Proper Insurance

They should have appropriate up to date insurances, especially public liability insurance so that they are able to protect you against damage to property.  Remember it is your leaflet that is going through the door so who do you think is going to be blamed for anything that goes wrong?

Accurate data

They should be able to tell you with a good degree of accuracy how many houses are in a particular area.  Many companies will only be able to do this at postcode level.  Really good companies will, however, be able to narrow this down to very tightly defined areas, even to street level.  If they are not able to provide you with this sort of information, how can you know how many leaflets you will need?  They should also be able to back this information up with proper systems – remember not everyone is an honest and trustworthy as you and tThere are many unscrupulous companies out there who will, for example, tell you that there are 10,000 houses in a particular area when, in fact, there are only 5,000.

Identify precise distribution areas

They should be able and willing to agree the precise areas they will distribute to for you.  The best way to do this is highlight the area on a map, ideally in electronic format.  If they are not able to provide electronic mapping then they are not likely to be a professional distributon company.

Target your ideal customers

They should be able to identify where your ideal customers live and deliver only to those areas. For example if you have a paving company are you going to want your leaflets delivered to flats and council houses?  Of course not but there are companies out there (Royal Mail being one of them) who will just take your money and deliver to everyone, whether they are in your target market of not.

Provide detailed reports

They should , as a minimum, provide you with a detailed map showing the area(s) that have been distributed to (at street level) so that you are able to see exactly where your leaflets were distributed to (ideally in electronic format). This should enable you to check that they have, in fact, been delivered. 

The very best companies will provide you with a list of non-deliveries.  This will be a list of the houses (with street name and house number) where they could not deliver, along with a reason as to why they could not make the delivery. 

Strong delivery ethics

They should have clear delivery ethics that they work to.  Remember that they are representing your company so if they do their job badly then it will reflect badly on your business.

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BEWARE!  This is IMPOSSIBLE if the distribution company is employing workers and paying the national minimum wage. 

On average a good worker can distribute between 80 and 120 per hour, depending on the area being distributed to.  This means that really good people will be able to deliver a maximum of 1,000 per day.

If you have been quoted £35 per 1,000 then that means that the cost to them per 1,000 is £30 (if we assume a £5 profit margin, which is very low.  That means that they have £30 left to pay for staff, fuel, administration, overheads, etc.   If we assume that their overheads cost another £5 then that leaves  only £25 to pay their staff at most.

Not only is that over £20 less than the minimum wage (which is illegal) but you have to ask yourself if you would go out in all weathers doing what is a strenuous job for a maximum of £25 per day?  Anybody I have spoken to have said they would never work for that sort of money so you have to wonder what is going to happen to your leaflets. 

It would be safe to say that if they chose not to deliver half of them then they would make £50 per day.  If they chose not to deliver 2/3 of them then they would make £75 per day.  These are much more realistic figures and the likelihood is that if you are paying an unrealistically low cost well over half of your leaflets are never going to be delivered.

Do you REALLY want to take that risk? 

Distribution Unlimited (Glagow) provide the best leafet distribution in Glasgow and the West of Scotland

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Brand marketing is normally used by large companies to build and increase awareness of their brand.  While there is no doubt that this type of marketing ultimately results in increased sales (or they would not be doing it), it is a long-term strategy.  It is designed to differentiate them from their competitors on the basis that their brand will become more famous (and therefore attractive) to potential and existing customers.  The problem with brand marketing for most SME’s is that it is very expensive because it utilises virtually every promotional tool available, from TV and radio advertising to bill boards and sponsorship.

Direct response marketing is marketing which results in a direct response from your target audience.  The type of response may vary depending on the type of business you are in and your overall marketing strategy. You may, for example, want the response to be an immediate purchase. Alternatively, you may want the response to be for someone to contact you to set up a meeting.  The great thing about direct response marketing is that you can instantly tell whether it is working – it either produces a response or it doesn’t.  This enables you to test and measure the impact of your strategy on a small scale and change it if it is not working or increase it if it does work.

