Leaflet drops: tricks of the trade

[Francois Badenhorst]

I know leaflet drops are a frequent topic of chat here on the forums. Some people see it as outdated but I know many of you find it very effective.

So, my question is: How do you improve the effectiveness of door drops? What are some of the key things to consider? How does distribution work? And lastly, how you measure results?

 

[STDFR33]

What are some of the key things to consider?

Not engaging a company that gets 13 year olds to post 1% and dump the rest in the nearest bin.

 

[Francois Badenhorst]

Not engaging a company that gets 13 year olds to post 1% and dump the rest in the nearest bin.

True enough - some of these leaflet companies seem pretty dodgy. Have you had some bad luck with it?

 

[STDFR33]

I used to be the 13 year old.

 

[AllUpHere]

Top tips.

Use them as part of a strategic marketing plan. This will tell you what your leaflets should look like, what they should say, and who should receive them.

Don't let the printer's in house designer design them. They will make them look pretty, but they will be crap.

As with all promotional marketing, 90 % of the task is in the planning. Get your strategy right and you will be rewarded.

For most trades, simply getting a load of leaflets delivered by a third party is the worst possible way to go about it.

 

[WHGB Tom]

They can be a great way to improve brand/business awareness, we have found anyhow. Sometimes it can be tempting to try and cram as much info on a leaflet as possible, however like people have already said, have a clear and direct point you are trying to get across and keep it simple.

 

[webprojectuk]

I am not sure what business you are in so it's hard to provide you with a specific answer. Therefore, I will give you a broad one. I have personally dealt with leaflets for eCommerce, takeaways and restaurants. In order to get the best possible conversion you need to know who your buyers are.

For example I have found that lower income areas have a much better response to takeaway leaflets. Also, the response is almost instant but quickly drops off. Therefore, regular drops are required to keep the orders coming in. For restaurants, I have used discount vouchers and they can work really well. However, I find that discount voucher don't provide loyalty.

Therefore, I try not use this method for my clients. The only problem is that without discount vouchers is much harder to track conversions. So, I use restaurant leaflet drops for brand awareness.

For eCommerce I use leaflets for both brand awareness and up-sells as well as trying to convert ebay and amazon customers to clients own websites. The conversion ratio depends on the how well you can link the product delivered to the up-sell. Either way I feel leaflets are very important for brand awareness.

I hope this helps.

 

[menetworkjadaltd]

Do you think that a copywriter should design the leaflets initially and then let graphics polish it up?

 

[Sunny Days]

We've just started our own trial. 1,000 leaflets with an exclusive offer not advertised or mentioned anywhere else. They're being delivered to 1,000 local homes. We'll repeat this each month for 3 months to see what the ROI is. It'll only cost us £70 per month to print and deliver, and we need 3.5 bookings each month to cover the cost of the campaign. The leaflets will all have a similar look but each month will have a slightly different offer. If it works we'll up the numbers, if it doesn't we'll try a different area before binning the idea

 

[AllUpHere]

If you post the leaflet I'll tell you if it will work, and how you could improve it.

 

[mcmm]

Your leaflet drop should be targeted, your measures are uptake of traffic (across mediums) and ultimately increase in sales.

I recently did the whole leaflet drop but targeted particular socio economic groups and areas (requires local knowledge or statistical data).

I recorded the area of coverage on a private google maps.

I posted 2000 leaflets and had a pickup of less than 5% however I had a golden customer that championed for me (they liked it so much) which led to many more customers through referral so it was still worthwhile.

I also tried the whole leaflets on cars, I didn’t find this effective at all, (0% pickup). There are also limitations as this can only be done on private property with the land owners approval. Did you know most local council require you to obtain a licence to distribute leaflets to people walking in the street?

Post Office will provide the service “for a fee” and there are reputable GPS tracked leaflet distribution companies out there.

 

[tony84]

When I was starting out, I posted about 5000.
I posted them. I quite enjoyed it, shorts and tshirt on, headphones in, couple of hours walking, stopping at one or 2 pubs en route and it wasnt a bad day.

If it was p'ing down I wouldnt do it.

I think the trick is to do the same areas a few times - but I could be wrong.
I never had much success.

 

[LeafletsInLincs]

When I was starting out, I posted about 5000.
I posted them. I quite enjoyed it, shorts and tshirt on, headphones in, couple of hours walking, stopping at one or 2 pubs en route and it wasnt a bad day.

If it was p'ing down I wouldnt do it.

I think the trick is to do the same areas a few times - but I could be wrong.
I never had much success.

