Does door to door publicity help?

Hello Everyone!!,

Here is my question, I am thinking to get some flyers and distribute it door to door in my community and neighouring coomunities and areas. Also posting it in nearby grocery stores etc. But I am not sure, if this will really help. Has anyone done it before?..Any suggestions...
Thanks!!

Hi Trish,

This is one of the items on my 2011 to-do list. I planned on concentrating on the local restaurants but hitting the rest of the community wouldn't be a bad idea. The key thing to remember is that business receive so much junk mail that most of it just gets tossed so whatever you send out there try to make it as snazzy as you can. I'm thinking about using Vista Print's rack cards.

http://www.vistaprint.com/rack-cards.aspx?xnav=LeftItem&xnid=AdvertisingMarketing_RackCards

I have done door to door and my personal opinion is don't waste your time, photocopies and energy. I got absolutely nothing from 200 flyers for halloween face painting and all they had to do was come around the corner.

I'm thinking door to door would not be the most effective or efficient way to advertise. It would be better to target specific businesses who might hire face painters. Such a small percentage of the actual population hires facepainters, so your odds of getting a bite from random door-to-door promotions would be slim.

Try posting on Kijiji... For Halloween I booked up solid from one ad put up on Oct 19th (plus my regulars!)

If you want to do a print campaign, as mentioned by the others, target specific businesses for specific services.

Bulletin boards - not much point really. Seems like everyone is online so Kijiji and other local listing services would be more efficient and less costly to you.

When I first left home I traveled the world for a few years (well more like a decade) and one of my many jobs was traveling Oz selling Kids educational packages door to door. Even in areas with many kids our stats were that you had to knock 100 doors to get 3 appointments (this was like the product demo) and you needed 3 appointments to get 1 sale. And this was if you were on your game and demo-ing well, using some pretty effective sales techniques face to face. So I'm thinking that a card in the mail is unlikely to yield much for the cost and effort.
I always approach businesses directly with targeted advertising based on how they could benefit from hiring me. My main marketing is doing EVERY festival/fair/market as a PPF and I have vistaprint postcards prominently displayed. I figure they are harder to lose than a business card.
My area is small so by being at everything I stay current in peoples minds for party bookings. Big city marketing would be different but it is still about people seeing your work. ALL my private bookings have either been painted by me at a previous event or have been word of mouth. Now I have do do less PPF as I get more bookings but if I have free weekend I find a place to paint. And as it is PPF I get paid to market my business.
As for the grocery store..you're better off painting your face beautifully b4 u shop.. I got a booking yesterday by doing that

oOoOoo I am so painting our faces before we go out shopping now! A trip to the mall would be fantastic to, lol I never thought about painting it just for the trip, I have went painted before but it was always after an event. Ah ha! moment! thanks for getting that off your head!!

All marketing helps. Marketing should be audience driven. Who do you want to hire you? If parties and events where parents are involved, like scouting and schools - door to door works. Anywhere you get your name out helps you.
Parents are great resources to help spread the word about your business.

Door to Door is a waste of time and energy and not effective. Just think about the many junk mail flyers you've thrown away and there's your answer right there.

I have had great success with the post cards which I did once last year at the end of summer and I just did a batch in February. I will most likely do another send out in August to line up business for the fall season. I already compiled my own mailing list since I know exactly who my target audience is and my target areas. No sense marketing in an area/business I have no desire to work in. Just as an example, I would never solicit to get business from night clubs/bars. That's not my scene. Nor would I solicit for business in an area way outside of my travel limits. I have had several requests for upcoming parties out of state In NY, PA, and Del. These are clients that found me on the web.