Is This A Viable Marketing Medium?

Several times over the last year or so, I needed to go to my bank on the weekend to get some cash. Understandably, the bank would be closed and I'd have to use their ATM.

Now, the ATM's there have a shelf, a little slab of plastic that is there for you to put your bag on or to have a convenient spot to slide the cheque into an envelope.

Long story short, a few times I've been there, there were little 2 1/2" x 5" fliers lying around on that shelf promoting "Mr PC Doctor", who's apparently a omni-dexterous technical genius capable of fixing your home P, removing virus and spyware, and even building a website.

No idea if he's any good.

But the fact that his pamphlets find their way there with some uncanny regularity, I conclude that this little racket is profitable to his "little" business.

There are several interesting lessons that can be derived from this "doctor":

1. Being able and willing to take certain risks is crucial to your success, especially if you're a start-up.

2. You should not be "above" any marketing method or media. As long as you're not flirting with the law, the only correct way to judge the viability of a particular medium is the profit you generate.

3. Action beats perfection. The first flier I got there was god-ugly, had 4 offers, wacky font types and colours, no pictures, and yet it was out there and was getting him some leads. The second and the third, and especially the fourth piece had a few mistakes but overall were quite good. He acted fast, learned from it, tweaked his ad, and kept improving his results. Lack of marketing knowledge or education notwithstanding.

I'll try to scan those in and publish then in one of the future post. And I think I'll call the guy to see if the bank caused any trouble for him like pressing littering charges.

Stay tuned.