[steve prince]

Hi all
Ive got 4000 to deliver as myself and my daughter did 1000 (bloody knackering)
any way ive found a company that said they will deliver the rest for £42 per 1000 (solus) does this sound about the right price ?
they have told me they will get signatures from various door to doors ,a print out and then a manager will go round a check !
he also said that he will be delivering aswell .
What do you guys think ? and any experiance would be greatful

steve

[AshWhite]

Thats very cheap for solus delivery, I pay £30/1000 with multiple leaflets. Not sure how much advantage solus delivery gives though, bearing in mind any other leaflets that might get dropped throughout the day.

[Robert Watson]

If he`s sound. I`d bite his hand off.
Good luck with it.

Edit.
He cant make money doing it solus, so looks like a one off.

[steve prince]

thanks guys
he has emailed me some numbers to ring for refs ,which i will ring in the morning, Do you guys get a decent responce when a company delivers yours ?

[Mike Halliday]

you've only got another 4000 to go, stick it out and put them out yourself with a bit of help from your daughter and any friends she can muster.

[The Carpet Cleaning Pro]

I employ a guy to deliver mine. It is, (in my opinion much cheaper and more reliable). He works on a part time basis and keeps track of everything delivered so he knows when to re drop an area. I personally think it works well as he is in a basic uniform with a name badge and has the basic info of what the service entails so when approached can give the basic info to potential client. He also carrys some business cards to give to people who ask about commercial service. It works very well.

[Ian Gourlay]

Steve

How long did it take you and your daughter to deliver 1000 , were you doing similar properties

Work out your genuine man hours and decide if it is a reasonable rate.

If the guy is employing   people and then has area manager checking up I would question how he does it at this price and makes a profit.

I used to be all for Solus but do wonder if it is worth it as was said on here a few weeks ago  when you drop through letter box there are usually six other leaflets.

I think the advantage is by doing solus your leaflet will not be folded between others

[Mike Halliday]

Hi all
Ive got 4000 to deliver as myself and my daughter did 1000 (bloody knackering)
any way ive found a company that said they will deliver the rest for £42 per 1000 (solus) does this sound about the right price ?
they have told me they will get signatures from various door to doors ,a print out and then a manager will go round a check !
he also said that he will be delivering aswell .
What do you guys think ? and any experiance would be greatful

steve

I spoken to loads of delivery companies and every one of them sounded fantastic, they promised the earth..... they always do until you've paid them ( always in advance)  then  the excuses start or they tell you they cannot guarantee a response even though they have delivered  all your leaflets.

ask them where and when they will be delivered so you can pop down the street and see the the deliverers posting them or call at houses yourself to verify they have been delivered... not one will allow you to do this.

[steve prince]

thanks to every one who has responded.

Ian : I only have my daughter to stop once in a blue moon ! so its all down to me ,even the mrs does'nt like doing it and the weather is awful .
the company im dealing with have told me they will collect the leaflets from me on the day of delivery ,so i can quite easily follow them from time to time. (sneaky)

This morning ive contacted 2 companies who has had leaflets delivered by this company and both have said there are very pleased and have been using them for many years

[Ian Gourlay]

Steve just a thought. do not know your life, but why not spend three days doing the rest yourself
Then you will have an idea if it is worth investing £200 a week distributing leaflets

[derek west]

if i was deperate for a job and decided to deliver leaflets (solus) i would charge around £100 a 1000. i wouldn't make a lot of money, bout £500 a week on a 5 day week, would be long days if they were average semi's. i'd make good money on the terraced houses, but lose out on the detached ones so i would make sure there was a mix. amazes me how these companies say £40 a 1000 without even asking where you want them delivered.

heres the math
on an average estate, semi detached newish build, with 2 car length driveways it takes around 8 to 9 hours to get out a 1000, thats without jumping the gardens and fences.
and thats without knocking and getting a signature.

i personally would never use a leaflet delivery company.

best and cheapest way to get leaflets properly delivered is employ someone full time. and even then you would need to regularly check up on them when ever you had the chance.

[wynne jones]

Listen to those who have been there done that. If leaflet companies were the answer we would all be using them because it's the least hassle, and that's how they get you.

A half way house may be an insert in a local rag, you get around 1%, but it's fire and forget.

I have two part time lefleteers now and just lost a good one.  You need to go through 5-6 to find a good one who sticks and that's the hardest part and that's why people want to throw money at disribution companies, but your not building your business that way.

