Has anyone used Leaflets to advertise a site

[Chris34]

Hi all,

I'm just wondering if anyone has tried leaflet distribution to advertise their website and if so what were the results like. Did it work, did your site get more sales, did it get any sales.

I might go ahead and do it but I am sort of thinking that a pay per click campaign might be better value and I'd be interested to hear peoples experiences.



Thanks,



Chris.

 

[Red Eye Media]

If the business is online, then I wouldn't bother.
you can't click on a leaflet last time I checked

 

[Nickdavis87]

If the business is online, then I wouldn't bother.
you can't click on a leaflet last time I checked

I forgot that touching a leaflet will automatically transport me to a bricks and mortar store

 

[funkychef]

A leaflet drop would only be to a limited amoumt of prospects. Unless they were dropped to specific targeted customers, the chance of many being interested in what you do, is very low. Somebody on here a few days ao said that he got 2 orders from 1000 leaflets.
Then the problem is people remembering your url until they get to the pc. if is a simple name ie apple.com then it might be ok, but if its abit more tricky davessuperdupercarpetcleaner.biz then they might not ever find you.

We do a few targeted leaflets, but to specific business, but the business comes via the phone, even thought the web address is prominent on every leaf of the handout.

Best to spend the money on a good ad, seo or ppc.

 

[jonesy68]

I tried this nearly two years ago for the Spareground website.
Spent hours and hours distributing them and got absolutely no response whatsoever from it.
I specifically targeted my area too where I thought I would get a good response (all the area around Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge) and absolutely nothing. So a waste of shoe leather and very disheartening, ..sole and soul destroying I guess!

I also made the mistake of buying way more leaflets than I could ever hope to get out, all of which are now still sat in boxes in my attic.

It's not something I would do again for certain, I guess it depends what your website is but from my experience it's not worth the hassle. I'd stick with online advertising.

 

[Duncan_W]

Whether it is worth it depends very much what your offer is and what the objective of the leaflet drop is.

To give you an example:

We have a client www.mettricksbutchers.co.uk. He has a high street shop and an on-line presence. One of the objectives for the website is to help him compete locally "Buy on-line, avoid the queues in the shop and get your items delivered".

We did a leaflet drop to promote the site locally as it was a very cost effective way of hitting the whole local with the message. It was very effective (we were able to track the impact using offer codes).

What I am saying is I think leaflet drops have a place for local marketing, if you have a benefit to offer people in a specific location, and want to promote this then yes do a leaflet drop. If however your target market is the wider population then maybe not - look to on-line marketing techniques.

As usual its not about the web its about Marketing. In some cased the web is a great communication tool. In others, more traditional methods are appropriate.

Hope this helps

 

[MISI_UK]

I use leaflets to promote my site. However I would suggest targeting it!

If you give them to anyone they will end up in the bin! I did a test and put them in some doors, it took me about 3 hours feeling a little bit venerable and then I monitored where the sales/sellers were coming from for a week after and guess what! know one from the streets I did.

I use mine to take to craft events, drop in craft related shops, networking, cafes and I just like to have some on me as you never know who you will bump into! Now I know it works to some extent as Ive only really done this in two areas and apart from London and Manchester we have the highest amount of users from those areas.

Pay per click is better though! I like facebook ads as they are well targeted and users generally have more time to browse than other sites.

But if you have the budget do both our leaflets are only £75 for 5000 and if you are using them at a targeted audience that should last you some time!

 

[Chris34]

Thank you for the replies everybody, your experiences have allowed me to make a very important decision.

I currently distribute leaflets for other businesses, a bit of pin money really while I was building my website but the time has come to choose one or the other due to the website nearing completion and the lack of time I have to do both.

I thought the only need I have for carrying on the leaflet distribution is if I needed to send out my own leaflets and I was unsure whether it was worth the effort to keep the business going just so I could use it to send out my own leaflets as this would effectively be a free service for the website. I see now that this is not worth doing so I can with great pleasure drop the leaflet distribution business knowing full well that's it's the correct decision to take.

I will print leaflets but not to deliver door to door, it will be like others have said, targeted mailings to go out with ebay orders and hand out to people I bump into who might be interested etc.


Many thanks for all the replies, your time is much appreciated.




Chris.

 

[webpromoterservice]

if you run a local business then it could work well.

 

[bcmedia]

I'm currently running a newspaper advert for loft conversions - the advert is driving customers to the site & then to contact the company. The advert entices & then the website confirms quality and leads to a call to action so I've had this approach work.

 

[oldeagleeye]

I find the negative view on advertising by way of other media amazing. Virtually every major business does it to great effect. Do none of you watch television or listen to the radio. What do they these broadcasters say almost hourly. 'Go to our web site.'

What do you see on every boading. In every glossy magazine. 'Go to our web site' and the reason is that it works and even gives you the edge over SEO & SEM.

