Introduction
At The Private Postman we specialise in flyer delivery in London.
In this article however, we’ll talk about direct mail campaigns. We’ll focus on how they differ from traditional leaflet distribution, some of the advantages and disadvantages of addressed mail drops and where flyers and direct mail can compliment each other.
To be clear, we’ll be talking about direct mail advertising (addressed mail aimed to advertise your products or services) not transactional direct mailings (utility bills, invoices, bank statements etc…).
What’s the difference between direct mail advertising and leaflet distribution
Traditional leaflet distribution campaigns are based on delivering flyers to privately owned residential addresses with accessible letterboxes. These campaigns are often targeted geographically with some idea of demographics in mind. This can be as simple as you looking to target affluent households in North-West London and therefore targeting the NW3 and NW6 postcodes.
On the other end, direct mail advertising is more targeted. It most often takes on the form of a piece of marketing literature enclosed in an envelope addressed to a particular household.
Advantages and disadvantages of Direct Mail
One of the undeniable advantages of direct mail advertising campaigns is the fact that open rates of addressed envelopes are very high.
Even though well designed leaflets delivered through a traditional door to door method can be very effective, the fact is that more people will interact with an addressed envelope.
Another obvious advantage of direct mail is the ability to reach households that would otherwise not be possible with other forms of direct advertising like leaflets.
Large apartment blocks are a very good example of this. A typical flyer distributor simply is not able to access households in large blocks. Flyer campaigns tend to focus on privately owned residential addresses with easily accessible letterboxes.
Direct mail campaigns on the other hand don’t need to take into consideration issues with access. They can simply help you reach any group of addresses you are after.
On the other hand, the clear disadvantage that comes with direct mail campaigns are the costs.
The cost for each delivery made using this technique is many times higher compared to a typical leaflet. The production process is also more convoluted when it comes direct mail campaigns as your advertising materials need to be printed and inserted into envelopes.
The rules around direct mail are also more complicated in comparison to simple flyer delivery. You can have a look at some of the regulations here https://www.gov.uk/marketing-advertising-law/direct-marketing . You should also talk to your distribution company of choice in detail about all the rules that apply before starting a campaign.
If you’re also interested in reading about the advantages and disadvantages of leaflet distribution, have a look at our article on this topic here.
Combining Direct Mail Advertising with leaflet distribution
If you are looking to target a particular part of London with your campaign and you are looking to get through to as many households as possible, flyer delivery is the first obvious choice.
However, most areas in London consist of some combination of terraced houses, detached houses and apartment buildings. We’ve already discussed the fact, that reaching households that allow for an easy access to letterboxes is best done with a simple door to door campaign.
If your goal is to also reach the remaining addresses for maximum coverage, adding direct mail drops to your door to door efforts is the way to go. This is due to the fact that these remaining households will be located in inaccessible apartment buildings and can be reached only via direct mail drops.
If you choose to use this combination of methods, you are taking advantage of the relatively low cost and efficiency of flyer delivery while filling in the gaps with the more expensive direct mail service. As you are likely to be using direct mail advertising to deliver to a small number of addresses in this scenario, the impact of the higher cost of addressed mail is diminished.
