hand delivered flyers vs. yellow pages

[treeminator]

what works better?

today i tried hand delivering flyers. me and my worker delivered 400 of them. i estimated it cost 15 cents per flyer when you calculate materials and paid labor. i'm wondering if my money would be better spent in the yellow pages. what kind of results have you gotten?

 

[clearance]

I've made out pretty good handing out flyers outside of fast food restaurants.

I can get lunch, pick up a few jobs and even hire a few employees to do the work all in the same stop.

Good one Treeco, nice to see you back Treetard.

 

[John464]

putting flyers on cars is annoying. it may work, but it pisses people off, myself included. you pull the wiper of some guy's $90K Mercedes, I can gaurantee he will make a mental note not to call you.

try direct mailer colored coupons, we call them Clipper out here works well for one shot advertising. I do not use them as they promote a lot of shoppers, but they do get the phones ringing.

yellow pages you must be in. remember you have to put your ad in months in advance before the new year is printed and pay 12 months out of the year.

newspapers are becoming a waste of advertising money I have been pulling a lot of my ads out of the papers and instead taking that part of that advertsing budget and purchasing yard signs, at $4 a pop placing them on a customers yard, leave it there for a week or two.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Here's what I've tried in the order of success from number 1 as best...
1. Flyers (at homes, some bulletin boards
2. Going right to the front door and meeting people
3. Referrals
4. Small newspapers or coupon style publications
5. Yellow pages

My guess is that yellow pages can be better for some people, especially if the budget can afford a large ad.

The flyers have brought customers including - for example - a personnel director of one of the largest companies in the world.

Flyers bring all kinds of people. It may not be the best way in the long run, but its a very reliable method to get things rolling at any point in time.

Just don't stick them on cars.

Newspaper tubes work great. But wait until the early newspaper delivery has already occurred, and stuff the flyer before people will likely pick up the mail. You need the tubes where the mailbox is next to the paper box. If they don't get a paper, they will see th edge of the flyer as they reach for the mailbox.

If anybody gets bad results from flyers, it's because they have not invested mental acumen to the timing and nature of it.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

I get all the work I want using only flyers, which I leave at the front doors of about twenty homes that surround a gig I'm presently working. I distribute them as my groundies load. I like doing the actual distribution. The Yellow Pages can kiss my :censored: . Unless you can afford a big ad, you will not get great results, and I've been there, done that. I also post a yard sign at each site I'm working, and usually get at least one person asking for a card per site. With the YP's, you get lots of folks jerking your chain and spending your gas money on go-nowhere bids. Not so with the above.

 

[woodchux]

It's been my experience that people who respond to the flyers expect to pay a lower price than those that call from the yellow pages. Not to say you can't get good clients from flyers, just some assume that you might be more desperate for money, and will work cheap since you have to "chase work"

 

[clearance]

It's been my experience that people who respond to the flyers expect to pay a lower price than those that call from the yellow pages. Not to say you can't get good clients from flyers, just some assume that you might be more desperate for money, and will work cheap since you have to "chase work"

He works cheap and is cheap cause he pays his climbers $8hr, alllegedly.

 

[treeman82]

I've found that just knocking on a few neighbors doors when I am working at one job does a lot for promoting new business.

"Hi, my name is ________ I'm working over at Mr. / Mrs. ______'s house and wanted to come over and introduce myself. Here is my card if you ever need any _________ work done."

Take it from there... sometimes you get a few bites, other times not.

 

[treeminator]

He works cheap and is cheap cause he pays his climbers $8hr, alllegedly.

that's not true Clearance. i pay my climbers $10/hr. the groundies get $8. and they pay for their own WC.

i'm cheap...er. don't think i give away my business. i simply price it just slightly lower to make sure i walk away with the contract. yesterday i got a $1300 take down. the other guy had $1500. i walked away with $1100 profit and the other guy walked away with $0 and wasted gas/time for the sales effort.

 

[rbtree]

that's not true Clearance. i pay my climbers $10/hr. the groundies get $8. and they pay for their own WC.

i'm cheap...er. don't think i give away my business. i simply price it just slightly lower to make sure i walk away with the contract. yesterday i got a $1300 take down. the other guy had $1500. i walked away with $1100 profit and the other guy walked away with $0 and wasted gas/time for the sales effort.

Sooo. are you paying your help under the table as well? I can't speak for Florida, but in most states, you must pay employee WC expenses, regardless of how many employees you have. And, your liability insurance company, assuming you have one, would want to know whether you are treating your help as subs or employees. Either way, most insurance companies base your premium on payroll---and if your subs are uninsured, you get hit with a substantial premium there as well. Plus, the IRS doesn't look kindly on the hiring of uninsured subs.

Whatever, I pay my helpers ( who are highly skilled, and not obtained from soliciting at McDonalds) about triple that measly pittance that you pay your help. But then, I get what I pay for.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Plus, the IRS doesn't look kindly on the hiring of uninsured subs.

Especially if they are really employees, and you think you can just make them subs by calling them that. A lot of folks have tried that, and a lot have even gotten away with it for a few years.

And then the hammer falls, and it falls hard.