Does door 2 door leaflet marketing work

[powersellerirl]

I am thinking of how I can increase my business opportunities and was thinking about investing in leaflets and do door to door leaflet dropping.


Has anyone got an experience in doing this or whether you know someone who has done this successully. Anyone got statastics on how effective it works, ie: 1 customer per 1000 dropped on average

 

[JulianC]

I've done a bit of this. Around 1000 leaflets dropped (which is bugger all compared to the number of properties around here) and have picked up 3 customers so far. It's been nearly a month since the drop so some people at least are hanging on to the leaflets until times of need. I need to get more printed and do a bit more. Nothing fancy, just an A5 black and white leafet I knocked up on my computer in about half an hour. If you are not snowed under with work and are prepared to put the miles in, it's a worthwhile and cheap targetted ad campaign in my opinion.

 

[acat]

It does but like anything its got to be at the right time in the right place. Around now is a good time IMO as summer is coming and lots of people with be wanting things done. Easter is the time for most DIY disasters (ask any casualty).

So if you have one that looks good get it out as soon as you can. Another trick we use is any house that has just been sold stick a leaflet through the door the new owner is bound to want to change things.


Good luck


Chris

 

[Sanke]

As acat says it is right time right place, but it will never hurt. I keep a box in the van and try to put out leaflets when I have a spare hour. Put some out last Thursday had a call this morning and got days work next Monday Happy Days You may wear ot some shoe leather but it gets your name out & about I have had people phone me a few weeks after I put out the leaflets so it shows they keep them & also had calls from people who have had leaflets given to them
I spent £110 & got 5000 leaflets More than paid for themselves now

 

[martysparky]

I was outside B and Q for a few hours today. Unbelievable amount of people walking in there with electrical accessories looking well tatty.

I.e if they have it in there hand they have no clue!

Just hope they read the instructions where it says if in doubt call an electrician and DIYers should get it tested by a qualified electrician.


My sister is in marketing and she says the firs leaflet plants a seed but the second one a few months or so later gets recognition I.e they think they have seen it but cant always remember it but seems familiar and thus more trustworthy.. (subliminal marketing)

 

[Phil]

it`s just a shame that most of them don`t contact a qualified electrician although they seem to ask quick enough when all the wires have been mixed up. i wonder how consumer units have been changed by joe public after the recent low price offers on them

 

[rocker]

Have been thinking about re-tracing my steps leaflet-wise, as there are several areas I have already done which I like to work in! Your post has made me decide to do this tomorrow....

Gotta be honest sometimes I feel like leafleting is my job. Only I don't get paid for it......

 

[martysparky]

With you on that one rocker!

Just got to keep plugging away..

 

[Phil]

i have had some good jobs back off the leaflet drops. although i did them myself so i knew they would not be in the local canal an hour after i gave them out. also the local newsagents windows have proved very fruitful in the past as well. gave them three quid and the advert stayed up for months after a couple of grands worth of work certainly worth the three quid and a bit of printer ink.

 

[eskimo39]

When I left school I studied marketing for my degree at Leeds uni years before getting into electrical work and the only problem you will find with flyers is the ammount of trash that gets pushed through peoples doors means they very rarely read them.

Think about when you get home from work, knackered and look down to see a few black & white A5 leaflets on the doormat. Do you pick them up and read them or do they usually go straight in the bin.
The other difficult thing is hitting the correct customer at a time they are looking for some electrical work starting.

An improved way would be to make a flyer look eye catching, getting them to read it is half the battle. Big Bold wording is a great attention grabber. Also look at putting something along the lines of " If you are not yet ready to start your next project, dont throw me away, how about keeping me on the fridge or passing me to a friend who may be looking for a local, certified tradesman"

The same goes when you hand out leaflets, out of politness the majority of people will take them from you and may even pretend to read them as they walk away. However once they are out of site, it's in the bin, on the floor or into the dreaded back pocket not to be found until after the next wash.

You may remember years ago a famous advertising firm put billboard posters up with "SEX" in large capital letter accross them. And then in small letters "Now we have your attention........."
I wouldn't go with the "SEX" slogan but hopefully you get the idea.

Also you need to get yourself a logo and some branding. People gain trust with brand recognition. If they see a van with a logo on, then an advert in the local paper with the same logo, they will be less likely to throw away a flyer with the same logo on.