You posted 5000 in 1 day? Been a professional for 7 years now & thatwould take me a full 7 days in most areas.

Anyway, a mixtureof tips:

1. Don't print anything that is thick or heavy as it will drastically increase the cost of distribution & can even make it impossible. Most printers will not know anything at all about distribution & so be wary of thick flyers. We had a political party drop off 40,000 flyers once....the printer had done them so thick that they weighed over a ton when they didnt need to be so thick & the design could of been done on a much smaller size.
2. Use a distribution business that does not treat everyone as self employed & that only has employees as this increases the chances the jobs will get done.
3. It's not an easy job, don't think it is & pay appropriately for the service. Never go for "cheap"
4. Always have flyers delivered solus, some people think they're getting a bargain when the flyer representing them is going out with 10 others and buried inside a magazine.
5. Bare in mind that a flyer drop for a sweet shop does not stand th chance to cover the cost, most flyer drops are for estate agents or one offs promoting an event or opening because they know they'll make the money back even from a tiny response.
6. Target the correct areas, you need to know your target audience & post to where they live.
7. Flyer design is everything.
8. Deliver 100 flyers yourself before getting quotes, you'll see how hard the job is & the be more inclined to diregard the "pay us £25 per 1000 & we'll put them in a bin for you" lot.

 

[tony84]

Might have been 2 days, but I had someone helping me.

 

[columbo]

• Quality design is of critical importance. Nice neat design with a tried-and-tested headline and good quality imagery. Mentioning product / service benefits on front of flyer is v. important. Flyers that are too "busy" don't work.

• Paper stock is important. Card stock is more expensive but is also less likely to get binned.

• Area of distribution also important. Well established affluent areas work best for us.

and of course a landline number is crucial.

 

[Alan]

Columbo, even in this day and age, do you think a landline number makes a difference?

In my opinion yes, unless I'm looking for a cash in hand extra low cost deal, in which case a mobile is better.

 

[extulsftjz]

I'm starting a business which is an alternative to leaflet drops but will be using leaflet drops to help get going. I plan to use the leaflets as a backup to a face to face initial greeting so perhaps not technically a leaflet drop.

 

[Chris @ businesshands]

I used to own a luxury bathroom business. Instead of doing a mass drop of cheap leaflets, I had a much smaller volume of high quality post cards with a matt finish made up and i specifically targeted the wealthier postcodes in the town where i lived. It worked a dream. I would personally posts about 150 per week and that would typically lead to about 3 enquiries and 1 sale of approx £5,000 per week.

 

[David Haughton]

I used to own a luxury bathroom business. Instead of doing a mass drop of cheap leaflets, I had a much smaller volume of high quality post cards with a matt finish made up and i specifically targeted the wealthier postcodes in the town where i lived. It worked a dream. I would personally posts about 150 per week and that would typically lead to about 3 enquiries and 1 sale of approx £5,000 per week.

Out of interest, why'd you get out? We sell bathrooms and i'm looking at using this exact technique. Can you DM me with some more details?

 

[WHGB Tom]

I used to own a luxury bathroom business. Instead of doing a mass drop of cheap leaflets, I had a much smaller volume of high quality post cards with a matt finish made up and i specifically targeted the wealthier postcodes in the town where i lived. It worked a dream. I would personally posts about 150 per week and that would typically lead to about 3 enquiries and 1 sale of approx £5,000 per week.

That is a brilliant return, it just comes to show that sometimes less volume and more quality leads to a better return.

 

[Chris @ businesshands]

Out of interest, why'd you get out? We sell bathrooms and i'm looking at using this exact technique. Can you DM me with some more details?

I "got out" because I had only entered the market as a short term stop gap... (there's a long story behind it) - The business was doing well, but I had reached a point where i had to make a choice. (i) to invest money in it to grow and take on staff (ii) continue doing it myself or (iii) get out and do something I actually enjoyed. I took the latter option.
As for the post cards - I used Vistaprint. I used a thicker, double sided card. One side was gloss and had my logo and contact details. The other side was matt and had a list of "deals" to give my customers an idea of pricing.. "Complete bathrooms inc. tiling from £1500", Mixer tap supplied and fitted - from £xx" (this was 10 years ago btw)

I think giving them a price list overcame a barrier to sale. People knew the rough costs before they made the call so that meant they weren't going to feel silly by phoning up and then realising it was too expensive. Every customer I went to had the card either on their fridge, on their noticeboard, or in some kitchen drawer. That's the difference between giving them a nice, durable piece of card or a flimsy, cheap flyer. People actually keep them. Hope that helps