Marketing8 min read

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.

By Joe from Vivid Auto
#flyer-marketing#ROI#print-vs-digital#small-business-growth
How I Turned £546 into £13.5K With Flyers: Year-by-Year ROI Breakdown (2021–2025)

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


Porsche 911 at the Hampson Auctions Concorde Conference Centre Sale: November 2021

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


Front of Version 3 Flyer — Sharp, personal, and proven
Back of Version 3 Flyer — Proof over promise

I chose each image to create emotion, not just fill space.


⚠️ NEC Show Roadbump


The Praga R1R race car at the ROWE trade stand at the NEC Autosport International show

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


A Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS and a McLaren Senna at the Logic stand at NEC Autosport International

  • 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.


📩 Like This Series?


Want more real results from the trenches of freelance marketing?


Tags

#flyer-marketing#ROI#print-vs-digital#small-business-growth
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