Category Archives: Marketing

How to Turn Customers into Repeat Customers: 7 Handy Tips

If you’re a small business owner, you’ll know that it can be pretty tricky to turn customers into repeat customers – that is, to convince someone who’s bought your product or service to shop with you again.

There’s so much information out there on bringing in new customers and spreading brand awareness to your target market, but actually keeping customers is a different story altogether. When someone already knows of your brand, how do you keep their interest and prevent them from trying out a competitor?

In this article, we’ll discuss how to get repeat customers and share 7 easy and effective ways of improving your customer retention.

Why is Customer Retention so Important?

There are a slew of statistics related to the above question, but two facts aptly sum it up:

1) It’s cheaper for a business to keep a customer than it is to find a new one.
2) 80% of future profits will come from just 20% of past customers.

This means that over time, repeat customers bring more profit to your company than new ones. The decision about how much effort and money to invest in customer retention depends primarily on how established your business is, and your current sales volume.
If it’s a new business, then dedicate most of the marketing towards acquiring new customers. But even at this stage, you shouldn’t forget about customer retention! Don’t get to a point where new business has dried up, and you suddenly remember your past customers. You should apply customer retention policies throughout the life of your business.

How Do I Get Repeat Customers?

The answer to this question should be crystal clear: provide your customers with excellent and memorable products and services.
That may seem obvious, but if you don’t do the above correctly, you’ll never convince your past customers and clients to try your products and services again. They may, instead, be tempted to try out one of your direct competitors – whether out of curiosity, or because they can find a better price. Obviously, this isn’t what you want.

So, the most important rule to remember is to provide the best product and services that you can, and for as good a price as possible. Do not be tempted to prioritise savings and profits over quality. Get this right from the start and you stand a good chance to gain repeat customers.

Customer Retention Tips and Ideas

There are many great ideas for how to get repeat customers. Some, of course, will depend on the business type. For instance, if your business is a restaurant, offering early bird discounts to a customer will encourage them to visit again.

1. Loyalty Cards

Loyalty cards are a great way to encourage customers to buy again. For a coffee shop, try a simple business style loyalty card where the customer gets a free cup of coffee or complimentary pastry after buying six cups of coffee—simply stamp the card after every purchase. If the customer buys a coffee every morning, on the way to work, they’ll remember your shop.

Loyalty cards are suited to many types of retail businesses, including restaurants and general stores. As your business goes, you could even invest in digitally linked loyalty cards that reward the customer with redeemable loyalty points after each purchase. The sign-up process for such cards can also be an excellent marketing opportunity. Get your customer’s email address and use that to remind them of their point balance!

2. Provide Excellent Customer Service

Whatever your business is, you should always endeavour to make the customer service experience memorable. Not every sale will go smoothly. There are always things that can go wrong and your customer services should positively deal with these issues. Even if your company provides the very best product, a poor experience in returning a faulty item could make a customer drop your brand and choose another supplier.

Always respond quickly to your customer’s requests or questions. If they ask for a quotation, get it to them as quickly as possible. Don’t forget that your customer is likely to have asked your competitors for the same quotation. Respond quickly, with an attractive offer, and grab their business. Customers remember this kind of quick and efficient service. Perhaps next time, they’ll come to your business first.

3. Include Flyers offering Freebies and Discounts

This is a smart idea to ensure that customers who’ve shopped with you will have an incentive to buy again. When you ship (or hand the customer) their purchase, include in the package a customised flyer or postcard offering a discount or free gift with their next purchase. For example:

1) Free shipping
2) 10% off
3) Buy one, get one free
4) A free sample of a new product
5) A free gift with the next purchase, such as a personalised mug printed with your business logo (this also helps to keep your company in the forefront of their minds!)

For online purchases, provide a unique code that your customers can use when they check out. For in-store use, the customer will simply have to bring the flyer or postcard with them to show the staff at the till. You can also send promotional offers to previous customers via email, if you have their address.

4. Match the Competition

Customers often flip-flop between different suppliers, depending on who has the best offers or product line. So, to avoid this, it’s crucial that you keep a check on what your competitors are up to. Familiarise yourself with the products, services, and (above all) prices that your competition is offering, especially businesses with the same target market and operating in your region.

