off, drivers cited, etc.... Because they DID in a sense "OWN THE LAND"! They RENTED/LEASED it, so they had most of the control over it. Not enough to sell the property, but enough to get you kicked off for trespassing, cited for illegal parking or bad behaviour, etc....

STILL, must PUSHED ads that are printed are just BAD NEWS! It is better to have something they ask, or actually PAY, for, or have it on something like that BY PERMISSION.

Steve

Glenellis

Make sure you research your local laws/codes on this. Some areas ban this type of advertising entirely. I found out the hard way when advertising an upcoming auction for my sister's company. We went into the town where the auction was to be held and started papering windshields. Got a not-so-nice talking to from a police officer, who sat in his car and watched us remove every flier from ever windshield before he drove off. Thankfully no ticket, because they fined something like $300 for a first offense.

FloridaRay

How successful can a car flyer really be?

Johnny12345

Putting flyers on cars is a great idea -- right up to the point where the parking lot security guy threatens to call the police if you don't take them all back off.

Johnny

*** NEED A KILLER SALES LETTER? ***

mikemcmillan

Putting fliers on cars results in trash in the environment. It's annoying to both people parking at the lot and lot or mall owners. It's likely illegal in many places. It is ineffective and unprofessional as well.

Leon, if you want to put fliers in front of thousands of people, contact your local newspaper. You can have any number of fliers printed and your newspaper will have stuffers put them into Sunday papers for you. It is relatively inexpensive and can be lethally effective if you have a good offer. You can also target only certain areas within a city using this technique.

Another good option is to contact your local radio station if they have a talk format and their programming isn't all piped in. Ask for the program director for a popular local talk show. In smaller cities the show's host sometimes doubles as his own director, but in medium to larger cities there will be a dedicated program manager for each show.

Offer to go into the studio and do a 5-30 minute interview. In your case this would work well if you held some kind of open house type evening where people could come in an check out your place. Make it an event! Have free refreshments and some entertainment. Pull some babes out and demonstrate some of your moves. Create a buzz and a happening bud. You need a buzz!

If you can get booked to come on a radio program and do a short interview with the host, you can promote the event to THOUSAND or TENS-OF-THOUSANDS of listeners and it will cost you nada, zip, zilch! If you had an event you could also ask if the station could do a live remote broadcast from your gig. Most stations will charge you to do this, but it can be great advertising.

Also watch your mail. Find some of those companies who send out card decks of advertisements for clients. You can create a post card-sized ad and have it included in an upcoming deck and have them sent out all over the city along with other advertisers' ads. Many restaurants, carpet cleaners, dry cleaners, and services find this extremely effective.

Just some thoughts. --Mike

Don Schenk

Not for us old f@rts who own businesses. We will read a well done sales letter (if we open it), and certainly read color postcards.

:-Don

"The 25 Profit Thieves and The 14-Day Turnaround - How To Build Any Business Fast." Get the downloadable book FREE! It's NOT a sales pitch.http://www.BuildAnyBusinessFast.com

SEMwinners

NOOOOOOO WAY!
If owner see a flyer on his car he might get a heart atack thinking it's a fine. Or just get annoyed for the pollution...

Better just go talk to business owners.

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Dalun

this is just basic stuff in promoting business and sites. i've seen flyers on my cars since 2000. nothing new and extradinary. the flyer has to be something of general interest or else it would be a waste of time in placing them on the cars.

ASM Marketing

Possibly one of the most ludicrous statements I've heard in a long time. What on Earth compels you to close so many windows of opportunity for your students without any solid evidence?! There is no solid evidence. It's just a ridiculous statement!

In response to the O.P - put it this way: if it doesn't work, why do thousands (if not millions) of companies still do it? Because done correctly, it can be hugely effective.

Anybody telling you that 'it doesn't work' has simply never made it work for themselves, or is just guessing. Neither I'd choose to take advice from, personally. Unless of course they have bulletproof evidence to suggest otherwise?

Alex

Loren Woirhaye

I didn't read the whole thread - but at one time I went to a few
"get rich and be happy" type 3-day seminars and put drop cards
in the bathrooms.

