Introduction
Leaflets are used by companies of all sizes across many industries. There are millions of flyers delivered every week in London and there is a reason for this. Leaflets work.
However, as a physical medium that needs to be designed, printed and delivered by real people it carries costs. Any leaflet distribution campaign, no matter how small is an investment.
Even though modern distribution systems will allow you to run a distribution campaign hitting a few thousand homes for as little as a few hundred pounds, each campaign still needs to make economic sense.
Today we’re going to have a look at how to maximise our return on investment when it comes to leaflet distribution in London.
We will aim to equip you with tools and information that should make your campaigns as effective as possible and help you avoid costly mistakes. This will in turn allow you to maximise your return on investment by simply running effective, well thought-through campaigns.
Get the leaflet right
No matter how well you target or time your campaign, the most important piece of the puzzle is your actual leaflet. If your leaflet doesn’t sell your services or products effectively the numbers you deliver won’t matter. Your campaign will not succeed.
That’s why we always recommend that you employ the services or professional designer. Ideally one with experience in leaflet design. Always consult with your distribution company of choice on the specifics of your design as well as the general concept for your campaign.
We’ve created guides on how to structure your leaflets, how to make your leaflets informative and more. You want to at least have a cursory look at these to make sure that you have an idea of what a flyer should look like and what makes it work.
Investing into your design upfront will maximise the effectiveness of every pound you spend on printing and delivery.
If you have a good design that has proven itself, you can use it as a template for a very long time with small tweaks for each drop. This way, you design a single leaflet and run campaigns for years. You can do this without making drastic changes and saving money on design in the long-term.
Select your area carefully
The way you select areas and homes you want to deliver to will depend on the size of your campaign and the type of business you are advertising.
You can have a look at our blog on campaign targeting to get some ideas.
In this domain a very important element you want to pay attention to is the quality of the mapping system your distribution company is using. This will have a big impact on your potential return on investment when it comes to flyer delivery.
You want to understand how the mapping system that your distributor has created works. Does it exclude large blocks of flats which are inaccessible? Does it exclude council housing and business addresses?
These are very important details to be aware of. If a distributor is counting every household in an area but can only deliver to 70% of them due to issues with access, your flyers are being wasted. And so is a substantial portion of your investment into printing and delivery.
In general, the right approach is to count only numbers of privately owned residences that are easily accessible to each distributor in your selected area. In most cases businesses and large apartment blocks with difficult or no access should be excluded.
Council housing
If one wants to target council and local authority housing, this should be done separately as negotiating access to these areas is a completely separate issue. It is solvable but it’s best approached as a separate service.
When you are selecting which areas you want to target with your campaign, consult your distribution company.
Are there particular demographics you are after? You distributor should be able to tell you which areas are appropriate for you. If you can’t get any advice or feedback on your targeting plans, try to find a distribution company that will be willing to share their expertise.
Having input from an experienced professional when it comes to selecting the right area will save you from making expensive mistakes and over time can seriously impact the return on investment into your flyer campaigns.
Keep things simple
Keeping things simple in pamphlet distribution is always a good idea. Whether it comes to design, the format of paper you are printing on or targeting.
One way you can simplify the planning and execution of your campaign is to allow your distribution company to handle your print and design as well.
This can seriously reduce the headache associated with the logistics of your campaign. If you don’t have to worry about the deliveries and storage of tens of thousands of flyers, you can focus on other more important things.
Repeat your campaigns
Once you have a distributor you can rely on, your flyer designed and your target areas tested with your first campaign, you want to consider running repeated drops.
You can read up more on this topic in our blog focused on repetition in leaflet distribution.
Repeated drops tend to be a great investment. They can take the form of a couple deliveries a year, regular drops every few months or a multi-drop lead up to an event.
They can help develop brand familiarity, establish your presence in a new area or break through to larger households that receive a lot of mail.
All of these are things that can increase your return on investment. This is especially true if you plan these repeating campaigns with an experience distributor that can advise you on the right strategy, areas and frequency.