Do a lot yourself so you know when someone is swinging the lead. 

[JandS]

Think Derek's got the figures about right.
Have averaged it out on the few times I do it
and it comes out at about 120 an hour.
That's a mix of houses but hardly any terraces,
terraced houses only mean one thing round here.
Also delivering your own you can cherry pick, even
in the nice areas there's the odd one with the scratty
curtains and leather settee down side of garage.

John

[Ian Gourlay]

I recon it goes down to 90 to 100 after a couple of hours.

Still if I could get 1% I would have several teams out 8 hours a day

[wynne jones]

missed the decimal point off .1% or 1 per 1000 

[JandS]

Ian

The most I've done is a couple of hours. 

John

[Ian Gourlay]

When i first started I did 8 hours at a time  lucky if i could manage an hour now without having to find a field

[steve prince]

I decided to do it myself ,after reading the comments from you guys! I did about 500 yesterday and going out again this morning to hopefully do the same ,so all in all this week 1500 so far -not 1 bloody call though !!
Is it because the kids are off and poss the jubilee ??

[Paul Moss]

I decided to do it myself ,after reading the comments from you guys! I did about 500 yesterday and going out again this morning to hopefully do the same ,so all in all this week 1500 so far -not 1 bloody call though !!
Is it because the kids are off and poss the jubilee ??

Welcome to the world of leafleting/marketing 

[JandS]

At least doing your own you can pick the streets
and even miss the dodgy ones on the street.
I even look at access.

John

[Ian Gourlay]

I decided to do it myself ,after reading the comments from you guys! I did about 500 yesterday and going out again this morning to hopefully do the same ,so all in all this week 1500 so far -not 1 bloody call though !!
Is it because the kids are off and poss the jubilee ??

Some people do get lucky and get calls straight away, but usually they drip feed in over a few weeks

Here is the hard thing you will need to do the same area again in a months time , and again a month after that. Then you should start to know if it is working

[steve prince]

just got back from another 3hrs of leaflet drops ,it was an area i didnt even know was there  ,any way all done thats another 4-500 done  ,also ive written down what streets ive covered the past few weeks so will keep an eye on the results and do the same again in 4 weeks

[benny d]

Im sure the calls will come in.

I had about 9,000 delivered locally a month ago, and had a lot of work from them.

What I do with all my adverts is put my name, and a photo of me so that they know who they are calling.

At least they know who will be doing the cleaning, and it's more personal.

[steve prince]

Im sure the calls will come in.

I had about 9,000 delivered locally a month ago, and had a lot of work from them.

What I do with all my adverts is put my name, and a photo of me so that they know who they are calling.

At least they know who will be doing the cleaning, and it's more personal.

9,000  how the hell did you do that many ? did you hire a plane and dropped the lot 

[benny d]

No im a pro power walker 

No I had two leaflet companies deliver them.

Its a lot of money to put out in one hit, and I was a bit scared incase it bombed, but it does work, and I will be doing the same again soon.
Its just getting the delivery company to be in your area at the time you want them delivered.

[steve prince]

Im in the same boat buddy ,deciding whether or not to get a company to deliver mine ,thats how this subject started! at the mo im doing all myself ,now only 3,000 to shift  and then im going to re due my leaflet design and i like what you put on yours (pic).
Can any body advise me on the best method and most affective design in which to put on my leaflets 

thanks

[Ian Gourlay]

As you are new could I suggest you use search facility. This Forum is a Treasure Chest of Information.

Unfortunate it does not get  stored by category so you will need to use diffrent search terms to find all on leaflets and marketing

[bobby p]

i find that its best to never ask a leafletter to do more than 5 hours a day,even then even the decent are  tempted to skive after 3 hours,its gruelling and lonely work. i  make sure they have music in their ears and a half hour lunch break.   

if they have a few stories about what they saw when leafletting usually means they are out doing it.  i usually colour in a section of street map for them to follow, usually 100 leaflets put out per hour is pretty good in suburbs

[clinton]

As ian said in his post its a matter of dropping a leaflet off in the same area regular and sticking with that plan.

Maybe then after a time you will know if its working or not i guess..

[Ian Gourlay]

If you do employ casuals yourself insist you know when they are going out,
I found a good idea was to employ Saturday Kids

Insist they have mobile phone on so you can phone them while doing job .

