If you'd rather be proactive about your marketing and not wait for prospective clients to find you in their own time, what are you options?
Cold Calling? Often not welcome and less likely to be memorable in the right way.
Cold emailing? There are legal implications to sending unsolicited emails and often these will get filtered into the recipient's spam box anyway.
Mail-outs? One drawback here is that you'd need to create an addressed format to send through regular postal channels.
For many business the simple solution is to choose leaflet marketing campaigns, hoping to maximise the recipient audience in key locations most beneficial to their business, using a distribution company like Door2Door Distributors in Croydon.
You might be tempted to go for the cheapest deal, but will this get you the best service? Obviously its best to shop around to see what's available, but a company like Door2Door has a proven track record of commitment and efficiency, delivering a cost-effective service it's many regular clients have come to rely on.
There are several pros and cons to think about when planning an effective leaflet marketing campaign:
1. Keep it simple: design uncluttered leaflets that demonstrate just the key benefits of your product, and keep it professional looking - garish can make you look cheap.
2. Don't bamboozle the reader: keep wording to a minimum otherwise people just won't bother reading it.
3. Size isn't everything: larger leaflets usually cost more to deliver, also consider the most appropriate size for your content and readership.
4. Do your research: shop around for reliable leaflet distribution companies - look for genuine testimonials and RESULTS - go by personal recommendation if possible.
5. Pay peanuts, get monkeys: breakdown the deal figures to see exactly what the hourly rate might be for both the company and their distributors - very low fees might not get you diligent distribution.
6. Location location location: establish the most beneficial area you need the leaflets to be delivered to and ensure the distribution company will be able to cover this.
7. Timing is everything: if your campaign is ahead of a promotional deal with end dates for example, or you use perishable goods, the distribution company will need adequate time to deliver the leaflets for best effect and to save wastage.
8. Don't bin it: all the above will be a total waste of time if the leaflet arrives on doormats torn, mashed up or soaking wet - it'll head for the bin without being read. You should be able to trust your distribution company to deliver the leaflets in good condition.
9. Follow up: try to arrange with the distribution company a follow up report showing where the leaflets were delivered to.
10. Build on it: if you get increased work through this method, do it with them all over again!
If a leaflet distribution company offers shared plan distribution - where they deliver other (hopefully) non-competitive leaflets with yours to maximise their profitability, make sure they stick to your agreed drop area and timing - if they find themselves with too few leaflets to drop in your area, your business shouldn't have to suffer by them distributing your leaflets in a more (for them) profitable adjacent area. If they offer a 'solus' deal, one where your leaflet is the only one on the drop, consider the price and whether it is high enough to ensure diligence and reliability by the actual distributor - how many leaflets have found their way into a skip or too many dropped at one location, simply because the person doing the legwork didn't fell they were getting paid enough?
A company like Door2Door relies heavily on the success of it's clients for its own success - the better they drop, the better the business, the better the return to them for future work.
Distributing leaflets, flyers, business cards and brochures to a wider area now, Door2Door now cover all BR, CR, SM, KT and TW post codes, effectively the strip along the M25 from Orpington to the M4.
Katrina
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Katrina Monroe is a freelance writer and photographer with The Little White Studio.
