Getting The Word Out

How do you get the word out about your tennis business? I teach at two county-owned facilities. We use a variety of methods, low- and high-tech.

Low tech:

• County recreation catalog - it's very well done and comes out a few times a year. I listed this under Low Tech because although the link takes you to a PDF online, it is also printed and mailed in paper format. Tennis is listed along with all the other activities offered by the county. The catalog gets in front of lots of eyeballs.
• Flyers - both facilities have different flyers describing the various tennis clinics offered. 

High tech:

• Websites - both facilities have their own websites here and here.
• Social Networking - both facilities have Facebook pages here and here. One also has a Twitter account @caycetennisfit and a Google+ page. Facebook is updated fairly often; the others, less so.
• QR Codes - one facility has used QR codes on flyers in the past. Not sure if they have any effect, but it costs nothing to include them, so if we have room, we use them.

In addition to these macro marketing techniques, I do some marketing/networking of my own with a Facebook page, this blog of course, and a couple of Twitter accounts. One is for general youth tennis tweets; the other specifically for clinic updates. The latter is for my tennis parents only and is restricted to time-sensitive info such as weather cancellations so as not to unnecessarily bombard my customers with tweets. I also have some flyers at the two facilities that have information on my specific classes.

Recently it was time to print more of these flyers and I decided to make a change. The old flyers had a full page of info on the front such as schedules, prices, disclaimers, etc., and a junior tennis FAQ on the back, so very information-intensive. At one of the two facilities where I work, it was just one of several brightly colored flyers available to walk-ins. We were allowed to create our own flyers, but I am not very skilled in the graphic arts. My flyer was okay, but it was very word-heavy IMO. Due to printing budget constraints, it was not in color - just printed on brightly colored paper.

So I switched from a full 8.5 x 11 flyer to a postcard size with a graphic on one side, some bare bones info on the back including all the different ways to contact me and find my info online, and a QR code. By keeping my info online at my Facebook page, I can easily update it without having to print new flyers. I thought I would try a simpler, more eye-catching design that could double as a mailer if I decide to try one of those newspaper tube-stuffing services in future. Also, I am hoping to grow my followers on Facebook and Twitter by guiding people to these sites to find more information about my classes.

I emailed sent my PDF to Office Depot. They were excellent about setting it up to print properly on front and back on good quality card stock. They even ran a double order for no extra charge because they weren't sure if I wanted the front graphic in portrait or landscape mode! The cost was about .79 per page, so about .20 per postcard since they were printed 4 to a page.

Here's the old version of my flyer:

And here's the new post card Front

and Back.

What do you think?