Flyers on cars or through doors??

[KPautomotive]

Reading the thread about the posters on lamposts .... are flyers left on cars or through posted through doors allowed?

[mattk]

You may as well post your flyer directly into my dustbin and save me the hassle.

[Zest4.biz]

Flyers on cars are problematic( legislation in place for fines) through doors is still legal but better to follow guidelines of MPS for the sake of your business if you intend to target consumers rather than the B2B market.

[garyk]

flyers on my car make my blood boil, its always crap I dont want. It is certainly not a credible way to 'spread the word' IMHO.

Gary

[Rob Holmes]

KP - your stuff looks too niche for a blanket bomb on a carpark approach.

I'd try and find a gathering or a way / place where all your potential customers either gather or reveal themselves in some way.

Or start a different site with a newsletter designed just for your target market and then get the other site to 'sponsor' it.

Rob

[itsneosmatrix]

Hi KP

Personally I dont read anything that comes through my door on put on my car. I'm sure you already do this but get yourself down to all the car shows in your area - Max Power for example

Jason

[hightide]

someone I know fliered the car park of my old office building (had a few hundred companies inside). he'd ordered really cheap fliers and when it rained they "melted" and went to mush all over peoples windscreens.

people not happy (myself included!)

[Eagle]

If I find stuff on my car, I drop it on the floor then report the company for littering. Simple. :)

[lethal]

What I think you should do and what I have seen that works, is if for example your advertising a website .... put it on a plain and cheap cap , and start handing them out in town or in a public place, I saw a company do this once

lethal

[Magsite]

I've got some designs on beer mats, more useful than business cards when put through the door!

[lethal]

yeah and you can put adverts on mouse matts and stuff like that and hand them out to organisation such as offices or schools

[Sharon]

Google RHOCAR, big forum, you can advertise on there quite cheaply, and in their magazine.., loads of other kit car forums out there too... sponsor a section maybe?!

[Toon]

I once put a load of flyers on cars at a local carnival. They worked wonders. Had loads of people come in the shop saying they had heard about us due to those leaflets. The leaflets were only cheap ones but I have no regrets about distributing them. In fact, might do it again this year ;)

[angels960]

I read this post yesterday and mulled over it, now here is my reply/opinion.

Flyers on cars or through letterboxes it doesn't matter which let me tell you why

95% of the people that get it, will either throw it away, get moody, and do all the things that everyone else said that they do

But you don’t care about those people you care about the 5% that are interested that give you a call or do business with you.

That’s what direct mail is about isn't it?

I have done both, 1st of all I went with the help of my OH around my area and pushed flyers through peoples letterboxes. Not the same old pizza flyers that I always get, these were sexy glossy flyers with photos of shoes on etc. I feel that it worked as over the next few days
All the new people that signed up using the 'my account' facility were from that same area and that was the only 'marketing' I had ever done in that area.

Also last week when coming out of an exhibition I had a few flyers left only about 20…as I walked down the road to my car I placed one on every car. The next day I got 2 emails 1 said "I saw your flyer on my car, its really nice where did you get it printed" the other said "I got your flyer from x and looked on your website it’s a really nice site etc etc.."

So you see I believe that it works but it depends what your flyer is about and what you have on it.

[mattk]

I read this post yesterday and mulled over it, now here is my reply/opinion.

Flyers on cars or through letterboxes it doesn't matter which let me tell you why

95% of the people that get it, will either throw it away, get moody, and do all the things that everyone else said that they do

But you don’t care about those people you care about the 5% that are interested that give you a call or do business with you.

That’s what direct mail is about isn't it?

Technically you are right, but if you spend say £1000 on flyers and 95% of them are thrown away, you are effectively throwing away £950 in cash. This does not include the time you and your OH spent delivering leaflets, let's say 5 hours each, at £20/hour, that's another £200.

Surely there are much more effective and imagination ways to reach that 5% of potential customers than carpet bombing entire housing estates with your flyers, that, as you admit yourself, the vast majority of people will simply throw away?

[angels960]

Technically you are right, but if you spend say £1000 on flyers and 95% of them are thrown away, you are effectively throwing away £950 in cash. This does not include the time you and your OH spent delivering leaflets, let's say 5 hours each, at £20/hour, that's another £200.

