Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: derek west on January 14, 2009, 08:06:08 pm
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has any one used these guys?
http://www.mailboxnationwide.com/?gclid=CNPCpc3sjpgCFQoh3godnR6kDA
gave them a ring and from a brief conversation they are £40 a 1000
from our attempts at delivering yesterday thats very cheap as 1000 takes the best part of a day, 1 man, and lets face it, 2 men can't make it "averagely" quicker, so how does the company make money.
i'm so sceptical sometimes.
i know, just go for it and see what it returns.
anyway
has anyone used them and have you got any other website that i can contact?
derek
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The question is, are they delivering solus or stuffing half a dozen different customers leaflets through the doors at the same time
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I never understand these sort of questions, although I've probably asked them myself in the past ::)
Ask them for the number of 3 satisfied customers and if you don't get them walk away.
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paul
they do do( ;D) solus but whether thats £40 a 1000 i'll have to ask.
can't see anyone else using them in the destinations i want so probably is.
mike,
i'll ask, good finkin.
derek
ps... sorry but the word DO and DO in succession makes me laugh, i really need to grow up. but not just yet.
derek
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Sorry Derek
Meant to say something other than CCnrs obviously, but similar if that makes sense.
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Saw that website last week derek gave them a call it is £40 per thousand ten thousand flyers minimum. they seemed ok but who can tell time consuming doin yourself . Personally i have had some put out with a local free paper not doin that again. Doin 300 a day myself
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I get .5/1000 with local rag if lucky, but it pays for itself and referrals and repeats make it seem worth the effort.
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done local free paper leaflets, big no no for me aswell richard.
personally for me, doing them myself is one step forward one step back, if you know what i mean. i all ready do neighbour nudges when i have time. and that bores me but brings in work for a few mins walking.
think i'll give these guys ago, 3000 a week for a month then decide if its worth it.
derek
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Wouldnt bother Derek, what type of area are you looking at covering?
I did 3000 today over 4 hours with a mate (all terraced)
If you are doing semis then 1 man can do 200 a hour
So you may as well give a lad £6 a hour to do them solus with a bonus for any work gained as an insentive, people take no notice if a load come through at once ::)
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IMO postman's leaflets go in the bin just like the free paper ones.
Shaun
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dave
we did 120 an hour, all 3 bed semi with a 2 car drive length. my mate did 500 in 4 hours 15 mins.
thats why i'm going this route, not saying your wrong at 200 an hour but we can't do that.
derek
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Terraced house delivery is easy but I think the response is poorer than semis, detached are a pig but they have more rooms to clean some have electric gates also ::)
Shaun
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Derek you must have longer paths (or smaller legs!)
Ask you Postie how many calls he has and how long does it take him.
Areas differ a lot, thats why some Posties cover 300 calls in 3.5 hrs and some 1200.
Shaun your right, they rarely get delivered, I was a Postie for 13 years and they where always getting returned to the main depot as the lads never had time to do them! Plus they only pay 1.6p a pop :-X
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Dave
:(
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let me know how you get on with them would be interested to know
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just read the conditions of service.
section 6.2 convinced me not to bother.
maximum 80%.
imagine me saying that to a client
"yes love read the small print (that nobody bothers to read), it definately says the maximum amount of carpet i can clean is 80%" its so we can stay competitive.
fckin idiots >:(
or have i read it wrong?
derek (bit peed off) west
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I gave RM a go last year with their £36/1000 intro offer. Sent out about 50,000 leaflets and got 60-70 calls converted to about 50 jobs. Not great but because of the wealthy area the average job ticket was very good so it was all worth it but holding back for now with this year and will be paying someone £50/day to compare.
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I deliver myself to posh areas and I regularly see the same Pink FT leaflet on the mat, he must be minted, but I may have made a small dent. ;D
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trouble is rich, £50 a day, they'll stroll round and may get 7 or 800 out, £50 a 1000 and they'll finish them in a day. but then theres terraced houses, £50 a day and they'll get 1500 to 2000 out strolling round, £50 a 1000 and they'll be finished by lunch.
tricky one that is,
but your right, £50 a day/1000 is more near the mark.
it takes roughly a day to get a 1000 out.
unless your davep, he trains with usain bolt. ;D
derek
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Why why why do you all do this to yourselves??
