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Gary @ Acer Paving said:
Initial run (poorish leaflet design) :5000
Calls: 35
Time wasters: 11
Regular maint. quotes : 15 won 8
One off quotes: 9 won 4
It 8 man days to deliver the 5000.
Second run (Improved leaflet design) :2500
Calls: 27
Time wasters: 4
Regular maint. quotes : 19 won 7
One off quotes: 4 won 2
It 3 man days to deliver the 2500.
In my opinion we will not leaflet ever again - as the results are poor compared to what can be gained by using local advertising. As Rowly implied, if a customer wants something they will look for it. A lot of leaflet responses are from people looking for a cheap deal, or who are just 'interested' as to your hourly rate. Also when compared to other sources of customers (word of mouth especially) these customers don't seem to be very long lived, with nearly 1/3 moving onto someone charging less, albeit they often call back when the weather gets bad and the have a go man doesn't turn up.
Magazine adds have generated over 40 calls this summer, for a similar financial cost as to the leaflets and man-hours. combined. However these calls have almost all been from customers who knew a) what they wanted, b) what they could afford. currently we've quoted on on 22 jobs from these calls, wining 16 with a few pending.
I would advise looking at your local magazines, and sticking with newspaper if you have a very local one, covering a smallish area - e.g. market town sized.
Having a good internet/google presence is good too.
The only bad thing I found with the local directory is the number of calls from oldies that want to pay pennies, though I did get a few calls and regulars from a £100 ad in the local directory here.
Direct mail should yield a response rate of 1-2% so 10-20 respones per 1000 leaflets dropped is realistic, it may be possible to improve this by careful selection of target areas and tailoring your offering to suit your target area.
I also agree that it can be effective for start-ups, but also if you are expanding or want to target a specific area. We sent out approx. 14 000 postcard sized, double sided, well designed, to specific areas. After concentrating on landscaping for the last 7 years I wanted to expand into garden services (and run a seperate team) to increase client base etc. and also keep things ticking over in 'recession'.
Had a great response, not necessarily in numbers, but by actual turnover. Probably 40+ calls, some for just mowing etc. but some big jobs, and more in the pipeline.
This would obviously be different if you specialise in block paving for example.
The first couple of calls we had basically paid for the whole leaflet campaign, this might not be the case for purely garden services however.
As for delivering our own fliers, never again! Grannies with fully loaded brooms heading my way, abort mission!
There are companies that deliver fliers for a fee. At last count down here it was I think £30-35 per 1000. They deliver 3 leaflets at the same time from different companies, that's why you often get a Tesco's, Lidl and a take-away menu coming through the door.... sounds like a joke about an englishman etc....
Much more cost effective than delivering yourself and not earning that day.....and you don't have to spend the evening removing little 'Fluffy's' teeth from your.....