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Door to door

Discussion in 'General Board' started by mat, Jan 23, 2009.

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  1. mat

    mat Well-Known Member

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    I got bored today so decided to print off 400 leaflets and put them through doors for one of my sites.

    First time I have ever done this so im curious to see if there is much traffic increase and sales.

    Its suprising how fond I became of certain letter boxes, if your thinking of getting one in the near future please opt for an external box or one without bristles inside!

    My hands are all cut and im tired out but it was a bit of fun all the same :)
     
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

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    IWA Meetup
     
  3. bensd United Kingdom

    bensd Well-Known Member

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    Interesting approach, would be good to here the results.

    Is it a geo site based where you dropped the leaflets?
     
  4. lebowski

    lebowski Active Member

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    Good for you. Imo, this kind of flyer marketing can go one of two ways, either annoying or enticing. If you're marketing something new, its the latter, as I've been educated. If its a UPVC sales site, I've been supplied with more kindling. Care to share what site you were promoting?
     
  5. DomainAngel

    DomainAngel Well-Known Member

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    One of the best ways to get traffic cheaply, good to see.

    Bit concerned you put 400 of the same leaflet through though, as you should always have a few alternatives, to see which one works.

    Having a few extensions of the sme name helps for this marketing measurement.

    Then the one that gets the biggest response, you roll out on all of your leaflets.
     
  6. ScottJ United Kingdom

    ScottJ Well-Known Member

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    Local radio can be cheap & effective and often worth a go.
     
  7. DomainAngel

    DomainAngel Well-Known Member

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    I agree, but never say yes for the first seven or eight quotes they give you.

    End up with 30-40 slots for a few hundred £ in the end.
     
  8. retired_member12

    retired_member12 Retired Member

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    I've often wondered how one of those ad boards by the side of a motorway might fair (the one's where they've always got wheels on to get around the law).
    With the right pitch and regular backhander to the farmer, you get thousands of potential visitors every day. A mate of mine sells second hand motors, and swears his sales hiked be about 15% after 12 months use. Probably better for some businesses than others, but it does make you wonder!
     
  9. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

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    Stop your local paper boy, slip him £20 note and watch your leaflet 'magic' into a few hundred letter boxes :p
     
  10. accelerator United Kingdom

    accelerator Well-Known Member

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    Personally I think the law is right in banning motorway-side advertising. After all, some people's driving is bad enough without them attempting to jot down urls at 70mph+.

    Rgds
     
  11. bb99 United Kingdom

    bb99 Well-Known Member

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    That's where the value of a short, memorable, generic domain name comes in - no need to write it down because it will be remembered!
     
  12. retired_member34

    retired_member34 Retired Member

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    It would be great to hear more about your and Scott's experiences with leaflet drops and local radio. I'm launching a new geo site soon and am looking at using both. The outcome of the OP's 400 too - what sort of site were they advertising?
     
  13. julian United Kingdom

    julian Banned

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    funny that.. as soon as I hear a business starting to advertise on the radio I think - their in trouble - its like the last ditch attempt to get some cash in the door before flopping.. :D
     
  14. ScottJ United Kingdom

    ScottJ Well-Known Member

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    You could be right, my brother is a landscape gardener in his first year so not a great deal of work around Dec-Jan on the books, he had around 30 x 30 second spots on local radio for under £200 and immediately got 2 jobs signed up, one for a couple of grand he's now finished and one he starts on Monday worth £6500, so while it was a case of shit need to get some work in for Jan.... it did work for him!
     
  15. retired_member34

    retired_member34 Retired Member

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    So sales of £8,500 from a £200 advert! Nothing last ditch about that ROI. Even if he had only 25% this return he should be running the advert every month.
     
  16. ScottJ United Kingdom

    ScottJ Well-Known Member

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    Your right Rob, I think there is a stigma with local radio and we decided even though neither of us listen to it - plenty others do so it's a lesson learned.
     
  17. ratboy United Kingdom

    ratboy Well-Known Member

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    I remember asking Galaxy FM for some slots for a client way back. They quoted something rediculous, then came in with the girl who does the jingles... she did the talk in from of us with the jingle which was so funny we all burst out laughing. In the end they slashed the quote in half and we did it.

    Also, like Scott says you have to remember who you are marketing to. This often isn't yourself. I did a mail drop to 10,000 people for another client with a flyer which I thought was dreadful. Actually it was spot on the the client had to employ more people just to cope with the extra enquiries. The campaign was so good and was a high price item that it added about half a million to his bottom line. Not bad and a lesson learnt.
     
  18. retired_member34

    retired_member34 Retired Member

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    Mat - how did the leaflet drop go, any results so far?
     
  19. Jeewhizz

    Jeewhizz Well-Known Member

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    Interesting thread. I have a site that would benefit from motorway advertising. However, last time I looked it was quite expensive, and was a minimum 6-12 m contract. That was over a year ago - prob worth looking into again.

    I've also looked into advertising in The Sunday Times. But it's prohibitively expensive, unless you go with one of the companies who buy a whole page, and you just buy a small block. Usually in the back of the Sunday Times Mag. However, when I did research on the company (WebWindows), it was mixed reviews. Some good prices tho: Web Windows | This Weeks Deals | Reduce Your Advertising Costs

    You just need to make sure it's targetting the right audience...
     
  20. bb99 United Kingdom

    bb99 Well-Known Member

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    Wise words - I did some advertising with WebWindows in the Saturday Times magazine for a website and it was an absolute disaster. Complete waste of money, absolutely no increase in traffic and obviously no increase in sales as a result. In all honesty I don't think we got ONE website visit as a result, despite the millions of readers.

    The real killer for me was that they never emailed me or called me to ask if I wanted to advertise in the same the week after, or another magazine, or whatever. Maybe they were busy. Or maybe they knew that I'd say no...

    Either way, I'd never do it again.

    To add insult to injury, they regularly spam other websites I've got offering reduced rates of advertising. Cheeky feckers.
     
  21. retired_member34

    retired_member34 Retired Member

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    I also tried WebWindows for a single ad. I paid their last minute rate of around 30% of card rates, can't remember exactly but it was a 3 or 4 hundred quid.

    Pain in the ass to measure, but had somewhere below 100 visitors with a very low conversion. Did not pay for itself at the reduced rate, never mind the normal card rate.
     
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