Today, getting more traffic in your stores is harder than ever. Television, newspaper and radio advertising is prohibitively expensive for the smaller retailer. Even advertising on the internet is getting costly!
The Co-Op mail flyer was hot about twenty years ago and has been virtually forgotten by retailers who turn to more modern and elegant ways to market their store. However the time is right for the resurrection of the humble Co-Op flyer.
A Co-Op flyer is a collection of marketing efforts on one flyer by a group of complimentary retailers, usually located close to one another. Co-Op flyers are particularly effective for main street retailers, although mall retailers can use this cheap but powerful advertising method as well, if it does not contravene their lease agreement with the mall.
A Co-Op flyer campaign takes a small amount of money and a little legwork. You can consider yourself the organizer and approach say, another 9 retailers in the area to participate. Each retailer gets an equal section of the flyer to convey their promotion or message. The flyer can also have a handful of informative articles related to the participants. A bike shop participating in the flyer may offer an article on how to check your bike over and prepare it for the summer riding season, addressing maintenance and safety issues.
The optimal format is a flyer printed on 11 by 17 paper. With one fold you get four 8 1/2 by 11 pages thus creating a small tabloid flyer. There's plenty of room for the advertisers as well as some value added information articles. Recipes in this venue of course are very popular.
Your Co-Op flyer can usually go into the cluster of flyers in your local paper. Your distribution cost may run 5 to 10 cents a flyer, an average of about 8 cents. Since most flyers are slick color publications, your one color flyer in this folded 8 1/2 by 11 format on a tastefully colored shade of stock will actually stand out amongst the mainstream ones!
Printing and adding the fold will cost you about a dime a flyer so for 10,000 flyers, printing and distribution will run about $1,800.00 Individual cost to you and your nine partners is $180.00 each. If you get a response of 50 customers out of 10,000 flyers (a 0.5% response rate..) you will only pay about ($180.00/$50.00=$3.60) $4 to procure a customer! Marketing does not get much cheaper than this!
How do you get 50 new people in your store with a flyer? The flyer must offer something extraordinary. A deep percentage discount, a $25 clip out coupon for certain big ticket purchases in your store, buy one get one free offers etc. Your flyer needs to grab their attention and dazzle them enough to come down and buy something! Two last elements of your flyer of course should include a time limit so that a sense of urgency is an issue, and a method to track response to the flyer through a coupon or offer specific to the flyer.
If you flyer brings in new business to your satisfaction, consider sending one out monthly with your Co-Op group.
Take Action Today:
1) Contact 9 other complimentary retailers and get a commitment to participate in the Co-Op flyer. You may need at 20% deposit from them to take to the printer.
2) Negotiate a deal with a local printer to create the flyer for you. Composition may be offered by them, or with all the computers amongst you, each participant can compose their own ad section. One person in the group with a creative flair can make sure the advertisements are consistent, tasteful and professional.
3) Contact your community paper for distribution costs and finalize your target neighborhoods and distribution schedule.
4) Track the results and make continual refinements to the process. Send out yr Co-Op flyer monthly!
