Flyer Distribution

flyer-distribution

Flyer distribution when done correctly will provide predictable and consistent results. As a rough guide, the national average in the UK is a response rate of between 0.5% and 1%. In other words, if you deliver 1000 flyers you can expect to get between 5 and 10 enquiries.

It is worth noting that the national average is based on all direct marketing including letters, leaflets, postcards, flyers etc. It is also based on all industries. So to get much more accurate figures for your business you should run a test. The test should be a minimum of 1000 flyers. Carefully record the responses received and this should be your baseline.

Whilst you may be happy with a 0.5% to 1% response, there are a number of ways to increase your results. By working on all of the following points you may well be able to achieve response rates of between 10% and 30%, or perhaps even more in niche markets.

The flyer itself

Size – the size of your flyer will affect the cost and its readability
Thickness – the thickness of your flyer will affect the quality people associate with it and therefore your business
Weight – choosing the right weight of printing stock will make a huge difference to the amount of weight your flyer distributors have to carry. Consider this carefully and do the maths before ordering your flyers.
Flyer content – getting the flyer content right is probably the biggest single factor in successful flyer distribution campaigns. Sell the benefits of your product or service, not the features. Focus on the customer and what they want, could gain, or benefit from. Don’t focus on your product, your service, or your business; people are basically selfish. They only really care about what’s in it for them. They don’t give a damn about you.
A reason to act now – give people a reason to act now. Perhaps a special offer or a discount; and whatever you do, make it a genuine offer or discount only available to people who have the flyer. One of the best ways to alienate people from your business is to give them the same special offer or discount they can get from another source; it makes your business come across as dishonest.
Make it time limited – putting a time limit on offers makes people act. If you don’t put a time limit on them they have no reason to act now.
A call to action – it may sound stupid, but tell people what you want them to do. Tell them to ‘call now’, ‘visit the shop this month’, ‘send an email before Friday’ etc.
Printing – choose a printer that will give you a quality product. Photocopied flyers are almost always a bad idea. They will give the impression that your business cuts costs, cuts corners and offers products and services that are low quality. Spending a few pounds on quality printing is always worth doing.

The bottom line with flyer design is that you should always seek professional help unless you are certain you know what you are doing. This is because it will save you huge amounts of trial and error.

Targeting your market

Choose your target market carefully. If you are selling to businesses, focus on industrial estates, town centres, shops and offices. If you are selling to consumers focus on houses and flats.

Find out how many businesses or homes are in your target area. To do this use some of the huge amount of free information available online. A great place to start is www.mouseprice.com.

Click on Local area guide and type in a postcode or street and town. Then click Search. You will be presented with background information about the area and, down the left hand side a menu of more detailed information. Have a good look around these options and you will see that there is a lot of information there.

To work out how many flyers you will need, click on Street index for…

This will give you an alphabetical list of all the local streets, and if you then click on an individual street name it will give you a list of all the properties in that street.

Whilst a blanket approach will work, a much more targeted approach will work better, so choose your targets carefully based on all the detailed information you can find. Consider things like age, income, housing type, marital status etc. based upon what you have to offer.

Always keep accurate records of response rates and adjust your methods accordingly.