[derek west]

hi dash, try this way iam doing it and iam getting a very good result(roughly 1 in 100). i print out 25000 leaflet every 3 months the reson is coz i choosed 3 defferant areas where i live, 2 middle class and 1 working class.so i start leafleting  in area 1 then 2 then 3 by the time all the leaflets are finished i start all over again from area 1.In this way ppl well know me in these 3 arera.theres 4 very impotant things though
1-the ppl that post your leaflet must be trustworthy(a friend of main is a leaflet distributor and got a team of 4) so i know that all my leaflets r posted not half of them thrown away
2-your leaflet got 2 be well desinged ( i got my mob number in it only)with some limited time offers.
3-Be very honest and straight forward with customers(iam very sure that you are)which help building up your reputation and get a free ad to newer customer by  word of mouth
4-choose huge estate areas.(roughly 40% of my jobs come from working class areas and i do have a good time doing these jobs)
wish you all the best and luck hope that ive been a help..

 regards jim

thats a 1000 jobs a year just off leaflets jim, some going that is.
fingers crossed i get the same results with mine next week.
derek

[JandS]

Mark Powell was on about this a few days ago now but can't find the thread.
Basically though he said he put 200 out every morning every day and gets
6 to the 1000.
Then he started doing them on an evening and was getting 8 to the 1000.
Apologies Mark if I've misquoted you but think those figures are right.

John

[derek west]

what i don't understand john is... if people are getting 7 to 8 jobs per thousand and it costs at the max £100 per thou printed and delivered, then as long as your not charging silly low prices you could build a massive company on leaflets alone. 

if someone could garauntee me 5 jobs per 1000, i would be a millionaire in 2 years.

derek

[nevil]

If I could get 7 or 8 jobs per thousand leaflets I would happily pay someone over the odds for delivery. I'm not saying it's not possible to get that kind of response but it doesn't tally with my experience of leafleting.

[kinder clean]

If your leaflet looks ' instantly binable ' it will be instantly binned. 

try to be a bit different.

Paul

[Dave_Lee]

I have experimented with all sorts of leaflets throughout the 30 years Ive been in this business. Some have been more succesful than others, with my later ones working really well and producing up to 10 enquiries per 1,000 and on a good day even more. Only problem is, I dont get time to put them out very often, and the only way to the intended response is to deliver them yourself. However I dont believe it is possible to sustain that kind of response over the long term with a good leaflet, it has to be better than that. The answer to creating the desired number of enquiries is getting the leaflet content right, worded correctly in the right order, first creating an impact and leading the reader to want to read more and then to get them to pick up the phone. Get it wrong and in the bin it goes.
Theres no perfect leaflet because prospective customers dont all look for the same thing and priorities vary, so some will work with some people and not with others.
They do still remain one of the best ways to generate business though, particularly during the early years.
Dave.

[richy27]

its getting a distributor i have trouble with because its all about getting volume out. have been putting out 2-3 hundred a day myself but havent had time lately but must admit its not my best form of advertising so far to date. but like most say its quantity may get some one to do 5-10000 a month for a while and see what response i get

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

There's an old truism in business which says it's cheaper to retain and service an existing customer than to continually acquire new customers.

So picking up on Derek's observation; if you are getting all these jobs from leaflets then surely, the longer you are in this business , the more repeats and regular clients you should be acquiring and therefore the need to continually deliver leaflets should diminish over the years of trading?

I know Clinton's emphasis on paid advertising has diminished over the years, as has mine, yet our businesses have grown over the years.

So, my question to all those of you who push out leaflets non-stop, month in-month out is why are you not getting the business growth which would allow you to tail off your leafleting with all the associated aggro of delivery?

Is is that there is little or no loyalty from these customers or are the jobs paying so little/clients so unprofitable that the need to generate lots of new business customers is a pre-requisite?

Roger

PS Sorry for asking such deep questions so late at night on a Saturday.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I think there are alot of cleaners at different stages but Roger has hit the nail on the head make a connection with your customer they may not have their carpets cleaned by you forever but may be at least more than once.

Shaun

[Mike Osbourne]

We all know the power of compound interest over time (well it used to be good  anyway : )

Well the real power of marketing is when you do the same with your marketing methods.

If you have one sledgehammer method to get new business that's great but if you do nothing more the guy down the road who gets a modest influx of new Clients but applies all the other stuff it then multplies out way way more, and more cheaply too.

So every new client, he looks after, does a good job, asks to clean all Madams other stuff, has a referral system, has a reminder system, he notices what she's interested in, goes the extra mile, finds out where she/hubby works....etc etc

There's one big BUT though, it's a bit like hard work though and some haven't go time/patience or want to communicate with custies, so they would prefer to bung out some more leaflets.

Whatever works for you. 

[John Kelly]

A lot of people don't understand the logic of a planned leaflet campaign as opposed to sticking a few leaflets out will nilly.
You need to have a decent leaflet to start with but then you need to sit down and think of where the type of customers you want to attract actually live. You then need to leaflet those same areas every month or 2 months. This has to be done over a period of at least 2 years.
Think of an estate with 300 decent houses on it. You put 300 leaflets through the letter box once. If you are lucky you will get one job. You might get one or two others put the leaflet in the draw for a later date. You do that one job and a few people will see your van. Now think if you go back next month and put 300 leaflets out. Thats twice they've seen your name and you might get another couple of jobs. So you are back and your van is being seen again and your company name starts to become familiar. Now imagine you have leafleted that estate every month for a year or two. Instead of just having that one initial job you may have been back there maybe 30-50 times and each time as your van is sitting on your customers drive the neighbours are looking and saying thats that leaflet that comes through the door.
This is how you can build up a really good business using a planned and well executed long term leaflet campaign. Its not cheap and its not easy but I know people who have done it and succeeded.
I talk to cleaners all the time and there a lot who are constantly complaining about a lack of work. When I suggest this method I always get the answer " oh I've tried leaflets, waste of time" and when I press them they have made that exact mistake of getting a few thousand printed, sticking them through doors and sitting back waiting for the work. Don't bother it won't come.

