How to make flyers and use them to get more business in your area
Targeting potential customers where they live, work, and play is one of the easiest ways to grow your business. Think about it this way: A possible client is walking to the dog park, feeling bad that Fido didn't get any exercise yesterday. As they walk by the community board, they see a flyer for a great local business that takes care of dogs. They take one of the tear-offs, call you, and then become a regular, repeat customer. Easy as pie!
One of the best ways to grow your business is to hand out flyers about pet sitting. There are three steps to take if you want to use flyers as a way to market your business.
- Flyer Design
- Plan where you will put your flyers
- Getting your flyers printed and ready
Flyer Design
It's important that your flyer looks both professional and interesting to people who might become new customers. At the bottom of many flyers is a "tear-off" section where a customer can tear off your contact information. There are a lot of great tools out there that can help you make a great flyer. These can be as simple as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. You don't have to go crazy, but you do want something that looks professional. Canva is a tool you can use if you want something with more design features. Canva has a lot of great tools that help businesses make graphics that look professional quickly and easily. It is a great choice for logos, images for social media, brochures, and flyers.
Canva also has a lot of templates and ideas to help you get started. It might take a few tries to make the perfect flyer, but your flyers should always be a good reflection of your business. Make sure you take your time with this to get it right.
Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Flyer Content:
When starting a business, it's best to keep things as simple as possible. Make sure it's easy to read all the information on your flyer, and make it especially clear how to get in touch with you to book services.
Only a few essentials are required:
- Business name and logo
- What services you offer?
- Service area
- Contact information: phone, email, website
- A site like Canva makes it easy to add a graphic or illustration that stands out.
- Optional: your website's QR code. With a QR code, anyone can open a QR scanner and go straight to your website without having to type in the web address.
Create something that is unique to you and your business while keeping in mind that the design ought to reflect both.
Where to Put Flyers
After you've made your flyer, you should think about where you're going to put it. There are two main things to think about here. First of all, where should you put your flyers? Second, do you have permission to put your flyers there? If not, do you need to ask for permission?
Let's start with the first one. Flyers should be put where your customers live, work, and play. The most important thing is that as many real pet owners as possible see your flyer. Where are these people, then?
We already said in the post that the dog park is a good place to start. A lot of dog parks have a community board where people can put up flyers or other notices. If there are places for flyers on popular walking trails near you, you should definitely hang some flyers there.
Are there places in your area, like a coffee shop or pet store, where local businesses can put up flyers? You can call around to see if you can put up flyers anywhere. How about apartment buildings or places that bring people together? These are great flyer spots. Think about the big bulletin board in the lobby of an apartment building. It's also a good idea to put a few business cards on those bulletin boards for people to take and share. Having a few business cards on hand is helpful, especially if you find a great place to advertise locally but don't have any flyers with you.
When thinking about all the places you can put up flyers, it's important to make sure you have permission to do so. Anyone can put up flyers on most "community boards." Before you can put up a flyer, you may need permission from a business or community. If you're not sure, just ask. It's always better to be safe than sorry. Most businesses and communities are happy to support a local business that does a great job for its customers and residents.
Flyer Printing and Preparation
Now that you have great flyers and a plan for putting them up all over town, all you have to do is print and prepare them. If you have a good color printer at home, you can print them there for sure. If not, you can print your flyers at Staples, Office Depot, the UPS Store, or even your local library.
If you've made "tear-off" flyers, make sure to cut them so that potential clients can easily tear off your contact information.
Last, make sure to keep an eye on your flyers. If they look old or don't have any tear-offs left, you should get new ones.