People threw them in the urinals and pissed on them.

There's a LOT of hostility towards marketers. Flyering cars is
not too targeted in general - but if you do it a lot you WILL get
leads. The kind of results you get will have a lot to do with
what you offer.

If you're looking to sell web-design and consulting type services,
you not only need to target your fliers at likely spots for entrepreneurs
to hang-out, you need to bait your hook with what they really
want ... usually more traffic and customers.

givejonadollar

I can speak with experience on this method.

Get the property owners permission first. Do not just go out and start putting flyers on cars.

Not only can it give your company a bad reputation, but it quite frankly pisses people off. Especially if it rains afterwards.

tot29

Flyers seem to work great if you are advertising a garage sale, a business sale, party, happy hour type of thing.

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Christian York

It depends on what you are promoting and what cars you leave the flier on.

I have personally never tried it but it could be worth investigating. It wouldn't cost you much.

Tomwood

A far better idea is to pay to have your poster put in a shop window that's what we do in the UK or put your use your own car as a bill board.

I don't drive so last summer I put a laminate sign on my pushbike for a weight loss cpa offer and actually may a couple of sales.

Do you have kids then make them wear a t shirt with your url on in return for their allowance or pocket money.

Desperate Dollar Niches

TheMagicShow

Placing flyers on a car, simply leads to more trash on the streets! A good way of using flyers is to go to a coffee shop and look at their bulletin board and place your flyer there ( if the manager lets you.)

At my coffee bean, there are quite a few flyers and this one fella places flyers on close to 20 coffee beans located in cities near mine. Pure grassroot marketing that can be effective if done right.

I am not gonna knock James for his statement, but print media will live on as long as advertising exists. Look at that stupid magazine the enquirer, everytime I go to the market I see what kind of catchy headline they use.

Their classified section, is always full of ads that is making some people, lots of money.

No matter how much the internet dominates the game, offline businesses will play in, the print media arena as long as offline businesses exist.

" You can either give a man a fish and feed him for a day OR teach him how to catch a fish and it will feed him for a lifetime"

Tomwood

Here another method I read about it's a bit wacky but could be worth a try donate all your old magazines to your doctors or dentists waiting room but first put one of your flyers inside .
Try and make the offer relevant to the magazine and it might just payoff.

Desperate Dollar Niches

thebitbotdotcom

I have never been sold anything using flyers. Only if something free is offered can it be effective, IMO. You almost have to look at it like a squeeze page, just slower and not as effective.

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krcorser

Obviously, this technique has a modicum of success because I see so much of it. I see nothing wrong with it from a marketer's viewpoint, provided you get permission from the business.

From a customer's viewpoint, however, I hate seeing all the litter, and it really irks me to get the kids buckled into their car seats, get in and lock the doors for safety, only to have to get out and remove the flyer. Nine times out of ten, I don't even bother looking at it. It goes straight into the trash sack I keep in the car.

Vanquish

I would rather use the money from printing and distributing the flyers towards a PPC campaign on Adbrite.

ArnelRicafranca

Very weak way of marketing anything.. There are hundreds of way to market besides leaving flyers on windshields. How do I know? I used to do it when I was just starting out.

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mac and cheese

Frankly, I'm against it - feels like an invasion of privacy. I never read anything left on car. Also seems very expensive - labor plus cost of printing.

mr2monster

Flyers on car windows are probably decently effective for a local business within the same complex maybe... but I'd think driving traffic to a site with them would be rather difficult.

Plus, as others have said, they're sooo annoying.

That being said, I have done it before when I was a loan officer, and it did yield some business... but the amount of flyers per deal was horrible. Meaning you had to have a very high profit product or service (like mortgage origination) to get the ROI you're going for.

czilbersher

I tried this many years ago to advertise my painting company. When I finally got my first phone call, it was from the police department. Apparently, commuters coming back to their car from the train station were yanking my flyer off their windshield and littering the parking lot with them. I was given a warning rather than a $500 fine.

Bayo

And I don't believe the law has changed in that respect. Not with the world going Greener.