Which has more effect? Cards or Flyers?

5IVE · 02-18-08, 10:25

Which one has brought you the most customers? Business cards are easy to keep in your wallet, but flyers can have more information and can be passed out at meets, events etc. I'm not sure which to get first, eventually I would like to incorporate both in my marketing.

brwill2005 · 02-18-08, 07:15

Neither is particularly effective. I consider business cards to be more of a formality after talking to any potential customer. If you do not have business cards, you will not be taken seriously. Flyers will give you a small return if you pass out enough of them. I have had good results with direct mail, although it is a bit expensive.

Twista616 · 02-18-08, 08:50

^^Agreed...but the thing with flyers for direct mailing, the objective is to catch their attention. Everyone gets loads of junk mail, credit cards offer, magazine offers, and we end up throwing it out without reading it.

What i find that works EXTREMELY well...create a flyer or marketing piece that pertains to the customer...so relate car detailing to their everyday life, so when they pick up the flyer, they read it and think to themselves" wow, your right, that does happen in my life" or something like that...

I would give an example...but I cant spoil my success!

Hoep it helps!

brwill2005 · 02-18-08, 09:29

My direct mail coupon is packaged in an envelope with aprox. 25-30 other coupons. The envelope itself gets their attention. You are right, most people throw it away, however, I do 30,000 homes with each mailing so I get decent results. The company sends the envelope mostly to single family homes and some town homes. I choose the zones so that it is targeted to the areas with the highest incomes. So far it is the best marketing I have done. The company designed a very nice coupon for me, and the it was all included in the price I pay. I wish I had been doing it since day one.

jsatek · 02-19-08, 05:14

brwill2005 - 30,000 deliveries nets you how many new clients?

brwill2005 · 02-19-08, 07:07

I got around three new clients from each 30,000 mailing I did.

PTRon · 02-19-08, 08:09

"I consider business cards to be more of a formality after talking to any potential customer. If you do not have business cards, you will not be taken seriously."
Gotta Agree with Brad. A nice business card is a must.

backwoods_lex · 02-19-08, 10:20

I actually created a phamphlet on my computer using the windows xp template. I put a picture of a luxury car on the cover along with my company name and phone number. Inside is a description of the packages that I offer and general information about my company (products, machines, etc.) and about detailing in general. I also list most of the services that I offer in bullet form. I like the idea a lot more than just leaving a business card or flyer somewhere. Most people are impressed by it, and it only cost the price of two black and white copies.

How expensive is direct mailing?

Dirk

Edit: Spend some money on a good business card. I went the cheap route only to discover that the avon lady had the same business card as me.

RIDDLE · 02-19-08, 01:03

im not a pro detailer, but i really like the pamphlet idea. it seems more professional than a flyer- like you put more effort into it

Twista616 · 02-19-08, 06:18

Create a flyer in photoshop if possible...you can create more realistic effects, hence my avatar, which was done in p-shop! Its really hard to learn, but there are soo many tutorials online these days, anyone can make something...including myself!

Just a thought, but if it looks good in XP, by all means use it!! P-shop just offers that "edge"...

chips-b-gone · 02-19-08, 07:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by backwoods_lex

Most people are impressed by it, and it only cost the price of two black and white copies.

Really impress people like I did. Purchase a color laser to produce your flyers. I bought a Samsung CLP-300 for $200 at staples. My Headlight restoration supplier has a premade PDF file that I just enter test into 2 areas on the flyer and it formats 2 per page. I bought a cheap paper cutter to split them and I have awesome looking flyers. Everywhere I see poor headlights, a flyer goes in the door handle. If I get a 3% return the flyers more than paid for themselves.

RickRack · 02-20-08, 05:40

Well first off, it costs about 5 times more to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing customer. Before advertising for new customers, you really have to take care of your current clientele. Spending money on advertising for new customers while you don’t have a good system in place to keep them is pointless. You want to keep your existing customers happy, which will make them want to come back over and over again. You must build relationships with your customers and provide great customer service by keeping in touch with them by phone, e-mail or whatever.

I would suggest talking to your current customers and have them fill out a little survey or something and offer a chance to win a free detail. These customers will be able to tell you a lot about your potential customers. Ask them where they buy their newspaper, what roads they travel on, where they shop, where they spend their weekends, etc.. This will give you a better idea how to reach your target market.

Word of mouth is the by far, the best and cheapest form of advertising. You should offer some sort of VIP/referral program to your current customers. Print up a bunch of business card coupons. On the front of the card, write your special offering. On the back of the card, put "referred by" and leave a blank space for the your customer to put his name, number and e-mail address. Every time a customer comes in, hand them some new ones. Tell them to fill out the cards and pass them out to family, friends and co-workers. If their relative, friend or co-worker uses the coupon, they’ll get a special discount on their next detail. You will need to keep track of this on a spreadsheet.

Another great way to grow your business is cross-promotion. Work with body shops, auto repair shops and dealerships and have them hand out your fliers to their customers to promote your business. Do the same for them in return, but make sure you are referring your customers to someone that is reputable.

If you decide to make up some cards of flyers, your biggest goal should be to get your customers to buy now. Offer some sort of discount or free offer with the purchase of a specific package. To promote your offering, make sure to include an expiration date on the card or flyer which will give the customer a deadline. If you offering them this great deal, than you will have to set some sort of time limit to get the customer to act on it. If your offer expires in 1 week, they can't wait until "someday" to come in.

Sorry this is getting lengthy, but just remember to always take care of your existing customers. Follow up every detail with a follow up call or e-mail asking the customer if they were satisfied with the work you performed. If a customer is not totally satisfied and you do not fix the problem, they are going to tell people they know and never come back. If they were not satisfied at first and you fix the problem, they will tell others how good they were treated and refer others. The goal is to keep a customer for life. There's no point in spending all of your money on getting new customers if you can't keep your current ones.

Hope this helped....

~Rick