[chris78**]

Hi All,
        I have had some A4 115gsm full gloss brochures designed which fold into an envelope size.

They have a section on why carpets should be cleaned, special offers, our methods of cleaning etc and i personally think they look really well.

They are £751 for 20,000

So my point is do you think it's worth going for quality or quantity?



Thanks

Chris

[Mike Osbourne]

The answer is to see what response you get and compare the ROI to cheap ones to the same area.

[chris78**]

When i used to do carpet cleaning about 9 years ago i used a horrible black on yellow paper really naff looking leaflet and that did'nt get me anywhere.

This time around i wanted to go in at the quality end and do everything 100% but i'm just not sure it's worth it.

Thanks


Chris

[francis]

I imagine it is what you do with them that matters.  If you have a selective target market, then why not.
Three & a half pence plus for a leaflet for general untargeted distribution, I would regard as on the expensive side.
I am a firm believer that if you send out something of quality that you are proud of, you feel far better than distributing tat with your name on it. So it might cost you a bit more, but life isn't just about money

[chris78**]

I do actually feel better about handing out the quality but i still need to pay the bills 

What i'm waying up is

20,000 + distribution cost of £15 per thousand(roughly) or do it myself

or

100,000 with 5x more distribution costs

Which would be best?


Thanks

Chris

[francis]

I assume you are a carpet cleaner. Trained and capable in what you do.  Surely that is what you should be spending your time doing.
Distributing leaflets door to door a ten year old can do & probably more reliably than anyone older.
If you are mailing your leaflets together with covering letter, to businesses,for example, ok you need to be involved.

All businesses have bills to pay & we all have a living to earn.  Marketing/advertising is one of the most fundamental aspects of business. We have to budget for it.  If a business can't afford to do it, it is technically not viable.

[Mike Osbourne]

If you are established and have that amount to play with then fine.

On the other hand you do get the odd person on here who is new and blows 2k on leaflets never to be heard of again, but he may still be handling all the response.

Can't see why you can't get some reasonable ones from DP Print and test test test. Over time you will move towards what works better and better until you can't get better. You need to deliver your own to KNOW they are being put through doors.

[chris78**]

Yes fully trained and capable, it's just that i only trust myself to hand them out without dumping them at that price.

I have the money to play with as the is basically a second business to the Kirby Service centre i run.



Thanks

Chris

[francis]

How would Rupert Murdock's publishing empire survive if he took the same approach & said I have to sit in the vans that distribute copies of the 'Sun' to newsagents because I can't trust anyone else.

What happens when your business grows and you have to employ someone else to clean the carpets at customers you can't fit in because you are rushed of your feet as a result of your slightly more expensive leaflet.  Are you just going to turn the business away & not make the extra profit

Sure, Mike's post that you should experiment until you find what works best for you in terms of leaflets is absolutely correct.

The obsession alot of carpet cleaners have about whether their leaflets get binned by distributors makes me wqonder sometimes.  Always remember that even if you have a 100% reliable distributor, 97% of those reliably delivered leaflets are going to be dumped by your prospective customers within 12 hours of receiving them in most cases not even having read more than the heading.  Thats life.

[chrisg]

£750

on 20k leaflets is madness, whys no one said!

dont forget 1k takes around 5 hours or more to deliver, thats a 100 man hrs.

what kind of return do you think you'll get for 20k leaflets?

your prices better be high, lol.

[francis]

How can you generalise and say it is madness?
Chris78 says it is an A4 leaflet full of detail. Obviously he is not going to target the illiterate part of town with this. We all know you require graphics or pictures for them.

But your calculation of man hours required to distribute should be noted by Chris78

[carpetguy]

I have to agree that to spend so much is mad, you could have a 4-6 week run in a newspaper with much better coverage, or about three weeks in newspapers with editorial, which would almost guarantee you would at least quadruple your outlay, in revenue.

[Mike Osbourne]

I suspect the marketing Gurus on here will say you are wrong to fall into the glossy brochure trap and it's all in the copy. However I think there is some merit in what you are trying to do.

If you aim at high end custies with prices to match it may be a goer.

For what it's worth I'd do this. Get a quality ad produced and then get DP Print to do 10k of A5 glossy and deliver yourself. That will cost you £200. If it falls flat you have saved over £400, if it works tweak and reorder.

DP work to a price, but I think their final product is fine for what you are looking at.

[chris78**]

Mike,
       Thanks for advise, I will have a good think on which way to preceed before i commit to anything.


Cheers

Chris

[francis]

Can I ask Chrisg & Carpetguy what response rate they would expect from 20k leaflets & what the average ticket value would be on these?

[the red carpet]

http://www.printcarrier.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&root=d5037c22f4c35b90c488f9bcc3a523f7&category_id=73189b2f82ae61db0b42b88b76ef2932&option=com_phpshop&Itemid=1

same quality and quantity leaflets at less than half the price

ask the guy who has designed yours to e-mail you a copy for your aproval and then upload it on this site and get the same for less than half price

ps, if you spend that kind of money you need your head testing

[francis]

Chris78

I think 'the red carpet' has shown you that you can do what you wanted at a much cheaper price.  Good for him!

[Mike Osbourne]

Red

I know you are keen on these guys but I looked at them and thought it was a bit like vistaprint. You know, you design a business card on line and it looks the dogs, then you get them and they aren't what you expected.

Do you get a proof?

[Ian Rochester]

Personally I prefer a smaller size flyer, they are quicker to get through the letter box and more likely to be kept.  You still have to have the quality but just not the size.

We use an A6 300g glossy postcard and I often see them stuck on peoples noticeboards when I go to do their houses, A4 is too big, it will generally get read then binned as it takes up too much wall space.

Ask yourself how many A4 size flyers have you kept?

We use http://www.1clickprint.com/flyers/ their prices include VAT and delivery

[chris78**]

Personally I prefer a smaller size flyer, they are quicker to get through the letter box and more likely to be kept.  You still have to have the quality but just not the size.

We use an A6 300g glossy postcard and I often see them stuck on peoples noticeboards when I go to do their houses, A4 is too big, it will generally get read then binned as it takes up too much wall space.

Ask yourself how many A4 size flyers have you kept?

We use http://www.1clickprint.com/flyers/ their prices include VAT and delivery

They are folded into 3 like a brochure so they end up smaller than A6 (they fold up like a curry menu)

They were designed by printing.com which use Mac's so i will have to get one scanned in and uploaded shortly

Thanks

Chris