Social media, influencers, virtual promotions—these media channels have all but dominated the modern marketing doctrine. As technology has no way to go but forward, it’ll be to no one’s surprise if businesses invest in next-gen tech, be it augmented reality or advanced machine learning, to stay several steps ahead of their competitors.
As inevitable as the progress of technology appears, there’s still room for old-school marketing methods, namely flyers. Their cost-effectiveness and ability to reach multiple people make them a viable marketing tool, especially for local businesses such as cleaning services. Combined with proper delivery, flyers can compete with social media and email in recall value.
This guide will explain the various ways cleaning services can take advantage of flyers to promote their business.
- Offer discounts
Hiring a cleaning service can be expensive, with an average job estimated between GBP£10 and GBP£20 per hour. The cost only grows after taking several factors into account like the house’s size, the amount of cleaning to be done, and area of residence. It’s no surprise that people want to save costs where they can. (1)
Given this hefty price tag, many cleaning flyer examples and ideas include coupons or a discount guarantee when the customer presents the flyer. Some businesses take it one step further, such as extending the same deal to the customer’s neighbor or discounts on the first few appointments.
Do be cautious however, that while this is an excellent way to keep old clients and entice new ones, discounts can hurt a business’s bottom line when taken too far. One study shows that steep discounts can even make consumers doubt the quality of the offered service. (2)
- Don’t be limited to actual flyers
A flyer is as simple as it gets: a piece of paper with a colorful design and compelling message. This simplicity is one of its main advantages: anyone with a decent printer and a ream of paper can produce flyers en masse.
However, recent price increases in gas and electricity have driven paper prices up, threatening to negate the flyer’s cost-effectiveness advantage. According to a recent report, the cost per tonne has risen to as much as EUR€170 (GBP£145) due to energy surcharges. Businesses may see their printing costs go up by as much as 5%. (3)(4)
The good news is that flyers don’t always have to be actual flyers. One idea to cut paper costs is a tear-off flyer design, consisting of a large flyer and several tearable pieces at the bottom. Some marketing suites like Jobber and others even feature a tear-off template for businesses, resulting in a flyer that can cater to multiple people per unit.
- Mail them directly
When email became widespread by the turn of the 21st century, many believed that it sounded the death knell of snail mail. After all, email gets sent and received instantly, stays in the inbox, and doesn’t require a stamp.
Yet, two decades into the 2000s, snail mail is very much alive, especially as a marketing tool. A 2016 survey found that 23% of consumers who bought something within that year stemmed from getting something in the physical mailbox. It doesn’t look much, but it’s sizeable enough to say that snail mail’s still in use to an extent.
More recent research also points to direct mail’s ability to compete with email and social media in terms of recollection. People remember anything physically mailed to them 35% better than when sent via social media and 49% better than email. On top of that, the Royal Mail takes mail seriously, even if it’s just a flyer. (5)
- Never miss the CTA
Every old or new marketing approach ends with a compelling call-to-action (CTA) message. Be it as simple as ‘call today’ or with more creative phrasing, a CTA helps generate leads and later convert them to paying clients. Having one in a flyer becomes more critical if it’s promoting a limited-time offer.
Marketing experts say developing an ideal CTA is one instance where simple isn’t necessarily the best. More sophisticated messages like offering discounts can make the CTA subtle enough for customers to barely notice that it’s a marketing strategy.
Conclusion
Producing and distributing flyers remains an effective way to spread the word about a cleaning service out into the community. With so many people getting used to seeing online posters and promotions, getting a physical flyer in the mail will be a welcome change of pace for them. These tips can make the most out of this strategy.
Resources
- “Domestic House Cleaning Costs: The Full 2021 Guide”, Source: https://householdquotes.co.uk/house-cleaning-costs/
- “When Discounts Hurt Sales: The Case of Daily-Deal Markets”, Source: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/isre.2017.0772
- “Paper prices keep going up”, Source: https://www.printweek.com/news/article/paper-prices-keep-going-up
- “Paper Prices Continue to Rise. Here’s Why.”, Source: https://gonextpage.com/2021/08/05/paper-prices-continue-to-rise-heres-why/
- “Is social media marketing better than printed marketing?” Source: https://dma.org.uk/article/is-social-media-marketing-better-than-printed-marketing