Leaflets and flyers are regarded as a very effective form of direct marketing and had being widely used in Singapore by many companies to put across and to draw attention for their business. Currently there are many leaflet formats to be found. Some examples are:
- A4 (roughly letterhead size)
- A5 (roughly half letterhead size)
- DL (comp slip size)
- A6 (postcard size)
- CC (credit card size)
Leaflets & flyers response rates are about 1-2% on average. Leaflets are not expensive and can be an extremely good way of targeting your target market through placing information about your company directly into their hands. There’s a number of ways that may help increase the response rate to your leaflet, flyer, postcard or brochure campaign. I had clients that got 6% return.
- Size and type of the leaflet
- The Offer
- Distribution methods
- Tracking the Results
Size and type of the leaflet
A proper cost effective paper type and print type should be selected. The flyer size that you choose depends on your type of services, flyers distribution area (Island wide or just a town) and your budget. If you are providing a similar service in the region and your competitors are also doing flyers distribution in that region, try having a bigger size leaflet (e.g. A4 size) and stand out from the rest of your competitors. For mass distribution (Island wide) to households leaflets usually take a form of A6 or A5, depending on how much information needs to be put across as it is more cost effective. For MRT or street handing out leaflets, A7 leaflets small enough for the recipient to put in their wallet and DL will have a more profession look. Most Flyers are printed on glossy paper in colored ink. Choosing quality paper and printing ink can give added value to your flyer among the audience. Try finding a more knowledgeable and experienced commercial printer who can offer you a wider variety of paper types, printing quality, faster printing and at a competitive prices.
The Offer
Even flyer distribution is inexpensive advertising, that doesn’t mean you should care less on great content and quality printing. Unprofessional leaflets will reflect badly on your company, possibly doing more harm than good. Does it right and you’ll enjoy a profitable flyer campaign! Invest in professionally designed leaflet but if your budget is low, try printing in smaller quantity instead, print more when you success. Create a headline that catches interest (e.g.” Save 70% on your PUB bill!”); don’t focus too much on your company name as flyers are not name card. Headlines are the most important component to attract the prospect’s attention and your flyers campaign success depend on it. Your leaflet content should consist of:
- What you are offering
- uniqueness of your business over your competitors
- An interesting photos or graphics picture
- motivate reader to take action
- contact details
If you don’t feel confident enough in your product to spend a little money and effort promoting it then why should people feel confident in ordering from you.
Distribution method
It’s important to carefully consider methods of leaflet distribution, choosing the right methods ensure the highest possible response rate.
- Letter box
- Door to Door (Mostly HDB and landed property)
- Sing post (Private Apt and condo)
- Placed on Car Windscreens
- Handing out Leaflets
- Inserted in Local Newspaper
There are advantages and disadvantages of each of the above flyers distribution methods. Make sure you are comfortable with your budget as you may need your flyers to be distributed more than once if you are serious in targeting a certain area with your flyers. Leaflet promotion was hit by hard criticism that it has no way of conforming that the leaflets do reach the right customers in the right time. There are a few leaflet distributors who will deceive you with cheap offers to get your deal and then turn your leaflet distribution to the nearest bin. Choose a leaflet distribution company that will update you once they distribute an area so you may do some block checking yourselves. Positive or negative doesn’t matter; you need results to know what to do next. Try choosing a good flyers distribution company that specialise on flyers distribution to ensure a higher response rate. Printing company that provide distribution service normally outsource their distribution to them on commission basis. You will find cheap package deal from printing company (e.g. ‘4000 print with free delivery at $99’). This cost-effectiveness is often countered by the lower effectiveness of the leaflets. You may be given least printing and distribution quality. Be sure to check what your package consists and if it will ensure high responsive rate.
Tracking the Results
The common way to check the effectiveness of your leaflet is to experiment with different headlines, offer, and type of size, colour choice and distribution methods. Keep track of the effectiveness of the various types of leaflet and improve your flyers marketing skills. You may want to use a different phone numbers or promotional codes for each type of leaflet. Print as many as you can to cover more area in Singapore because in the end it is a numbers game, but test, test, test your marketing message before committing to a big quantity. If properly used, flyers can guarantee instant publicity for any product or service. All that needs to be done is to design the flyers smartly enough to impress potential customers and to find a good distribution company that will ensure your promotion reach them on time.
