WRITTEN ON June 18th, 2009 BY chris AND STORED IN Leaflet Distribution

Tags: leaflet delivery

When deciding to use a leaflet delivery to advertise, it’s tempting for businesses to want to dive straight in. But every leaflet delivery is different - trust us, we’ve seen the full spectrum - and it’s vitally important to ask some key questions before beginning a campaign. We’ve tried to summarise a few below.

1. Who are you looking to target?

Depending on your requirements as a business or organisation, you may well have entirely different targeting needs.

If you’re a public sector organisation - such as a local council - and only want to target certain areas, targeting by postal sector is the best approach. A delivery could go out with local free newspapers (Newshare) or on its own (Solus). It could even go out with other non-competing items, via Shareplan. There are many other possibilities for geographical targeting - for instance, by electoral ward, local authority, county and parliamentary constituency.

If the distribution company you are using has more sophisticated targeting tools at its disposal, you could conduct a geographically targeted delivery by post code. You’d supply a list of roads or postcodes that you wanted covered by a door drop and the company would turn this into a round map and road list. A Solus distribution would then be the best solution.

Demographically targeted delivery is best if you’re looking to target a specific type of customer. You could be looking to target people within a certain income bracket, or even people who only shop at a particular supermarket or read a certain newspaper. The distribution company will then turn this into a demographic profile, which they will then use to identify the best areas to distribute your leaflet.

Usually this is done by postal sector, but some more high-tech distribution companies can do this down to road or postcode level.

There are many other means of targeting available, such as leaflet delivery by radius around a certain point, or street marketing where the delivery is done in person.

2. Does your distribution company have access to MOSAIC and ACORN?

The demographic data provided by companies such as MOSAIC and ACORN is expensive and not many distribution companies can afford it. This data is extremely important however as it enables your campaign to be considerably more accurate, effective and economical. It’s highly recommended that you check whether the company you’re going to be using has access to it.

3. Are they reputable?

The start-up costs of a leaflet delivery company are relatively low, so there are a plethora of credible-looking companies out there to choose from. There are though a few ways to sort the wheat from the chaff. Start by asking how long they’ve been in business and what clients they’ve worked with in the past.

Try and find out a bit more about the people behind the company website too. Who owns the company? Who will you be dealing with? Do they have an office or are they simply a back-bedroom operation? Although there’s nothing wrong with starting up a business on a low budget, their ability to coordinate sizeable campaigns is bound to be compromised.

One easy way to identify a company’s operational size is to see if they also offer complementary services such as directory distribution or newspaper distribution, which require methodical structures to be built up and maintained to a high standard.

4. Are they affiliated to any industry bodies?

This is an excellent way of ensuring that your distribution company is everything it says it is. The industry affiliations you need to look for in particular are the Direct Marketing Association, the Institute for Direct Marketing, the Institute of Sales Promotion, the Data Publishers’ Association and the Door Drop Alliance. All these bodies have guidelines and codes of practice for their members.

5. Do they conduct quality control such as back-checking?

Quality control is a crucial part of all effective leaflet deliveries. Check whether the company will be asking if householders have received a leaflet (face-to-face backchecking), phoning householders if they have received a leaflet (telephone backchecking) or, best of all, if they track their distributors via a GPS tracking signal. This will ensure that your leaflet delivery company is accountable.

6. Do they make full use of sophisticated planning tools?

In recent years, huge strides have been made in terms of the technology used by distribution companies, and the tools used to track the completion of a campaign are now more sophisticated than ever before. Ask them about the technology they use - the more accurate the leaflet delivery, the more economical and effective it is for you.

7. How effective is your leaflet?

The design of the leaflet plays a significant role in determining whether the campaign is going to be a success or not. Many people will draw conclusions about the quality of a company based upon the design and professionalism of their leaflet. The layout is also important - is the copy easy to follow? Is the information precise? Is the call to action prominent enough and is it absolutely clear what the householder needs to do next?

If you’re at all unsure about your leaflet design, involve a professional designer. It will definitely pay off in the long run.