[Richard Cole]

Fair point Mike but then again as you say you are delivering thousands per week.  If you could print and deliver fewer leaflets however and get the same response it does make it viable when you take into account delivery costs.  At present I deliver my own leaflets and do around 1,000 a week but also rely on other forums of marketing.  I am looking at doing bigger volumes but getting them delivered is another matter and the rates drop right down if you get someone else to do it. I am looking at using a local company, that is a franchise leaflet company who use cleaning companies to deliver leaflets along with their own. Had a chat to my local chap to make sure that there was no conflict of interest and he said he only does domestic cleans and not c.c so no problem there.  He delivers his own leaflet with a max of two other leaflets and charges £40 per thousand. Basically if he gets and inquiry in his area he will delivery his leaflet where ever someone is willing to pay to have their leaflet delivered.  Sounds good in principal but it would mean to make it cost effective to me I would need to get leaflets printed but then it costs an arm and a leg to get them delivered.

[Mike Halliday]

Richard, £40/1000 is quite expensive when your leaflet is one of three.

Why not suggest a joint leaflet, you on one side him on the other, this wil cut both your costs in  half

[david@zap-clean]

Me and my son delivered about 6000 leaflets this week (hard work).
I'm almost fully booked with work next week due to that 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=488805441131695&set=a.482082335137339.114066.481557091856530&type=3&theater

[Richard Cole]

Me and my son delivered about 6000 leaflets this week (hard work).
I'm almost fully booked with work next week due to that 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=488805441131695&set=a.482082335137339.114066.481557091856530&type=3&theater

David that is good going to get that many out in a week, trouble is next week you will be working on doing the jobs you got from the leafleting and you find you have few or fewer jobs coming in the next week so you start going through a cycle of a busy week and then a quite spell whilst you deliver leaflets.  The only answer is to get someone to deliver your leaflets for you and that is where all sorts of problems lie, can you trust them, cost to deliver, is it going out solo or with other leaflets, are they going out to the area's you want to target.  I am having the exact same problem as there is no one local offering a leaflet distribution service, only recently found out about the chap I mentioned earlier and he delivers his leaflets where ever he gets someone else who wants leaflet delivered.

Mike unfortunately this guy has brought into a franchise geared towards management cleaning companies who deliver their leaflets along with a max of two other leaflets, not a bad idea as he gets to grow his business at the same time as earning money from other traders wanting their leaflets delivered, but your right the response is not going to be so great as a solus delivery and might not be the best option for me and the cost is also high for a shared delivery.

I'm also considering hiring self-employed leaflet delivery people but I suspect it will have its own set of problems and pitfalls.

So for the time being I'm sticking to my 1000 a week and relying on other forms of marketing which are not so labour intensive.

[JandS]

Can't beat delivering your own.
They go through the letter boxes you want them to go through
and you can even cherry pick the houses in a street you want
them to go through.
If they're pottering about outside when you deliver you get to
talk to them.
I've also been phoned a few times 5 minutes after posting to go
back and give a quote.

John

[Ian Gourlay]

Response rates vary according to style of leaflet . But your response rate is good

Mike is correct i sometimes wonder if it is worth hassle but usually have Riso running while doing the washing or washing up etc ie Multi Tasking.

i amazed about 18k leaflets per £30  laser cartridge best I ever achieved was 3k or 6k A5

I do now buy toner of ebay but works out at £5 a refil but you do have risk of toner powder going everywhere etc.

I find Lasser rely slow  although I did consider buying a brother A3 one from PC world for £99 think they had a special purchase , but I had family hazzling me as we were about to have BBQ so had to move on.

[Ferenc G.]

I've been reading this thread with interest as I have been printing my own leaflets lately as I acquired a laser printer which can print 500 leaflets in a few minutes. New cartridge can print approx 18,000 leaflets and costs £30 just wondering how much these Riso printers compare on cost, i.e how much is the ink and how many A4 sheets can you print?

I presently do a single A4 printed on colored paper, although I am planning on printing on the back soon. Found that I get a slightly better response than so called professional A6 or A5 printed leaflets.  My only gripe is that as I print an A4 with the text in 3 columns I have to manually fold it in 3 to post through letter boxes.

Just out of interest Ian & Wynee what sort of response do you get per 1,000, I'm getting just over 3 jobs booked per 1,000.

New printer is next on my shopping list. What make/model do you use? 18000 pages sounds very good for £30.

