WRITTEN ON January 21st, 2010 BY chris AND STORED IN Leaflet Distribution

Tags: Leaflet Distribution

According to the Direct Marketing Association, door drop marketing volumes fell last year by a not insignificant 11%, while total expenditure decreased by 5%. You can read more about it here.

While these numbers sound sizeable, it’s important to remember that door drop volume and expenditure still equate to 9 billion items and £277million respectively.

And in any case, it’s misleading to simply jump to the conclusions that the bare numbers seem to suggest. As Mark Young correctly states in the Marketing Week article, the current trend is more a reflection of the increased sophistication that is now fairly commonplace within the sector.

But what do we mean by increased sophistication?

Primarily, it’s to do with the holy grail of leaflet distribution: targeting. A better targeted leaflet ensures an improved return on investment for the client, as well as being cheaper, more relevant for the consumer and greener for the environment.

An example of more targeted leaflet distributions in action is Round Level Targeting. Traditionally, leaflet distribution campaigns have been conducted on a postcode basis via the Free Newspaper Network. But while this was extremely effective from a volume perspective, the advertiser could exercise very limited control over the type of household receiving their leaflets. That’s because each postcode sector contains an average of 3000 households - hardly the basis for a particularly sophisticated campaign.

What Round Level Targeting does however is introduce targeting at delivery round level, meaning advertisers can target zones containing just 200 households. That’s an improvement in targeting by a factor of 15. (To find out more about Round Level Targeting, watch this presentation.)

Round Level Targeting is merely an example of the ways in which we and the industry are stepping up to the plate in terms of the service we are offering clients.

Campaigns are now much greener thanks to an industry-wide commitment to lower levels of wastage, and we ourselves actively support the use of recycled paper in all our campaigns.

Accountability is another area where sophistication is on the up, particularly through GPS tracking, which is something we have pioneered in recent years. Until recently, GPS tracking of delivery vehicles was the best way to ensure that delivery teams were doing their job in the correct area at the correct time. The advent of personal GPS loggers, however, allows campaigns to be monitored at individual address level - a real step forward.

This isn’t just an attempt to put a positive spin on some disappointing results. The downward trend will probably continue for a while yet, but it’s far more indicative of a shift in the way door drop operates. Sophistication is ultimately very good news for the advertiser.