[Dean payne]

Hi
Just wondering if anyone gets much work from doing leaflet drops for thier carpet cleaning biz?

[*Hector*]

Let me ask you a question Dean..
If you do not leaflet how will you get new customers??

Website?
door knocking?
cold telephone calls?
word of mouth?

ROI I found leaflets was always the best for new customers.... However you have to put out loads and loads and then............................ put out loads and loads............... and then?? put out loads more.

It is a never ending task.... Mike Halliday our moderator on here, he puts out 20,000 a month I think, and covers the same areas every 6 weeks..... continually......


It does obviously depend on the content of the leaflet too, as to whether they are effective...

[andrew stone]

most of my new customers come from leaflets delivered in my local area.
i also find i get a higher recommend rate from the leaflet customers- perhaps people prefer to recommend someone who
is very local.
15,000 per month delivered.
andrew

[Mike Halliday]

i do 30k a month, same houses every month.

 I'm busy all the time and you never see me talking about how slow business is or the phone not ringing.

I find that i get at least 1 big job a week that pays for both printing & delivery.... this is as well as all the other medium jobs they bring in

it just makes sense to leaflet.

[Rob_Mac]

Mike

How are you putting the leaflets out, are they with local papers, with other leaflets, or other ways?

Rob

[feldon]

I find that leaflets produce the best response just trying a new leaflet and so far out of 2500 leaflets it has produced 8 jobs and just under a 1K, trouble is getting them delivered.  So far I am doing myself but as soon as you get busy you don't have time to deliver and if I use a someone to deliver them for me the response rate drops to around 0.1% which just about covers the cost of the leaflet so not really an option.

Do you use a leaflet company Mike or hire someone to deliver for you, if so where do you advertise i.e. job center, newspaper or somewhere like Gumtree? Just curious as I am toying with getting someone to deliver for me but want to make sure I get the right person.

[Mike Halliday]

I use a company that delivers the leaflet with a local services booklet and 1 other leaflet.

its the only way to get enough out.... you can't deliver them yourself you need 1000s & 1000s every month. the only way to do it is to outsource it.

find a good company then  accept the idea that you will need to spend  money every month for ever

[Rob_Mac]

I have a new venture.

This will be the answer - Many thanks

Rob

[Allan Simmons]

I agree with Mike.

We've been leafleting for 20+ years.  We return to the same area every 12 - 13 weeks.  Use a combination of Royal Mail, Leaflet distributors and shared with local community type magazines.  All have a mix and a place.  We're selective where they go and if we've not worked in an area from the leaflet drop for six months, ie two drops, we chop that area off the distribution schedule.  We've used this to cut the numbers distributed without affecting the response, so save massively.  It does take time to build, and you need an offer on with an expiry date to get the best response.  The response is FAR better with an expiry date on the offer, not a 'for the next two weeks' but 'Only with this leaflet before the 31st August 2012'.

It works two ways, brings in new business AND also prompts existing clients and referred clients to call.  If you ask every existing client where they got the number from, or what prompted them to call this time, the Leaflet will keep coming up. If you're new you obviously wont have those calls so it won't be as effective as if you're established.

Hope that helps,

Al.