# Flyers - Do they work?



## Big Jim Slade (Oct 29, 2005)

Just wondered how many of you in the industry have used flyers and if so what kind of results did you get, or was it a monumental waste of time. Also what methods of flyer distribution worked best for you guys?


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

Depends on the littering laws in your target towns.... 

I've always like skyscrapers and dramatic throwing....


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

I really can't think of any way that you sell t-shirts(online, retail stores, events) that a flyer could actually "help" you to sell more shirts.
Just my opinion.


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

I've seen piles of threadless postcards in the cooler shops here in Melbourne.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

They ever make you "want" to buy a threadless shirt?


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

They're cool little cards.....and Melborne has a flyer culture. And in a place the right sort of people would find them.

I'm guessing they made more back than it cost to get the here.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

I also wonder how many people that end up finding them actually convert to customers.

I know it can probably help with overall branding, but I just wonder how effective it would be.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

Really...I guess in the right place it might work. But finding the right place is definitely the key. Then, when you find the right place, you have to work out the right deal with the owners. That could be a challenge in itself. 

I just don't know if designing a flyer, finding the right spot to put them in, a working out a good deal, is worth the return you would get from having them there. If you already know someone will let you do this before you go through with everything, I think the exposure could be good. Again, if done the right way. I don't think you want to just throw some cheap looking flyer together and staple them to telephone poles, though.


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

Don't threadless have some sort of incentive scheme fo customers to advertise? A little army around the world who know the cool spots to put flyers seems a good idea.


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## Big Jim Slade (Oct 29, 2005)

A friend of mine distributed flyers with just his website address on jet black glossy paper, and nothing else, (leaving the content and the purpose of his site a mystery), he had a great response. Mind you it wasn't a t-shirt website.

http://www.bonaroo.co.uk/


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

You may get some hits like that, but how many people would buy something if they weren't even knowing where they were going in the first place?
Hits to the site, and the flyers actually being a success aren't necessarily the same thing.


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## sofakinggood (Dec 5, 2005)

Well i have no experience of using flyers for a t shirt business but i do have experience at using flyers to promote an event so ill use this as an example. 

My last venture was college speed dating  and i was specifically targeting university students. I used both posters and flyers to advertise my events. The last event was in a college of 10,000 students. I had over 80 A3 full color posters around the college and i handed out over 800 flyers which were in florescent pink. 

I discovered form a questionnaire at the event that not one person that was handed the flyer turned up to the event! And i also found out that people (at least college student) dont usually read posters, they glance. The best source of advertising is definitely "word of Mouth". However, word of mouth is generally generate buy someone who has taken the time to read the poster or flyer and was excited about what they read and told friends. so it seems to be a catch 22 scenario. A clever radio advert with a catchy phrase or music might create more of a talking discussion and awareness to your market than distributing flyers. you can also get a radio advert created for about $50 or less but i have no idea what your 30s airplay slots for local radio cost in the US. Over here i can get 3 airplays for $60. That covers a listnership of 20,000 on any given 1/2 hour. Maybe look into that in your local town. by the way only 20 showed up to that event with all that advertising.

It can be very difficult to reach a particular market, but ive learned that clever marketing is the way to go, you have to create a hype (like monkeylantern suggested a skyscraper ha, ha, maybe not to that extent unless you can afford it) so people become curious and want to see and know more.

I would also suggest (*if it is legal to do in your town or city*) approaching local universities and put up a stand up selling your t shirts as students love the hype of something new happening in the college and tend to impulse buy when there with their friends. In my old uni we had people selling posters and clothes at different times of the year and were very sucessfuly form speaking with them. obviously they would have to give some nominal fee to the college for the use of the corridor. This is a great was of advertising your business if you locate a uni with 5000 or more students. you can then have a large poster behind you advertising your online website! just an idea.

hope it works out.


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## Big Jim Slade (Oct 29, 2005)

Cheers guys I've been offered a good deal on a few hundred flyers so I appreciate the advice and I'll mull over the pros and cons. Have a good xmas people.


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## QP Apparel (Dec 16, 2005)

So far i have never made a sale based on flyers at all.. not even business cards.. if anything it just serves as a medium to give folks my contact info if they were already intrested.


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## sohail (Mar 21, 2007)

flyers are just one of the ways you want to advertise about your product or brand. it comes in handy when you want people to know that something for them is coming out and this flyer is one way they can know about it. flyers are a passe now. there are many different ways you can get attention to your tshirt website. some of the ways you want should be focusing are: viral marketing (just allow some one to speak good about your tshirts and see the effect), refral system (refer a friend and win a tshirt), newsletters and so on.


