Does Leaflet Dropping Work?

[KRange]

Hi

Does posting business leaflets/cards through peoples doors work?

Do you personally keep them and put them on your notice board or throw them in the bin?

Im not talking about local pizzas etc although i do tend to keep them, im talking online stores and services.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Leaflets work great for local services, they would have to be well designed to work as on offline marketing tool for an online service. I see no reason why not, but it would as I say have to be very well thought out in order to get the message across that the aim is to drive traffic to an online resource.

 

[KRange]

The service will be offline (insured will writers within solicitors) Mainly to make people aware of our company in NW England. But a website which has more detailed of they want to look into our company before calling us to book an appointment.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

you would need a really strong reason for them to go online for such a boring (no offence) service. Will writing is traditionally hard to sell, mainly due to the fact that the first step is admitting ones own mortality.

 

[KRange]

Boring service, made me chuckle!

it may be boring but an essential thing to have in life i think. Might trigger people to think about it and give us a call? Main thing is to call us and not necessary go online.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Boring service, made me chuckle!

it may be boring but an essential thing to have in life i think. Might trigger people to think about it and give us a call? Main thing is to call us and not necessary go online.

if it is telephone that is different, what threw me was your opening post where you stated

im talking online stores and services

for some odd reason I assumed you were talking online stores and services and not 'call us

 

[KRange]

thats ok.. My error.

The leaflet/business card will have website on, telephone number and small amount of content about our services. But mainly the line "call us today to find out more" or something like that

 

[B&H Digital]

As long as you don't throw them through any door it could definitely work. You have to do your research, see what companies are around you, and make sure your design will appeal to them.

If you do go ahead with it, we wish you the best of luck

 

[Elliottc26]

Leaflet drops whether successful or not, still yield low conversion rates by comparison to other mediums.

For me, all go in the bin as I am not looking for the services they offer: new windows (small flat block), handyman (can do myself), fast food (I stick to one place I like), internet service (have and happy with), removals (not moving), solicitors (don't need one), gardener (no garden, have patio/balcony), etc, etc.,.

Some people may keep leaflets they think they may need in the future, but am guessing most end up in the bin.

For the price of designing, printing and distributing leaflets, perhaps a well designed advert in the local paper, business directories, and/or magazines may yield better results as people will feel less intruded upon as are searching for the service provided.

I also dislike sales calls.

 

[KRange]

Thank you all for comments

 

[HFServices]

im talking online stores and services

Then

The service will be offline

So the first thing is to decide exactly what this leaflet is advertising.
It seems to me you intend to use it for brand awareness

Mainly to make people aware of our company in NW England

I would have thought that a simple 'Call xxxxxxx or visit www.xxxxx.xxx for more information or to book an apointment' statement would suffice.

I would try and get some leaflets into places where people would consider a will such as maternity or A&E wards in hospitals, doctors surgeries etc..

 

[OldWelshGuy]

The way you seem to be approaching this, I would honestly say you are doomed to failure. Any marketing campaign is built around outcomes, you don't seem to know what your outcomes are.

You start with your outcomes and work backwards. e.g.

OUTCOME: Get people to call us

QUESTION: Why would they call us?

ANSWER: because they really should have a will

QUESTION: then why have they not got one?

ANSWER: Because they have not been motivated enough to do so

QUESTION: How then can we motivate them to call us?

Ok NOW you are getting somewhere. But if you think that having a bland boring unemotional leaflet telling people you do wills and giving your contact details, is going to bring in any sort of decent return, then you are sadly wrong.

PUPS.
Present
Undesirable
Problem
Solution.

Cover those issues in your leaflet. Such as

ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT POSSIBLE CARE HOME FEES?

ARE YOU A COUPLE LIVING TOGETHER BUT NOT MARRIED?

If you are either of the above then you really need to pick up the pohone and find out how you can protect your home, and ensure your partner gets to keep what you want them to keep in the event of your death.

So many people lose out on life after the death of a loved one. Don't lose out for the cost of a phone call!

Call us now on 555 555 555

Or you could always say

DO YOU HAVE A WILL?
YOU NEED A WILL!
WE DO WILLS

Call 555 555 555

People buy on emotion, unless you stir the emotions you are limiting your ROI

 

[KRange]

yes the leaflet has bullet points pointing out key factors as to why take out a will and benefits of doing sp etc. Its not just a contact number with a call now action and poor colours. Its bold and eye catching and mentions key points why to call us.

thank you for your points also.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Apologies for sounding patronising it is just that getting info out of you is like pulling teeth Your posts don't really give much insight into what you are doing that was why i went into a bit of detail.

 

[RobertB]

We use flyers to promote our window blind business and find it gives a good ROI.

Over the years of trying and testing different artwork and copy we find the following works.

• Target towns and villages within 5 miles of our base.
• Change our flyer to reflect our target customers eg Your local blind company in xxxxxx and add testimonials of customers from the target area
• Promote that we are a family run business with a picture of the wife and myself (under the picture I use the wording ‘Call Robert direct on 0782 xxxxxxx – I do receive quite a few calls which start Hi Robert)
• Have a few sample prices to give people an idea of cost and we also give ‘10% with this leaflet’

Finally, we put out 1000’s of flyers each month and most importantly out of 10 customers we typically obtain 2-3 referrals . (If think our record is 10 customers from one flyer (daughter referring to mother/ aunt , etc))

 

[KRange]

Apologies for sounding patronising it is just that getting info out of you is like pulling teeth Your posts don't really give much insight into what you are doing that was why i went into a bit of detail.

hi
sorry its my fault im posting on this as well as working on my site and not giving 100% to my questions/answers :-/ but youve provided some very helpful tips so thank you for those.

