Boyd:

First, Kudos for doing something (and posting about it).

Second, 35 flyers won't really tell you anything useful other than those 35 people might not want any of the items.

Imagine for a moment, the flyer you have created gets a PROVEN 60% response. If you have no response to your 35 flyers it only means you have found the first 35 people out of 100 who were not ever going to buy anyway.

If it turns out that your flyer is a 10 percenter, then technically you have another 55 yet to distribute and get no result from before you get a result.

And if your flyer is a one percenter, then you roughly have a one in three chance of finding that one person in one hundred by distributing 35 flyers. It may turn out to be the 100th flyer distributed before you find that 1 in one hundred person.

My point is, a test of 35 only tells you those 35 are not interested. Do not take it as being an indication of the overall response.

Looking at it from another angle...

How many of those 35 people have demonstrated a desire or want (no matter how small) for a hunting knife? Or drill bits?

Are these the people most likely to buy or would they be the ones most likely to call the handyman who has those drill bits to come and do some drilling.

In other words, are these people in the "target market" for drill bits and hunting knives?

If not, who is and where are they most likely to be found?

As for your ad...

One insertion is not going to tell you too much either.

I have run ads where I have had zero response for the first ten days of the month. And then it's as if something clicked and everyone wanted what I was offering and the phone rang off the hook for the rest of the month.

If I had just run the ad once and made my choice to continue based on the results, I would have chucked the whole thing in after the first week.

Point: one insertion ain't gonna tell you too much either.

There are a lot of things to consider...

Does the "Target Market" read the local shopper?

Where within the local shopper is your ad?

Display or classified?

Is it grabbing?

Targetted? Does it need to be or can it be generic?

Is there ANYTHING going on in the world right now that would/could lower the possible response? For example: Are people getting ready for July 4th celebrations?

World Cup Final? Wimbledon? How's your city's team going in the World Series?

Lots to consider.

No matter which way it pans out, as I said at the start, Kudos for taking action (and posting about it).

Michael Ross.


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