How I Turned £546 into £13.5K With Flyers: Year-by-Year ROI Breakdown (2021–2025)
How one offline flyer campaign grew from a single print run into £13.5K in client revenue. Real data, key lessons, and why print marketing still works in 2025.
One flyer got me started.
The third? It fuelled my highest-earning years yet.
📦 Third flyer design
📈 Year-by-year revenue (2021–2025)
💡 The moments that worked — and didn't
This isn't theory. It's £13.5K made from £546 in print costs.
🚀 Flyer V3: Built to Scale
By early 2023, I'd levelled up my content and my clients.
I had repeated work with Car & Classic, stronger visuals, and better grammar. Time to scale.
Flyer V3 Goals:
- More varied, premium images
- Tighter writing
- A show-stopping cover
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I chose each image to create emotion, not just fill space.
⚠️ NEC Show Roadbump
Right before the NEC Autosport International, Vistaprint emailed me:
"Can't print in time."
I called, got it sorted, and got refunded.
But by show day, only the old flyers were ready.
The NEC didn't deliver many leads, but it was still worth attending. I met passionate people and saw the best of motorsport tech — still a win.
📉 The Client Who Didn't Pay… At First
Not every lead is golden.
Bidding Classics found me via LinkedIn. I delivered the work. Then came the silence.
Like other photographers, I chased overdue invoices and eventually had to file a CCJ.
It worked — I got paid. But it reminded me that not every flashy brand respects your time.
That experience sharpened my filters. Now I vet leads more thoroughly and focus on clients who value the craft.
💰 Flyer Revenue by Year
From £780 in year one to nearly £6K in year three — proof that smart print strategy and persistence can outperform paid ads.
2021 — £780
- Hampson Auctions
- JSCC
- Bathgate Silica Sand
- Vauxhall VXR
- Audi TTS
2022 — £3,590.59
- Hampson Auctions
- Northwest Motor Auction
- Car & Classic
2023 — £5,968.47
- Hampson Auctions
- Car & Classic
- Historics Auctioneers
- Bidding Classics
2024 — £2,099.55
- Hampson Auctions
- Car & Classic
2025 — £1,124.31 (to July 2025)
- Hampson Auctions
- Car & Classic
Total revenue from flyers: £13,563.92 — a 2,380% ROI.
🧩 Key Takeaways
- Flyers made me visible in high-trust spaces.
- My portfolio fed word-of-mouth.
- Referrals snowballed into real money.
- I shifted from lead-chasing to upskilling in digital marketing, but flyers kept working in the background.
That's how I turned £546 into £13,563.92 — a 2,380% return.
Without Google Ads, Meta boosts or influencers.
🔍 A Note on ROI Context and Future Expectations
That 2,380% ROI was possible because this flyer campaign started at a very specific point in my business journey.
At the time, I was building from zero clients, already had my equipment and software paid for, and invested £546 total, including around £200 on flyers. Every booking represented new revenue, which naturally amplified the percentage return.
If I were to run a new flyer marketing campaign today for Vivid Media Cheshire, I would expect a more realistic return in the region of 100% to 200% ROI, based on higher operating costs, a mature service offering, and different growth constraints.
For a community-led campaign, such as a NYCC venue booking drive, where the goal is awareness and utilisation rather than pure profit, a 50% ROI would be a reasonable and healthy outcome.
The key takeaway is not the headline percentage. It is that offline marketing worked consistently, scaled over time, and remained effective even as my focus shifted toward digital marketing.
🔗 Related Case Studies
- Flyer Marketing (Part 1) — The flyer that started it all
- Flyer Marketing (Part 2) — The refined flyer that scaled
- Flyer Marketing (Part 3) — Year-by-year ROI breakdown
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This series demonstrates how offline marketing and consistent execution deliver measurable results.