Door to door

[mat]

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

 

[bensd]

Interesting approach, would be good to here the results.

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

 

[lebowski]

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?

 

[ScottJ]

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

 

[retired_member12]

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!

 

[Skinner]

Stop your local paper boy, slip him £20 note and watch your leaflet 'magic' into a few hundred letter boxes

 

[accelerator]

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!

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

 

[bb99]

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+.

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!

 

[retired_member34]

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.

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?

 

[julian]

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

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..

 

[ScottJ]

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..

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!

 

[retired_member34]

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!

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.

 

[ScottJ]

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.

 

[ratboy]

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.

 

[retired_member34]

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

 

[Jeewhizz]

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...

 

[bb99]

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...

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.

 

[retired_member34]

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.

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.

 

[bb99]

Hi RobMal - yeah our rate was also heavily reduced from the ratecard, but it was still a few hundred quid and I was still absolutely disgusted with the outcome :???:

 

[Jeewhizz]

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

This was one of the reasons I didn't sign up with them. In fact, ironically, I got some email spam from them about 2 weeks after I decided to not bother. Totally unsolicited, as I've never given them my details!