[clinton]

Jim

Thats a good responce isnt it

[derek west]

jim
i keep track of where my calls are coming from, thats the first question me or my wife asks when we get a call, yell.com is winning so far with referals in 2nd place, which is good considering ive not done that many jobs being a newbie, then its leaflets followed by local papers and in last place its good old yellow pages, and that was the dearest, oh well, at least i know for next year, got a load more local papers starting tommorrow and end of november ive got a local magazine and an advert magazine, next week is the 10k pink leaflets all though i'm running a bit late so may put them off til the week after, anyway, lots going on to get that phne red hot. but lets face it, all you can do is keep ya fingers crossed and drink viking lager.
derek

[Jim_77]

Clinton - response rate is 0.21% and actual conversions into jobs is 0.14%.  But of course it's all about the bottom line.  I got 10,000 DL Flyers printed for £300..... so approx half delivered = £150 worth of leaflets which have returned £574.

What I've got to consider next is how to roll it out large scale, obviously paying to have them delivered then comes into it.  I've decided not to touch the freee newspapers with a barge pole, even though I can get 1,000 out for £12.75.  My barber has just started doing some leaflets, obviously we have a bit of a chat whilst I'm in his chair.  he's got a local lad doing a decent area and delivering £25/thousand.

We're talking about sharing a leaflet, one of us on each side, and maybe upping his money to £30/thousand because they'll be bigger leaflets and obviously the cost is split 2 ways.

So, if for example it costs me £15/thousand to have them delivered I'd have to take off £75 from what they've earned me but that'd still mean I'd turned £150 into £500, gross profit of course.

Also, going up to a bigger scale I'd be getting my leaflets at a much lower cost per unit so there's a bit of economy to be made there to counter-act the delivery cost.  Printcarrier quote £288 for 30,000 on similar weight paper.


Derek, interesting stats.  After a few years, if you're on the right track, old customers should hopefully be number one provider of work, by a decent margin too, with referrals still providing a good share of your business source.

Your yell.com success is maybe an indicator that plenty of folks are looking for your type of services on the net?  Maybe a good idea to have a closer look at how you can make your website work better too?  If you're not too knackered from traipsing the streets all day

[Mike Halliday]

I wouldn't  share with a barber. a lot of people will keep a leaflet until they need it  so you need to share a leaflet with a business which will (either now or in the future) be needed by the customer,

If I got a leaflet from a barber I would look where his shop is then chuck it away, no good if you are on the other side. So an electrician, decorator,builder, is ideal.

but!!!! if it's a Barber or nothing I'd still go with him.

and £300 for 10k is way too exspensive, £400ish for 50k is better

[Jim_77]

Agreed that a barber isn't the obvious choice, but it's him or nothing tbh, and the delivery thing is through him...

The 10,000 were done by a local firm, I know they're higher priced than the big boys but I didn't really shop around at the time, just went to someone I knew had done a good job for me before on other things.

These were DL Flyers on 250gsm paper, printcarrier quotes much better rates:

www.printcarrier.com/gb/category-10819/DIN-long-9.8-cm-x-21-cm.html

[Barry Livingstone]

am sure mike get poor kids with no shoes on to post his 

[Mike Halliday]

there DIN not DL

 DIN= 2 to an A4 sheet, DL 3/A4 (I think )I use DL

James I've just imported a family of Iranians to put mine out

[Barry Livingstone]

take it the poles were no good

[Jim_77]

Printcarrier's "DIN Long" = 3 to an A4 sheet.  9.8 x 21 cm.  21 is obviously the width of the A4 sheet, 9.8 is one third its height, looking at it in portrait of course..

DL is a completely different size.

But lets not split hairs

[garry22]

I'm normally the first one to bang on about statistics but sometimes you can get too involved with percentage returns.

Sometimes even break even is good if you gain extra customers. Look at how much they will bring in during the next five years.
Each new customer is two to three potential referrals as well.

Look at ROI (return on investment).

Jim you made five hundred quid on the front end. You know there will still be enquiries off those leaflets months, sometimes years afterwards. Add to that referrals, it soon mounts up.



Garry

[Mike Osbourne]

Another mindboggling thing is whether it is actually worth delivering leaflets yourself as opposed to say wacking it in the local rag.

What if you spend the time testing what ads get better response or coming up with creative ideas that done once are set up for good. So, even though you might get .5-1 job per thou, you can atleast get off the delivering treadmill.

[malcom1961]

there is a guy selling full colour printed both sides on 300gm paper for £58 for 5000  on ebay
the price includes the postage


malcolm  ritz cleaners

[Jim_77]

Garry, I agree with you 100%

Like I said above, that's not taking into account the repeat work generated from the leaflets, one customer's repeat business alone has doubled the initial revenue directly attributed to putting leaflets through doors.

ROI is important and, as you rightly say, Customer Lifetime Value in terms of repeats and referrals... how do you quantify that?? You can't!

Mike, I can't speak for anyone else but I wouldn't want to deliver leaflets on a permanent basis either!  I'm trialling this myself because I'm the only one I can trust to do it properly at the moment lol

[garyj]

Many a true word said in jest Jim. I paid a girl to deliver leaflets a few months back, about a month ago I got a call from her dad asking me to pick up the leaflets in his garage. He was a nice bloke and said he knew how expensive these things are so thought I would want them back. Should have seen his face when I told him I already paid £50 to his daughter to have them delivered.

Do not envy Derek having a go at 10,000 in less than a week, I was doing a couple of hours and 400 hundred a day, that was enough for me. Also delivering them yourself you often bump into the owners especially at weekends and can sale the service easier and is far more natural than door knocking.

Hard boring work though.

[garry22]

If only at the start it's worth doing yourself (although hopefully, you'll be too busy cleaning to carry on). It is only the true way of knowing that they definitely have gone through the doors.

At least that way you can get some idea of feedback.

Garry

[Mike Osbourne]

Gary22

You are dead right, you can't make sense of the stats that come back from other delivery methods unless you have a benchmark that you can trust.

[Mike Halliday]

its nearly  impossible to leaflet yourself, as has been said it is mind-numbingly boring.

the only way to do it is in short stints, an hour every morning before your first job make a habit of getting to your first job early and put out leaflets. Then 1/2 an hour 2 more times throughout the day between jobs.

Now I've got a reliable distributor I book my first job of the day @ 8am, I used to book my first job for 9am but still get there at 8  and leaflet.

[derek west]

we were thinking along them lines mike, but as i'm not rushed off my feet as its early days, i might as well use my 1 or 2 full days to leaflet like a maniac, then as we get jobs from it do as you mentioned.
derek

[Robert Watson]

Good luck Derek.
I HATE leafleting, I`v delivered thousands.
Tip 1, Don`t have too many coffees, Nothing worse than burstin for a slash.
Tip 2 Watch what you ware, too hot - too cold.
Tip 3 Never put your fingers through the letter box, it`s the ones that don`t bark that get ya.
Tip 4 Shut gates, don`t take short cuts over someone garden, though the urge is strong,
and  SMILE  when you meet someone,
Any more?

[Bob Robertson]

Tip 5. Don't be as ugly as Rab .It scares potential customers.