Pete:

> It's the same type of thing up here in North
> Queensland. The people who actually do the
> work are paid a pittance and it makes you
> wonder if your flyers are actually
> delivered.

I view it from two angles...

1: The person paying the walkers - the one who owns the flyer distribution business - is doing the wrong thing. Even if someone is willing to work for slave money, that doesn't mean you should pay them slave money.

Along these lines I have no respect for someone who hires a junior so they can pay junior wage rates. Same job, same money in my opinion.

Hire a junior, fine. BUT pay them senior wages. After all, you would have to pay senior wages if an "adult" did the job.

2: The business who uses the flyer distribution company is equally in the wrong. They are funding the slave money.

I think it's good to ask yourself... would *I* be willing to do X for $X? If the answer is NO, then you shouldn't expect someone else to do it.

In this case... there is no way the business owners would deliver flyers for $10 per thousands, and nor would they let their child do it. So by willingly paying someone else that amount they are knowingly taking advantage of someone. And that is wrong.

> One technique that worked for my wife's
> clothing and gift store was we put an offer
> on the flyer. The flyer was folded in three,
> and when viewed, all that was seen was the
> headline "Clothing & Gift Shop
> Owner says: I'll Pay You Five Dollars For
> This Flyer."

> In small print we had "see inside for
> details".

> Inside the flyer we explained what her shop
> was, where it was (we included a small map
> with the old arrow saying "we are
> here"), plus we explained if the person
> brought this flyer into the shop and spent
> $20 they would get $5 off.

> And it worked. We tested on 1000 names and
> when the promotion was over (we had a
> deadline printed on the flyer), we tallied
> the results and came out ahead.

When you say you tested on 1,000 names it gives the impression you mailed them out insted of delvering them to each dwelling individually - typical "junk mail" flyer style.

Have you tested a smaler flyer - one third page - with the same info, and what is obviously a discount coupon? You might find you get the same response while your marketing costs will be down.

> But for us, what was more important was the
> new customers. My wife had just opened her
> shop and we needed customers. We figured
> this offer might be a good place to start
> instead of using our money on expensive
> advertising.

Good call. Too many retail stores do zero marketing. No ads. No flyers. Nothing. Then they wonder why they don't get any business. It's as if they expect people to know about them by picking up vibes from the ether, or something.

A flyer drop to your target area once a month for twelve months is a good marketing starting point.

> Every month my wife has a $50 customer prize
> draw and every month she sends a letter to
> each customer telling them who won, what's
> new in the shop, and sometimes an offer.

GOOD!

> So in our case flyers work and the cost per
> customer is low compared with other forms of
> advertising.

Yep. And the trick is to keep on advertising. And even expand your advertising.

One of my businesses had roughly a 10% drop off in business a couple of months back. I still haven't figured out why (could have been the war or whatever, but this business has so far been unaffected by those kinds of things). And it doesn't matter. My reaction was to increase my marketing. Not try and cut other costs and contract my business. But rather, to spend more money attracting more customers. Expand.

So while my competition stopped advertising - and have not restarted so must have totaly gone out of business - my marketing is growing.

Of course, the only way to do that and not go bust is to run marketing that works. And the only way to know what works and what doesn't work is to monitor all your marketing.

Once you find what works, it's a no-brainer to increase business by running more proven marketing.

Michael Ross


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