The world of leaflet distribution is not exactly cut-throat, but it is an incredibly competitive market in advertising and promotion campaigns. Whether it is a corporate level marketing strategy or vying for the attentions of clubbers leaving a nightspot, beating your competitor is the object of the game. There are a number of marketing strategies that can be employed to ensure that the pamphlets or flyers that you are handing out have the edge over your competitor. To understand how you should be approaching your potential clientele it is necessary to understand the enemy. Whatever they are doing, you do different or better. Beat their offer, use bold colour, or no colour at all; sell your strong points and maybe point out the competitor's weak points. It's a bit like a game of risk, and world domination comes from success.

The most important factor to consider happens way before you even begin to print out flyers. The secret is in the branding of your product or organisation or event. Marketing today revolves heavily around the branding of a product, or having an association with an existing product that will help promote your cause. The general public are fairly easy to persuade, all they need is to think that they have seen it, tasted it or done it before; or that someone they know has. As much as we would like to think that we like to do something a little bit different from the rest and not be a social sheep as it were, as the psychology of sales states - we're all looking for a shepherd.

Take any sort of celebrity endorsement, even inadvertent endorsement, it will generate a sales boost and act as practically priceless promotion. It was most definitely not a common sight to see a burly British white man wandering around in a sarong until Golden Balls himself, David Beckham, was snapped sporting his then unusual summer style. An innate sense of belonging makes us want to fit in, to be part of a trend; and it is this that marketing strategies tap into to ensure that we decide 'all by ourselves' to buy into the brand on sale. Reverse psychology works just as well. Tell the public that they won't like what you've got to offer, tell them that your product is not for them, tell them that there is just nothing for them to see here and it is guaranteed that they will come flooding. It is because, once again, the public don't like being told what to do and they all want to be allowed to make up their own mind and be different. Yeah right.

Using these tactics in marketing is becoming more transparent, and each time the technology advances, the public tend to catch on and turn their backs. It is a fine balancing act of subtle persuasion and not so subtle selling techniques that is best left to marketing professionals. Back to the subject of leaflet distribution, it is the strategies that these professionals employ once the branding has been put in place. The cliche about leading the horse to water... well, a successful leaflet distribution company is there to make sure that horse laps up the whole trough. The clever bit is making sure that that horse is thirsty for your product, and that there are no other tasty troughs to choose from.