Know where they are going on the day and drive round and see if they are there

[JandS]

By the time you've followed them about and
checked up on them 2 or 3 times a day you
might as well have delivered them yourself.
Wasting half your day doing this.

John

[steve prince]

As you are new could I suggest you use search facility. This Forum is a Treasure Chest of Information.

Unfortunate it does not get  stored by category so you will need to use diffrent search terms to find all on leaflets and marketing

been on the forum for advice and your right Ian its all over the place ,but helpfull

[Daren Morrish]

Myself and the good lady have delivered tens of thousand's over the last year or so and it is a real pain. However, i see it as something you have to do your self to start off with.

You may have the most effective flyer in the business but if a company is sending them out for you, but not doing the job correctly i.e not delivering them  you will never know.

You then think your flyer design is poor, you change the design to a perceived better version, and the response is again poor.

Deliver 5000 yourself (around 300 a go, every morning) and you know 100% that if the reponse is really poor then the flyer isnt up to the job.

Improve flyer, deliver another 5000, compare results. Hopefully the response is better.

Improve flyer again and deliver. Slowly the response should get better, untill you end up with a flyer that you know will produce the goods.

Then get this 'super flyer' delivered by a company. Then if the results are consistently poor you know there not getting delivered.

Test and evaluate constantly.

Daren

[Paul Clapham]

Daren , so after delivering Tens of 1000s of flyers over the last year or so how's it worked out for you with regards to your work load, and are you still putting the flyers out?
I've put about 10,000 out since March and am doing around 2 jobs a week from them

[COLIN BRIGHT]

i pay a lady 5p per leaflet that goes out on its own, i pick the areas where i want them and only pay her once the leaflets have gone out (about a week after)  she always phones to ask how things are going and i get a3.5  to 4 to 1 return on them , some months are better than others, average about 2 .5  calls per thousand and turning into a least 1.5 jobs per thousand at an average of £180 per job some more some less

ps i print all the leaflets on a black and white duplo

[Daren Morrish]

Paul,

At the start I designed my own first flyer, delivered 5000 and had a poor response.

Redesigned from scratch, and sent out another 5000 and had an even worse response, and i mean BAD.

Went out and got my hands on some copywriting books and read them from cover to cover and started to get a feel for why my flyer's were performing so badly.

Re-designed again, sent out 10,000 and got a far better result. Another design improvement, but this time slightly worse than before. Have just finished another flyer design which goes out around July time of which i'm very confident will do well.

Don't have the figures to hand but will dig them out for you.

I firmly belive that what you send out has to be the best you can possaibly produce. There is no point slogging around the streets delivering flyers which are not working well for you. It's just as easy to put a great flyer through a letter box than a crap one.

If you want some pointers for books to read let us know.

Daren

[Ian Gourlay]

i pay a lady 5p per leaflet that goes out on its own, i pick the areas where i want them and only pay her once the leaflets have gone out (about a week after)  she always phones to ask how things are going and i get a3.5  to 4 to 1 return on them , some months are better than others, average about 2 .5  calls per thousand and turning into a least 1.5 jobs per thousand at an average of £180 per job some more some less

ps i print all the leaflets on a black and white duplo

I think Colin has hit nail on head as why leaflets do not work for some Carpet Cleaners he is achieving a 1to 3.5  return because his average order value  is £180 if you have an average order of say £80 it starts to become unviable

[steve prince]

had 3 calls so far this week ,so fingers crossed .
i totally forgot that a good friend of mine is a designer ,he's currently working for the scottish tourist board ,so he know's his onions. Ive asked for his help and and so far he has come up with 1 side and i must say its stunning 
wished i had thought of it earlier...

[Phil @ Extreme Clean]

just had 5000 made on cards £59 just my design and then they had to redo to match there quality but i think cards will be better than paper not as easy to screw up lol.

not posted any yet but i will when nice weather and also if on a job just leaflet that street the flyer is like my van so 'im gonna leaflet the street 10 mins before i do the job so people can see the flyer and see my van in a property on the street they can come over and ask for quote or wait and ask the custy how i did.

[dan paton]

evening guys
               i dont want to go to the bother of designing my own leaflet . have many of you used carpetcleaningleaflets.com. are their ready made designs good for getting the phone ringing
                                                                   dan

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I'm sure Mike knows his figures he has them delivered wonder what his calls per 1000 are?

Shaun