I always love the unintentional discoveries the most. The ones when you’re out and about enjoying your time off work, when you discover something really cool. For me this discovery hit me this weekend when I was in Central London watching the Royal Wedding which was being broadcast in Hyde Park. There must have been a strong 20,000 people in attendance, all waving their British flags. That’s one thing about my job I love the most, it takes me to some of the coolest places on earth allowing me to do what I do best.. Ranking websites.
It was then that I discovered a man in the corner of my eyes handing out flyers. These weren’t normal flyers, these ones had a map on them showing where all the major points were in the park, toilets, subway stations etc. He pretty much ripped the map off Google maps and posted it on thousands of flyers. I waited for 2 mins to grab one as there was a massive queue of lost tourists eager to get their royal fingers on a free map. When I finally got my mittens on one I skimmed through it, flipped it over and then realised the whole back side of the flyer was an ad for his Facebook group which was offering personalised royal wedding mugs. Bingo! I love this idea as you are giving away free information which attracts the potential customers in, they aren’t going to chuck it away because it’s a map and everyone is lost AND you have hit your targeted demographic; for him it was fans of the royal wedding.
What does this mean for you? How can you use this technique to get people to sign up to your business’ Facebook page? Next time there is an event where you believe your target audience will be, print out some free information which will bring the customers in, with an ad for your Facebook page or website on the back. Simple, sweet, and highly effective way of using offline marketing techniques to grow your online fanbase.