Hot take: A volunteer told me my 'helpful' flyers were actually creating clutter

They said, 'People just walk past the wall of paper.' I switched to a single, clear community board and sign-ups doubled. Anyone else get feedback that flipped a project around?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee_gibson6d ago

Oh man, that reminds me of a bake sale I helped with. We had like five different signs on the same corner pole, all shouting different things. A friend finally said it looked desperate and confusing. We made one simple poster with just the time, place, and "Bake Sale," and it worked way better.

vera_lewis6d agoTop Commenter

Totally get that, it's like when you put too much stuff on a flyer and people just walk right past it. My kid's school club tried to advertise a car wash with a paragraph of tiny text about their fundraiser goals, and nobody showed up. The next time they just wrote "CAR WASH $10" in huge letters with an arrow, and they had a line down the street. Sometimes the brain just needs one clear thing to look at, you know?

morgan_butler5d ago

Yeah, it's crazy how that works. I tried to make a sign for my garage sale last month and put every single item on there in a list. My neighbor saw it and just said "people just need to know it's a garage sale." I took his advice, made a new one that just said "GARAGE SALE" and the address, and we had way more people stop by. Less really is more with this stuff.