Look... I have used numerous "Companies" over the years and can say hand on heart that there all full of dung.
just deliver the bloody things yourself and stop looking for Nirvana cause there isnt one.
IF YOU DELIVER 200 PER DAY AND DELIVER TO THE SAME HOUSES EVERY 2 MONTHS YOU WILL GET 5 JOBS PER 1K.
Now this may take 6-18 months of hard slog but once your name becomes familier to the potential customer they will call you.
I had a wool rig and an hsl the other day and I asked the customer where She got our number from. Her reply was this "Oh we have had that many leaflets from you over the past year that you were the first name that came into our heads when we wanted our carpets cleaned".
It seems to me that some folks on here just want an easy way out.
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IF YOU DELIVER 200 PER DAY AND DELIVER TO THE SAME HOUSES EVERY 2 MONTHS YOU WILL GET 5 JOBS PER 1K.
You may do that and you simply can't say that will be the case for someone else unfortunately.
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But you see Mike it is... It's called the law of averages.
If Someone in Scotland/England/Wales and Ireland were to deliver 1k per week for 1 year I would be very suprised if the figure weren't very similar.
it's all about getting your head down and just doing it.
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will
i don't want 2 part time jobs, one that pays nothing and one that pays well but the other one gets in the way off making it pay better.
the idea is to get someone else to do the leaflets so that i can be flat out with the carpet cleaning.
i'll try and give you my situation
50% of my day is carpet cleaning, (no leaflets used)
if i can carpet clean for the other 50% i will be in the money as the first 50% pays for everything including my living all be it a modest one.
so if i use my spare 50% delivering leaflets then how am i gonna do the jobs i get from it?
derek
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Derek:
here's my situation....
I deliver 200 leaflets per day in 1-3hours (dependant on terrace, semi etc...)
I always deliver the said leaflets before I start work so if I start at 0830am I will then arrive in the vicinity a max of 3hrs before I start work.
If that's 0530am then so be it. I do not trust anyone but yours truly to leaflet for me. It all boils down to how much you want it
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Will,
Average is a deceptive term.
I KNOW you can't say that because I have been doing what you suggest (in fact more) and I'm not getting the 5/1000 you suggest. Someone somewhere else may be getting 8/1000 and hence your law of averages theory becomes true, but you can't guarantee that for an individual based on your figures.
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was paying £31.50 to some one last year per 1k-did 8k
seen him 2nite and said recession etc cant pay that anymore so a deal 3k for £80 he said yes , on the understanding that he sends 3k per week in my pre planed areas , he only posts for me .
want to try to get out 100k - 120k next year in a seasonal pre planed leaflet drive .
with out me ringing all over what sort of prices will I get that many leaflets , 3 colours 3 diff kind leaflets ( diff text ) in 3 sets of 50k ???
Ricky
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will
if you do that every morning, then i take my hat off to ya.
up to 3 hours unpaid work just to get 1 extra job a day. :o
you obviously want it more than me will.
i'll go back to searching for nirvana, but thanks for the advice.
derek
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Derek
Here is a company thst delivers think they re in rochdale area ???
Its called rcd 01706 759420
Might be worth a call :)
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Derek , hate to say this but Kurts dead and the losest thing to that now is the foo fighters ;D
Ricky
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I deliver myself to posh areas and I regularly see the same Pink FT leaflet on the mat, he must be minted, but I may have made a small dent. ;D
Hi Mike is that the FT'er from my area?
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I think he's Avon something, he does posh villages in Somerset. See them A LOT.
Had lots of customers say his quote was too much, but I only get to see the ones he doesn't get.
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Wow, he does a HUGE area from what I have observered they are all hit twice a year, friend of my girlfriends lives in Badminton, nr chip sodbury went to visit could not believe she had one on her coffee table!
I done 21k via royal mail once £750 plus cost of leaflets, I reckon he does 150- 200k a year easy.
Including cost of leaflets I would estimate he spends 10k a year.
PS. Im on your patch tommorrw, dont worry I dont target it ;D but a girl worked for a commercial job I done asked me to do her lounge, if you like come over say hello!
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Just done some caculations got it wrong as I paid royal mail £35 per thou introductory price, it was normally £45 that went up last year to £55 per thou, so to put out 200k per year via royal mail (least they do go out) would be 11k plus cost of leaflets so around 15k a year,
fastrack reccemmend 150k plus leaflets a year.