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## paulo (Dec 13, 2006)

I don't know about flyers but maybe something similar like postcards maybe be better. Certain businesses around your area may allow placement of these postcards in their premises. ie. gyms, restaurants, etc.


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## Majestic Leper (Jun 24, 2007)

Flyers work for somethings: for one thing, making damn sure somebody reads your advert. Heres the score with any advertisement: If you expose somebody once to your ads, you don't sell. But if this same bloke sees 50 more adverts in a week, you can bet money on your name being on the tip of his tongue. 
Flyers are good for a young market. Maybe they'll think your flyering for a club or something. Put a coupon on it. But don't just flyer, expose the same audience to something else... radio... publicity stunts... break into there apartments and write your website on there mirror in lipstick, you know the basics!

-MJ

P.S. Sorry bout all the yelling!


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## Binary01 (Jun 2, 2007)

flyers are cheap and handy..... get the 1/4 page or smaller flyers...... i like to toss them in open car windows...... also have some nice ladies on the front..... people tend to keep things with cute ladies on them......

b


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## TripleT (Apr 29, 2007)

Flyers can work - but they have a very low success rate. 

If you use them, make sure you pass them out to a targeted market. Just leaving them on car windshields for example, won't do much good.


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## Binary01 (Jun 2, 2007)

u have to target the areas really...

since i have a detroit "themed" line, i tend to hang in the techno/electro/hip hop scene here and i've been getting good feedback..... considering that i havent really pushed the line fully yet, the postcards are doing well for getting my name in everyones head......

try to target hair salons and barber shops.....places where people have to sit and actually read something....... maybe get in with the local paper and see if you can toss in flyers in their paper once a month.....

gotta think a little

b


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## Demonii (Sep 7, 2007)

I actually have an input for this! ^.^ Im taking a commercial art program in college where marketing is one of the classes. I asked my teacher what she thought of using flyers/cards to advertise my designs (Im on cafepress...so nothing big..but hey!) Anyways, she said that it would do well, so long as the flyer appealed to the target market. When I first opend BLD, I used flyers to advertise locally, and strangely enough I got a fairly good response. I havent tried flyers since closing and reopening BLD, but it HAS worked in the past for me, fairly well. I guess it just depends on where you are...


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## brent (Nov 3, 2006)

I had read in Impressions magazine that direct mail works well for screen printers, so I had the idea to make postcards and send them to restaurants here in Philly, figuring that the person that went through the mail would be someone that could make a decision on getting t-shirts. I targeted the advertisement towards restaurants, saying how they could be used to promote and identify employees etc. I mailed out about 80 post cards perhaps 3 weeks ago now, and haven't gotten a single inquiry from it, let alone any conversion. I spent about $30 on this marketing action, spent about 4 hours between compiling a list of restaurants, making labels, designing and printing postcards, cutting them, mailing them.
I had high hopes but got nothing. I don't think I'll try it again.


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## commencedesign (Apr 26, 2007)

Comin'OutSwingin said:


> I really can't think of any way that you sell t-shirts(online, retail stores, events) that a flyer could actually "help" you to sell more shirts.
> Just my opinion.


it just gets your name out there thats all flyers do.Thats how they help you sell stuff online and events and stuff


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> . I mailed out about 80 post cards perhaps 3 weeks ago now, and haven't gotten a single inquiry from it, let alone any conversion. I spent about $30 on this marketing action, spent about 4 hours between compiling a list of restaurants, making labels, designing and printing postcards, cutting them, mailing them.
> I had high hopes but got nothing. I don't think I'll try it again


There's a lot that goes into it as well. A lot of variables can determine the success of a direct marketing campaign. 

80 mailers isn't that many since the overall response rate for mailings is just a small percentage.

The design of the mailer, the timing, the contact you send to, their current service needs, etc can all play a part in how well your immediate return is.


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## selzler (Apr 4, 2007)

Hi:
I use flyer to get to customer that I want to target. I only use them as a mailer for custom work. And the return was low for the first 3 year around 2% now we arre at around 8%. I no longer have sales people selling out on the street and do the flyers as the seasons change. Or events come up. But I now mail out about 140,000 flyers per year.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

Big Jim Slade said:


> A friend of mine distributed flyers with just his website address on jet black glossy paper, and nothing else, (leaving the content and the purpose of his site a mystery), he had a great response. Mind you it wasn't a t-shirt website.


I've kind of thought about doing that with black lettering in the middle of a plain business card. I think if I got one, I'd look up the website.


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