Encourage your past customers to come back to you by offering the same, or better, than your competitors. One great way of doing this is to advertise a “price match” service. If a potential customer comes to you with a cheaper quote from a different company, you’ll offer them the same price, or better.

5. Show Appreciation

These days, it’s easy to connect to customers via social media—but, sometimes, this misses the personal touch. It can seem empty and hollow, and people will be likely to scroll straight past your advert.

If you have your customer’s details, a much more effective way of showing your appreciation is to send them a thank-you on a compliment slip after they make a purchase. If your business is small enough or you have the resources, hand-writing the slip will make a world of difference and help your business seem more human. You can include this slip with their order, or send it to them a few weeks later, to remind them of your company and encourage them to shop with you again.

6. Offer Rewards for Referrals and Reviews

Repeat customers who are loyal to your brand are likely to be powerful brand ambassadors, promoting your business to their friends or associates. Take advantage of this by rewarding them for referrals. If your customer has a business with their own website, offer them a referral link that gives them a small finder’s fee, or product discount, for every referral link from their website.

Another powerful tactic is to ask a customer to complete a survey, either written or online. This works especially well with retail businesses, such as restaurants. As a reward for completing the survey, offer a discount or a free bottle of wine with their next meal. Not only do you get invaluable feedback, but the customer may also return to the restaurant and use the voucher. It’s a win-win situation.

7. Create Special Offers Tailored to the Customer

What makes special offers more effective and more likely to be taken advantage of? Tailoring them to each specific customer, rather than sending out a generic offer that some people may not be interested in.

For example, if you run a hotel and you noticed the customer paid for a round of golf in the hotel’s resort, send them a special offer for a free round of golf before the next holiday season. If the customer ordered a spa treatment, include a free couples massage. It’s this type of thoughtful offer that people remember.

For businesses that sell physical products, keep a record of your customer’s purchases and make special offers at an appropriate time. For instance, if your customer purchased a toner cartridge for their laser printer, send them a discount voucher after a couple of months. They’ll likely remember when the cartridge runs out and use your voucher to buy another.

Where Can I Order Great Quality Promotional Materials?

If you’re looking for professionally printed, high-quality business materials and promotional products, look no further than 123Print. We offer an amazing range of business stationery and products that can help your company retain customers, including (but not limited to):

1) Loyalty cards
2) Business cards
3) Flyers
4) Postcards
5) Vinyl magnets
6) Compliment slips
7) Promotional mugs

Everything is completely customisable, with the ability to add your logo and customise the colour scheme to your preferences. Before we print your order, we’ll show you a preview of what your product will look like.

We offer exceptionally fast shipping and a 100% satisfaction promise, meaning you’re guaranteed to be satisfied with the quality of our products. Try 123Print today for all of your business

9 Features You Need on Your Next Business Card

Whether you’re self-employed, own your own business, or are a high-achieving professional with big dreams in your industry, you want to make a good impression on people. You want your colleagues, peers, and clients to think you’re competent, confident, and professional.

Your business card is a powerful tool with which to achieve this. After all, your business card is the first thing people will see when they meet you or hear about your company. It’s important that it looks sharp and professional, and separates you from the rest of the competition!

If you don’t have a business card yet, or it’s been a while since you last updated yours, now’s the time to start thinking about how to approach your new card design. In this guide, we’re going to share 9 features that you need on your next business card to help you stand out from the crowd and make the best first impression possible.

1. Vertical Orientation

Did you know that business cards don’t have to be horizontal? Vertical business cards are still easy-to-read and will fit into a standard business card holder or rolodex, but they look fancier and will set you apart from the crowd.

When handed a vertical business card, the reader will have to turn it on its side, automatically engaging their brain in a different way than a standard horizontal card – forcing them to pay more attention to what they’re reading. It’ll help create the impression that your business card is more important or worthy of remembering than others.

At 123Print, we stock a wide range of vertically-oriented business card templates to suit a wide range of professions and niches. For example, this bright and bold Colour Swatches design would be perfect for anyone working in the paint, textile, or fashion industry.

2. A Clear Call to Action

The whole point of a business card is to drive business to you or your company. As such, it helps if there’s a clear call to action designed into the card itself, as well as your contact details and social media handles.

