[Terry_Burrows]

  we are thinking to do leaflet via the papers etc on a scale as the yp bt books are total crap we thought we might do the leaflet,any of you think they are good worth while like 10,000 in some areas post code areas etc

[bennymon]

20,000 leaflets put out in local papers cost £250 to print   £550 to put the leaflets out  and i got back £150 in work so no keep your money

[Jeremy]

You need to be consistant.

Pick a specific area and divide it into 8 week cycles. That is send your flyers out to the same area every 8 weeks.

I send 5000 flyers per week out and try to repeat the area every 8 weeks even if the flyer hasn't changed.

I also target the local community papers in that area for about 3 months.

You will find that people visually only notice you after they have seen you about 7 times.

With this process, I get fantastic results. Once you have established your self in the area you can slow down and concentrate on the next area.

Sending out a once off drop is expensive with little immediate result.

Hope this helps

Regards
Jeremy

[cleaning co]

no dont do it,    only way leaflets work is through the door on their own,  ive done leaflets for over 10 years and this is the only way to do them  and i hav tryed every way,  must add that leaflets get nowere nr the  responce they did years ago

[Mike Osbourne]

I find leafleting soul destroying. I always end up knocking on doors and talking to people, you get a resuly within an hour or two . Put a leaflet thru if not in.

Over the last three months business has come from door knocking, parish mags, leafleting (10k) and word of mouth in order of success.

Winter is approaching and the thought of pushing though soggy, crumpled up bits of paper in peoples' letter boxes only for 998 per thousand of them to be binned just doesn't compute. (but I'll probably do it    )   

[Terry_Burrows]

wow I was hoping for more positive news I do agree you would have to work at it every couple of weeks,it is suck it and see

[rich hand]

Yes leaflets work, even if they are posted with 2-3 others and so long that they ARE actually posted, just get the ad right. 1-2 jobs for 1000 leaflets usually which costs me £20 to be printed and distributed.

[Phil Marlor]

Terry,

There is only one person on the planet who can give you the best advise on Leaflets and that's Mike Halliday.

He knows the best design and where/when/how many etc etc.

You will probably find loads of info from Mike if you do a search!

Phil

[Mike Halliday]

leaflets work.

people who say they don't haven't done enough or had the right leaflet.

a good leaflet put through enough letterboxes will succeed.

I did 5k a week for 6years this kept me working full time 6 days a week.

but I agree with cleaning Co they are not as good as a couple of years ago ( more people doing them?)

to be truthful I've stopped replying to these leaflets questions because of all the stick i was getting, " I did what you said and it was crap" but when I asked a few questions they didn't do exactly what I said.

 its like baking a cake, you stick to the recipe or the result will change.

I spend a lot of time at DP design and see a lot of crap leaflets, no wonder people don't get a result.

Mike

[David_Annable]

Hi

What always suprises me is when DP design send out leaflet samples is that about 70% of them have low prices on.

Even people running TM.

Have you ever seen Chem Dry or Safeclean leaflets with prices on ?

Dave

[benny d]

>>I spend a lot of time at DP design and see a lot of crap leaflets, no wonder people don't get a result.<<

Seen my new one Mike?? 

[AquaMagic]

Flyers work but you have to get plenty out, you would be suprised how long someone will hold onto a flyer so dont be disapointed if you dont get 10 jobs on the first day you put them about, ive got my responce rate to about 0.035 ish on average which is realistic but would love to get it higher which is why every time i print more flyers i tinker with it just a little then monitor the results.

Dene

[Bill Robinson]

council estates v private what do you all recon is the best to delever to or does it not make a differance

[the red carpet]

Yes Yes and Yes again, they do work. Im personally thinking of dropping all other advertising and just soley doing leaflets.

At the moment i also advertise on the web, witch gets me a lot of work, but the jobs come from all over the show and are often 30 miles apart, this means you spend half the day on the road driving, and when your driving your not earning.

I also advertise in the y/p and all you get from that is price shoppers, and i also find once someones got to the stage that there actually looking in the y/p for a cc they really need one and there carpets are filthy, meaning harder work.

With leaflets your work is concentrated in a small area that you want to work in, the customer dosent usually have another number in front of them to get another quote so you win more jobs, and its usually a spur of the moment thing for them so i find the carpets are less dirty.

[Mike Halliday]

Benny, does it have a big bee on it? whats it like?

Mike

[Geoff Jewkes]

Yes they work!!!

I agree with mike halliday. My missus puts 1000 a week out and they generate £300 - £400 a week. Your flyers have to look good though, my latest design works a treat. Print them all myself and can do 1000 for just over a tenner.

