[paul@ctcs]

Having been motivated by Martin at MK, I dedcided to go the route of sending out lots of leaflets so called the royal mail, I explained it was an A5 leaflet and the areas I would like to target but the price and lead time has really put me off
There minimum distribution is 10K which requires booking 8 weeks in advance
The minimum price is fivehundred pounds!!and my tiny A5 flier will take it over that

Paul

[ian richards]

Paul

When i spoke to martin personally at the show, he also informed me that it takes about 3 months to actually start working Thats a lot of money down the swannee straight away
I like yourself like the idea but i can't comit to that!! 

[Len Gribble]

Was listen to BBC radio London talk show to day at least five persons companied about royal mail dumping mail bags, and when one phoned nine elms they requested him to send it back at his cost! Not a windup.

Len

[Martin S]

Obviously, the advantage with Royal Mail delivery is that you can get out large regular volume, with presumably guaranteed delivery, which of course, costs.

Yesterday I received a mail drop at home from the postman.  There were ten different promotional items in all, ranging from Pizzas, mobile phones, the usual sealed envelopes from car insurance companies addressed to 'the householder' or similar, and a few others.

My first inclination was to throw them straight in the bin, and the only reason I didn't, was to see if there were any CC leaflets in there.  There Weren't.

Unless Royal Mail offers alternative services, with far smaller numbers of leaflets for delivery, I am very dubious as to the effectiveness of this method/route, As I believe 99.9% will go in the bin! 

When you take into account the overall cost, it seems a very expensive way to fail to get your message across.

Regards.

Martin

[paul@ctcs]

Something I have done in the past which worked well enough was to find 3 other small businesses ran by friends of mine, we then each placed an add on an A4 flier, 1/4 of the leaflet for each add.
This obviously split the cost 4 ways making the printing and distribution via the local paper very affordable. There is no reason why this couldnt work with Royal mail deliveries, I may see if any other businesses are interested in joining me in a 10k drop, every month to start with would keep costs down to only 30 pounds a week with an A5 flier (my pound symbol wont work  ) but at the cost of a tiny amount of add space.
 I guess something which may work in your favour with this idea is that the potential customer will have 4 reasons to keep the flier.

It may be worth a shot!!

Paul

[Big_Fish]

As I wasn't at MK, I cannot comment on what was said and do not wish to detract from advice given.

I have had 11 bits of junk mail through the door this morning!
These ranged from car insurance with free pen to pizza leaflets and a sorry looking specimen from a company selling blinds.

I only looked because my other mail was mixed up in with it but as soon as I'd sorted it, it went in the bin. I then read this so went back to the bin to see what it was!

I am just ordinary and I can't be bothered to read all the rubbish...why would anyone else?

Surely leaflets are better if delivered on their own.

Nicky

[Chris Bailey]

Hi Paul

IMO there is too much junk mail with the royal mail for our leaflets to make an impact, unless you get a solus delivery.  As some one else on this forum has previously stated, you have from the letterbox to the bin to make your first impression.

I also spoke to Martin at MK and was further motivated into progressing my plans for leaflet deliveries, I have tried delivering them myself on quiet days but it is hard work, especially when, like you, your business is more than carpet & upholstery cleaning.

I sourced two companies, one local, the other national to do my deliveries.

The national is Distribution Business Services Ltd - 01924 273927, www.dbslimited.co.uk

solus £38 per thousand and they can supply demogrphic info (at a small cost)

The local one is Castle Rock - 0116 2291952, Andrew Fields

Solus £40 per thousand, 5000 per week would come down to £30 per thousand ..... for local deliveries, don't know about other areas.

I have Castle Rock coming around for a chat next Tuesday, I have 14K leaflets sitting in my office that I can't get delivered so this is a starting point for one of them.

Solus has to be the way, I beleive it is just as economical as the royal mail and you are not bound by any contract for 100K leaflets etc.

There are other options to the royal mail that give greater control to you.

Hope this helps

Chris

[Martin S]

Whilst cost is obviously an issue.  I understand what was said about splitting a leaflet with other companies to make it more 'cost effective', which is a good idea.

The point I was getting at though, is that, as Nicky says, once the leaflet is through the letter box (whether there's one message from one company, or four from four) I really doubt the effectiveness of it when it arrives with all the other junk!!

Businessess, or people with an interest in marketing will, like us, have a flick through (I even keep those that appear to come across with a good message layout or impact, sad I know)

Prior to deciding to go into business though, I just couldn't be bothered reading them, they all went straight from the letterbox to the bin.

I have changed my approach to leaflets now though..........................I put them straight in the box for recycling.   

Regards.

Martin.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys,

I've just received one of  the local free rags and there were 13 leaflet/booklets in it , none of which were CC.

Good for the publisher but not so good for the advertiser

I've written many times before on my method so i won't bore you again but it has to be solus for me.

Cheers,

Doug

[Ian Gourlay]

I also recall that Martin Riley said he tried independent leaflet delivery people and got let down and requird reliability.

Als he uses a double sided leaflet.

The sample he showed us was A4 I also believe he uses A3

The point I trying to make is if you want to replicate you cant cut costs.

In honesty I am still trying but if I had the surplus resources i would follow Martins advice exacly.

Got to go back to Elenction Campain trail

regards

Ian