[Tosh]

I've just arranged to have 3000 leaflets delivered; not in the areas I would prefer (not yet anyway); but it's in areas I have work in already.

I'm a bit 'iffy' about it because there's a few window cleaners who I'm friendly with work certain areas that will be leafleted, that I don't want to wind up. 

Not because I'm frightened of them, but because I like them (one of them came round my house this evening to show me how to do some DIY work on my caravan).

But I'm sure I can cope with that; if I see clean windows and know which window cleaner works that street; I won't quote (promise).

But what's your thoughts on leaflet distribution companies? 

They seem extremely cheap; and I've got thousands of leaflets just festering in the cupboard beneath my stair case!

[gerard mcmanus]

is it 3000 leaflets going to by delivered by a company and who did you use?

[Tosh]

is it 3000 leaflets going to by delivered by a company and who did you use?

I stopped a guy in the street who I saw dashing from house-to-house; I suspected he was Polish, but he told me he was from Italy.  I said I'd be interested in some leaflet distribution and he took my number and said he'd pass it onto his boss.

Subsequently, a lady phoned me this evening; I didn't ask what company she was from; but it was a local number, so I'm guessing not a big company; just the same as a small window cleaning business, such as mine.

The areas I'm having leafleted are the estate areas round Chepstow; there's probably many streets that I wouldn't even bother to quote in; but I'm happy enough to do a semi-detached house 'drive-between' for a tenner (please don't be disgusted by my poverty); and we have plenty of spare capacity; sometimes.

[gerard mcmanus]

It would be interesting to see how you get on, I have been cheep upto now as I have been able to squeeze the time in here and there to do a bit of leafleting, but I can only really get out about 1000 per month on my own as well as going my round  so might concider it in the future, although might be more inclined just to get a local kid, but would be concerned he would just shuv them under close doors, near by bins etc.

[Tosh]

( so might concider it in the future, although might be more inclined just to get a local kid, but would be concerned he would just shuv them under close doors, near by bins etc.

I guess this is always possible, but (as I intimated to the lady I spoke to (I said I already had a lot of work in those areas, but it doesn't matter if a current customer receives a leaflet of mine)), that you've got friends, family, current customers, in that area; it's easy enough to find out if the area was leafleted; since someone you know will have received one.

[gerard mcmanus]

thats a good point actually, I never looked at it like that. I know the takeup is low, but how much do you hope to get, and what did it cost if you dont mind me asking - flyers and distrution.

[Tosh]

thats a good point actually, I never looked at it like that. I know the takeup is low, but how much do you hope to get, and what did it cost if you dont mind me asking - flyers and distrution.

It's £25 per 1000 (which would take me 10 hours to do at 100 hundred leaflets per hour). 

But leaflets generate very little work; about 1 to 3 quotes out out every 400 leaflets would be normal; sometimes nothing at all from 400 leaflets.

However, it's a numbers game; you can re-leaflet the same areas frequently; and still get jobs.  I'm not frightened of knocking on doors, but I don't have too, but if I got a good response from leaflets from one area; find out a window cleaner has retired or left the business, or just dropped the work; then I would go canvassing.

Much of my good domestic work has been built like this.

[seandyer2003]

thats cheap!! i was paying 35 per 1000 and thought it was good, trouble is for that  price they will all bundled in with 7-8 others and stuck through door in a big roll. i always throw them out they have to be doing that as it wouldnt pay otherwise, even leafleters who are good will take best part of 8-9 hours for 1000 -. whereas he posts ten a time the firm are making 250.00 minus his wage - probably 50.00 per 1000 cash in hand, 200  for them!!

[Tosh]

thats cheap!! i was paying 35 per 1000 and thought it was good, trouble is for that  price they will all bundled in with 7-8 others and stuck through door in a big roll.

I agree with you; leaflets aren't great; door knocking is probably best, but I won't door knock unless I know I'm going to get a decent return from it.

But leaflets are a game of numbers; fact; the more you put out, the more enquiries you will get.  Some will be rubbish; some will be good.

A .25% return would keep us happy when we push out leaflets, but sometimes we don't even get that.  But on other occasions they do work.  There's obviously a luck factor here.

Also, anecdotally I reckon leafleting on a Friday works better than any other day of the week.  Don't ask me why, I'll waffle on, but Friday leafletting sessions always seem to bring in more phone calls.

[Tosh]

thats cheap!! i was paying 35 per 1000 and thought it was good, trouble is for that  price they will all bundled in with 7-8 others and stuck through door in a big roll.