Gwet A4 paper and trim it to A5 ( halves the paper cost ) and get a cheap supplier of ink. I can get a full set of cartridges for Epson R220/ R300 for a fiver a set if bought in bulk ( Epson charge £48.99 a set   )

[Geoff Jewkes]

Red it can be done. All I use is a colour ad in thomsons and flyers, and obviously recommendations. Flyers are more affective than the thomson local

[Damian]

What do you reckon to mine then Mike? Ive never done leaflet drops before so giving them a go

[the red carpet]

All my work really comes from leaflets now when i think about it, coz im still getting calls from the y/p and net but i never do the jobs because of the reasons iv allready stated. Iv got to a stage were if i get a feeling the people are gona be a headach or if the jobs to far i tell them i can do it but that i have no appointment for around 6-8 weeks.

This usually gets rid of them

[Geoff Jewkes]

The only thing with leaflets you gotta have someone you trust to get them out while you're busy to keep a steady flow of work. Do you do your own leaflets red???

[the red carpet]

Now that is the hard bit, and the reason most people say they dont work.

I do do some but am getting to busy to do them myself now.

Iv got one guy whos great £15 a thousand but it took me a year of searching to find him and i got stung plenty of times along the way.

And i was going out myself on a sat and sunday morning and taking two guys with me, but i hated it as i had no time left to myself im still doing a good few saturdays now but trying to cut it down. Its to expensive aswell i end up having to pick them both up drop them home buy, them both lunch and give them £20 each. So it works out about £60 a thousand by the time i buy lunch and put petrol in and i loose my Saturday morning

[Terry_Burrows]

now thats the kind of feed back I was hoping for we will try the drop,we will get it done pro like

[Mike Osbourne]

Please tell me my maths is wrong Red.

Say you dish out 10k of leaflets that's lets say £750 for the leaflets and your delivery 'boys'.

I don't know what your response rate is, but assuming it's 2 enquiries/1000 and say you get 15 of them with your average job is say £100 that's £1500 of which half is the cost of getting it. Then there's all your other operating costs plus enough profit less tax to live on. 

Is that close or am I missing something?

[Mike Halliday]

not wanting to answer for red but 10k leaflets @ £50  delivery solus at £35/1000 is only £400, way below your £750 figure but £17/1000 is common with 1-2 other leaflets so this would bring the amount to £200ish

Mike

[Mike Halliday]

sorry Mike I did'nt see reds post on his £60 comment, so I agree, this is way too high to get leaflets delivered

my amounts are what it cost me

Mike

[the red carpet]

Hey if it wasnt worth it i wouldnt do it, £60 a thousand is to dear for leaflets.
But i know there getting delivered, solus to the right houses at the right time and its better to spend £60 and get a result than say £20-£30 and get nothing coz they have been bined or have gone through the wrong doors.

This Sat i done just under a thousand leaflets, paid my guys £20 each put £10 in the van and spent £10 on lunch, the leaflets cost me £14 so a total of £74 and i had to give up my Saturday morning

But iv booked in
A through lounge at £69
Lounge, stairs, landing at £98.90
And a 2 bed house at £162.20

So thats just over £330 back from £74, that to me was worth doing, I will also expect to prob book in another job from it over the next couple weeks and iv added at least three new customers to my database who will hopefully repeat or recommend in the future.

[the red carpet]

Also to add to my comments of leaflets getting better work, all these jobs are within walking distance of each other so i can do them all in the same day as the travelling time between them is minutes.

[gwrightson]

Red.

2bedroom house £162.20p  !!!!!!!!!    to the penny then Red   ,and  h/s/l £98.90p    

yet exactly £10 lunch, £10 deisel     

come on knock the odd pence of for your custy , surly you dont qoute to the penny, Do you?

Geoff

[cleaning co]

lol were do u get the 90 and 20 pence from in your figures  u dont really giv these prices do u ? 

leaflets work on there own full stop  put them in a paper,through the door with 3 or 4 others and your responce rate changes big time,
dont pay someone by the thousand ,when they find out how hard it is to get out a thousand they soon bin them and tell  u big porkys
giv them a wage ,bit petrol money  and another good thing is a small bonus each job booked!
dont do council estates  just private  as thier is a big diff to responce and how much u earn of a job
keep the leaflets simple with prices and allways state half price
also rember with leaflets u can end up doing a lot of small jobs as they are just in most cases impulse buys
your work from yellow pages ,tompson, bt book etc  will allways be your cream work as u will get lot people wanting whole houses and flats done as they are moving in/out etc and u can get some very well todo custys also u will get comm jobs
i like mike done 5000 a week for over 5 years and made a living but 4 out of 5 were micky mouse jobs and a lot of the custys were lower end of the market
the leaflet work is def in decline and i just use these jobs as fill ins
and would expect someone starting out to find it hard surving of leaflets like i did and mike did,years ago every other job was a 3pc
how many 3 pcs u get now days of leaflets? very few
gary

[carpetguy]

Interesting and I feel realistic comments from Gary.  I have never been a leaflet fan, being more in favour of obtaining referrals, due to the customer satisfaction.

