The Importance of Flyers for Marketing Your Business

I am one of the biggest proponents of online marketing that you will find anywhere. I’m a complete technology nerd and I taught myself how to design websites in 1996. Since then, I’ve embraced all forms of online marketing with open arms. In 2000, I started my own company providing web design services for local businesses.

I’m definitely what you would call an early adopter of online marketing techniques.

All of the various forms of online marketing are very effective and I’m not someone to say that one form is necessarily better than the other. Each type of marketing has merit, and one form of marketing may work better for one type of business and one better for another.

That’s why you should always have every marketing tool at your disposal.

This is what I tell offline clients.

This is also what I tell people like you who are trying to build a business like mine and provide services such as web design, SEO, social media, and mobile marketing to offline clients.

Therefore, you need everything at your disposal. And by everything, I mean you also need to have tools that go outside of the digital and online space, tools that are a bit more old school.

You see, when you get out there and approach clients and try to win their business, you are going to run into a variety of business owners.

Every now and then you’ll have the dream client who embraces marketing, knows the importance of it, and will be eating out of the palm of your hand.

But you will also have the clients who are old school and very traditional.

These clients will say things to you like...I’ve done fine with what I’m doing and I don’t need to use any of this Internet stuff.

They are going to be a much tougher sell.

So, to sell these clients on your service you need to approach them with marketing tools they are already comfortable with.

That’s where printed materials like flyers and postcards come in.

The clients who aren’t yet in love with the idea of online marketing techniques for marketing their business aren’t going to be visiting your website or your Facebook page. You need to give them paper materials. You need to use tools that they understand.

That’s why flyers can be incredibly important. If you can walk into a business and get 30 seconds with the owner and hand them a gorgeous flyer with a catchy headline that explains the need for your service in quick bullets, and provides a call to action for them to contact you, you have broken down a huge barrier.

They know traditional marketing tools like flyers. They are comfortable with them and will be receptive to looking at them. These types of clients don’t want to go to your website. They know in the back of their mind that they should have a website, it should be optimized for SEO and they should use social media and mobile, but they won’t admit it - not yet anyway.

So first, get your flyer or postcard in front of them. Then, on your flyer you need to show them just how important your service is to the longevity and success of their business.

If you are selling web design service, your flyer may be showing them how they spend thousands of dollars every year on yellow page advertising that they could move some of that print budget to a website that can drive traffic from people not using the yellow pages. Each business is different, but everyone has to have some kind of online presence or they are missing opportunities.

If you are selling SEO services, your flyer should be showing them that just having a website doesn’t mean anyone will find it - just like owning a business doesn’t automatically mean customers will find you and walk through your door. Just having a website isn’t enough. They need their website to get found, and guess what - your service will pay for itself with the additional customers they bring in.

I see way too many offline consultants with badly designed flyers that don’t do anything to help promote their services the right way. The design is weak and the message is weak.

When I walk into a client’s office I know I am the best. I know my flyers are gorgeous. I know my message is solid. I know my services are solid.

You too need to feel that level of confidence. If you project that level of confidence when you hand your printed marketing materials to a prospective client, they will know you are the real deal.

Clients are like wild animals. They sense fear and weakness. Once they sense that you are lacking confidence, they lose confidence in you.

Things to do with your flyers:

• Print them out and directly hand them to clients - This often strikes fear into the hearts of new offline consultants. But guess what? If you want to be a 6-figure offline consultant then you need to get over that fear immediately.

• Email them to clients - If you are working with a client who already has a website or has an email address, they might prefer to have it emailed to them.

• Mail them to clients - Direct mail is not dead, especially not for your old school types. Many local businesses also have secretaries or administrative assistants who open every piece of mail. When they see an amazing looking flyer it is bound to get their attention.

• Hang them up in public places that have community bulletin boards. Get t hem out in public and increase your chances of getting customers. The more eyeballs on your flyers the better.

• Put them on car windshields. This is what I like to refer to as “old school spam”. Before there was email spam we had people putting flyers on our windshields. Your conversion rate will be incredible low, but guess what? Flyers are cheap. So if you get one customer from 100 flyers that’s a win.

In closing, you need to do everything you can to get your flyers in front of the decision makers and people looking for your service. Even if you are a solo operation and you outsource everything, give the appearance you are a company with a big budget and your clients will respond.

You want to make the biggest impact you can on your potential clients and having well designed flyers at your disposal will only make your life easier and help you get more appointments and close more deals.

If you need any more help, please feel free to contact me.

Jason Zimmerman.