Where to advertise with flyers??

[Noheya]

Long story short, a friend was trying to be super helpful and advised me to make up a bunch of flyers to help get my business out there... I designed them and they turned out absolutely great, but now I have 500 of these suckers and no clue where to put them.. :/ Where I grew up there were cork boards in a lot of businesses so others could advertise and such, but I'm having a hard time finding that in this new city. I don't want to be that schmuck that puts them on the cars in the parkinglot lol. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Buckster]

Bribe (or threaten) a newspaper delivery person to stick them into the sunday edition.

 

[KmH]

* Thread Moved *

The Beginner's forum is inappropriate for photography business questions.

Do you have a written business/marketing plan? http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business
www.score.org

Using flyers is an extremely inefficient way to market yourself, because it's not targeted to a sufficiently defined demographic.

Most of your 500 flyers will wind up in the trash.

 

[Noheya]

Bribe (or threaten) a newspaper delivery person to stick them into the sunday edition.

Lol! I'll have to think about that but it's definitely a better idea than I had!

Sorry for the wrong location KmH & Thank you for the move! I was afraid of that, that most of them would end up in the trash, but with it being a spur of the moment decision and not really thought out I'm expecting it. :/

 

[jaxx419]

Coffee shops, Starbucks has a cork board (atleast ours does), local restaurants, tanning, hair and salons, apartment mailbox area ((usually you are not allowed to, so ask the manager)).

You can ask the newspaper what they charge for an "insert" and ask what the minimum requirement is.

 

[Big Mike]

As mentioned, direct mail advertising isn't usually effective, mostly because it's not usually targeted. It's just blanket coverage of a geographical area. Of course, the targeting you can do, is to target an area that you think has the demographic that you're trying to market to.
For example, if you shoot high end weddings, then you might target a wealthy neighborhood.

I heard a story from an instructor, about a student or two who has some success delivering fliers like these, but using some sort of gimmick. For example, rather than just dropping them in the mailbox, they rang the bell and introduced themselves as a new business in the area. One even used a young child (5-6) to take advantage of the cuteness factor.

 

[CCericola]

I have marketing materials at shops that cater to the people I want to do business with. So, I put on my sneakers and went to salons, cake makers, florests, dress shops, tuxedo rental shops, children's clothing boutiques, etc... I asked to put a poster in their window or a stack of cards on their counter. I get enough new business to pay for the materials and time. I only do this once a quater. The new business leads to word of mouth referals which is much more effective.

 

[tirediron]

Bribe (or threaten) a newspaper delivery person to stick them into the sunday edition.

Good way to make sure that you NEVER receive anything (other than perhaps a summons) from the local paper!

 

[sm4him]

I have marketing materials at shops that cater to the people I want to do business with. So, I put on my sneakers and went to salons, cake makers, florests, dress shops, tuxedo rental shops, children's clothing boutiques, etc... I asked to put a poster in their window or a stack of cards on their counter. I get enough new business to pay for the materials and time. I only do this once a quater. The new business leads to word of mouth referals which is much more effective.

I agree with this. MANY years ago, I made a little money doing calligraphy--invitations, baby "name" plaques, scripture plaques, etc. A good bit of my business came from people who found out about my services through information I had at places like bridal boutiques, maternity shops, paper supply stores (where evidently a LOT of people would go to buy the paper for invitations and THEN ask if the employees knew anyone who did calligraphy).
That's been a lot of years ago--back then, I had no problem finding stores willing to not only put the flyers/cards/etc out on the counter, but even mention me to someone who came in asking about calligraphy work. Not sure if it would be as successful a marketing method today.