A tactical breakdown of effective flyering
Zooming in on how to enhance one of your many tactics
Talking to people offline is a key tactic for growing your supporters. One way to initiate conversations, inject an idea into your community and quickly bulk up your supporter count is by flyering– the act of passing out flyers to people offline. A lot goes into making a good flyer, picking a good flyering location & time, and setting up your campaign so that the flyering effectively ties into your larger effort, but today I’m going to zoom in on and break down a specific part of flyering: how to successfully get the flyer from your hand and into the hand of a stranger.
A caveat to this is that I’m a 6’1 white, cis-man with a penchant for interacting with strangers, your results (and enjoyment) may vary. Also, if spending an hour or so flyering sounds like your personal hell, it’s ok, you don’t have to do it.
Even if your campaign needs lots of flyering done, you don’t have to be the person who flyers. You can still support the flyerers by: recruiting flyerers, training flyerers, designing the flyers, printing the flyers, fundraising to cover the print costs, delivering the flyers to the flyerers, scouting out good flyering locations, transporting the flyerers to/from the flyering locations, taking pics & media of the flyerers while they flyer for promotional purposes, or by providing snacks and gear to the flyerers!
But if you want to have a bit easier time while flyering, here are some tips:
Consent: At its core, flyering involves interrupting someone's life– and the less surprising you can make that for someone, the better luck you’ll have. Done well you can be viewed as a pleasant surprise; at worse you’ll be viewed as shocking (potentially threatening) interruption. The key difference is whether or not you helped them feel like they were able to opt-in or opt-out of engaging with you.
Personal space, positioning, and movement: Pick a specific spot to stand where people are going to pass nearish to you, but where your personal space bubble (about a 3’ radius from you) and their personal space bubble don’t have to overlap if they maintain their current trajectory. Before your bubbles overlap, get their attention with a friendly wave, attempt eye contact, a smile, and a verbal greeting. This gives them time to take notice at a distance where they feel safe(r) and allows them to decide whether to purposefully ignore you, change course or tune in. Be mindful of how you move around at this point– as a larger person who is male, I know I can be viewed as threatening if I do this while walking towards the stranger. So, I try to stay more or less in one place. How you’re dressed and what you’re holding also plays a role in how you’re perceived, but I’m not going to delve into that here. Wearing something that visually pops but isn’t overwhelming generally helps.
Offer the flyer: People getting this wrong is my biggest pet peeve (and it happens at conference booths too). If you want people to take the flyer, you need to offer it to them. Extend your arm with the flyer while you are greeting them. A lot of people will just take a thing that’s politely handed to them. But if you wait to offer them the flyer only after they positively respond to your greeting, you are missing some opportunities.
Be catchy & understandable: You’ve got a few seconds before they tune out, say something catchy and understandable. Make it short, punchy, enunciate clearly, have a “call to action,” and use language that is comprehensible to someone who is a total stranger to you and your issue. “Make the bus reliable” is good. “Help make the bus run on time” is ok but a bit more confusing. “Reduce bus bunching by getting bus bulb outs so buses don’t have to slip in and out of traffic” is incomprehensible gibberish (even though it might be more technically correct!).
Be prepared in case they slow down: If they slow down, this is your chance to expand a little bit on your point and get one more line in before they disappear. This should still be something succinct and actionable for them. Make sure to say this part slower than the last part. This is where you can say something like, “We’re asking the Mayor for better street design so buses are more reliable, you can read more and sign the petition here” *move the flyer*. It’s still not hyper-specific language but gives the person greater opportunity to evaluate whether or not they want to tune in more or tune out.
Finally- be prepared in case they want to chat and even help: Occasionally people stop to chat with flyerers, and that can be a good thing. Be prepared to have a little conversation, but keep in mind what you’re there to do. Maybe it’s worth having a long conversation, but maybe it’s not the time for it. You also might get lucky and a stranger says they want to help out– be ready to capitalize on that moment. Whether that’s collecting their info and getting them looped into the overall campaign, or maybe you just give them a handful of flyers for them to hand out as they go about their day. When people raise their hand and offer to help, give them something helpful to do!
And one of the most important things to do to successfully flyer is just to go and do it. For flyering, ok is generally good enough.
Want help improving your campaign tactics or strategy? Email me at Carter@carterlavin.com and let’s schedule something.
How I’m walking the talk these days:
I’m partnering with the League of Conservation Voters to chat with people who are considering running for office about how they can use transportation issues to win their race and fight climate change! Check it out.
Upcoming Free Training-- “A beginner's guide to getting a protected bike lane in your community.” Tuesday March 28th @ 5:30pm PT on Zoom. Register here.
Action/activist of note:
Check out what the Nebraska Trails Foundation is doing in coalition with others to bring back a trail/bike path lost in a storm a three years ago. As their President Jason Buss said, “We wouldn’t accept any other road being detoured indefinitely.” Key example of why it’s important to support groups with staying power and why you have to work to keep winning and cement the changes you want in your community so you can resist efforts to metaphorically (or in this case literally) wash away your progress.
Meet your fellow transportation advocates at the March Open Discussion Zoom Happy Hour! This month’s topic: "What's going on with Slow Streets in your community, what's next and how do we build on their success?" Come share your thoughts, hear from allies, and make some friends. Join the conversation on March 22nd
Interested in sponsoring the training of an activist working on an issue you’re passionate about? Let’s chat.
Thanks for reading, thanks for forwarding this along, and most importantly– thanks for working to make the world better!
Sincerely,
Carter Lavin
www.carterlavin.com