A call to action is a clear request for the reader to make contact. For example:

1) Check out our new summer range today on our website!
2) Show this business card when you’re next in-store for 5% off your purchase.
3) Scan the QR code to learn more about our new product line
4) Call us today for a free quote

The goal here is to make it as appealing as possible for your business card’s recipient to contact you and do business with you – so make sure to give them an incentive to do so!

3. Magnetic Backing

A business card should be easy for its recipient to keep hold of, and refer back to when necessary. That’s where magnetic business cards really come into their own.
Any standard business card can be set out on a table at a networking event so they catch people’s attention, but the next step is to ensure that they aren’t going to get lost, or shoved in a drawer and forgotten about.

By making your business card magnetic, your client or professional contact will be able to stick it to their refrigerator or filing cabinet, for easy access in the future. It’s also just a bit of a novelty that people will find fun, and again will help you to stand out from the crowd.
A magnetic business card shows that you’ve given some thought to how you can keep your card fresh in people’s minds after they have it in their hands. It’s also great for spreading brand recognition, as your card will be right in front of them whenever they go to the fridge to grab the milk.

4. Double-Sided Printing

If you’re not going with the magnetic option, you should at least ensure that you make full use of the space by giving your business card a double-sided design.
A business card with two sides is more professional and gives you the freedom to express yourself even further. It also lets you include extra information that wouldn’t necessarily fit on the front of the card, such as your store opening times, a tempting special offer or a fun fact about your business that might leave a lasting impression on the reader.

Sure, it might cost a little more to pay for printing on both sides, but it’s definitely worth it from a business point of view. You want to be as memorable as possible so that the recipient will be more likely to do business with you in future.

5. Your Photo

A business card should reflect who you are, what you do and the kind of image you want to project to others.
This is why you should include your photo on your business card: so that the reader can put a face to the name, and identify you as an individual, rather than a faceless corporation. You could add a photo of yourself standing in front of your shop, on the manufacturing line at work, or relaxing at home – whatever it is, make sure you look sharp and confident!

Including your photo is also a great way to inject your personality into your business card. You don’t want to go too overboard – your card should be professional and business-like, after all – but a photo of yourself can certainly help you to stand out and make a good first impression.

6. Your Logo

Your logo is the ultimate branding that defines you as an individual or company. It’s important that it appears on your business card so that people know what your business is all about before they even pick up the phone or meet you in person.

If you don’t have a logo, now is the time to think about getting one! Having a logo consistently implemented across your products and mailings will go a long way to helping your business stand out and be remembered by your clients.

Your logo must be eye-catching and impactful, so spend some time creating it – use professional designers if you don’t have any design skills yourself! It should reflect your brand personality – are you fun, flamboyant and friendly, for example? Or are you serious, slick and professional?

7. A QR Code

Including a QR code on your business card is an innovative way of making sure that your business card doesn’t go to waste after it’s been handed over.

A QR code is a great way to maximise your business card’s potential, as it eliminates the need for the recipient to type your website address into their browser. Instead, they can simply whip out their phone and follow the QR code using their camera to take them straight there. This will give them the chance to do more research on you and what you have to offer, which could increase interest in you or even lead to new business opportunities.

Simply save your QR code as an image file and you’ll be able to upload it directly to a template of your choice at 123Print. All of our business card templates can be fully customised with your own images.

8. A Full-Colour Design

Your business card should be as unique and memorable as you and your brand. If you want to make a lasting impression on someone, it needs to stand out from all of the boring, black-and-white cards out there.

A full-colour design is one way in which you can make sure that your business cards jump out and catch people’s attention. The extra costs involved in going for a higher-quality, multicoloured design will almost always be recouped through higher sales and greater profits.

A full-colour business card is the perfect place to show off your creative side, too. You might want to consider including some cool infographic or photography – anything that reflects your brand personality and makes an impression. And think carefully about your colour scheme – it should tie into your business’s overall aesthetic, and stand out in a good way (not like a sore thumb).

9. Recycled Cardstock

In today’s eco-conscious world, when most consumers are looking to shop with businesses that care about the planet, it’s vitally important that you make sure your business card is eco-friendly.

Recycled paper is a perfect option for your business cards, as it makes use of post-consumer waste which would otherwise have been thrown away. It’s just another way for you to portray yourself as being sensitive towards environmental issues and reinforce your brand image.