[Richard Cole]

I've been reading this thread with interest as I have been printing my own leaflets lately as I acquired a laser printer which can print 500 leaflets in a few minutes. New cartridge can print approx 18,000 leaflets and costs £30 just wondering how much these Riso printers compare on cost, i.e how much is the ink and how many A4 sheets can you print?

I presently do a single A4 printed on colored paper, although I am planning on printing on the back soon. Found that I get a slightly better response than so called professional A6 or A5 printed leaflets.  My only gripe is that as I print an A4 with the text in 3 columns I have to manually fold it in 3 to post through letter boxes.

Just out of interest Ian & Wynee what sort of response do you get per 1,000, I'm getting just over 3 jobs booked per 1,000.

New printer is next on my shopping list. What make/model do you use? 18000 pages sounds very good for £30.

I use an HP 4300 Dtn Laserjet and you can get refurbished ones off ebay pretty cheap and cartridges

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLACK-TONER-CARTRIDGE-FOR-HP-Q1339A-39A-HP-LASERJET-4300-4300N-4300TN-4300dtn-/220822724885?pt=UK_Computing_Toner_Cartridges&hash=item336a0f6115&_uhb=1#ht_5679wt_965

Printer prices vary but you should be able to pick a second hand one off ebay for between £60 - £150  here is one which looks good

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EFFICIENT-FAST-A4-HP-4300-LASER-PRINTER-FREE-DELIVERY-/370455490015?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_Printers_Printers_JN&hash=item5640de2ddf&_uhb=1#ht_1317wt_1008

[cannon]

I can recommend Mark @ DP Design for leaflets good service and cheap, yeah i think you can find print a little cheaper elsewhere but i dont bother, he's cheap enough.

[Ian Gourlay]

Richard, £40/1000 is quite expensive when your leaflet is one of three.

Why not suggest a joint leaflet, you on one side him on the other, this wil cut both your costs in  half

While i have been off I have been looking into the leaflet distribution market

I think when Debroah Meaden invested in Leaflet Company on Dragons Den it drew my attention to it.
From my research I would say £40 per thousand is about right if it is a professional company delivering say a max of 3 leaflets. Im not sure about the one Richard is mentioning as they have a scatter gun approach which actually is great for confusing the enemy ie rival companies.
But most professional  leaflet companies now off satellite tracking etc so you can see where your leaflets were delivered. Compared with Post Office this is good value.
My personal experience is that it costs £70 in Labour to deliver 1000k in nice areas bearing in mind they tend to have longer drive ways than a line of terraced houses in big cities. We deliver two different leaflets so that keeps cost for each enterprise down.
SO you could do one for Carpet Cleaning,and One for Ovens, Windows etc of your own and contact say a local taxi firm , or replacement window company or any other direct sales company see if they are interested in coming on board

That might be at the top end as my guys do not jog while delivering which apears to be criteria for a job with Deborah's outfit.  You need people training to compete in Olympics etc

It is possible to o to Free Papers and get a better rate than 40 but I find you then need to distribute more to get same result

[Mike Halliday]

In the end we need to make a return on our marketing,  if we have to pay £40/10000 then the return is not enough.

I would be paying £1200 a month, at that price I could employ my own team of leafleters.

Or average our job price is too low, a mobile phone company can pay £40/1000 as they will make a lot of money from a customer, but we are a low price industry ( in comparison to others)

[Ian Gourlay]

That still leaves you with 4K a month

But I do agree with you . You either need to set up your own team and deliver non competing leaflets but can become headache regarding motivation and speed.

But for me the only low cost method is Free Paper but that said unless you commit to high volume distribution drop you are over £30

[cannon]

I find child labour great for leaflet delivery 

My youngest son delivers most of my leaflets the only problem being getting the quantity out, ideally to make it more cost and time effective i need to assemble a team of his pals.

And dont get into the cycle of paying them in advance because they start lacking motivation.

[wynne jones]

I find child labour great for leaflet delivery 

My youngest son delivers most of my leaflets the only problem being getting the quantity out, ideally to make it more cost and time effective i need to assemble a team of his pals.

And dont get into the cycle of paying them in advance because they start lacking motivation.

You must have brought him up well. LOL Gave up on 'friends' as well. But ultimately I think I'm better off with people who responded to ads in news agents and I have some distance from them. Had to go through a few mind to get some gems.

 

[Carpet Dawg]

I've been reading this thread with interest as I have been printing my own leaflets lately as I acquired a laser printer which can print 500 leaflets in a few minutes. New cartridge can print approx 18,000 leaflets and costs £30 just wondering how much these Riso printers compare on cost, i.e how much is the ink and how many A4 sheets can you print?

