Following a weekend of getting leaflets out to our distribution team in Bristol, we have been trying to meet our customer’s expectations but as the service is so grey and there are no ‘industry standards’ I thought this article would be poignant to highlight things to think about and what to watch out for.
Timelines
Have a realistic expectation of when your flyers need to go out by, this sounds like common sense but the planning involved in producing and getting the flyers to the door require some logistical juggling so work with your leaflet distributor to plan backwards so your special offer, sale or event is not missed.
One golden rule to consider is: Pay attention to the Season. This is critical as 1. You do not want your leaflets to arrive through the door all soggy and damaged as no-one is going to look at it but also if the weather is bad the distributors will not go out into the wilds.
Costs
Door to door distribution is one of the cheapest ways of getting your name out to the public but if you operate in various areas be aware that some areas will cost more to distribute to than others. This is purely down to logistics and management. For example to distribute your leaflets in Cheltenham will cost you between £30-35 per 1000 flyers (cheap huh!) but you travel 25 mins down the M5 to Bristol and you will look to pay £45-50 per 1000. Rest assured that the biggest players in the market the Royal Mail charge £50 per thousand but they will need your flyers at their depot up to 5 weeks in advance and on the day they get distributed they will only go to door that have post that day.
Capability
Often not though about but does your leaflet distributor have the capacity to get your leaflets out in time and do they have the staff to be able to do the job on time and within budget? Don’t forget the weather again, if there is just one guy walking around then one his productivity will be slower if the weather is bad and is he distributing your flyers with loads of others? We have found that we cannot deliver any more than 4 leaflets at a time or the customer does not see a response and they will not come back. Bear in mind that each distributor on a good day will distribute 800-1000 flyers per day and 5-600 magazines per day.
Areas
So you want to blanket an area with a specific demographic, you must take into account the higher class the area the longer the dives generally so your leaflets will go out slower. You may have to take into account the location of small areas for your leaflets to be delivered to i.e. the villages or outskirts this will have to be planned in correctly as they generally require more logistics to get the distributors to the locations so they will be last and the slowest out.
Results
No one can guarantee results to your flyer/leaflet going through doors but you can give your materials a better chance by researching your distribution areas correctly and getting the right volumes to cover an area in total. So unless you are giving away free money do not expect to get many results from 500 flyers going out. We have seen from our own customers and our own flyers going out that the results range from 0.5% to 2% as a good guide.
Reacting to failure
Don’t be disheartened with your flyer going out, it is trial and error. You may be trying to establish yourself as a new name in the area or competing against a national trusted name. It will just take more time, so make sure you plan a number of drops in various areas to test your market and do not be afraid to change your offer and try the same people again you can’t please everyone!
If you do need any help or advice on planning a rollout, we would love to help. You may have the luxury of planning way ahead or running the same flyer nationwide, we can store the materials and get them ready for distribution wherever you need them; this will also give you the bulk buying benefits. Check out http://www.cbfnet.co.uk/storage_and_distribution/ or Drop us a line to find out more.