Surely there are much more effective and imagination ways to reach that 5% of potential customers than carpet bombing entire housing estates with your flyers, that, as you admit yourself, the vast majority of people will simply throw away?


Agreed, there might be other ways but when you are on a budget or just starting you have to try ALL ways to get your message out.

Also my flyers, aquired thorugh my networks, were no where near that expensive. 2 sales on my site and the cost of my flyers are covered so at the time it worked out great for me.

At the end of the day I'm just giving my view on it. It worked for me but perhaphs wouldn’t work for everyone especially in areas that get a lot of direct mail, yours sounds like one of them :)

[DotNetWebs]

I went into my local multi-storey car park the other day and there were literally hundreds of flyers on the floor scattered around the car park. It was obvious where they had come from as there where still hundreds more on car windscreens.

Someone at the end of the day has to spend a lot of time clearing this up.

To those that advocate putting flyers on car windscreens I would ask you:

Who do you think is responsible for this mess?

Do you blame the car owners or would you share the responsibility yourself?

[mattk]

Council's can prosecute you for putting flyers on cars in council owned car parks.

"Unauthorised advertising in Council car parks is not allowed. This includes flyers left on vehicles and posters on P & D machines. It is annoying for most people and the Council takes a hard line in this.

If you see advertising in car parks which you suspect is unauthorised or you receive flyers on you vehicle you should report it to Parking Services who will investigate and may prosecute the advertiser."

[KPautomotive]

Thanks for the tips :)

We are planning on going along to car shows to hand out flyers out.

about the quality of the flyers - is it really worth getting them printed on nice glossy paper? Does it make any difference to printing on normal paper?

[WakingDragon]

I don't think it will matter nearly as much as what you do with it. Put a good call to action and a really good offer or deal on there and you will get a better response.

Obviously try to make it something that will appeal to as many people as possible!

re your original question: Cars seem most appropriate but you need to contact the council you will be operating in. Often they will say ok as long as you are willing to clear up any that are dumped. Doordrops work well too.

All these guys say they dump all their doordrops and car leaflets, but I read quite a few through my door (take aways and cab numbers esp) and always read anything on my windscreen (just in case its a ticket or note). You can't make an omelette...

[Jayne]

I get annoyed if leaflets are stuck on my car, they usually put them under the windscreen wipers, and it makes me really ratty. It's my car, so don't touch it, that's what I think anyway.

Jayne

[lethal]

I was posting leaflets out for a freind of mine today, and he started putting them on cars and stuff, luckily i stoped him as I remembered reading this forum last night about needing planning permission so I just want to say thanks!

[hightide]

the worst experience I had with flyers on my car was when this girl was flyering my vechical as I walked up to it.

I said, nice and polite, "hey - can you skip this one as I'm just going to throw it away..." and then I got a torrent of abuse.

she was just doing her job, but so were the nazis...

the worst thing is that in Bham they have taken to leaving A2 fliers on cars and even once I saw an A1 flyer - there was no wind screen left to see out of.

still you'd get the message I suppose...

[DotNetWebs]

All these guys say they dump all their doordrops and car leaflets, but I read quite a few through my door (take aways and cab numbers esp) and always read anything on my windscreen (just in case its a ticket or note). You can't make an omelette...

The problem is the they are not your eggs to break.:(

The way I see it, if you take this approach (and I am talking about windscreens here, doordrops don't particularly bother me) you are taking the Kleeneze, spammers, approach. i.e. annoying 95% of the population to find (at most) 5% of the population who are interested in your products.

IMHO that is not a very moral/ethical way to do business.

[KPautomotive]

I must say I read all the leaflets I get through the door .... if they are rubbish i then put them in the recycle bin.

[Pete Williams]

Just clicked on the weblink on your signature and it came up with page not found!

[Kevy]

after distrubuting more than a thousand flyers in a certain location wre i thought they was a chance of gettin business i'm left with this big question whether flyers really work i had no response whatsoever.

[KPautomotive]

Just clicked on the weblink on your signature and it came up with page not found!

All fixed now... thanks for pointing that out.