“Night Flyer” Campaigns Are Rarely Used, Highly Effective B2B Demand Gen Tactic

“Night Flyer” campaigns are one of the most effective tactics I have used for reaching local business decision makers. The concept is simple, leave flyers and literature for decision makers at the front doors of business prospects in the late night or predawn morning hours. Flyering in the dark can make a territory sales or marketing rep look especially bright for two important reasons. First, it’s easier to cover ground without car traffic on the roads and customer traffic in the businesses. Second, the flyer reaches someone with a key.

That second point is key: Leaving a flyer at the door before a business opens in the morning is a fail-safe way to make sure it gets in the hands of a manager, owner or key-holding team member.

Tips for “Night Flyer” Campaigns

Following are some tips, tactics, and information I’ve gleaned in executing hundreds of business-to-business flyer campaigns at night.

Two Objectives

1. Leave a response-oriented marketing flyer at the doors of prospect and suspect businesses in the late evening after they have closed or early morning before they open.

2. Gather information on new businesses opening in your territory.

Different Context Than Mail

While the flyers you leave will be similar to direct response mailers promoting your product or service that are sent to prospects, they reach them outside the mail pile and at a different time of day. It stands out because “nobody” does it.

Survey Territory for New Businesses

Before the traffic starts in the morning or after it has dwindled down in the evening is the perfect time to keep an eye out for new businesses being built in your territory. Leave a flyer at the business under construction and look for any contact information in the window or on help-wanted signs and banners. There will often be an email address or phone number for potential employees to contact the owner or manager.

Flyer Both Prospects and Suspects

Go up one side of a street and then down the other side, flyering EVERY business that is a category fit for your medium. While many touch methodologies should only be used to reach out to qualified “most likely to buy” prospects, delivering a flyer to every door is a good way to touch prospects while possibly inducing “suspects” to contact us and become prospects by virtue of their showing interest and calling us to ask about advertising.

Keep a Running List of Prospects Receiving Flyers

Keep a list of businesses that you know to be prospects (i.e., businesses in the database or brand new and a category fit) as you execute your flyer campaign.

Record Touches In Your CRM / Enter New Prospects Discovered / Follow Up Email

When you complete your flyer campaign, enter a CRM note indicating that you left a flyer for each prospect you touched. If it’s a new business, follow the prospect entry process to get all possible contact data for the business by data mining. Send a marketing email from your CRM at the same time. The email does not necessarily need to reference the flyer, but it can if you choose.