This does require some patience, which is lacking in modern society. Not the fault of any individual, but the result of unrealistic expectations which were instilled in the generation who now make upa high percentage of  the work force.

If you want volume, simply to get started, or to give your customer base a boost, you could advertise in your local newspaper and expect to get around 10 jobs, for an outlay of £50 to £90.

It's what you do with these jobs, that determines your future. If you don't deliver genuine quality, you will not get and don't deserve referrals.

good luck with your chosen method

robbie

[craigp]

Gary says it how it is. i've noticed that about 3 pc's too, must be all the leather upholstery thats about now.

[Mike Osbourne]

For a newbie with some time on my hands I think the way to build up is to knock on doors. In an afternoon I can get 3 jobs and can convert lounges only to include hsl or another room, sometimes with protector. I'm getting suites too, but rapidly going off them. :

I realise this is self limiting when the work increases, but the money I save can go toward Parish mags. Booked one last month and it cost £60 for a year in a nice parish. So far one suite and two biggish lounges well over £300.

Having said all that, Red has grown his business very rapidly, just wondering if my mindset is a bit too tight arse?

[Ian Gourlay]

Mike,

If you read Reds previous posts you will notice that prior to buying his truck mount he spent what looks like vasts sums building his company.

I was a bit surprised to Read that he intends to concentrate on Leaflets as I thought he recently joined Fast Track.


Mike Haliday in previous posts has always said that you need money to invest marketing.

Money to live on for a least three months plus buying machinery vans etc.

Some try part time route but this slows down developing business.

However Mike   O believe  you come from a door knocking background.

Its a skill not everyone can do and succeed at.

In the Ashbys Marketing and motivation day they used to  possibly still do recommend The Knock as a Fast start method.

Works best if you can put together a team of Knockers.

And then learn the Secret of THE DOOR

[Mike Osbourne]

I've never door knocked before except some collecting for a charity. I do have a sales background though. Skills aside that improve your odds, the simple truth is you will get a better return on your time even if you just tell them what you do and would they like a quote.

Facing and dealing with rejection will save a lot of time and money. My issues are that I get the work but not a very good CC yet. I am completely giving up doing oriental rugs and suites despite very good prices.
 

[craigp]

Mike oriental rugs are easy, there normally just dusty, i just pre-spray with my wand, then rinse, ie. no chems just ultimate master in the solution.

As for upholstery i felt like that once, and still give me a carpet any day over upholstery, your probally ok with the velvets? they always clean well, its the flat white or cream cottens are hard particularlly on seats where worn, the only thing you can do is your best, and pre-quilify, but i dont think you should turn it away,  just my advice.

you'll get better the more you do.

[cleaning co]

yes craig is right never turn work down   allways state before u clean carpets or 3pc that u cannot be sure u can get all marks out that way u are coverd for payment if custy aint happy 
craig hows that truckmount ? u liking it ?

[Mike Osbourne]

Craig,

No mate, totally don't want to know about rugs. I got bitten bad and I can't afford to take any more chances or I'm out of business.

I now take into account my lack of experience when someone says just do this that and the other.

[the red carpet]

You should allways quote the odd penys, its a good way to get a tip

For instance the job i mention £162.20, it would be all well and good for me to say "just call it £160 madam"

But i bet you i end up with £165, coz there unlikley to have the correct change and if you have done a good job wich i allways do, just as you reach in your pocket to give them change they say "oh gosh no dont worry about the change you have done a great job thanks" "keep the change"

So thats a extra £5 and i do that a couple of times a day, four days a week thats a extra £40 for nothing

[Liahona]

Red, charge them 200 and then thats an extra 320 a week for doing nothing. Or is it? Worth a thought, best, Dave.

[craigp]

Hi Gary, yes im liking the TM alot, the extra heat and pressure do make life alot easier. i run it at 300psi i find thats plenty.

[Aquakleen Restoration Services]

Hi all

I went out for three hours yesterday leafleting. Had three calls while i was out and about from people who had just received a leaflet.

Two said they would get back to me while the other made an appointment to get her leather 3-piece suite cleaned but phoned up later and gave me some b***s**t excuse and cancelled.