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Derek:
It isn't 3 hours unpaid work for 1 extra job per day if you use good old "Kitchen sink" marketing to obtain referrals Plus the following.
What i do on all new jobs is I hand them a "Customer satisfaction form" (Ie were you satisfied please answer A for completely, B for moderately etc...).
At the bottom of the form there are 3 boxes for the customer to write 3 addresses of friends and family that they think may be interested in our services.
Sometimes they are wary of giving out the addresses and sometimes not.
When I then arrive home in the evening or now at lunch I will send out my referral letters to these addresses stating that we have recently done some work for your friend Mrs Smith etc etc...
So if done correctly it's hardly Just 1 job per day.
Always look on your customer as a tool for expanding your business.
Will
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will
cheers for that, sounds good.
still not doing the 3 hours leafleting in the morning though.
leave that to you grafters.
mike h has had the best idea.
pay someone a weeks wage, get them leafleting 3k a week then helping out the rest of the week to get through the work load.
gonna chat with my helper to see what he wants if i take him on full time, he's not gonna be happy about leafleting though.
derek
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Derek.
Your figure of 120 an hour is the figure I arrived at too.
Done 3 x 1 hour sessions on mixed housing and every time it was more or less 120.
Won't pay anybody to deliver though unless it's the post office.
I post business cards and have had mixed success.
4 calls and 2 jobs out of it.
John
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Before Christmas I had a set routine, but have found difficult getting back into since the hols. ::)
Have 200 leaflets and know where they are going THE NIGHT BEFORE. I load up my player with something interesting like a podcast or audio course or book.
I do me jobs and then I go into autopilot and just keep going till they are gone.
I get some exercise, learn something and get some leaflets out.
Quite often I chat to people along the way, it takes longer but it's amazing how much this gets work and breaks up the monotony.
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Craig
I've got a job up by Morrisons, there are some nice places that pay well, but I tend to go out toward Cheddar way as the Mrs has a place there and there's less Chavs. ;D
I do the odd Brissle job but it's usually friend of a friend and the traffic does my heed in.
When you said that guy doe s 200k I thought you meant earns ;D probably is actually.
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Yeah I ment 200k leaflets a year, cost = £15k
And yes I would imagen £150k T.O. for an operation like that. Maybe less? he got 2 TM vans on road as far as I know.
I had customers say he quoted to high too, but then I guess with them overheads you got to be high. I see them flyers ALOT too. Got to give it to the bloke what hes doing is incredable.
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There is a guy up here who doea the similar marketing to the one craig posted and his min call out is over a 100 pounds so guess if your doing 15 k a year on advertising you want the returns ???
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I find putting out flyers at the moment to be a waste of time. I too am paying £35 per/K to be delivered but, started to do it myself as I have lots of time to do it. I find I can deliver a few hundred in a couple of hours depending on the area/houses etc.. Such a sole destroying job but, needs must, someone's got to do it. I also have found that when using a distribution company, not every flyer is delivered where I want it to go, if at all. :(
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Derek
Did you contact any delivery companys yet mate ???
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we pay 3 guys loacal students trainign as doctors they deliver 3000 every week for us @just £10 per 1000 so cheap took some time to find hem but once you get them thy=ey work well and deliver good so cheap for us 3x1000 per person 30 x 3 £90 a week thats all it cost me
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yes contacted a few.
cheapest that guarantee all leaflets to be delivered is £55 per thousand, but they don't cover all my areas. and i'm still sceptical as to whether they will all go out.
think i'll put an add in the paper for a leafleter, gonna have to pay around £40 a 1000 or they just won't get delivered, and even £40 is not enough. it takes 8 and a half hours to get a thou out, would you do it for £40. really struggling,
you got any ideas?
derek
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ages ago i thought of going into newsagents on a Sunday morning (real early) and asking the if I could put my leaflet inside the papers. I'd probably have to offering a free clean at his Home but I think some might go for it.
I bet you could get out 500 leaflet out and they would get seen, most people spend time reading the Sunday papers.
might be worth trying especially if you are friendly with the local newsagent
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Derek
Did you phone that number i put on here for you mate ???
They drop leaflets in stockport.
I would not pay 50 pounds a thousand to someone i did not know,as you said its not a pleasant job.
Still got mine in there boxes as just give a few out now when am working.
