[Richard Cole]

Looking at designing a new leaflet and wondered what others thought on the following:

-    best size of Leaflet A4, A5 or A6
-    Offers on Leaflets
-    Prices on Leaflet
-    Whats best to put on the back

[Simon Gerrard]

Mike Halliday is your man for this.

Simon

[Richard Cole]

Highly respect Mikes few's on leaflets Simon but it would be nice for others views too

[derek west]

unless your prepared to pump lots of money into them then dont do them, they do not work intermittently. thats my finding anyhoo.

[Simon Gerrard]

Agree with Derek, leafleting relies on volume and repetition with the added down side that people get used to buying carpet cleaning thru leaflets, knowing that another one will be through the door, so to keep the business coming from them you have no other choice than to keep on doing them, which is fair enough if you're making a profit from, but it can prove expensive in comparison to other types of advertising.

Simon

[Richard Cole]

Since i started 3 years ago, leaflets have been my 3rd best way to get business but like you say it is a volume thing and needs to be repeated.  Although i have used leaflets successfully i have not put them out that often because of getting them out in volume. However i am looking to set up my own leaflet distribution business on the side to deliver my own leaflets and other non-competing leaflets and aim to have 30,000 a month delivered by this time next year.  However being more realistic i looking to start off at 5,000 a month and grow that side of the business.  I have experimented with all different types of leaflets in the past and to be honest there has not been much difference in response rates apart from a d.i.y version which had a slightly better but was time consuming to print and fold.

[Mike Halliday]

It's the delivery that makes or breaks a leaflet campaign, if you are going to start your own  distribution  business then you need to put out 3 leaflets at least to make it pay, this will water down the response on your leaflet.

The specification of the leaflet is secondary as long as it puts the message across. personally I think A5 -full colour -both sides - 135gm paper works and is very cost effective on the printing

[Richard Cole]

Cheers Mike

I am thinking of it going out with a maximum of 3 other leaflets to make it pay, i don't think there is any benefit of delivering solus as you don't know how many other leaflets or post will delivered before owner picks up off the floor. 

One of the reasons i have gone for A6 in the past, in fact the main reason is that it is easy to post through letter box are you saying you get a better response of A5 than A6 Mike or have you never tried using A6? 

[Mike Halliday]

A couple of pionts....

Solus, If possible put them out at weekends then you know they will be the only thing delivered ( apart from the mail)

Choosing A6 just because they post easier is not really sensible you are limiting your message for an easy life, who gives a poo if they are harder to post..... It's not you that's delivering them

A6 will be unnoticeable  if they go out with a tri folded pizza menu and a supermarket booklet

It cost the same to deliver an A6 leaflet as it does to deliver a A5 why have half the space to save a little on printing,  you will save £45 on 10k leaflets

£88 printing £300 delivery so £388 total for 10k A5, £345 for A6.

double the size for only an extra £45, it doesn't make sense to use A6

[C o z y]

Do you get 10K leaflets delivered for only 300 quid in UK? 

[Carpet Dawg]

Do you get 10K leaflets delivered for only 300 quid in UK? 

Exploiting illegal emigrants.. and quite rightly too 

[Mike Halliday]

£18/1000 around here for delivery with 2 other leaflets,

I used the £30figure not to pee off all the people paying £40/1000

[Richard Cole]

£40 round here for shared delivery, pay any less and it probably goes in the bin

I did a trial earlier this year and delivered earlier this year and charged £35 per 1,000 but only got one customer on board and so had to deliver my self, which was a pain, this time i'm planning to launch on 1st Nov so i've got a whole month to get hopefully 3 other companies and hire 2 or 3 delivery people.

So do you use an offer Mike or put prices on?

[Mike Halliday]

£15 discount if they get 2 or more rooms cleaned (trying to stop single room jobs)

I Don't put prices on leaflets.

You need to get in with printer to recommend you for any leaflets they print.

But the best bet is to call into business in the area you are going to put out your leaflet and just tell them you are leafleting the area next week have they any leaflets they Need delivering......  florist & hairdressers are good places

[Richard Cole]

Cheers Mike.

[ian harper]

Richard

Leaflets are selling and not marketing so you need to have first an offer then an exp date.

next get yourself a riso its what your printer will properly use anyway, and start to test the message to market match, adjusting as you go. this way you can test size as well as copy. your really trying to say to the prospect, "hey i know its not top of your list but here is a great offer and if you dont take me up on it you miss out" dont use the % off or get the third room free its crap and people see right though it. we quote our prices and people still call and check just goes to show how skeptical people are.

dont roll any ideas out until you have done the testing part first. then you will have you numbers and can scale it up. cost is NOT a factor here its returns and all you choices should be based on this.

offer can be something thats cheap for you but has a much higher value to the prospect. A nice one we have used is

http://www.restormate.co.uk/epages/15094.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/15094/Categories/Craftex/CarUphol/Chemicals/Deodor

if you sell the benefits of what the product does then its not just a clean now. your adding a hygiene element. we used it on the web as a call and book today and get get this service which is worth £x a room

you can really pile this type of things on having two or three making the offer irresistible. say one for calling today and another for quoting some reference code or some silly saying.

Dont forget to include the different groups, mums movers, seniors, dont expect one message to reach them all speaking direct to these group includes them and gives connection to what your saying.

if space is an issue write the main body of copy on a web page and direct them to it, maybe using QR codes as well as urls. having a url for any campaign works well as you can make it up and it does not have to be SEO based just disposable. you have some real fun with this and people will comment on it. this is the old consumers message idea that media space is expensive so by directing a prospect to a place where you can really go full on with the copy saves money. not that I saying the consumer message is worth doing here just the idea.

Just dont loss sight of the ROI but have some fun doing it BTW i have a FT guy in my area that has a charge of £100 and uses royal mail at £40 1K so the numbers are working for him. just goes to show that the cost part has not place. plus the pink leaflet A3 means all the other leaflets will go inside yours, nice -)

Dont forget that having a sale and marketing plan with a large sale aspect "leaflets" is not only an issue but costly in the long run as back end is much more profitable. rolling out thousands of leaflets each week is not only hard work but is not working towards building a customer base. you better served to call old customers and not waitting for the next time your leaflet drops on the door step. as you back in competing with other leaflets

Good Luck

[garry22]

Ditto. What Ian just said

[Mike Halliday]

Don't agree with most of what Ian said especailly the last paragraph, actually it's not that I don't agree with it it's just that it's perfect marketing spiel which on the surface makes perfect sense.

But I think leaflets are a breed apart when it comes to marketing they are not a typical marketing strategy they go out in thier 1000s and they are looking for the person who on that day ( or week) are wanting a carpet cleaner, they don't need fancy words or gimmicks.

We need to give the general public a bit of credit,they are not thicko morons, they know if there carpets stinks they need a carpet cleaner, they know if they have small children crawling on the carpet they need clean carpets. The leaflet does not have to give out multiple messages aimed at different demographics, the message is 'we clean carpets'... The reader will translate that message into his own personal reason for needing us

The leaflet has just to prompt them to take action not convince them they need our services

[paul searle]

Where's the best place on line to get leaflets printed? I'm looking at 10,000 a time full colour both sides A5

[dan paton]

I generally use  http://www.cheapestprintonline.co.uk/ but to be honest if you shop around there are always cheap deals out there