A Tear-Off Flyer Brings Elopement Photographer Cass 9 New Inquiries

Most of these case studies come from emails my readers send me. With their permission, I share them with the names changed. I do this so that others can learn from what worked and what didn't. Have a story of your own? Share it with me.

118tear-off tabs taken
9inquiries, up from 1
2elopements booked in 8 weeks

A flyer hung on a corkboard between a guitar teacher and a lost cat.

The guitar teacher’s flyer had little paper tabs at the bottom. Half of them were gone.

The flyer in the middle belonged to Cass, an elopement photographer in Bend, Oregon. It had a big photo and nothing to take away. It hung there for two months, and nobody wrote down a thing.

So she borrowed the guitar teacher’s trick. Her tear-off flyer idea brought 118 torn tabs and nine inquiries.

The problem

Cass photographs about 15 elopements a year in the Cascades. Her first flyer was one big photo of a couple on a ridge.

It had her name, her website and the words “Elopement photography.”

She asked herself what a stranger could do with that flyer. The honest answer was to look at it, and that was all.

There was nothing to take away. A stranger could look, smile and walk off with nothing in hand.

She hung 30 copies for two months and counted what came back.

Measure	Flyer one
Flyers hung	30
Weeks out	8
Visits to her page	12
Inquiries	1
Elopements booked	0

To make things worse, she could not tell which spot gave her the single inquiry.

Her web address was also long. “cassmarshallphotography.com/elopements” is hard to remember, and hard to type with cold thumbs.

The solution

Cass copied a trick from the guitar teacher next to her. She added tear-off tabs.

Each tab held one short web address and one word. The flyer itself said what to do with it.

Planning to elope near Bend? Tear off a tab for a free list of 10 quiet trailheads.

She bought a short, easy web address that pointed to a simple page. The page held the list and a small form.

The list was a one-page PDF. Ten trailheads, parking notes and the best hour for light at each. She wrote it in a weekend.

Readable words in a web address also count as good URL structure for search.

Everything else came off, following one rule for what to put on an elopement flyer. If it doesn’t help a couple act, it goes.

The process that worked

What went on the page

She kept it to a single photo, a headline and a short line about the free list.

She taped a draft to a wall and walked across the room. A good flyer should work from far away and from arm’s length.

She left out her bio, her prices and her awards. They could live on the page behind the tab.

What went on each tab

Each tab had her short web address and a small word, such as “rim” or “bridge.”

The word showed which spot the tab came from. That way she could tell where couples were picking them up.

Where she hung them

She chose places where couples with sun on their faces and rings in their pockets would stop.

Two jewelers that sell simple wedding bands
Three outdoor gear shops
A climbing gym
A brewery with a big patio
Two trailhead cafes

Jewelers were her bet. A couple buying simple bands is often weeks from a decision, and the flyer sat right at the counter.

She asked at each place first and offered to bring a fresh flyer every month.

How she counted

Each week she visited the spots, counted the missing tabs, and wrote the number in her phone.

She also asked each couple on the first call where they found her flyer. It took ten seconds and confirmed the tab counts.

A torn tab is not a sale. But it is a person who cared enough to take one.

Did the tear-off flyer idea work?

She printed 40 new flyers with 10 tabs each, and left them up for eight weeks.

Measure	Flyer one	Flyer two
Flyers hung	30	40
Weeks out	8	8
Tabs torn off	no tabs	118
Visits to her page	12	71
Inquiries	1	9
Elopements booked	0	2

Tabs are a rough signal, not a perfect one. Some people tear two, and some just photograph the address. But the trend was clear.

Here is where the tabs went.

Spot	Tabs torn off
Jewelers	38
Outdoor gear shops	41
Climbing gym	17
Brewery and cafes	22

Jewelers had the fewest flyers and brought the warmest couples. Several said they had just bought their rings.

What we learned from here

A photo asks for a look. A tab asks for a small action.

Small actions add up, and that is why the tear-off flyer idea beat her prettier first try. People like taking something home, even a strip of paper.

Cass wrote this list on the back of a spare flyer.

Do again	Do differently
Tear-off tabs with a short address	Print tabs on stiffer paper
A free list as the offer	Add a second list for winter
Hang flyers where couples shop for rings	Skip the climbing gym
Visit weekly and count	Wait a month between visits
One flyer in each spot	A stack that falls over

One more habit helped. She wrote the date she hung each flyer on the back, so she knew which ones were getting old.

The brewery was a bust. Its flyers lost tabs to people who were just curious, and none came in as inquiries.

Some tabs also tore off in the rain. She now laminates the top and leaves the tabs bare.

She also forgot to add the year to her list. Couples asked if it was current, so now she writes “Updated for this year” at the top.

The second run cost $96 to print. Two elopements at about $3,000 each is roughly $6,000.

She keeps spare paper and clips in her car, so a worn flyer never stays up for more than a week.

Before this run, she thought flyers were old-fashioned. Now she treats them as a small, cheap test she can repeat each season.

A cheap first test is one flyer with five tabs, hung where your best couples shop.

The same free list now sits behind a short link in her Instagram bio, so it works online too.