Sending out a Flyer? 2 Factors You Must Understand

Product Purchase Cycle & Impact Quotient 

"There is one marketing truth you must understand: People buy when they are ready to buy, not when you are ready to sell." - Clate Mask, Infusionsoft

You must understand this truth when you send out your message to potential customers.

If your product or service has a purchase cycle of 1 year and every single person in your town will buy that product, on any given week only .0192% of your market potential will need what you sell.

So if you send out a flyer, does that mean you can expect .0192% of the people in your town to react and buy from you?

No. Of that .0192%...

• many customers will be loyal to another business.
• many customers will be transactional and look for the lowest price.
• some customers are your current loyal customers (they will buy anyway).
• some customers will be new to the market... so you have a chance.
• some customers are ready to switch due to poor service or a bad experience.
• some customers will remember a bad experience with your business.
• for some customers your location will be inconvenient.
• some customers may delay the purchase altogether due to the economic climate.
• the bulk of that .0192% will not even see or read your message. They will simply throw your flyer away without reading.
• and remember.... you are not advertising in a vacuum. Your direct competitors are probably sending out a similar message at the same time. Your offer or service if seen and read by potential customers will be compared with all other options in the market.
• the list goes on and on.

So just because you have product to sell or vacancies for your service does not mean people will buy.

One thing that can raise the response rate of your flyer is to raise the Impact Quotient of your message or offer.

A typical Blah Blah Blah flyer... is a who we are, where we are, and what we have to offer, and it will receive the lowest level of response. A flyer with a totally free offer would be expected to receive the highest rate of response. High impact, high return. Low impact, low return.

So you have sent out your flyer. Now what? When will you send it again? Next week another .0192% of your market potential will be in the market for your product or service, are you going to talk to them?

Another problem with flyers... there is little residual value. If you wish to win the hearts and minds of potential customers way before they have a need for your product or service, flyers are not the highest and best use of your ad budget.

Am I saying not to send out flyers? No. In many cases due to budget restrictions or size of market, flyers may be one of your only options. And if you sell a low cost product that has a weekly or fortnightly product purchase cycle flyers can be a great part of your media plan.

Remember .0192% is for a product or service purchased yearly.

A 4yr product purchase cycle = .0048% in the market on any given week.

A 10yr product purchase cycle = .00192% in the market on any given week.

The lower the Impact Quotient... the lower the response.

The longer the Product Purchase Cycle... the lower the response.

Understand Product Purchase Cycle and Impact Quotient when using flyers and advertising... if you don't you will be perpetually disappointed with the results.