Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, fcbd, free comic book day

So That Was Free Comic Book Day. Now What?

One of the bugbears amongst some comic retailers over Free Comic Book Day is that's the only time they see certain people who turn up, take a stack of free comics and then leave. But, considering the flood of people through the doors of comic shops worldwide this past Saturday, just how do you keep their interest?

Anna Warren Cebrian, owner of Illusive Comics & Games told me;

We definitely grow each year from FCBD. We hope that we have enough store pizazz during FCBD to have them wanting to come back again and, usually, after 2 visits, people become "Regulars."

If they aren't hooked by the awesomeness of my shop itself, then hopefully the rapport that we establish will have them wanting to come back every week, for the rest of their lives.

Chris Powell, general manager of Lone Star Comics;

Whenever we are able, customers are offered a brief tour of the store to familiarize them with the wide variety of products available and to give the store staff a chance to ask what their interests are. If it's during the mad rush, which was all 12 hours in some stores this year, the customer is flagged in our POS system so that they can get the tour on their next visit.

We do a bounce back coupon for the next Saturday to get the customer in for a second visit fairly quickly. This gets them into the store while they're still remembering that we are the cool people that gave them free stuff.

All of our team members have also studied the FCBD books and are able to ask people that don't know which books they are interested in what books, TV, etc. they like, and make educated recommendations based on that. This has led to more returning customers, since they like what they've taken home.

Lastly, we highlight the fun things we do in the stores, such as game nights, comic reading clubs, artist visits, etc. on small flyers that are distributed with the free books.

Tom Flammer of Clem's Comics & Games of Lansing;

This year we did a raffle for some pretty nice stuff, and customers were invited to enter one slip for free. If they agreed to have their email address added to our newsletter mailing list (we use Constant Contact), they could enter a second slip.

We've almost doubled our mailing list size, and we're still counting.

But Aaron Haaland of A Comic Shop , famed winner of the Bleeding Cool retailers award is thinking bigger. And he's going to be extending the appeal of Free Comic Book Day for his own shop – and others.

This year I came up with "Free Comic Book May". We did the regular FCBD (which was my biggest ever somehow, and the biggest sales day I ever had), and gave all those people a flyer and a stamp card.

The flyer is for Free stuff every Saturday in May. Next Saturday is Free Super Hero comics, which will be all the $1 books that are Super heroes. The next Saturday is Free Non-Super Hero $1 books. Then if people have come to the previous Saturdays and got their card stamped, they can get a Free Graphic Novel on the last Saturday in May. Then we have a party that night with Daniel Way and Free Beer.

So a sampler can become a weekly customer…

There's two other shops in Florida doing the same this year, and if it works we will bring it to the industry at large for next year.

So then. 2012. Free Comic Book May. Unless the Free Comic Book Mayans get to it first…

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!