WRITTEN ON April 6th, 2009 BY mark AND STORED IN General, Leaflet Distribution

Tags: Councils, Leaflet Distribution

The leaflet distribution could almost have been invented for councils. Aside from ringing up every household within its boundary, there is no more effective and accurate way for a council to communicate its various messages to the people it serves.

Having worked with many councils across the UK over the years (42 at the last count!), we like to think we’ve got a good appreciation of the challenges involved in conducting this particular type of leaflet distribution. And it is a challenge - no other type of distribution requires such a high degree of research, planning and accuracy.

With that in mind, we’ve come up with a few suggestions which we hope will be of interest to councils considering a leaflet distribution.

Q.  Why are leaflet distributions used by councils?

A. Local councils, in common with most public sector organisations, are usually looking to reach the maximum number of residences within their authority. Announcements are normally important and impact in some way on everyone. It’s therefore crucial that coverage is total - the last thing a council wants is to be contacted by people complaining that they haven’t been notified about the change to their bin collection policy or the beginning of significant roadworks in the area.

Here’s a list of other reasons our council clients use a leaflet distribution:

Distribution of council newsletter

Recycling newsletters

Notification of changes to bin days

Notification of refuse collection times over a Bank Holiday

Survey regarding public transport usage and timetables

Information regarding leisure centre facilities

Notification of a new policing plan

Promotion of a new Learning Centre

Change of parking regulations

Q. Which leaflet distribution services are appropriate for a council?

A. The best solution for a council is to construct a multi-service campaign that, essentially, ensures no household escapes. This is done most successfully by combining the following services:

Royal Mail Door to Door - The council can share the daily delivery service provided by the 75,000 postmen and women that make up the field force. The Royal Mail’s unrivalled network constitutes 27million homes.

Newslink - Royal Mail Door to Door is costly, so councils working within a stricter budget can opt for the Newslink service, which links 15million households via the free newspaper network.

Solus Distribution - Some postcode sectors are split between more than one council, and that’s when a more targeted approach is appropriate. Solus works to street maps, enabling an extremely precise distribution to those homes that might otherwise fall between two councils.

Direct Mail - Again, when a more bespoke approach is necessary - usually only by a very small percentage of households within any particular council boundary - direct mail is used. Some households are completely unreachable by a conventional door-drop, and in these cases direct mail is suitable.

At LinkDirect, we provide this exact combination as a separate service, Link Extra.

Q. What about when a council wants to carry out a more targeted distribution?

A. Councils will not always be looking to reach every single household within a certain boundary. Sometimes, councils will be wanting to communicate with specific groups of residents, such as when informing pensioners of issues relating to heating efficiency. For these distributions, we create a bespoke campaign that uses the combination of the above services that most effectively meets the council’s objectives.

Q. How do councils know whether their distributions have been successfully carried out?

A. Huge strides have been made in accountability by leaflet distribution companies, and the tools used to track the completion of a campaign are now more sophisticated than ever before.

At LinkDirect, for instance, we use a mapping system that we developed in-house, known as SMART. Councils can now receive a complete breakdown of what we’ve done for you on a door-by-door basis - an unprecedented level of accuracy for what is after all a generally large-scale means of advertising. If we’ve missed a street or even a door, you’ll know about it. We are hoping that such standards will become the industry norm.

Q. Should councils be concerned about the green issue when conducting a leaflet distribution?

A. The industry as a whole is well aware of the problems that the UK faces. Landfill capacity is running out and strict targets are being imposed for recycling, composting and a reduction in landfill demand. Our industry faces its own demands to reduce unnecessary deliveries and we are having to put our own house in order as well we are all in the same boat.

We believe that, particularly for councils, leaflet distributions are part of the solution and not the problem. Education is the only means of encouraging a diffident public to buy into the recycling issue, and a leaflet distribution and direct mail provide the flexibility to allow this to be done in effective, imaginative ways.