Sean,

What type of areas was your leaflet distribution, how many leaflets were distributed, and what was the return?

I'd be interested.

[gerard mcmanus]

Do you know I seen a guy putting out leaflets today, so stopped to watch him. He was surprisingly about 60 years old by my reckoning, and wondered if he made much money because he was going at a pace you might describe as a casual stroll. But the one thing that I did notice, is between door the guy took out a few different leaflets out of his orange reflective man bag, like paper boys, he rolled them up together and shuved them in, door by door.

If I got the pile of flyers through rolled up together, I would probably bin them. However if someone is doing it for you and you alone, you flyers are not going to be posted in amongst everyone else’s crap.

[Clive McDonald]

leaflets are good to have because they explain what you do. I always give a new customer one.

If you are after new customers- and you are already quite well established-and you have a large footprint- and as i know you are and have tosh- then a little marketing helps.

As i'm obsessed with newbs nicking my ideas i can't say anymore.But it is my best money idea, better than my inventing the hot system, and better than my inventing the electric reel, and better than my having the best leaflet on here anyway. ditto website etc.

The downside of course is that i have to do the work. When i started i used to dread the phone going because it was probably a complaint, now it's nearly always new work and i hardly get left alone.

[Klean07]

I either do them myself or ask the lad that delivers the free newspapers to do them for me. Without telling the newspaper company of course. That way we both win. He gets £10 a 1,000 I save £15 a 1'000.

[seandyer2003]

thats cheap!! i was paying 35 per 1000 and thought it was good, trouble is for that  price they will all bundled in with 7-8 others and stuck through door in a big roll.

Sean,

What type of areas was your leaflet distribution, how many leaflets were distributed, and what was the return?

I'd be interested.

Sorry tosh only just re checked this post!

I posted a thousand a week for around 4-5 weeks, had a return of enough to cover the distribution costs, and bring an extra £100 or so a month from £10 3 bed semis - plus lots of calls for gutters , con roofs etc, and a whole load of quotes i never got round to doing etc, too much work from them sometimes, i would definitely post 1000 a week as regular thing, i am starting again next week the lady that does em gives up through winter, last year i only found her about september so never got much doe but this year will do about 6 months!!

The houses were on my round already or just off it... they were sort of middle class 3-4 5 bed semis but in nice estates,

Hope that helps

Never had any return from leafleting big houses - ie mansions wth locked gates - i think you need to get one of them through a referral or ad then through word of mouth get neighbours!!

But leaflets bring good customers  wheras canvassing brings alot of chavs and you soon find you are dropping them , and getting messed about by some of the dregs, but you do get alot of good custies too so its well worth it,

I think a mixture of leaflets and knocking is the best way to grow quick

[dave0123]

thats cheap!! i was paying 35 per 1000 and thought it was good

Was yours also posted with other leaflets or solus?

[Tosh]

thats cheap!! i was paying 35 per 1000 and thought it was good

Was yours also posted with other leaflets or solus?

Normally, your leaflet will be dropped with other leaflets; unless you wish to pay more.  I've read somewhere that the price goes up from £30 per 1000 to £70 per 1000.

Anyway, my 3000 leaflets should be fully delivered by the end of next week; I'll let you know how I got on.

[del kent]

anything under 50 quid per 1000, means your leflets arent getting delivered, simply dumped in the bin. ( would any of u work for under min wage ).

[ronnie paton]

anything under 50 quid per 1000, means your leflets arent getting delivered, simply dumped in the bin. ( would any of u work for under min wage ).

i think youll find they will do any were between 5 and 10 leaflets at once so that is actually £175-£350.

i had 10k done once wasnt overly impressed with the reply i feel they dont get looked at if in a bundle better individually.

[Tosh]

anything under 50 quid per 1000, means your leflets arent getting delivered, simply dumped in the bin. ( would any of u work for under min wage ).

i think youll find they will do any were between 5 and 10 leaflets at once so that is actually £175-£350.

i had 10k done once wasnt overly impressed with the reply i feel they dont get looked at if in a bundle better individually.

It's not often I agree with Ronald, but he's right.  Leaflet companys don't just deliver your one leaflet; they'll drop off as many as they can; that's how they do it so cheaply.

But you can pay more to have your leaflet dropped of individually and not with others.

[ronnie paton]

twice in three years you must be getting old

[martinsadie]

why not bung the postman a few quid to drop them off  

[Tosh]

why not bung the postman a few quid to drop them off  

Stan,

Postmen only have a limited range of houses they deliver too.

