Hey, this is the Daily Overpass!
My name is Eric and I make apps!
Now today, let's ask the question is it worth putting up flyers to promote your app?
Okay, so today, I want to answer a question that came in yesterday's video from Human
Humanbeing who said, "Hey Eric.
I built a Chemistry educational app and printed 500 flyers to promote it, post it around schools
and colleges.
Do you think it is worthwhile to use flyers to promote the app?"
Okay, I love this question because absolutely I think it is!
We have to talk about what advertising is.
Advertising is a way to get your product in front of other people.
So, it doesn't necessary it had to be online ads, it could be flyers and everything like
that, and I"ve had a lot of clients in the past that talked about they're gonna put flyers
all around the gym or whatever.
And I've always been skeptical about this kind of thing because you can't reach as many
people through that media medium, you could an online ad but you're still reaching the
right people.
And when you talk about doing a Chemistry app and putting up in colleges and schools,
I mean, that's one of the brilliant things about Facebook advertising, is that you can
target the specific groups of people that you're looking for.
If you're looking for students, you already know - you're almost doing the same kind of
thing.
And it doesn't sound that it gonna cost you a lot to do.
Put up a flyer, it'll be up for a while and people will see it.
I think - I really liked the idea of doing that coz you're just not doing the traditional
thing and you're not just hemming and hawing over, "Hmm, should I do this?
What's the ROIs gonna be?
Let's do it."
And what are the hard things about doing an actual, physical work of advertising like
this?
It's hard to track who's finding it through that method.
Unless you have a specific URL they go to, or you ask them, it depends on the different
types of service.
But it still - it's doing what you need to do is to get in front of people.
I had one client who we did an app for him and he was just - unlike the other clients
we had, he was really pushing this.
He was going to trade show events and putting out posters and stuff.
With trade show events related to the app that he had done.
So, he was going out putting posters out with the URL and everything on with he app and
everything like that.
And I was really envious of him.
He made me feel so lazy as a developer.
It was fantastic.
But it's like - when I was, when I first started - actually no, after I started Overpass, but
it was like I was still - I was still doing occasional contracts and I was trying to promote
my own business and everything like that.
And I would take these stickers and I would put them over like my iPad - here's my old
iPad I have my Overpass sticker on, I'd have it at the back of my laptop.
So, I'd take my laptop into these contracts and I'm working away and somebody would always
make fun of the fact that I have an Overpass sticker on the back of it.
It would always be like, "Oh, so how many people have found you through that stickers?
That does even work?
I hate when people would put their logos on things because you know, all these kinds of
stuff."
But it was like a lot of people - they were actually mocking me a little bit because I
had this sticker on the back of my laptop.
And I'm thinking, the reason we're talking about my company is because it has a sticker
on the back of it.
It cost me hardly anything and all of a sudden, I got the attention of all these people discussing
the merits of whether or not it's gonna work.
The alternative to doing that would be to do nothing.
It would just be - nobody would do anything so it's something that cost very little.
And you know, sometimes you will see me, the poster fall at the back of my wall we're gonna
need a new design, I have a bunch of hats made and all these kinds of stuff.
It doesn't help, I don't know, but it hardly cost me anything.
It's something that is really easy to do.
I can put an ad out, where I'll get paid for the click, and everything else is a secret,
and I don't mind embarrassing myself a little bit by wearing a logo on my t-shirt, on my
hat or whatever.
Especially when, I mean, I've ever been on a tube once in London going to one of these
contracts, you'll see all of these advertising everywhere.
And people are paying for all these advertising, is it why I'm wearing a t-shirt or a shirt
or whatever otherwise I'll do the same kind of thing which you know, I just think, I'm
not a marketer but I think the problem we all have with our apps - I talked about this
before - the problem we have with our apps is not that people don't like them.
It's just people don't know about them.
So, you have to work really hard to put that out in front of people.
So, I think putting flyers at schools, while somebody else might be saying, "Hmm, I wonder
if this would work too?"
I think that it's good at doing it.
Just get out there and do it.
ESpecially if that's not gonna cost you a lot of time and energy to do it, do it.
Do that like everything else you can think of.
Years ago I've read this book called Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
by Harvey MacKay.
And one of the things he talks about, one of the anecdotes he talks about in this book
is - his company sold paper, envelopes and things like that in the 80s and 90s and one
of the things he did that other people did not do was he painted the logo or he painted
the advertisements on the top of the trucks or on top of the lorries.
Because his thinking was it cost them nothing and some people live in high rises and they'll
see that.
It seemed kind of silly to me like why'd you take the time and effort to do that with the
likelihood anyone's gonna see it?
But he didn't care.
It hardly cost a thing, he might as well do it.
He might as well put it out in front of people.
If you can do a video, do a video.
Anything you can do to promote your application, do it.
As a human being, please come back to let us know how this works out for you.
Coz I think it's - I don't have any problem with that.
I think, yes, put flyers up, they might not be as good as doing a multi-thousand pounds
AdMob campaign and anything like that.
But you know, it's something.
It's better than nothing.
The alternative putting those flyers up is not putting those flyers up.
We already know the result of that.
So, good luck with that.
Let me know - everyone else let me know what you think.
Have you done anything using physical means like putting up a sign or putting up flyers
or anything like that, has that helped you actually bring in work?
Coz I'd be really - not just bring in work but to bring in downloads for your application.
Again, it's so hard to measure because you can't track that kind of stuff unless you
do something like if you have a specific URL for each medium or like I've heard phone numbers
for a different medium so that they can track which one is working best.
I'd like to hear how - if the rest of you, guys, have used this physical means too and
how does that work out for you.
And that is it for today.
I'll talk to you, guys, again tomorrow!