I presently do a single A4 printed on colored paper, although I am planning on printing on the back soon. Found that I get a slightly better response than so called professional A6 or A5 printed leaflets.  My only gripe is that as I print an A4 with the text in 3 columns I have to manually fold it in 3 to post through letter boxes.

Just out of interest Ian & Wynee what sort of response do you get per 1,000, I'm getting just over 3 jobs booked per 1,000.

New printer is next on my shopping list. What make/model do you use? 18000 pages sounds very good for £30.

I use an HP 4300 Dtn Laserjet and you can get refurbished ones off ebay pretty cheap and cartridges

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLACK-TONER-CARTRIDGE-FOR-HP-Q1339A-39A-HP-LASERJET-4300-4300N-4300TN-4300dtn-/220822724885?pt=UK_Computing_Toner_Cartridges&hash=item336a0f6115&_uhb=1#ht_5679wt_965

Printer prices vary but you should be able to pick a second hand one off ebay for between £60 - £150  here is one which looks good

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EFFICIENT-FAST-A4-HP-4300-LASER-PRINTER-FREE-DELIVERY-/370455490015?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_Printers_Printers_JN&hash=item5640de2ddf&_uhb=1#ht_1317wt_1008

Thats intresting Richard.

I take it the £30 per 18,000 A4 is black ink only?

Can you do double sided leaflets with that machine?

[Richard Cole]

I've been reading this thread with interest as I have been printing my own leaflets lately as I acquired a laser printer which can print 500 leaflets in a few minutes. New cartridge can print approx 18,000 leaflets and costs £30 just wondering how much these Riso printers compare on cost, i.e how much is the ink and how many A4 sheets can you print?

I presently do a single A4 printed on colored paper, although I am planning on printing on the back soon. Found that I get a slightly better response than so called professional A6 or A5 printed leaflets.  My only gripe is that as I print an A4 with the text in 3 columns I have to manually fold it in 3 to post through letter boxes.

Just out of interest Ian & Wynee what sort of response do you get per 1,000, I'm getting just over 3 jobs booked per 1,000.

New printer is next on my shopping list. What make/model do you use? 18000 pages sounds very good for £30.

I use an HP 4300 Dtn Laserjet and you can get refurbished ones off ebay pretty cheap and cartridges

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLACK-TONER-CARTRIDGE-FOR-HP-Q1339A-39A-HP-LASERJET-4300-4300N-4300TN-4300dtn-/220822724885?pt=UK_Computing_Toner_Cartridges&hash=item336a0f6115&_uhb=1#ht_5679wt_965

Printer prices vary but you should be able to pick a second hand one off ebay for between £60 - £150  here is one which looks good


Yes black ink only. Not sure if you can print both sides, at the same time, or need to print one side and then re-load the paper and print second side, I got the machine second hand and no instructions.  There are loads of ex-business laser printers on ebay that you can buy dirt cheap, so you could always search for other printers with this feature.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EFFICIENT-FAST-A4-HP-4300-LASER-PRINTER-FREE-DELIVERY-/370455490015?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_Printers_Printers_JN&hash=item5640de2ddf&_uhb=1#ht_1317wt_1008

Thats intresting Richard.

I take it the £30 per 18,000 A4 is black ink only?

Can you do double sided leaflets with that machine?

[Ian Gourlay]

Richard you could consider getting a folding machine

I find rolling into a tube just before going through the letter box works well as leaflet then falls flat on the floor fully displayed. If you practice you can make sure you get it the right way up.

Problem is it does slow delivery.

I had to put  my distributors on verbal warnings as  they got into the habit of folding it into four to go through box.

I did practice my tube theory on Saturday on 400 houses .

[Richard Cole]

http://www.trade-print-warehouse.co.uk/

20,000 for £89 at the moment...

I know it is an old thread but has anyone used Trade Print Warehouse recently as i have tried to use online form to get a quote and it does not let you send it. Tried calling and no answer and i can't see a email link but prices look good and Hector has that hypnotizing way with his posts

[Richard Cole]

Actually there is an email on their site but i have emailed them before and had no reply.

[Neil Worsnop]

I get a local printer to do my leaflets.  Have tried 2 firms to deliver and both times generated as many complaints from them being dumped in hedges as i did real enquiries. And they were recommended.  Perhaps i was just unlucky.

Now deliver my own for half a day at a time and always neighbouring houses before i start a job.  Always have some in the van for any spare half hours.

Usually see a spike in website traffic when i've done a good sized batch