Introduction
Some of the largest companies in the world as well as many small local businesses use leaflet drops regularly. It is a marketing technique used across industries and by organisations of all sizes.
However, simply asking whether leaflet dropping works is similar to asking whether TV adverts work, or if Google Ads are effective. The answer has to inevitably be – ‘Depending on who is doing it and how well’.
The approach to leaflet dropping has changed quite a bit over the last 15 years. It used to be that a business would print a few thousand leaflets, contact a local flyer distribution firm, pick a postcode to target and hope that all the leaflets get delivered.
The situation is very different now. The industry has developed and adopted new techniques. Flyer distribution has become a more sophisticated marketing tool.
How to know if my leaflet drop worked?
The way you measure whether your leaflet drop was successful will depend on the goal of your campaign.
You might be looking for an immediate uptick in clients contacting you about a specific service. On the other hand your drop could be a part of a longer term strategy of brand building in a given area.
If you want to know whether your leaflet drop has worked you need to know exactly what results you are looking for.
Discount Codes
Using codes is a great way of finding out exactly how many people have responded to a specific leaflet drop.
You can create unique codes for each new campaign or area you are targeting. This way you can track which campaigns worked and infer the variables responsible for the success.
Discount codes can be great if you are looking to build interest in a specific product or a service in a relatively short period of time. With that said, it isn’t going to tell you much about the longer term and brand building effects of your drops.
Tracking website/social media visitors
A good way to judge whether your leaflet drops are working is by paying attention to your social media and website visits during and following your leaflet distribution campaigns.
Your leaflets can prominently display your social media handles or your website URL.
If you are focusing on long term results and are running repeated campaigns you can observe trends over the periods of months.
You don’t want to obsess over details in your analytics, but you can look for signals and patterns.
If you run three drops over a six month period, can you see an uptick in website visits corresponding to the timing of your drops? Carefully looking for signals in your analytics and interpreting them reasonably can give you an idea of the effectiveness of your leafleting campaigns.
Repeated drops
A significant improvement to the effectiveness of leaflet drops in the last 20 years has been the introduction of focused repeat delivery campaigns.
These campaigns rely on delivering your leaflets to the same households multiple times with carefully planned periods of rest between each drop.
Your flyers can remain the same for each delivery or the designs can change depending on the goal of each campaign.
These campaigns can consist of anywhere between 2 to 8 drops. You should generally plan for at least a 3 week window between each delivery.
The planning here is crucial as you want to make sure to avoid annoying the recipients with too many deliveries. The rest periods and potentially varying your designs is very important.
The careful planning and execution required here is possible thanks to modern delivery methods and stock control systems. Your deliveries can be timed with a better level of accuracy than what used to be possible in the past.
Why do leaflet drops work?
According to the research done by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
– 89% of people remember receiving a specific leaflet through their door (this is more than any other form of advertising)
– 45% keep leaflets they find interesting in their home for later reference
– 90% of people are happy to regularly receive flyers
There is something about physical forms of advertising that connects with people.
Obviously online advertising in its various forms works. The targeting possibilities when using Facebook or Google ads are fantastic and should not be ignored.
However, there are unique benefits to getting a physical piece of marketing into people’s homes.
It is not possible to ignore a leaflet that has landed in one’s letterbox. Even if the offer on the flyer is not immediately interesting to the recipient they will physically interact with it.
A well designed leaflet therefore can be seen many times and slowly create brand awareness that would be difficult to achieve otherwise.
Shared vs Solus
Leaflets can be delivered on Shared or Solus basis.
Shared delivery means that your leaflets will make their way through each letterbox together with 1-2 other flyers. Solus delivery means that it’s only your flyer that is being delivered.
There are differences in price between these methods as multiple clients share the cost of each delivery between them on a Shared system.
Many people still believe that because Solus campaigns are more expensive that they provide you with a better response.
This is simply not true. Experience tells us that there are no differences in response between Shared and Solus drops. They both work, but there is no tangible difference in the response between delivering 1 or 3 leaflets at a time.
Delivering more than 3 flyers is not recommended but up to and including 3 is a standard practice.
The advantage of Solus drops is in the flexibility it offers in terms of timing and area targeting. Shared campaigns are cheaper for the customer, but they require extra logistics. At some times in some areas, shared distribution is simply not available. Running a Solus campaign can be a solution to this issue.
Area selection
Having your leaflet distribution company help you select the right areas for your campaigns can be very important.
Sometimes it’s not enough to break down areas only on the basis of average incomes or house prices. There are many more elements to consider.
Things to consider could be
- The age group breakdown of the locals
- Whether the households are mostly families or cohabiting single professionals
- Do the homes have gardens etc…
Your leaflet distribution company should have a real granular understanding of London. Door to door campaigns work when you spend time carefully selecting the best area to target.
Quality of delivery
Getting your flyers to people’s homes in the best shape possible is an important part of leaflet distribution.
At The Private Postman, the way we make sure this is the case is as follows. We never deliver in the rain to avoid water damage. We never fold leaflets through letterboxes. Our delivery and supply chain is tailored to treating your printed leaflets as carefully as possible.
On top of this we operate two independent tracking systems that allow you ‘the client’ to come and see your leaflets being delivered at any time without notice.
That way you can always be sure that your leaflet drop is going according to plan and each flyer is delivered in perfect shape.