Its one of those things that is harder than we think to do a leaflet campaign ???
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Excellent idea Mike. The only concern i would have is that some may already have received your leaflet through the letterbox.
Might be worth a shot though in areas where you havent delivered recently.
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£40 a day is good money for a retired lady or gent on a pension... That's what I'm gonna do, perhaps an ad in your local rag will produce what you're looking for.... At least you could trust someone that's of the older generation...
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Am going to try the 500 at atime for 15 or 20 pound a time as its a smaller amount and less tedious for the people who drop them off :)
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do a shared leaflet with a plumber, electrician blinds etc you on one side them on the other then split the cost.
one side is enough to get your message across, I was talking to my gardener about doing it in spring.
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Or on a different slant why not have an A4 leaflet printed with all of your A5 details on 1 side and have another trade on the other then split the cost of printing and also the cost of delivery, you could also have them folded by the printer 50% your side outer and 50% the other.
£50 a thousand suddnely becomes £25 and providing you pick a sensible partner you should get the same response.
Shaun
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thats a good idea shaun, why did'nt I think of that ;D ;D
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You must be slacking, I seem to be on hallucinogenics or something my mind is racing with great ideas at the moment but they keep colliding as I try and get them out of my head.......but it could be the tablets.
Shaun
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i'd be worried one side wouldn't get read, if i see a leaflet for a plumber and i didn't need one i'd bin it. i wouldn't turn it over,
i suppose i could butter his side of the leaflet. ;D always thinkin. ;)
derek
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I see your point of view Derek but for the same money you can get twice the coverage either same area more often or more mileage also if you were to get a tradesman who was local and had a good name you will be surprised how long people keep these leaflets, I had one before Xmas call my Mum's house on my old tel number which is her home phone and enquire and that's nearly 15 years ago since I used it.
Shaun
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Agreed. i get calls all the time from customers who had my leaflet since say last summer.
I even had a call last month I think from someone who had kept my leaflet since 2002!!
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shaun
i hope you didn't have any offers on it.
have your suite cleaned and we'll clean your lounge carpet for three and six. ;D
derek
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I just wave at em and it makes them wave their money back!
Shaun
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Got 750 leaflets going out friday or a week on monday :)
Got someone who delivers items in this area so going to give him 15 pounds..
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don't hold your breathe clinton.
not sure if its the time of the year or we just got unlucky but had 1 call from 600 delivered last monday, and its not the leaflet cos we had a good result from 500 last year.
good luck mate, hope you have a better results than us.
gonna leave ours till mid feb now.
derek
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Derek
My mum said that to me when i saw her today,justthought id get some out as there sat in one of the spare bedrooms,aint going to put any more out till as you said feb and march :)
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Derek (and anyone else) - I had 20 minutes to kill after a job on 19th November. I grabbed a handful of the leaflets I carry with me and literally only walked up one side of a street and down the other back to my van.
Two months later to the day, I get a call from one of them... my 20 minutes gentle stroll has landed me a job worth at least £140.
My point is not that I'm the luckiest sod out there, or that my leaflets are any betyter than anyone else's. I doubt that ::)
The point is, you just don't know who is keeping hold of them. Decorating work, builders in at the moment, etc etc, all these things make people delay ringing you. Just not gettign round to it accounts for a lot, I'd have thought!
Keep putting the leaflets out through the doors of the houses you most want to work in. It isn't an instant response game.
Derek, I remember at the start of your marketing journey last year you stated you wanted to get your name out there, regardless of how many responses you got, you wanted to keep hitting people with your marketing to imprint your name on their minds. Putting off any more leaflet deliveries till February is undermining that theory!
Get out there, any day it's not raining and you're sat on your backside is a missed opportunity!!