Brand marketing is, therefore, not normally a good way for a small to medium sized business to invest their marketing budget.  If you run an SME, the only type of marketing you ever want to consider is direct response marketing. The only purpose of direct response marketing is to produce a clear response.

So now you now know the difference, review your marketing strategy and ensure that everything you do is focused on direct response marketing.  If it is not, stop it and change your strategy.

The headline is either the heading that goes at the top of your leaflet.  Basically the headline is the first words that the reader sees.  It is, therefore, vital that your headline grabs the reader’s attention immediately.  If it does not then it is likely that your leaflet will go straight into the bin without ever being read.  A simple change to a headline can produce a huge increase in response rates.
Remember that the main purpose of the headline is not to sell your product – it’s just to get people to read the rest of your leaflet

Remember that people are not interested in you or your business, they are interested in what your products or services can do for them – to make their life easier, to save money, to look or feel better, etc.  Your headline should, therefore, be focused on the reader and not on your company so if you have the name of your business in the headline, it, get rid of it and replace it with something that is going to be of interest to the reader.

For example, say you run a company that specialises in search engine optimisation.  Which of these headlines do you think would be most likely to get the reader’s attention?

“Joe Blogs Ltd – Getting Your Company Recognised by Search Engines”

OR

“Top Five Google Ranking or Your Money Back

Start looking at the marketing material that you receive, whether it is in printed or electronic form.  Which are the headlines that catch your attention?  Which are the subject headings in e-mails or texts that get you to open it?  By looking at what other people are doing, you will learn what works and what does not.  You can then start to apply these lessons to your marketing materials.

Remember that there are no right and wrong answer so be adventurous with your headlines and test then to find out what works and what does not.  You may, for example, send out three mailings to a small sample from the same demographic group using a different headline in each.  By measuring the response you get from each you will gain an understanding of which works best and can then use that in a larger distribution.

It is, therefore, imperative that you understand the difference between features and benefits.  This is best explained by way of an example:

Saying that a TV is capable of producing a high definition picture is a feature.  The fact that the picture will give amazing clarity that will greatly enhance your viewing experience is the benefit.

A good way to turn a feature into a benefit is to place the phrase “which means that….” after the feature.  The resulting phrase will be the benefit.  For example, a computer manufacturer may say “our XYZ model comes with a 500Gb hard disc drive, 10Gb of memory and a super fast processor, which means that you will not only be able to store thousands of high quality movies, music and huge amounts of data, you will also be able to access it quickly”

Try it for yourself.  Take a careful look at all of your marketing materials including brochures, adverts, direct marketing material and even your web site and identify every phrase that refers to a feature and turn that feature into a benefit using the “which means that” phrase.  Please note that you not actually have to write that phrase, just use it to help you to identify the benefits.  Believe me, I have tried this myself and it is very powerful and revealing.  If you are anything like me, you find that you have been focusing on features and not the benefits those feature give potential customers.

It can also be useful to look at your competitors marketing materials.  There is a good chance that they will have fallen into the same trap and, if they have, you will give yourself a big advantage by reviewing and updating your material to focus on the benefits.

You must to continually and forcefully tell your prospective customers how they are going to benefit from using your product and/or service.  So, having reviewed your marketing materials and changed them to focus on benefits you should review them again to ensure that they do not go for two or three lines without mentioning a benefit.  If they do then rework them so that they constantly reinforce how your prospective customer will benefit from your products and/or services.

When writing new marketing material, remember it needs to address their needs, desires and fears and it needs to constantly communicate the benefits of what you are offering.

Remember, nobody will buy anything from you until they have explicitly understood how they will benefit from what you have to offer.  So here’s a useful tip. When you’ve written your marketing material, look at it from the perspective of your prospective customer by imagining stepping into their shoes.  Ask yourself (or others) if it clearly communicates the benefits of your products and/or services.  If it does not, go back and fine tune the ad until it feels right.

This may mean that it takes a little longer to create your marketing materials but believe me, it is time that will pay back many times over.