Using recycled materials for your business cards doesn’t mean that you have to compromise on quality. The 100% recycled cardstock that we use at 123Print is 300gsm, and looks and feels just as nice as any standard business card. And as a nice bonus, it’s slightly cheaper!

Where Can I Buy Business Cards?

If you’re looking for professionally printed, high-quality business cards, look no further than 123Print. We offer a huge selection of business card templates which you can completely customise to reflect your unique brand personality, as well as a range of other printing products for your business and personal needs.

Visit our website today to choose the perfect design, and personalise it quickly and easily with our free-to-use online editor. Add your own artwork, photos and logos with our upload tool, and customise the font and colour scheme to your preferences.

Your order will be dispatched within 2 working days, so you’ll soon be holding your new, stand-out business cards in your hands. When it comes to getting business cards printed, there’s no need to go anywhere else!

11 Funny and Memorable Ideas for Photo Christmas Cards

Christmas is a special time of year that many people look forward to with great anticipation. It is when friends and family come together, share each other’s company, and exchange presents in an atmosphere of good cheer.
This atmosphere makes it possible for families to have fun with the holiday, including doing funny things with pictures on Christmas cards. Why settle for buying pre-printed, boring Christmas cards from your nearest Clinton’s or Card Factory?
When you send a Christmas card during the holiday season, you want it to be memorable – and funny if possible. Many stationers, such as 123Print, offer you the opportunity to design your own photographic Christmas cards and upload your pictures as you go. If you’re stuck for ideas for photo Christmas cards, check out the following ideas!

1. Turn into Father Christmas

Memorability is one of the best ways to create a compelling image for your Christmas card. A theme that will make your picture stand out from others is a great place to start. For instance, Christmas cards with images of Santa Claus are a dime a dozen at this time of year. You can create a funny card by replacing Santa with someone else.
A picture of yourself or your children dressed up in the full regalia of St. Nick makes for an excellent shot, especially if it is taken in a non-traditional setting. Think about doing your picture at the gym or the beach, for instance.
Alternatively, create a funny family scene where your kids walk in on you dressed up as Father Christmas, slipping presents underneath the tree! Or re-enact the classic song “I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus” with your partner and kids.

2. Show Off for the Camera

Many families have a group of funny pictures that get passed around on an annual basis. Usually, these are taken by parents who ask their kids to do something ridiculous for the camera. If you have any of these pictures, find a way to use them for your Christmas card. Or, ask your kids to show-off for the camera and pull as many funny faces as they can!
You could also incorporate some role-play into the photos. For example, get everyone to act as if they’re having a huge argument – wagging their fingers at each other or pretending to his each other. Bonus points if the room is wrecked, with tinsel and baubles everywhere!

3. Overlay Digital Images onto Prints of Other Images

It is possible to take a picture of yourself or your family members and then superimpose that image onto a print of another photo.
This will allow you to create an incredible picture that showcases who you are as individuals, what you care about, and what makes the people in your life so special. The possibilities are endless:

1) Take a picture of your family members, then put them into a scene that is relevant to your holiday celebration. For example, dress everyone up in winter gear and superimpose yourselves onto an ice rink or into a festive snow-covered wood.
2) Add images to your Christmas cards in which Santa Claus visits other locations that have nothing to do with the North Pole and his usual entourage.

For a religious theme, you could even get everybody to dress up as characters from the Nativity, and superimpose your photo onto a background of a stable, complete with a manger! Or, dress up as Jesus and his disciples and digitally seat yourselves at the Last Supper.

4. Let Your Children Be the Photographers

If you’re running out of ideas yourself, you should consider giving your kids some digital cameras and letting them play photographer. You’ll be amazed what goes on in the minds of children! They may come up with some inventive ideas that you’d never have thought of. And sometimes, the photos taken by accident (such as hilarious close-up selfies) make the funniest shots of all.

Sure, they might not necessarily look like traditional Christmas card photos. But you can still add a festive touch by choosing a photo upload card design with a Christmas-themed background, such as this Santa Knows Best design.

5. Add a Homemade Touch to Your Card

Digital images can serve as a solid foundation for creating funny and memorable Christmas cards. However, you can give a homemade touch to your pictures by hand writing a Christmas greeting on the card with an old-fashioned pen and ink.