This is a flyer I did a few weeks ago for a local painter who asked me to design something that would look funky stuck to a fridge door and stand out from the rest:

UPDATE: just checked my recycle bin (Sad I know) and found three flyers thrown in their from Thursday. One for wheely bin washing (Never read) One for Helping Haiti (Looked fake) and one for "Double your income now"

However I have a dominos menu on my fridge even though I haven't had one in about 11 months. Good branding and I stuck it there without thinking about it.

 

[rocker]

Ha ha I love Morph on that flyer!

 

[eskimo39]

Totally random but funny and gets people thinking. You only need the mum to stick it to the fridge in the morning to show the kids when they get home and chances are it may just stay there.

2 months down the line they fancy some work doing. Just think of Morph.

 

[martysparky]

Also you need to get yourself a logo and some branding. People gain trust with brand recognition. If they see a van with a logo on, then an advert in the local paper with the same logo, they will be less likely to throw away a flyer with the same logo on.

Nice flyer


Yup indeed I put just my logo without the company name ect on the back of vehicles and lamp posts ect.

Gets noticed but doesn't maybe a wonder waht is that?

until

they see the advert or whole picture on my van..

OH...thats what that was.. Guess what they remember it

 

[eskimo39]

If you don't already have a logo in place, why not make something like this:

Just quickly made it to look similar to a famous logo without it being copyrighted. Hope you don't mind me quickly doing this? (If you do let me know and I will remove immediatly)

Extra point if you know what it is modelled on!!!

 

[High Tower]

Bugatti

 

[eskimo39]

Bingo.

By the way loved you in Police Accademy.

 

[rocker]

Ha nice I like it. I used to work as a designer and I'm always making flashy flyers/cards and whatever, but haven't thought of doing a 'mock' logo like that... really good idea, I might nick that!

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Got to remember that a leaflet drop has about a 1% sucess rate if you are lucky, so quite a bit of work for a small return. As has been said before repeat drops will increase peoples awareness and 3 times may increase yo towards the 3-5% mark.

I have had more sucess on targeted mail outs providing special offers on a time limited basis. Also contacted letting agents and estate agents in person, again offering time limited offers.

I have had good sucess by keeping a small lighting outlet supplied with cards. Just have a wander round your area and get a feel for the customer base you are after. Be polite and just walk into the shops, and potential referrer locations e.g. I gave my local elec supplier a free business card stand to tidy up their counter, cost me under £5 for my card on their counter. Mr public will see them (yes along with others), but they are professionaly displayed in an outlet that will inspire confidence.

When I get my business cards printed (Vista Print) I also ge a ton of magnetics, plus all of my stickers have my personal details on them.......getting in the door is one thing, staying remembered is another..........

 

[martysparky]

good point, and I like your sticker.

makes me think about making one to put near the CCU saying

Any addition or alteration in any case should be tested and inspected by a qualified electrician to comply with the build regs.(Domestic)

 

[SirKit Breaker]

I have never tried this but what i have done is to look through the local planning apps on the council websites and sent out letters to the applicants. Let them know what you do and how much you charge etc, and i always drop in Elecsa's flyer which points out the Part P do's and dont's etc.

I have down this a few times when i have been quiet and it always works.

cheers..........Howard

 

[rocker]

How do you go about doing that? I have often thought of doing it, but feel like the customers may feel I'm invading their privacy somehow....

 

[lloyd1980]

Have been thinking about re-tracing my steps leaflet-wise, as there are several areas I have already done which I like to work in! Your post has made me decide to do this tomorrow....

Gotta be honest sometimes I feel like leafleting is my job. Only I don't get paid for it......

I know how you feel!!!

I got 10,000 quality flyers done , really good quality
I spent hours and hours flyering, got maybe 3 calls from it (residential)
Ithen flyered the city centre and got 2 calls in an afternoon, it cant hurt but i agree its about catching the person at the exact monent they are thinking of getting an electrician, and that person may want a spark but may not even bother reading the flyer
there nothing more disheartning than tramping the streets coming back down the other side of the road and seeing people throw ur freshly posted flyer in the wheelie bin lol
seen it tons of times
good luck tho mate

 

[eskimo39]

Don't forget, the back door of your van is a great tool. Get it sign written (or removable magnetic boards if you don't like people knowing whats ini the van) Just think how many people are behind you every day, sat behind you at lights and even drive past when you are parked up on a job.

A domain name (web address) is far easier to remember than a 12 digit number.