Stick to the plan, is all I'm saying, just as a bit of friendly advice :)
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good advice too jim,
just didn't realise it would be this hard to get motivated in january, especially with the wife still bad.
but your right, no excuses, i need a kick up the ass, and thats what youve just done, well! a tap, can i have some more please, kicks only though. ;D
derek
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defo good advice Jim,im afraid iv been suffering from new year laziness too.I have aload of leaflets printed and all still at the printers and i havnt even bothered to pick them up ::) As you say you never know who is holding on to them and they will phone you at their convenience not yours unfortunately :(
Ryan
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Jim,
Same here am lazy when it comes to them but now ihave some going out i might start doing other areas now :)
Want new clients now as most of my work comes from rec and repeats :)
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advert goes out friday for a leafleter, lets see what riff raff it attracts, anyone got any interwiew techniques to weed out the numpty heads?
never interviewed anyone in my life.
derek
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Derek
Can you not find someone who knows your familly etc to do the drop :)
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no clinton, not got much family,
derek
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Derek
Least you might be able to get someone reliable and there are some people out there still who we can trust. :)
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I have always found that people working in pairs is best. Young mums can put in a few hours per day ( a few hours of leaflets is enough for anyone ) schoolkids - teenagers, when the nights are lighter, someone who is desperate for the money - I've a feeling there might be a few about this year. Whatever, they must be reliable. Check up on them by knocking a few doors on the roads they were supposed to do. Advertise in local shops, not papers, never done well from those.
Jim G
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has any one used these guys?
http://www.mailboxnationwide.com/?gclid=CNPCpc3sjpgCFQoh3godnR6kDA
gave them a ring and from a brief conversation they are £40 a 1000
from our attempts at delivering yesterday thats very cheap as 1000 takes the best part of a day, 1 man, and lets face it, 2 men can't make it "averagely" quicker, so how does the company make money.
i'm so sceptical sometimes.
i know, just go for it and see what it returns.
anyway
has anyone used them and have you got any other website that i can contact?
derek
Derek,
How do they make it pay?
You will probably find that they are delivering not just 1 leaflet, but 4,5 or more. So, If it's 5 say, that's £200 per thousand. They would take approx. 6 hours to deliver by 1 person, paid say £6 per hour = £36 . £36 from £200 leaves a gross profit of £164 per thousand leaflets. Unfortunately, your leaflet is now 1 of 5 and a lot of people would just pick up the bunch and bin them all.
If I was paying £40 per thousand, I would rather sort out my own leafleters and have mine delivered on it's own. That way, I think it has more chance of being read.
Jim G
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That is a bit too many i think ???
As jim said and like me when we get so many through the door they usually go in the recycling bag.
There again knowing mr west he might have a go ;)
Cheers clinton
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The only advice I can give is don't use royal mail, I have been using them for some years now. when I started it was about £30 per 1k delivered. Used to get a good responce so just carried on doing it. I was looking over our figures and its now £55 per 1k and the responces are getting worse as no one has any money. the thing is with royal mail you are tyed in for a year so if things go bad you cannt cancel. this mounth we have to pay £400 and i recon if i get £800 work out of it i would have done well. When our contract is up (if i'm still going) I will start to hand deliver before and after jobs with my i-pod. Who ever you pay to deliver you fliers you can never garentte that they all get done.
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I'm thinking of doing RM in selected postcodes.
What are other people experiences with them good or bad and what is the actual min commitment costs wise.
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i think its £500 quid mike, £36 per thou for first 6 months.
derek
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Derek
Thanks passing that job on to me :)
Did you get a leaflet distributer ???
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do you have to pay the RM up front or do they invoice you? and do they provide a written contract on what they are going to do.
RM are a big legitimate company I would think they are quite trustworthy,
I think I would trust RM to post any lealfets
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The thing is, if I did it I'd make damn sure they are getting delivered and if I can show they haven't been the RM can't shrug their shoulders. But these smaller firms are a law unto themselves.
In Lavinas case sounds like either the general response is down or maybe they haven't been delivered, but you weren't on the ball, which I guess is natural after a while and you can't complain weeks after the event.
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I have mentioned several times that RM don't deliver all the leaflets. Ask your own Postie in the morning how many get returned to be incinerated at the depot.
I was a Postie for 13 years working in an office with 50 others, I would say at least 12 of them did not deliver them, just got left until they built up, then the boss would trolley them off! :o
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Dave I'm sure that's the case and I guess these big firms just do 50k at a time and never know cos they don't check and they don't use DM leaflets.
What if a customer was kicking off and they were ordered to resend them, would that happen or would they still go in the skip. Some must get through, certainly does to me. ::)
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i get leaflets off the postman everyday, sometimes i wish they wouldn't deliver,
derek
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Like I said ask your Postie how many go out in your delivery office ;)
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You got me thinking now Dave. :-\
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Less thinking and more asking Mike! You will get the info if you tipped him at chrimbo ???