Use glittery or metallic ink, or even paint pens, to add an extra special feel. A personal greeting will add more dimension than simply printing out a pre-written message or sending out one of those mass-produced cards that everyone else is using. It will also be more fun for everyone to see.
You could also add textured or tactile elements to the front of the card. Scrounge some craft supplies and get the kids involved gluing colourful pom-poms, sequins and glitter all around the edge of the photograph.

6. Horrible Christmas Jumpers

Ugly Christmas jumpers, once condemned for their grotesquely garish appearance, are all the rage at the moment – they began to regain popularity after the classic Christmas jumper scene in Bridget Jones’s Diary.

Christmas jumpers often take the form of knitted designs featuring bright fair isle patterns, or festive creatures and characters (such as Father Christmas and Rudolph), along with tactile bobbles. Some Christmas jumpers even have built-in lights or sound makers for a truly gaudy festive display!

Why not have a day out shopping with your family to try and find the ugliest, most over-the-top Christmas jumpers, and then take a photo in them for your Christmas card. Bonus points if the whole family has a look of horror and disgust on their faces for being forced to wear them.

7. Yearbook-Style Photographs with Quotes

If you’ve got a fairly plan wall in an area of good natural light in your home, why not set up individual headshots of your family to look like yearbook photographs? The further away from high-school age your family members are, the funnier this will be.
Arrange these headshots on your photo upload Christmas card, and add funny or festive quotes underneath that represent each person, just as you would find in a real high school yearbook. This will help you show off your personality, and make your recipients laugh.
You could even write underneath the photos by hand, rather than typing it out, for an added personal touch.

8. Photograph Your Pets in Christmas Attire

Dressing up your family pets as Santa, Rudolph, a snowman, or in other Christmas-themed outfits will make for a memorable and hilarious festive picture. There are even ugly pet Christmas jumpers on the market that you can dress Fluffy up in to create the ultimate Christmas look.

And don’t think that this is limited to those of you with cats and dogs! Get creative with some felt and cotton wool and fashion a tiny Christmas hat for your rabbit, guinea pig, or even your hamster. And if there are no animals to speak of, why not tie Christmas scarves around your houseplants?

9. Stay Out of the Picture

For an extremely memorable photographic Christmas card, why not stay out of the picture altogether, and instead take a photograph of your empty home? Show of all of your Christmas decorations and your brightly-lit tree, for example. Or, set up a Christmas disaster scene by trashing your living room and making it look as though your pets did it.
You could even create footprints by dipping the soles of some winter boots in flour, to make it look like Father Christmas has walked across your living room carpet, trailing snow behind him. Add a shot of the half-eaten carrot and mince pie in the foreground for a nostalgic photo, harking back to the times when we all believed in Santa.

10. Incorporate Your Family’s Holiday Traditions

Every family has their own idea of the perfect Christmas tradition. Why not take some photos of your family taking part in your favourite festive activity, and use this as the basis for your Christmas cards?
For example, some families have a tradition of visiting Disney at Christmas, meaning a Disney themed Christmas Card would be perfect. Other families enjoy going ice-skating or visiting a local zoo during the holidays, so using images of your family members on the rink or in front of cages at the zoo would make for an excellent picture.
You could even hire a photographer for a few hours, and keep the shots of the day in a keepsake photo album as well as using them for your cards.

11. Photograph Your Christmas Preparations

There’s so much to do in the lead up to Christmas! So, why not photograph your family taking part in the Christmas preparations? For example:

1) Trimming the Christmas tree
2) Baking mince pies or Christmas cookies
3) Decorating your house or apartment with fake snow, Christmas ornaments and festive garlands
4) Making the Christmas wreath to hang on your front door
5) Lighting an advent candle or opening the advent calendar
6) Wrapping Christmas presents

You could even go “meta” and photograph your family signing Christmas cards! (Though you’ll have to use prop cards for the shot, as your actual cards won’t arrive until you’ve taken the picture…)

Where Can I Order Photo Christmas Cards?

Photographic Christmas cards are a fun way to share what’s going on in your family’s lives, spread some cheer and humour, and show off your unique perspective on the holiday season.
At 123Print, we have a great selection of photo upload Christmas cards that you can personalise with your own images. Examples include your Christmas Polaroid, Jolly Holly, and Tree Amend card designs, among many others.

