Leaflet Distribution Company

Leaflet Distribution Due Diligence

If you have landed on this page, the likelihood is that you're doing your due diligence before proceeding with a leaflet distribution campaign. This page will guide you through this form of marketing. It will highlight how you can determine whether a leaflet distribution company is going to help generate your business a strong return or leave you sat wondering if your leaflets will even be distributed. 

You may not have heard of Mr Flyer before, so if not here's a brief intro written by our founder (as is all this page). Mr Flyer is a print marketing agency. Since 2011 it has been our mission to build our clients businesses and build their brand. We do this through printed marketing - be it artwork, eco-friendly print, leaflet distribution, direct mail, and even by hand assembling printed point of display items, all done in our 15,000sq. Ft facilities. 

In the first quarter of 2020, we made a strategic merger with one of the UK's leading direct mail companies, Flow Fulfilment (now part of The Flow Group). This merger has brought cutting edge technology and in-house machinery, a joining of two strong teams with wide-ranging skill sets, and the added credibility of ISO9001, ISO14001 and ISO27001, along with our existing DMA (Data & Marketing Agency) accreditation. Just recently, we become accredited Carbon-Balanced Printers with the World Land Trust, SME Climate Hub members and Love Paper and Two Sides members. Mr Flyer is also multi-award-winning, especially in the estate agency sector, and provide our services nationwide.

Ok, so sales pitch over! Hopefully, this brief intro has at least given you some assurance that what we are about to reveal and share with you is credible. So let's get started...

Leaflet Drop Company Considerations

Sadly in this industry, there's a severe trust (or lack thereof) issue. So this is an excellent place to start. There are many dodgy distribution companies out there just like in any industry, but in this industry, unless you know what you're looking for, it's often harder to differentiate. The small list below gives you some pointers to consider very carefully:

1. Price. The number of times I have heard, 'oh, I can get it for just £'X' by Distributor 'Y'! Usually, it transpires they want Mr Flyer to match that price as they don't trust the other company! As the adage goes, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Consider it takes anywhere between 4 and 8 hours to distribute 1,000 flyers (4 hours for rows of terraces with no front gardens up to 8 hours for affluent long drive detached houses locations). The average is 6. At the time of update (August 2023) the national living wage is £10.42 p/h, which is £62.52 for 6 hours. This amount is before any travel time, travel cost, employer pension contribution, employer NI contribution, admin costs of the company, and all other business overheads. How then we hear of leaflet distribution companies charging circa £55 per 1000 for solus distribution - something clearly doesn't stack up!

2. GPS tracking. When we started out, we were one of the pioneers of GPS tracking, yet as years went on, it became the norm. We did see some dodgy businesses vanish as a result, but not all by any means. Then a client told us about the company they previously used, and the con they had on GPS tracking. Yes, they would provide you with GPS tracked maps of your chosen area. However, they are not from when your distribution was! They were a one-off for someone else! This client went around a good chunk of the GPS tracked map area, and no one had received his flyer! Unless it is live tracking, this no longer gives much assurance. 

3. Proof focused, or marketing focused. Many times people get so bogged down on ensuring their flyers get delivered, they forget the actual reason why they are doing the distribution in the first place. Many leaflet distribution companies have their marketing message focused on proving that they do indeed deliver your flyers, but fail to address how that can benefit you and your business. Always remember WHY you're doing this - you want to see a return on your investment, you want to build your business and your brand. The marketing aspect is vital, and that's what the remainder of the page will discuss.

Leaflet Company Marketing-driven Approach

We describe ourselves as the print marketing agency; this is because we help you build your business through print-based marketing strategies, from inception to fulfilment. Often a leaflet distribution company has little understanding of marketing principles. Without these, they can't consult you on the most effective ways to generate the most substantial ROI for your business. At Mr Flyer, we provide the full service, including initial consultation, artwork creation, print, distribution, and follow up - and all of this is part of a long term on-going campaign. Here are the essentials when planning a campaign, all of which we cover in your initial conversation:

1. Target demographic and location(s). This determines the demographic to target and where (such as a Mazda car dealership looking for middle-class people with a household income of £35k+, aged 40+ and within a 5-mile radius of the showroom). It also dictates the message and artwork, the type of paper to print on, and even how frequently to repeat.

2. Actionable artwork. Artwork must be actionable - we recommend three keys: 1. bold headline (usually in the form of a question relevant to the receiver), 2. eye-catching image (with the Mazda example, not of the showroom, but an attractive looking 40-year-old couple smiling driving along a country road...in a Mazda!) and 3. Call to action (CTA). Without a call to action, no one will act - it's crazy how much information people want to give without giving a reason to respond. Sticking with the Mazda example, we recommended they gave a £10 M&S voucher for every test drive taken when a lead mentioned the flyer - from a 20k distribution they sold 12 brand new cars! Suffice to say they continued doing this!

3. Appropriate print. Print must be appropriate, so if you offer discount TVs it can be on a thin paper (130gsm - 150gsm), but if you provide a more premium product, then your paper must portray that (250gsm+). Often budget dictates paper type, size and format, yet it would be better to reduce quantity rather than the appropriateness of print. We have recently joined forces with our sister company, Greener Mail, to provide carbon balanced (offset) print - ask us for more info!

4. The right delivery. The bulk of this page focuses on door to door leaflet distribution; however, in many circumstances, direct mail distribution is much more appropriate. Typically most leaflet distribution companies don't offer this, which means you may be receiving the wrong type of delivery. Commonly, the more targeted you need to be the more chance a direct mail campaign is more appropriate, especially if you are business to business (B2B) focused.

5. Drip effect marketing. Drip marketing is a term every distribution company should be familiar with, but sadly few are. It is where you drip feed your message to the same targeted audience regularly. How many times do you respond to something you've not heard of on the first view? Likely not a lot, if any - so why expect other people to? For this reason, we recommend an absolute minimum of 3 stages to the same audience within the first three months of marketing with us. 

Leaflet Delivery Implementation

We have covered a lot of information here. I do hope it has been beneficial, and that the pointers given will spare you from losing thousands of your hard-earned pounds with a dodgy distribution company, and that instead, you have the ammo to execute a business-building leaflet distribution campaign. 

My call to action for you is to get in touch with us today, let whoever answers the phone know you have read this page, and ask that you speak with a consultant to see how Mr Flyer can help you build your business and build your brand.