Please buy – I’m desperate..
I heard someone appearing in the Edinburgh Fringe being interviewed today. She was talking about ‘flyering’ which, if you’ve ever been in Edinburgh in Festival season, you’ll know gets through several forests of trees during August. Many of these flyers may go into a pocket or bag for a brief stay, but inevitably end up in a bin.
The performer talked about hating selling, and when she was asked why someone should go to her show, she wanted to say “because it’s good, and the venue costs a fortune and I’m desperate.” Of course, she didn’t say that – or hopefully not before a couple of hours in the rain. She presumably had a quick and engaging description of her show (I’m being optimistic here), but the reality is, most people will make decisions on what show to attend based on reviews, friends’ recommendations and their own interests. One comedian admitted that he’s fine at chatting to people one-on-one to promote his show, but he hates trying to force flyers into peoples’ hands.
The business moral in all of this? For flyers read brochures. For flyering, read scatter-gun marketing and business development. It’s better to build one-to-one relationships with the people who might reasonably buy your service. It would also help to be able to tell them what they would get from working with you.
Or you could try standing on a bollard in Edinburgh High Street, shout a lot and have heavy-weight flyers which at least make an impact when they hit people…