[Fintan_Coll]

I agree with what you say John, but if one were to go to that estate of 300 houses and instead of dropping a flyer through each letterbox were to knock on each door instead. Then when the occupant came to the door, introduced himself and told them who he was and what he did.
I am suggesting this because that was how I built up my customer base many years ago, and the areas and districts where I did this are still my best areas for business after almost nineteen years.
Pick the type of places where you prefer to work, much easier working at a detached house with plenty parking space that a four story block of flats with no lift.

[Mike Halliday]

a quick reply ( off to work,,,, on a sunday )

I constantly leaflet min 4000-5000 every week and have done so for the last 8-10yrs.

 you could ask why I need to do this, my leaflets goes to the same houses every month, so every house in Beverley has received approx 92 of my leaflets.... every one of my customers gets a leaflet from me every month.

I have no involvement in my leafleting and it cost me the equivalent of me working for 4hrs work, so what is the difference betreen this and me actually spending 4 hours sending out reminder cards (inc cost of them) or newsletters or any other marketing.

[Carpet Dawg]

I constantly leaflet min 4000-5000 every week and have done so for the last 8-10yrs.

you could ask why I need to do this, my leaflets goes to the same houses every month, so every house in Beverley has received approx 92 of my leaflets.... every one of my customers gets a leaflet from me every month.

Is that not quite annoying to your customers tho Mike? (or potential customers) to constantly get these leaflets coming through the door.

Do you use the post office to delever the leaflets or another compeny? or do it yourself?

Cheers
Tony

[Carpet Dawg]

I constantly leaflet min 4000-5000 every week and have done so for the last 8-10yrs.

you could ask why I need to do this, my leaflets goes to the same houses every month, so every house in Beverley has received approx 92 of my leaflets.... every one of my customers gets a leaflet from me every month.

Is that not quite annoying to your customers tho Mike? (or potential customers) to constantly get these leaflets coming through the door.

Do you use the post office to delever the leaflets or another company? or do it yourself?

p.s. whats Solus? been mentioned a phew times on here but i'm cluless about it 

Cheers
Tony

[derek west]

the good thing about the internet is if your not sure what something means, you can type it into google and find out. simples

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/solus

try it, you'll love it.


ps... i knew what solus meant, and should do as ive got 4000 going out like that.
derek

[Mike Halliday]

Tony I have had some sent to me in the mail asking for me to stop sending them!

but its not like I'm forcing them to read it, they glance at it, don't need it,  so bin. Sometimes they will just pick up the junk mail off the doorstep and chuck it all straight in the bin.

I speak to my customer who ring me from leaflets and they don't even consciously remember all the leaflets they have received because at the moment of delivery carpet cleaning is'nt on thier minds, but they leaflets keep coming
until they do need me

solus leaflet deliver mean the leaflet get delivered by is self - nothing else

[Shaun_Ashmore]

To get the best response Solus is better but by far the most expensive, you do have to try a few companies to get the one that is the best value for money, some free papers are dumped before they even see a letter box where as solus is guaranteed to land but may be 3 times as much but that's only part of it you do need a good leaflet. A good idea is to ask a few people who are more like your customers/buyers for what they would like to read and would make them call.

Shaun

PS I think Mike does get the deal of the century with his leaflet delivery

[sammii_25]

We had 5000 A6 Marketing Cards digitally printed last month ready for distribution.  We were advised to go for the A6 Marketing Cards rather than a4 paper leaflets or A5.  It is also double sided with a bit more info and special offers available.  
We paid £140 + VAT to have 5000 printed.  It was our design and layout that we took to them andthey created the marketing card.
I notice a few of you say as do we agre, that the look and info on leaflets etc has to be good inorder to attract atention and i would welcome feedback.
Thanks

[Daria Taylor]

Dash, Dp will print your leaflet on any paper you like, I use 135gm

this leaflet is DN size ( 3 to an A4 sheet of paper) I'm using this size as I have a deal for 2 months with a leather clean/repair franchise who goes on the other side and we split the cost. hopefully this will work well so we can continue it.

last month I had a cock-up with delivery of the leaflets so didn't get them out, so we  tested an A6 card leaflet, hand delivered  we did 90 mins a day and have been getting good results from them.

Yeah i know they do different paper, we currently had 135gm printed, and like i said it's good quality leaflets but not what i was looking for, as i like them much thicker like post cards as i do think we get much better return from them. So next time it will definatelly be 200gm, also we had a cock up with delivery, only had half delivered, and rest gone to other people and we received theirs. Wrong order had to be confirmed by sending bk so many leaflets which we did, but due to postal problems we seems to have even further delay, which set us back another 2 weeks or so. We do some deliveries our self and we have relatives delivering 1500 every friday to selected areas, but i am hoping to find a reliable delivering company anytime soon. 

dash t