Creating Flyers

Creating flyers to advertise your craft home party business is crucial to getting regular bookings. I've experimented a lot and have found that the way I design my flyers has a big impact on how many bookings I get! The majority of guests won't book a party without a bit of prompting, even if they quite fancy the idea, but creating eye catching flyers that are strategically placed can make a real difference.

These are some things to consider when creating flyers:

• Colour - make them as colourful and attractive as possible, so guests will notice them and pick them up.
• Pictures - including pictures of some of your best selling crafts will remind guests how lovely your items are when they look at the flyer again at home. If you use your flyers to advertise elsewhere then these pictures will pique people's interest and get them to take a look.

• Headline - this needs to grab their attention! Just putting 'Book a party' at the top of your flyer isn't likely to get much response. Use an offer that will appeal to your guests, e.g. 'Want a fun girly get together?' or 'Fun and easy shopping at home'. My flyers simply say 'Free Jewellery!' and this gets a great response.
• Benefits - list the benefits of hosting a party. Everyone loves to get something for nothing, so your hostess incentives will help persuade them to book. Remember that when you are creating flyers you need to sell, not just inform.
• Contact details - don't forget to put in all your contact details. Guests may just grab a flyer to look at later, so make sure it's as easy as possible for them to get hold of you. If you're using your flyers to advertise locally then this is even more important - include your website address as well if you have one.
• Quality - print them out in full colour and on decent quality paper, either yourself or at a printers. Cheap and flimsy black and white flyers will just look like more junk mail, and are likely to be thrown away.

Ideas for how to use your flyers

• Put them near your most popular as well as your most expensive items at your parties - guests who can't afford to buy that gorgeous crochet shawl of yours might host a party to help pay for it!
• Pop one in the bag every time you make a sale, particularly if you think that person might be interested.
• Leave them in receptions and waiting rooms (with permission of course) where people are looking to read something to pass the time.
• Put them on local bulletin boards.