Here's another thing though
All the big boys (ok not all)
But the vast majority of guys on here who are building big businesses with leaflets live down south.
The return on leaflets should be about the same all across the country i.e percentage wise.
However if you are paying £60 per 1000 and get 3 jobs averaging £20 this is much better r.o.i than if you are in an area charging £10 average.
I've tried leaflets and I don't get the return I need.
Canvassers charge 3x so whether you are getting a £10 job or £20 job it's the same r.o.i
Also with canvassing you are getting what you pay for up front, you hand over 3 grand you get 1000 of work, with leaflets you hand over 3k and the return could be anything at all, more of a lottery.
Having said that, canvassing is much more hassle, much more Messer's and by the time you factor in non payers and time wasters the r.o.i is pretty similar.
Another point though is canvassing produce more compact work, so would you rather blanket a whole city or hone in on one village and canvass it over and over again to make it really compact.
Now having said all that, both leafletting and canvassing does not come anywhere near the return that online marketing does. (Unless you are canvassing yourself and even then you have your time to factor in)
My finding personally
Canvassing... charge 3x but in reality once you factor retention rate in it works out at 6x however over time canvassed work will be more profitable as it's more compact. My best days are from canvassed work.
Leaflets...royal mail is about £60 per thousand so 10k £600 plus cost of leaflets which could be anything from £100 upwards. From 10k I would expect 20 calls and convert maybe 15 which is about 5-6x very roughly but like I say figures vary widely from one campaign to the next.
Online marketing...personally I pay between £3-5 per lead on average with and average conversion rate of 50% so i generally pay 1x clean value for customers gained this way. Now imagine if I had an average clean value of £20 the return gets even better... The downside is it's more spread out than canvassing.
Personally I now use a combination of online and canvassing, canvassing to get a foothold or a days work in a particular area then add that are to your online marketing to keep topped up in the area.
I wouldnt use a leaflet again, however I'm up north I can't get the return of the big boys down south.