The only difference between small business an the big boys is that we can't afford such blanket advertising which means targeting potential customers. Do that and you on a winner.

A simple A5 leaflet can drive potential cusomers to your web site. That alone gives your business credibility and then wow. 5 perhaps 10 pages in full colour to promote your products. Imagine the cost of 10 or even 5 full colour pages in your local rag-sheet. What are you paying for your web site. About £5 quid a week in hosting fees.

Everyone then should be able to afford to advertise by way of other media. End of story

 

[quikshop]

I find the negative view on advertising by way of other media amazing... Everyone then should be able to afford to advertise by way of other media. End of story

Its not quite as simple as you make it sound. Advertising agencies will not tell you this but any printed advert needs to appear in at least 7 editions in a particular paper or magazine in order to be seen by your target audience.

I imagine its a similar theory for TV or any other form of real World advertising, it would be great if you could splash out on a 30 second TV ad and EVERYONE who might be interested in your product are all watching at that precise moment, but that's not how it works.

Real World marketing for web based businesses is purely about low-penetration brand awareness unless of course you have a healthy budget to repeat your message over and over and over...

 

[oldeagleeye]

I appreciate what you say Dave. In fact as far as big companies are concerned I very much doubt that there is any real ROI. If is just a vanity exercise under the excuse of brand awareness and the PR department will fight tooth and nail to protect their budgets & jobs.

For the SME however targeted advertising does work and the latest fad is vehicle livery. LBC London's biggest private radio has for example over 250 taxis running around with their logo and it is quite cheap to do this yourself. I know that I am about to try it.

Figures - and they are independent of the suppliers that suggest more than 700 times more people will see that promotion than an ad in a newspaper. I think I am on a winner with 2 impressive black 4 X4 service vehicles running around London everyday with a huge red Phoenix rising from the fire emblazoned over the bonnet's and doors. Cost about £1,000 for both vehicles. That is just £20 quid a week.

Robert.

 

[dubes]

I would say yes. I worked for a large design company in manchester for a while and we built alot of websites so all I can say is those that succeeded activley marketed in other areas. You wouldn't start a business and not let anybody know you are there, SEO just isn't enough, especially if youy are trading online the more business the merrier :0)

 

[quikshop]

I appreciate what you say Dave. In fact as far as big companies are concerned I very much doubt that there is any real ROI. If is just a vanity exercise under the excuse of brand awareness and the PR department will fight tooth and nail to protect their budgets & jobs.

There is no doubt a saturation point where brand awareness becomes so prolific that consumers wouldn't dream of buying an own brand cola when put along side Coca Cola. For large corporations is makes perfect sense to drive the message home over and over until their brand reaches the giddy heights of household brand.

For the SME however targeted advertising does work and the latest fad is vehicle livery. LBC London's biggest private radio has for example over 250 taxis running around with their logo and it is quite cheap to do this yourself. I know that I am about to try it.

Best of luck with your marketing. I think for real World businesses or Web businesses with a strong regional service delivery, targeted regionalised marketing can work to great effect, I just can't see the same happening for an Internet-only business who's target audience is UK or even Worldwide.

For Web businesses it tends to happen the other way round, they become an Internet household brand, eBay, Google, Amazon, Asos and so on and even then they use very limited and very targeted real World marketing.

EBay are a great example, they hit the TV screens only during peak shopping months usually either side of Christmas. You will not see them on TV or in the papers throughout the year.

We only need to look back 7 / 8 years to see what happens to Web businesses that throw millions at real World brand awareness in huge publicity drives, only for them to be forgot and go bust months later. This was a mistake repeated over and over just before and during the dotcom bubble bursting, the business owners failed to understand that their core markets could only really be reached through the medium they operated through, the Internet.

 

[BusinessIdeas]

Slightly off topic, do people think that a CD with a link to the site would work? it would be more expensive than a leaflet but might work better and you could put more info on the cd with deep links to differeint products on the site etc? I think this might work if it was fairly highly targeted

 

[bcmedia]

It the ends justified a CD presentation then why not - I;ve found business card CD's to be a good gimmick.

 

[Paulhughes]

Hi,

My background is all software and online. I recently got involved with a Claims Management Company at shareholder level. They have distributed approx 5,000 A5 leaflets directly to housing estates and there has been any significant change to the number of unique visitors. However the costs where cheap. £137 for 10,000 A5 glossy, colour etc.
I dont know know as well if we should be distributing more, changing the design, may be increasing the frequency with multiple drops. So far not very good, will let you know how it progresses.

Hi all,

I'm just wondering if anyone has tried leaflet distribution to advertise their website and if so what were the results like. Did it work, did your site get more sales, did it get any sales.

I might go ahead and do it but I am sort of thinking that a pay per click campaign might be better value and I'd be interested to hear peoples experiences.



Thanks,



Chris.