Visit our site to find the perfect Christmas card design for you and your family. All of our designs are fully customisable, so you can edit the text, wording, font and colour scheme as well as adding your own photographs with the click of a button. And with our speedy 48-hour dispatch time, you won’t have to wait long before you’re spreading the joy with your family and friends!

Miles Cake Flyer

How to Hand Out Business Flyers Legally and Effectively

Business flyers (also known as leaflets or pamphlets) are a popular and traditional form of paper marketing. They’re perfect for advertising a particular product, service, sale or promotion, or your company as a whole.

Flyers have been used to advertise businesses, political viewpoints and more for hundreds of years, since the invention of the printing press – and they’re no less relevant today. You can hand out flyers to passers-by on the street, distribute them directly to letterboxes, or send them out with an order. You can even have a box of flyers on your premises for members of the public to help themselves.

This guide will describe what business flyers are used for, and the benefits and drawbacks of the four main methods of flyer distribution. We’ll also discuss the legalities of handing out flyers in the UK, and when you might need to apply for a license.

What Are Business Flyers Used For?

Flyers are one of the most valuable forms of advertising for small, medium and large businesses. You can use flyers to:

Spread awareness of your company, and get your name out there
Attract new customers with discounts or limited time offers
Make past customers aware of new products or services, and increase the likelihood that they’ll purchase again
Flyers are considered single-use promotional products, as most people will throw a flyer away after reading it.
But the important thing is that they do read it before discarding it. Most people can’t help reading a leaflet that comes through their letterbox, purely out of curiosity. Even if they’re not interested in your company at that precise moment, they’ll remember your name for the future.

Do Flyers Actually Work?

You may wonder, in today’s increasingly digital world, whether paper flyers are still effective at drawing in potential customers. Wouldn’t a Facebook ad, for example, be a better way of marketing your business?

While digital ads have their place, there’s still something that catches the eye about traditional paper letterbox marketing. It’s easy to scroll past an advertisement on a webpage without even giving it a glance. You’ve probably seen dozens of online ads today – yet how many of them can you name?

But if you receive a physical leaflet in your letterbox, you’ll almost always give it a cursory read-over, even if you end up discarding it. And the company’s name will likely come back to you when you are in need of that particular product or service.

This is because we pay more attention to what we read when it’s on paper, versus a screen. According to the DMA, 60.5% of people will read a flyer that comes through their letterbox.
And don’t forget, not everybody is online. Paper marketing is pretty much the only way to capture offline customers, such as older people who might not use the internet at all.

What Is the Best Way to Give Out Flyers?

Now you know what flyers are, and how they’ll give your business a boost. But how do you actually go about getting your flyers to potential customers?
There are four main ways of distributing advertising literature.

1) Letterbox Marketing (Door Drop)

The most popular form of flyer distribution is called letterbox marketing, otherwise known as “door drop”. If you’ve ever found a leaflet in your letterbox advertising a local takeaway, double glazing company or broadband provider, then you’ll already be well aware of this kind of marketing.
You can either hire someone to go door-to-door and drop leaflets into letterboxes, or you can mail flyers through the postal service, if you have a list of addresses (e.g. of past customers). This is known as “direct mail”.
With letterbox marketing, you’re able to target specific homes – such as people who live in a specific postcode area, or certain types of accommodation.

2) On the Premises

If your company has a physical premises which customers are allowed to visit – such as a shop – you can always hand out flyers inside the building. You could have a box on the counter full of free flyers that your visitors are welcome to help themselves to, for example.
Alternatively, you could have an employee standing near the door, handing out leaflets to people as they leave. This will keep your products or services fresh in their minds, even if they didn’t purchase anything that day.

3) With an Order

Another quick and easy way to get flyers out to clients is to include them for free with every order that a customer places. Simply pop a leaflet into the box with the customer’s order, and they’ll instantly be exposed to other products that you offer, which they may not have been aware of before. You could also include a coupon for a discount on future orders, for example.

Of course, this only really works if you’re selling a physical product, rather than a service. And you’re only able to target existing customers, rather than drawing in new clients. However, it may make customers more likely to shop with you again.

