# Flyers



## Rob Broad (Jul 19, 2004)

Who uses flyers to help advertise their schools? What do you put on your flyers? What should be on the flyers and what should not?


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## MisterMike (Jul 23, 2004)

When I was preparing to open my dojo, I asked about 5-6 local stores who had pinups if I could add mine as well.

It included the bare essentials like Arts studied, Opening Date, phone number and a small picture of 2 students training.

I don't believe it generated any students for the short time it was up though. All of my applicants came thru the local paper.


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## Rob Broad (Jul 23, 2004)

Flyers need to be target specific, and have a specific message.

I like to have a introductory special on my flyers.  My favorite special is 2 months and a uniform for $99.00.  Then I also like to have small pull tabs  at the bottom of the flyer with my phone number.  That way each person walks away with a reminder of the flyer.


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## Michael Billings (Jul 23, 2004)

I use flyers to target specific populations, like when I do a Women's Self-Defense class at a local gym; or am setting up the same, but at my school, I target a big business (Dell Computers, IBM, Motorolla, AMD, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, etc.)  They are local here in Austin, and I usually have one student who will generate some interest, then I provide the flyers.  

 Tagging cars, putting them up in local businesses just has not brought in much business ... if any. 

 -Michael


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## Rob Broad (Jul 23, 2004)

Where I live it is illegal to plaster flyers on all the cars in a parking lot.  I like to target places for flyers like the grocery store, laundy mat, video store, and community center; all of these places have bulletin boards and they all get lots of viewers.  Pull tabs allow the person to walk away with a reminder fo seeing the ad.

I also like to make deals with independent video stores and pizza places.  If they hand out my mini flyer to their customers I will recompensate the store for helping.  The mini flyer usually says.   "As a thank you, (Business Name) would like to give you 1 week of free lessons at (Your school name here).  We appreciate your patronage and offer this gift to you  our loyal customer.  Please call ***-**** to book yor free week of lessons."

Since every coupon coming in has the business name of the company that referred them it makes it real easy to track who referred the potential student.  If the student signs up for my intro promo I give the referrer $25.  The referrer wins, the student wins, and I win.  It is a great system.  The business that I deal with in this manner will protect you from your competitors wanting to put their flyer up on their bulletin board.


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## TigerWoman (Jul 24, 2004)

County fairs are a good place to give away flyers.  Our school usually has a booth for the week.  It is labor intensive as someone always has to man the booth.  We have a breaking station with rebreakables for free and pine boards at $1.  We just teach them palm strike and go through tons of boards in that week. Videos are set up with martial arts tapes. It is better to have a woman at the booth to sign up women prospects.  Also the flyers can be handed out by your students at different places in the fairgrounds.  We also do a demo which lasts about 45 minutes - that usually brings in alot of people with questions. Usually this week results in the most students signed up at one time.  Fall classes are huge, but by January its shrunk back to "normal" attendance for adults, children stay though.  TW


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## hardheadjarhead (Aug 20, 2004)

Michael Billings said:
			
		

> Tagging cars, putting them up in local businesses just has not brought in much business ... if any.
> 
> -Michael




I don't know about others, but I HATE it when people tag my car.  

Local business putting up your flyer can be a good thing.  Introduce yourself to the owner and get to know them.  Rob's suggestion of compensation is a good one.

Make sure the spelling on your flyer is accurate!  Have good punctuation.  This might seem trivial, but the last thing you want is people thinking you're ignorant.  You don't want to advertise "marital arts".  Okay, maybe you do...but that's a different forum.

Put adequate info.  I know a guy who distributed flyers and put the name of the mall he was in, but didn't mention the city or street.  I've seen people forget to put their phone number on them.


Regards,


Steve


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## bullydog (Sep 12, 2004)

In my area, it's all about the flyer.  The only people who read the paper here are the elderly.  Not tagging them, but hanging them in the local businesses, teen hangouts, and so on.  I even got a deal going with a local pizza shop where they put our flyer on every pizza box that goes out.  The phone number rip off thing is a really good idea, too.  That way, they're not taking a flyer off the board to keep the phone number.


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