Profile & Targeting

In the past, door to door has been seen as a blanket or saturation coverage medium due to the low cost of print & delivery when compared to direct mail, radio, or TV advert production however the industry is becoming ever more sophisticated and it is now possible to “categorise” a variety of characteristics; Age, affluence, home ownership, type of house etc to gain a better response by understanding where your prospects might live. This increases the “hit rate” for the same cost in production & distribution so improving the Return on Investment [ROI]. One of the great advantages of door to door distribution is its flexibility to test different areas, communication copy or messages. This is made even easier by our sub sector mapping system. Using this approach, results can be gained to determine the best areas, most responsive demographics or to produce maximum ROI. If you are in any doubt as to what your customer profile is, we would be happy to make some observations & suggestions from your existing customer base.

Style & Design

Copy is always important. It is the words that encourage a response after the design has caught the eye. Over 80% flick through leaflets that have come through the door, what the design of a leaflet must do is to catch the attention & say enough to get your prospect to call you. The most frequent mistake is to try to “sell” from the leaflet ….. unless it is for a takeaway or similar very low value, high volume item then just provide enough to get the response & remember that if the flyer doesn’t have an impact or there is too much to read, it won’t be … it will be consigned to the waste paper bin.

Response Mechanism

It is very important to consider what you want your prospect to do. Is it to log onto a website, if so make sure the site is up & running before the distribution is scheduled. If they are to visit a shop or exhibition, how about some sort of coupon or voucher with a code to identify which campaign & ideally name & address details for analysis & future activity. If it is to be by phone, consider an 0800 number to boost response & maybe a live, answering service to minimise the abandoned calls. If it is to be by post, then consider a Responses Services License for either Freepost or Business Reply. It would also be advisable to check the thickness of the material to ensure it meets Royal Mail guidelines.

Print & Production

Once what is to be said, how you are going to encourage action & the design has been decided, the next stage is to produce the material to be delivered. Plenty of time should be allowed for this stage if a litho press is to be used. Internally we have digital duplicators & copy printers available for quick, inexpensive and simple flyers however we also have great relationships with litho & full colour printers so are set up to get you the best deal. Another important consideration is the “finishing” of the flyer, this is the jargon for post print activities such as punching or die cutting [using a template to cut out an irregular shaped leaflet], folding ie converting a flat sheet into a 2pge or tri fold brochure. If you are having anything more than a usual flat print, make sure that both you & the finisher understand what each party is responsible for … One client, a Estate Agent, ordered 20,000 A4 brochures & then realised they were all unfolded. Cost to manually fold was in the order of £2,400 !!!

Distribution

Once printed, the material is either delivered to us or collected direct from the printer to avoid any double handling on your part. On arrival the consignment is checked, a confirmation of receipt together with the number received is dispatched. The leaflets are bundled up, matched with the other leaflets they are sharing with, if appropriate, and distributed to the delivery agents. Actual delivery will occur sometime after this point. We always make every endeavour to distribute the material speedily, accurately & responsibly however by virtue of the fact that the work is carried on outside, weather conditions do provide an unpredictable element to the times. If the weather is icy or snow distribution becomes much slower & in some cases has to be abandoned completely if it poses risk of injury to the deliverers. If the weather is wet it is usual not to deliver, not just due to the discomfort of the usual deliverers but also most of the materials delivered are paper based & don’t respond well or look good if sodden & scuffed, reducing response.

Follow Up

No matter how successful lead generation is, if those prospects aren’t converted then the campaign won’t be a success. It is surprising how much effort is made on producing the enquiries for them not to be followed up. If information packs are ready for dispatch it is not only easier but when the sales brochure arrives the morning after the call it shows the prospective customer you’re efficient and gives you a better chance of getting the business. It is also good business practice to ask each new enquiry & customer where they got to hear of you as leaflets may hang around for some considerable time before the approach. They are also ideal to be passed to a friend, relative or work colleague so a flyer delivered in one part of the city can easily get to produce a sale in another part that hasn’t been marketed.

Campaign Evaluation

Once the campaign has been completed it is essential that it is reviewed, if coupons are used collect them & maybe use a code to identify different wording or different flyers, if the calls are entered onto the database, then to review how many, from which areas & what was the conversion rate enquiries : sales. If you would like help profiling the responses, we would be more than happy to do that & to make recommendations on where similar customers may be found. From this it can be easily seen what the return generated in relation to the sales, not forgetting that most businesses sell more than once to each customer so if the average for your business is 5 orders of £15, then each customer is worth £75 worth of business to you, even if they have only spent £15 so far … and it is important to keep track of how you started off with customers, as further sales may be generated by them walking into the shop or you sending them a mailshot but these are still door to door generated leads.