Oh well not to worry!

Sky

[rich hand]

You should allways quote the odd penys, its a good way to get a tip

For instance the job i mention £162.20, it would be all well and good for me to say "just call it £160 madam"

But i bet you i end up with £165, coz there unlikley to have the correct change and if you have done a good job wich i allways do, just as you reach in your pocket to give them change they say "oh gosh no dont worry about the change you have done a great job thanks

So thats a extra £5 and i do that a couple of times a day, four days a week thats a extra £40 for nothing

Ive started finishing the figure in 8 instead of 5 this week. However, i have fallen very  flat. The first job I smashed a light shade so the job fee went void and the second job, although the lady thought the 'scotchguard' to her suite was cheap at £48 she still counted up the change! Went back to 5 for the next job/qote and this 'lady' gasped at 45 for her rug, landing and bedroom   

[calmore]

You should allways quote the odd penys, its a good way to get a tip

For instance the job i mention £162.20, it would be all well and good for me to say "just call it £160 madam"

Also, if you say £162.20 it sounds like you calculated the price accurately and you are not plucking a figure from the air.

"Just £160" sounds like it was one hundred and fifty something and you just rounded the price up!

[cleaning co]

lol 162.20  sounds like it was 160 and u bin greedy and added extra 2.20 lol

[the red carpet]

Just for the record though we seem to have gone slightly of topic, i charge by the room and have set prices per room wich are to the pound not the penny.

Have a offer on the leaflets though of "get 3 or more carpets cleaned and save 20%" this is how the odd penys came about.

Ps, i dont reccomend offers like that, it gets me no more work and just looses me money I just havent had a chance to get my leaflet changed and get it taken off yet.

pps, Heres a offer to put on leaflets that i found very good when i started, and is still on my leaflet but again something i want taken off. But i would suggest any newcommer use this offer as its a good one.

"get your carpets cleaned now and we will re-clean in 6 months FREE"

This works really well, i get a lot of calls for this offer.
Then if anyone goes for it you tell them they pay the full price this time and get the full clean, and the next clean is free but its only a highlight clean, any spots or spills and main traffic areas, you dont move any furniture on the re-clean!

And you tell them that they must ring you in the month the re-clean is due! to arrange a time and date that suits you both best.

Now some would think (i aint going back and cleaning for nothing) and fair play
But i look at it like this.
You will secure more jobs with a offer like this as your giving good value.

Your gauranteed now to get back in the house again, and in my experience they allways have something else done so more money.

These people are now your regulars, if you have cleaned for them twice in a couple of months and they were pleased the wont look for another cleaner in future.

And they will definatly keep your number safe and this is the important bit, instead of them getting the carpet cleaned and then throwing your leaflet in the bin they make sure they keep your number to hand, you end up in there address book. And that means everytime they need a cleaner or there friend or family needs a cleaner you get the call.

They way i saw it was most companys go under in the first six months, so try it and see, if you do go under you aint gotta go back have you. And if it works and like me you were starting up on your own with a portable, with any luck by the time you have to go back you will have either got a truckmount or took on someone to help

[Prestige1]

Have tried somthing new with a leaflet this last week, on one side the usual stuff Carpet and Upholstry etc, on the reverse I have put, "Dont bin it, Pin it" and it has Usefull phone numbers on there, local police stations, emegency services water, Gas Electric and many more, its on quality paper and full colour glosy, its in the hope customers will pin it up and save it, and then say in 3 months time they want there carpet cleaning your number is to hand. has ant one else tried this? did it work? and what do you guys think? goer or flunker?
Kind regards Phil

[Mike Halliday]

it would be Ok if it did'nt have any spelling mistakes on it

but I was impressed with it

Mike

[Prestige1]

Mike you will have to let me know what? And Iwill change it next time, kind regards Phil

[pro-fresh]

Hi

I have only been in business since the end of July, all my business has come from flyers posted through strangers doors, my flyer  has my company name at the top in big letters, underneath it says CARPET AND UPHOLSTERY CLEANER, below that I list what I can do, and who I am ie:local, proffesional, NCCA, 10% retired person discount, stain protection, fast drying etc.

It is working fine for me, I used to work for the Queens personal parcel delivery service and was paid the handsome some of £400 gross for the privelige of driving round in circles for 50 plus hours a week. (The novelty soon wears off). I am earning more than that now!

Flyers have worked for me because I  have been lucky, even though I live in a big city (Manchester) the area I live in has'nt got much competition at the moment. So if you happen to have a decent flyer (a few colours and straight to the point) and find a reliable distributor and there is'nt much competition then you are going to get phone calls.

Leaflets do work,