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Could Flyers Make Your Business Fly? By Tatiana Velitchkov © 2002 Just because you run an online business doesn't mean you can't benefit from the power of the printed flyer! Flyers -- or handbills -- have always been a cost-effective advertising tool available to small business owners, and small ONLINE business owners are no exception. As long as you're NOT targeting "people who are glued to their computers all day and never leave their homes," then you can safely decide to use flyers to: - promote an online event - advertise a sale you're having - or let them know about a special offer exclusively on your site. THE BASICS Once you decide to try a little bit of "flyer power," just remember to include these 5 basic ingredients when putting together your printed pitch: Theme Theme is the general idea, the dominant image, the symbolism that sticks. It's what makes your entire offer stand out from the rest of the printed matter, because it gives your readers something their imaginations can hold on to. Ideally, whatever theme you use for your flyers should tie up with the theme you're currently using for your site. Besides giving people visual reassurance that they've reached the right website, it also helps reinforce your entire pitch in their minds, making you (and your business, and your services) utterly unforgettable. Information The trick here is to make everything concise, compelling, and complete. (You only have a handbill to put it all into, after all!) Grab them with a headline, interest them with benefits (what's in it for them), and make them salivate for those solutions that could banish their problems forever. The simple idea is to give them enough to be interested, but end up wanting MORE. So they'll have an overwhelming reason to visit your site. Lay Out The great temptation for first time flyer makers is to pack EVERYTHING into that small handbill page... and this is a big mistake. Normally, a person who's just been given a flyer (while presumably rushing over to work or an appointment) will glance at the entire thing for just 1 second, and in that short time decide whether: - he should throw it away, - stuff it into his pocket, - or give it his complete attention for the next 10 to 15 seconds. You obviously don't want to end up in the first category, and should you fall into the second you certainly want it to be just a prelude to the third. But the secret of successfully getting a flyer read AT ALL is to make the lay-out inviting (relaxing, inspiring, intriguing) enough to convince your reader it's actually an artwork worth keeping... ...At least until he's read it thoroughly enough to actually know what it says. Call To Action Now, you know that the ideal action you want them to make is to go to the nearest Internet-connected computer and type your URL into the browser. But you should also make it a priority to not sound generic (e.g., "visit our site today!"), and actually instruct them to take certain actions they can make NOW, even as they're reading your flyer. Here are some samples (although I'm sure YOU could think of more): - IMAGINE visiting our website today & finally finding the home of your dreams, - WRITE your email address on this form now & fax it to us when you reach your office, and - TAKE NOTE of this 20% discount code (PQRST), and make sure to type it in when making your purchase. Energy You've probably never heard this before in other make-your- own-marketing-materials articles, but this is a tip worth looking into: Take a few moments to look at your finished flyer, and direct into it all the energy & enthusiasm that you have for your product / your business. Because more likely than not, this will be the same energy/enthusiasm that all your flyer readers will pick up on, increasing your chances of getting them to actually visit your site and act on your offer. Why do I say this is something actually worth trying? Two stories from two friends of mine, proving that this really WORKS! The first story comes from Charles Burke, who lives in Japan. He just read an article about a Japanese researcher who proved that thoughts can physically change the way water freezes. "Pure mountain spring water naturally freezes in beautiful and complex crystalline patterns." says Charles, in his ezine 'The Sizzling Edge' (http://www.sizzlingedge.com). "Polluted river water, on the other hand, forms ugly, misshapen non-crystalline patterns." In the experiment Charles mentions, a researcher named Dr. Masaru Emoto directed various thoughts such as "love," "gratitude," and "you fool" toward different bottles of water. He then quickly froze droplets of this "treated" water, and took photomicrographs of them. The results were dramatic! "When Dr. Emoto or his assistants sent thoughts of love or kindness into the polluted water, beautifully complex crystals formed during the freezing process." Charles relates. "These ice crystals approached the complexity and beauty of natural water crystals." On the other hand, the clean water that was subjected to harmful or insulting words became degraded, and actually lost its ability to form complex crystals. Charles reports that these tests are "repeatable," so anyone interested in verifying the findings can try the same experiment and get the same results. The second story that convinces me about the effect of "directing thoughts / energy" comes from Joe Vitale, from his new ebook called "Spiritual Marketing" (available on www.MrFire.com). Here Joe talks about his friend Sandra Zimmer, who runs the Self-Expression Center in Houston. "Sandra consciously infuses her ads with her energy." says Joe. "She actually sits and meditates over her ad, sending her energy into the ad. As a result, her ads have a magnetic quality to them. She once told me that people hold on to her ads for as long as seven years. "While her ads didn't look different, they FELT different. There was just something about (them) that made them more memorable. That something was Sandra's own energy." So, do you still think this "hocus-pocus thing" about directing your enthusiasm into your flyer is a step you can ignore? I'll leave that decision up to you. =) FINALLY, AFTER PRODUCTION ...Comes "distribution." Hopefully by this time you have a very clear idea about what makes a good (or even an outstanding) flyer, and soon you'll be ready to create one that would make your own business fly. But as with all forms of advertising, flyer-distribution has to be TARGETED, so make sure you give them away to people who: - can really benefit from your service - will know people who will benefit from your service - or would at least be able to get on the Internet & visit your site within 10 minutes of seeing your flyer. You can even choose to distribute your flyer in less conventional ways, like: - through fax - as posts on public bulletin boards - as inserts in packages - or even electronically as pop-under ads! After all, there's no limit to how high your flyers can fly, as long as it's propelled by a business owner's imagination. © Tatiana Velitchkov About the Author: Tatiana is the publisher of: http://www.TheFortunesEzine.com, the FortunesEzineWeekly at http://www.TakeYourFortune.com, and owner of the traffic-solution slam advertising sites http://www.Guaranteed-Hits.com and http://www.GuaranteedHits.net |