 

[I Love Spreadsheets]

With a service like this I suspect the only way a leaflet drop would work is if it was consistent.

Your service is not one that I would think of using and would have no reason to keep, so it would get binned time and time again, however there will be that one time when something happens in the family and makes me think about your services. This is why you get so much junk mail about financial services like insurance. The companies know you only buy things once a year so they hope if they keep sending you leaflets one will arrive when you are looking for those services.

The problem with that is (a) will it produce a good enough ROI and (b) is it practical?

Maybe a small but very regular advert in the local press would be of more benefit

 

[Holly_Is_Hi]

Leaflets work if the customer who receives it is in need of your business. I run Hi! Maintenance (trading name of The Hi! Company (UK) Limited) and if our customers need and want a handyman, electrician, carpenter, plumber etc then they respond to leaflets. But low conversion rate is accurate. I believe it currently stands at 2% for 100,000. Meaning you can expect (or hope for) 200 'responses' to a 100,000 campaign.

 

[Leaflet Drop]

Leaflets work if the customer who receives it is in need of your business. I run Hi! Maintenance (trading name of The Hi! Company (UK) Limited) and if our customers need and want a handyman, electrician, carpenter, plumber etc then they respond to leaflets. But low conversion rate is accurate. I believe it currently stands at 2% for 100,000. Meaning you can expect (or hope for) 200 'responses' to a 100,000 campaign.

I dont think you can actually put a number on it, i mentioned in another thread the rate is normally 1-3%, this can change, i actually distributed 5,000 for my own business (delviering leaflets), all the businesses over the North West, i got over 300 enquires/reponses. On the flip side to it, i know of people that have had 10k delivered and only got a handful of calls.

 

[Holly_Is_Hi]

yes I myself have tried the 10k leaflet route and despite strong branding and great USPs (google thehicompany to find out more) we find we get most of our business from word of mouth or from actually getting out there and talking to people about the company. But the type of business you run or services you offer will also dictate whether leaflets are likely to have a higher or lower success rate. In my case we provide plumbers, carpenters, electricians, painters, gardeners and handyman services - the type of services that customers are often nervous about booking (after all, letting anyone in your home or premises to carry out work can be a nerve racking experience as there are so many cowboys out there). The type of service we offer generally gets around by word of mouth as our reputation, which is everything, comes solely from satisfied customers who refer us on to their friends.

 

[Perfect Windows]

Yes, leafletting does work. A well-designed leaflet will get get calls coming in.

While there may be a hundred reasons for people not to call, you will hit some people on a day they need your service. So, in our case, we leaflet pretty consistently and get calls from people whose own cleaner has stopped coming, or they have just moved into a new house or the sun's shining on the day they get the leaflet and they notice the problem, etc, etc. Repeating drops in the same areas doesn't result in poor response rates, as you'll hit different people on the day they have a reason to call.

So you will get calls. However, your response rate will appear low. Ours is down at 0.45%. Sounds awful, doesn't it? The low response rate from leaflets always gets a mention (it has in this thread as well).

However, there's something missing when people tell you how low the response rate is from leaflets, namely, the cost. Yes, we're getting a new customer from about 225 leaflets, but that works out at about £17 - £18 per new customer. Once it's looked at that way, it stacks up (for us). So, don't be misled by % response rates, look at how much you'll pay per customer and you may find a different answer. That's the core number.

Hope that helps,

Vin

 

[S-Marketing]

Leaflets work, bit only if you have a decent leaflet which has been designed around a strong marketing strategy, and you deliver them yourself.

A leaflet designed by a print company or graphic designer, then delivered by a leaflet distribution co will get very poor results.

 

[tompeters]

Interesting comments. We did a leaflet drop last week of about 500. So far we have had 3 calls and 1 order but its still early days. I'll have to update on the progress perhaps next week when to see if any more enquiries come in.

I guess it depends on your product or service and the cost of it as to whether its worthwhile to your business or not.

 

[Scottish_Trader]

Interesting topic.

Me and my brother delivered some leaflets (around 100-150 houses) on a weekday (sunny'ish weather). So far, no luck - but then again, its only 150. Will be doing a lot more (about 4-5k) ourselves - as someone above said, do it yourself as thats the best way. I'm extremely cautious of these companies on the like of gumtree delivering.

That said, I have approached a [random] student to hand out 1000 leaflets in the city centre over the next few days and we will get a good idea of how that has went (or probably not if he doesn't bother!).

Thanks for starting this thread.

 

[chrisitine]

Like any other form of direct marketing, flyer distribution response will always be extremely low if your distribution isn't targeted. Make sure that flyers are just one part of the promotional mix and perhaps try to distribute them via a relevant publication or into specific postcodes that meet the demographic profile of your target audience.

 

[Perfect Windows]

Interesting topic.

Me and my brother delivered some leaflets (around 100-150 houses) on a weekday (sunny'ish weather). So far, no luck - but then again, its only 150. Will be doing a lot more (about 4-5k) ourselves - as someone above said, do it yourself as thats the best way. I'm extremely cautious of these companies on the like of gumtree delivering.

That said, I have approached a [random] student to hand out 1000 leaflets in the city centre over the next few days and we will get a good idea of how that has went (or probably not if he doesn't bother!).

Thanks for starting this thread.

If you need to get plenty out, I wrote a thread about the problems I came across when trying to get a campaign going, along with a possible solution.

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=200064

Vin

 

[zaidy88]

Any leaflets I get through my door tend to go in the bin straight away.
Takeaways etc, might sit around for about a week or so as I enjoy the odd takeaway, but never use them.
If the leaflet does not look good though, then straight in the bin.
Dominos Pizza is the only leaflet I keep and would actually do business with, other than that, I tend to go online to the likes of nifty nosh etc and buy through that.