 

[rocker]

Ive done my back window just with white lettering. It just says 'electrician' and number and URL. My website is rubbish though it's just one of those free ones. New website is in the pipeline, but rent comes first.... I've got me number on there, I managed to snag a fairly good number - 419 420 not too bad, fairly easy to remember....

I've done some side decals but they look rubbish. Am on the look out for some good magnetic decal dealers who will print custom jobs for cheap, if anyone knows anyone.....

Have incorporated something very similar to that bugatti sign into me business cards now. Might upload it if I can be bothered to go upstairs again.

 

[allsparkjonny]

does anyone know of a good company/person to design some flyers? ive been putting my business cards through recently bought houses in the area and have come up with some work from doing this but a nice flyer would look much better.

 

[martysparky]

Ive done my back window just with white lettering. It just says 'electrician' and number and URL. My website is rubbish though it's just one of those free ones. New website is in the pipeline, but rent comes first.... I've got me number on there, I managed to snag a fairly good number - 419 420 not too bad, fairly easy to remember....

I've done some side decals but they look rubbish. Am on the look out for some good magnetic decal dealers who will print custom jobs for cheap, if anyone knows anyone.....

Have incorporated something very similar to that bugatti sign into me business cards now. Might upload it if I can be bothered to go upstairs again.

Your website is not rubbish mate especially if its free. This one? Butler's Electrical - All areas of domestic electrical work undertaken - Powered by CO.CC
0r the other one?
Please post the web address for the provider. I wouldn't mind a look at them. Its much better than my free one!

 

[SirKit Breaker]

How do you go about doing that? I have often thought of doing it, but feel like the customers may feel I'm invading their privacy somehow....

Nice polite letter informing them you are a local electrician, you are registered insured etc etc with lots of years experience. Willing to give free competitive no obligation quotes.

You will be surprised how many builders tell their clients to sort out their own sparkies/plumbers etc etc.
They wont feel like their privacy is being invaded when you save them a good few pounds.

I am still getting recommendations and repeat business from my first attempt at this several years ago.

Whats the worst they can do...........chuck the letter in the bin.
If nothing else comes from it then at least they have heard of you. If you want work you have to go and get it, it wont come to you, and if no one has heard of you then you have no chance.

Just make a note of who you sent letters out to, because sooner or later they will need a sparky and i bet they cant get the one they used last time, if this is the case then put yourself out to accommodate them if they call, and you are in.

 

[rocker]

Yea that one. The free hosting is at Free PHP and My SQL hosting without ads there is a link about half way down to get 'HOT! Free co.cc domain' - the website will be something like martysparky.000page.com but you can get the .co.cc thing to redirect, so you could have like 'goodelectric.co.cc' or whatever, which is easier to remember, but because it's a redirect, google doesnt pick it up very well, but then again it is hard to get google to pick up most free websites.

Anyway, there it is, I was talking to wattsup a lot who knows a bit about this kind of thing, and basically getting a proper website is definitely the way to go, but to be honest as you said, as a freebie it's OK. Incidentally, the other website I have there is provided by Wattsup - it is a part of his website which gets first-page google. The plan is that after my page has been on there a while it will get page 1 as well, at which point I will give him the princely sum of thirty quid. I would recommend it as I think it will work, and if it doesn't who cares! If you're interested, give him a PM - but you can't have South East Wales it's mine!

 

[rocker]

SirKit - nice one, am going to have to design some letterheads as well! Really good idea and as you say, it can't hurt.

Allspark - I design stuff but you'd have to get it printed locally or at vistaprint or something. I could have a look at doing something, but I would recommend PMing eskimo - he just sent me some stuff it's top notch.

Heres what I did today. Double sided card with the nice new logo (thanks for the idea, eskimo) and a shop window poster.

EDIT: Click on the pictures when they open if you are interested in seeing them properly. The little window they open in makes them look all screwey.

 

[Graeme Harrold]

SirKit - nice one, am going to have to design some letterheads as well! Really good idea and as you say, it can't hurt.

Allspark - I design stuff but you'd have to get it printed locally or at vistaprint or something. I could have a look at doing something, but I would recommend PMing eskimo - he just sent me some stuff it's top notch.

Heres what I did today. Double sided card with the nice new logo (thanks for the idea, eskimo) and a shop window poster.

EDIT: Click on the pictures when they open if you are interested in seeing them properly. The little window they open in makes them look all screwey.

Ok you have your own domain name, but why are you using a Gmail account for e-mail??? Get an address set up on the Buttlers elec domain and if nothing else have it forwarded to your G-mail, will look more pro and look easier on the eye....