The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s true in life, and it’s true of promoting your trade business.
What do we mean?
We always preach the need for cutting edge systems and forward-thinking to keep your trade business relevant and running smoothly in today’s day and age. But that doesn’t mean some of the oldest tricks in the book aren’t just as effective today as they have been for decades.
Old-school flyers are still an incredibly powerful way to find new clients and build your brand – but only if you’re using a system adapted to the fast-paced, digital-driven world we live in today.
How can you do it?
The older methods just need some flash and refinement. Marketing is about foundational concepts that are always going to be true – but the way we leverage and apply them is changing all the time.
Our “flyer magic” strategy has been an absolute game-changer for Academy members looking to generate the additional work needed to take their businesses to the next level.
We’re going to run through everything you need to know in this article. But first; why is flyer magic so powerful?
It’s a simple numbers game. If you send a thousand flyers out, and they land you 20 new clients at an average of $500/job, that’s an extra 40k in revenue each year if you’re sending them in the quarterly intervals we recommend. So if you increase the number of flyers to 2000, you can double the return.
Your results are scalable.
Like all things, regularity is super-important. You’ve got to send your flyers out every three to four months – we recommend quarterly. It gives you a nice flow.
Research suggests you need between 7 and 11 touchpoints with your prospective customer before your brand is recognised, and you’re memorable in that space, so just blasting these out once is not enough.
So jump on Canva, or send it out to your graphic designer, do whatever you need to do to have the necessary volume ready for each quarter. Make sure this is happening consistently, and increase the volume; hit more and more places with more and more flyers.
Now onto the four core concepts you need to implement for flyer magic to explode your business and convert new business at an insanely high-rate.
Message
Your flyers should always speak to YOUR target audience. Be really specific with who you’re targeting.
For example, if you’re sending a flyer to a general residential or domestic client in a new-build area, it’s going to be quite different than the flyer you’re sending to an established housing estate that’s been there for 20 or 30 years.
The pain points for new-build occupiers are going to be very different. Have you ever moved into a brand new home and after living there for a few months, thought to yourself; “I wish I had an extra power point there…” or “I wish I had an extra sink there..”.
That’s a perfect opportunity for you to provide flyers that speak into that pain point and offer a solution. If you’re targeting the local gyms, or cafes, in your area, the words and images on your flyers must speak to these markets directly.
Creative
Let’s be honest. No one actually reads this shit. But you can set up your flyer campaign so that people actually pay attention. We call it the “Dear Neighbour” campaign.
What would you do if you found a plain white envelope in your letterbox with “Dear Neighbour” hand-written on the front of it? Imagine there’s no postage stamp on it – so it must’ve been hand-delivered.
There’s a much higher chance you will open it and pay attention to what’s inside, right? Yes, you’re going to have to hand-write on a bunch of envelopes – but we’ve found you can actually prepare 500 in about 40 minutes – or one episode of your favourite show on Netflix.
Now, what goes inside? There’s three parts.
First, the actual flyer.There’s no secret to flyers. There’s only one rule; Don’t put a time component on them. Instead of saying “only valid for April” write “only valid for this month” – why? You still create urgency this way AND you can use the flyer whenever it’s needed.
The next part is personalisation. You’ve got to speak to them personally. On a separate A4 piece of paper, put a photo of yourself (or your team) and write ten lines about you. Talk about where you went to school, what you do, where you eat in the local area. Show them who you are as a person. Allow them to connect.
Third, provide something that actually matters to the person, or is genuinely useful. We like magnets – not some ugly, useless thing to be stuck on the fridge – instead, provide something with real utility. For example, a magnet with a calendar with the local bin collection schedule from the local city council. This can be stuck on the fridge, will be emblazoned with your logo, and will surely be checked from time to time.
So now what?
Automation
As your business grows in the long-term, you’re gonna get busy. You can’t be doing all the legwork for your lead gen and marketing. The problem is though, automation often takes the “feeling” and authenticity out of your marketing – you need to keep the feeling and one-to-one relationship going.
How?
With a graphic designer and a virtual assistant. In regards to hand-delivering your flyers, be creative. Make sure your staff always have them handy. Maybe whenever they finish a job they can deliver 10 left and right from the residence.
You need someone putting the flyers in manually so it feels real. This will distinguish you from your less identifiable competitors.
Where do tradies go wrong with that?
They just think the flyer magic system is too much effort – until they actually try it. Like with all things, you need to weigh up your return on investment – if you’re getting 20 conversions from 1000 flyers, you will be miles ahead with an ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE return even taking into account the cost of a graphic designer, virtual assistant and hand-deliveries.
Think long-term, and channel this mindset…When you’re creating a business, there’s a lot of work at the start. As you move through the different processes and stages of the business, you will get to a point where you have money coming in, and you need to make sure it’s being reinvested back into the business to continue its growth.