4) Hand to Hand Flyer Distribution

Hand to hand flyer distribution involves, as the name suggests, handing leaflets or flyers directly to customers or potential customers.
If you’ve ever seen someone standing in a busy town centre, offering flyers to shoppers as they pass by, this is an example of a hand to hand flyer campaign. They might also be dressed up in branded clothing or holding a sign to direct shoppers to the store or business premises.

Hand to hand flyer distribution is generally not as cost-effective as letterbox marketing. This is because you’re handing out leaflets to anyone who walks past – so you’re unable to target your distribution to certain demographics (such as age, affluence level, postcode area, and so on).
You’ll also need to apply for a license if you want to hand out leaflets in the street. We’ll get onto this now.

Is It Legal to Hand Out Flyers in the UK?

The U.K.’s laws on flyer distribution are fairly simple, but it’s essential that you know them well. Before you decide how, when, and where you want to hand out your company’s flyers, you must make sure you can do so legally, or that you have the correct licence (when applicable).

You do not need a license to hand out flyers if:
The flyers are for a charity, or based on political, religious or ethical beliefs
You place the flyers directly into people’s letterboxes (door drop), or you send them out via the postal service
You’re handing out flyers inside a building, bus, or taxi
You’re including the flyer for free with an order that a customer has placed

If you’re using any of the above methods, you don’t need anyone’s permission. You can get started straight away. However, if you plan to hand out flyers to people in the street, the rules are different.

Handing Out Flyers in the Street (Hand to Hand Distribution)

If you want to hand your flyers out in the street (hand to hand flyer distribution), you must apply for (and be granted) a license first.
For example, let’s say you plan to hire someone to stand outside your premises to hand out leaflets in the street. You’d need a license for this kind of distribution. If you were to hand them out inside the building, you wouldn’t. But as soon as you set foot outside the door, it’s another ball game.

It’s illegal to hand out business flyers on the street without a license. If you are caught doing so, or you breach the terms of your license (e.g. hand out flyers in an area that your license doesn’t cover), you could receive a fixed penalty notice of up to £150.
For repeat offences, or if the matter goes to court, you could face a fine of up to £2,500 and a criminal record. So, it’s well worth making absolutely sure that you know the rules!

How to Get Permission to Distribute Leaflets

If you’re planning on distributing your company’s leaflets in letterboxes, in the post, with an order, or inside a building, you don’t need to seek any sort of permission or license. You can go ahead and order your flyers straight away.
However, if you’ve decided that you’d like to go the hand to hand route, and hand out flyers on the street (outside your premises, for example) you’ll need to seek permission from the relevant local authority.

Different local authorities (councils) will have different rules on when, where and how you can hand flyers out. The fee you’ll have to pay to obtain the license may also vary. Some councils may issue a badge that whoever is handing out the leaflets will need to wear.
If you’re in England or Wales, head over to this page and input your business’s postcode to find out how to apply for the relevant license.

Can I Hire a Company to Distribute Flyers For Me?

There are plenty of companies that exist purely to assist small, medium and large businesses with leaflet and flyer distribution.
These companies are well-versed on the law and will ensure they operate within the parameters set out by your local council. They will work with you to determine which households will be most likely to respond to your advertising campaign, and outline a target distribution area.

There are two main services offered by leaflet distribution companies:

Direct mail. This involves using the postal system to directly mail flyers and leaflets to potential customers.
Door drop. This involves the hiring of one or more individuals to go door-to-door in your chosen area and drop flyers into letterboxes.

Both services often incur a hefty fee. You can save money by designing and ordering flyers yourself, and having your employees hand them out.

Where Can I Order Flyers for My Business?

At 123Print.co.uk, you can use our handy flyer printing service to design fully personalised flyers for your business. To get started, choose whether you’d like A4, A5 or DL flyers, and quickly and easily upload your own artwork (e.g. your company’s logo, and a background image).

Miles Cake Flyer

You can select your preferred font and colour scheme, and add text anywhere on your design. If you don’t have time to finish your design in one sitting, you can save it and come back to it later. Once you’re finished we’ll print your flyers on high quality 130 gsm paper and ship your order directly to your door.

Our prices start from only £10 for 50 flyers, and we aim to dispatch all orders within 2 working days. We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so if you’re not happy with your order for any reason, we’ll give you a full refund. What are you waiting for?