Door to door flyers

[Jim Goodall]

Hi Folks,

I'm looking at doing a little local marketing for my IT business, and one of the methods I am planning to use is simply dropping a flyer through the letterbox of local homes.

I will of course respect any no fliers or solicitation notices but is anyone aware if there are any laws about delivering flyers door to door in the UK?

Jim

 

[Lucas1233]

Source: E-How.

You cannot deliver flyers to houses that are marked "No Handbills," "No flyers," or "No advertising." You are allowed to leave flyers at homes that have "No Soliciting" signs.

 

[allington-marketing]

Another thing to add is that Mailing Preference Service does not apply to either leaflets or letters addressed 'To the Occupier'. So no, there's no issue with it.
Make sure you use a reputable door-drop company and not one that uses 15 year olds who drop them in the bin. Some fit the agents with GPS now, so they know who has been bunking off!
hope that helps!

 

[Jim Goodall]

Thanks - was hoping that would be the case!

Make sure you use a reputable door-drop company and not one that uses 15 year olds who drop them in the bin.
hope that helps!

No worries on that score - I'm doing it as cheap as possible, will be doing the delivery myself!

 

[allington-marketing]

Pleased to have helped. Equally as pleased that you're conscious enough to check these things out before diving in and getting a fine or worse!
To be honest, they don't actually take as long to deliver as you might think and you know 100% have been delivered and that they're not being put through with a large wad of competitors' flyers.
Good luck!

 

[AndyPhelps]

Flyers are a great thing to do, not many people are doing it apart from the big high st retailers, and they spend a lot of money researching if something works, use their ideas!

 

[allington-marketing]

Hi
The only other thing which I'd add is that it's good to be consistent.
My brother runs a cleaning company and has about 4 different flyers to appeal to different groups. He delivers each one once per year (ie they get a flyer every quarter).
As is he, you are relying on someone who needs your services NOW and who, if they don't, may bin it.
A few other ideas I gave to a small IT services company with whom I work was to create stickers or cable tags with your contact details. This way, when you repair a computer, you attach it, and they can easily obtain your number for the future.
Another alternative (but more expensive) would be to perhaps have a magnet or coaster (or something kept close to a computer) so that they have your number. I would perhaps only do this upon enquiry as you don't want to spend £1-odd per house creating items for the bin...
Terri

 

[Jim Goodall]

Love the coaster idea Terri - thanks, I'm thinking free mouse mats for folks that make an enquiry

I've thought about targeting - this set I am aiming at household with specific home user support issues targeted, my next round will be small - medium businesses on a local business park.

 

[allington-marketing]

Mouse mats are again good as they're next to a PC!
maybe do a few and segment. here's my ideas:
Small businesses
Home users who need upgrades
Home users who need repairs
A carefully worded 'are you old and have no idea, but you're too embarrassed to ask? we can help'. Definitely not worded like that, however!
Hope that helps!

 

[pktruevision]

Small business are suffering there are many ways and methods to market your company and business are easily found

Just to help if you are an federation of small business member they have a service with post office called print and mail.which costs next to nothing in terms of marketing .

You load up your data (you can buy THIS cheap say over 25s in a target area)
load up your letter ,card.a4,a5.
Royal mail delivers it costs less than a printer and more reliable than a snotty 15 year old.
Target them rather than spending money and time just leaflet dropping and having a low response rate .TARGET and its personal .

Always happy to get small business moving.

Phil.

 

[Jim Goodall]

A carefully worded 'are you old and have no idea, but you're too embarrassed to ask?

Already on to that one - I've got a learning page on my website, I am not allowed to link it here, but you can find it at:

www dot crimsonit dot com/services/learning.html

I'm also offering a "help with computer shopping" service that I think would appeal to "silver surfers"

I've briefly included references to these on my flyers.

 

[allington-marketing]

I think that's great. The ONS is great for identifying large target groups and the 'silver' population is certainly set to increase.
You could play it on the "all the time in the world, but nothing to do?"...try youtube! or find interest groups in your area / build your family tree. Think of things they could do that would interest them (more than youtube!).
Make sure your flyers have a call to action on them and an address. The IT people I referenced earlier had not done this, so a client wouldn't be sure if they're based around the corner or in Uzbekistan! Make them picture themsleves with your product (in this case internet shopping - you could play on the 'less mobile' aspect).
Good luck!

 

[Jim Goodall]

Just to help if you are an federation of small business member they have a service with post office called print and mail.which costs next to nothing in terms of marketing .

Thanks Phil. I did look at FSB membership last year, but after much tyre kicking I let it drift and did nothing about it. I think the initial £150 outlay was what put me off - unfortunately in the current climate, it is no longer "small feed"

My thinking on doing this myself is, whilst I have no work on the desk, this is a low cost, easy way of getting my message out there. After all, all this is costing is my time (and work is thin at the moment), the cost of the card, and the ink.

 

[pktruevision]

Thanks for reply JIm

FSb is good for networking also !Which in this current climate is very cost effective gives you good contacts as well .I am not just promoting FSB but any networking groups most of them have a settling in period to see if you like the group and if you think you can get something out of them .Make a list of groups you would like to benefit from your services and give talks.
Giving talks to your local groups get your name out that way as well.

Dont know whether you can still use print and mail if you not an FSB member but you could ring them it saves on your printing costs use the money to buy data .Its run by the post office Im sure you should be able too its just fsb members have an addition discount.

Phil

 

[Jim Goodall]

cheapest place to get them?

Well my approach of do it yourself is pretty much as cheap as it gets!

I have used scubaprint in the past and have found them to be excellent value for money.

 

[Jim Goodall]

Thanks for the reply Phil, I will take another look at FSB when I'm back in the office, sounds like it might be worth my while.

 

[Jim Goodall]

Thanks for the reply Phil, I will take another look at FSB when I'm back in the office, sounds like it might be worth my while.

I've just taken a look at the print and mail service provided by FSB Phil, I might be wrong, but I don't think it's what I'm looking for at this point - especially at 25p a hit.

Quick figures - the 400 flyers I delivered on Friday which cost me around £10 incl VAT to manufacture myself would have cost £100 excl VAT via this service.

Thanks for the pointer anyway though, something I may look at latter.

 

[Solar]

Hi about delivering your flyers, have you considered Royal Mail? We've used leaflet drop companies before and the results have never been great, at least with RM they are going to the house anyway and get paid extra to deliver your flyer. we have never looked back since using them. I haven't posted enough to put a link in but if you type Royal mail door to door into google you'll find it.

Hope its helpful

 

[Jim Goodall]

have you considered Royal Mail?

Thanks for the thought Solar, but as mentioned earlier in the thread, I am trying to minimise costs and will be delivering myself.