But with 3000 leaflets; I'm basically targetting 90% of the inhabitants of Chepstow.  Even Squeaks and Ian_Giles should be getting leaflets through their doors (and I'll be asking them if they have; just to be sure).

[daniel worgan]

We have a regular drop of 5,000 flyers (a5) every month dropped for us.
They go out in bundles of 5 - 10 leaflets depending on what the distribution company has in the area.
We pay £24 per thousand.

[Tosh]

Daniel,

This is probably a 'how long is a peice of string' question, but how much work on average do you get from 5000 leaflets?

I take it since you have them dropped regularly, it must work.  Also do you target the same areas?

[pjulk]

I had 10,000 done by a company 2 years ago.

I told them where i wanted them delivering and they done all area except the one's i wanted. 

They also bundled them together with about 7 other leaflets.

I got about 20 calls in total and none of which were any good.

I would never use a company again to deliver my leaflets.

£230 pound down on delivery plus about £120 for leaflets to be printed.

An expensive mistake £350 out of pocket an nothing to show for it.

[daniel worgan]

Tosh , i have results ranging from 0.12% up to 0.44% this year.
Small numbers yes i know,but over time it builds up.I try to target new areas,but obviously after a while you have to come back unless you want to move further afield with your business.

[Wrekin C S]

I designed and printed my own on microsoft office and get a few different guys to drop for me sometimes I do them myself aswell especially when I started out I pay £30 per thousand - last year I did 3000 in oct inside our local paper - had 3 calls I guess the paper went in the bin with the leaflet  best to get em put through the door seperatley...

[seandyer2003]

i canvassed for an hour this morning and came up with £50 monthly regular work... and good work too - in my opinion if you want real results get out and knock!!! Leaflet the empties and call again on them if you want to be really thorough!!

[ronnie paton]

were was you friday sean?

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

They recon TV ad's take 7 showings to start getting results. Personally I would target the same area with fliers every 2 weeks for 3 months.

if you have a free paper delivery try to get the deliverer to add them to their paper for the 3 months.

[weetot]

I think you may need to re-mortgage your house and all your families houses to advertise on TV.!
Not that youre going to.............just thought id mention it.

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

Sorry I meant that in principle one flier wont work. We need to be advertised to 7 times for it to get through.

[seandyer2003]

were was you friday sean?

Sorry just read this - i was really behind and had to work i am on holiday for the next one too so i am scheduled to go and do one in brummy land the day before i go on may 15th

Was sorry to miss it though but have had loads of family visiting and stuff and had forgot i needed to be finished in time for that nvq day but i really had to catch up

Was it any good? Are you still thinking its a good enough reason to have all your staff off for the day??

[Totus]

Dropping flyers yourself is the best way. Last year when I still had a couple of spare days each month I had a bloke I know do some canvassing whilst I was working and he charged me an hourly rate, but I reduced this with some haggling and said if I picked any up from the area he dropped i'd give him £5 for each one. I picked up 20 new customers from 2 days dropping and gave him £100 on top. Sounds alot but in month 2 I had an extra £200 odd quid extra each month. If I picked up 5 i'd only have to give him £25 so my outlay costs were relative to the success of the canvassing. P.S Pay AFTER you've done the clean!!!!

Some tips for creating flyers that work.

1) Put on it "Don't Need Us Now. Keep This Flyer" - I get quite a few phone call months later.

2) Offer Discounts eg. Become a regular customer and recommend a friend, neighbour etc and we'll knock 50% of the new clean you recommend of your next clean (ONLY) if they become monthly/every other month customers - Everyone likes a discount and a month later you'll get the full price.

3) On my most recent flyer I am giving new customers the opportunity to win £400 of vouchers if they become regular customers this is restrcited to the first 100 new customers at which point the draw will be done . I've also put out a letter to existing customers with the same offer. Did this in March and have already picked up another 30 customers - Why look for new work when you can eat from the plate you already have and get your customers to be sales people!!!

Also advertise on the reverse of your slips you put through the door, your putting it through anyway so who knows - it works for me anyway.

Plus flyer the houses next to the house you are cleaning EVERY TIME. It's in your area it only takes of couple of minutes to do especially if you round is brimming and you don't have to schedule a specific day for canvassing.

DON'T WORK HARD WORK SMART 

Anyone interested in seeing the flyers (I have 2 types i've dropped in recent months) feel free to email me at info@totusonline.co.uk and i'll send some low res jpgs.

Good Hunting

Neil