Thread: Direct Mail and Leaflet Drops To Promote Your Business

Direct Mail

If you choose a direct-mail questionnaire, be sure to do the following in order to increase your response rate:

* Make sure your questions are short and to the point.
* Make sure questionnaires are addressed to specific individuals and they're of interest to the respondent.
* Limit the questionnaire's length to no more than two pages.
* Enclose a professionally prepared cover letter that adequately explains what you need.
* Send a reminder about two weeks after the initial mailing. Include a postage-paid self-addressed envelope.

Bear in mind though that the response rate for direct mail is extremely low in most cases, even as low as 4%.

Costs include the printing of questionnaires, envelopes, postage, the cover letter, time taken in the analysis and presentation, the cost of researcher time, and any incentives used.

Leaflet drops and handouts

If your business is local, one of the simplest and cheapest form of direct marketing is via unaddressed leaflet drops. For example, if you:

* offer services locally - such as food delivery, taxi services, gardening or double-glazing installation
* want to attract people to your shop's sale or say the opening of your new restaurant

However, leafleting brings significantly lower response rates than direct mail. It's less targeted - you don't know the characteristics of the recipients of your leaflet and you can't personalise your message. As a result it's often best to use leaflets for products or services of universal appeal, or when you need a large number of leads.

Blanketing drops means getting your leaflet into every building in the area. You might prefer to hand information to people in the street near your business.

If you're blanketing, using the Royal Mail postal service is one alternative to organising your own door-to-door distribution. Often people will read something sent via the mail that they won`t when pushed through their door, or handed to them on the street.

Originally Posted by TeamPlayer

Direct Mail

If you choose a direct-mail questionnaire, be sure to do the following in order to increase your response rate:

* Make sure your questions are short and to the point.
* Make sure questionnaires are addressed to specific individuals and they're of interest to the respondent.
* Limit the questionnaire's length to no more than two pages.
* Enclose a professionally prepared cover letter that adequately explains what you need.
* Send a reminder about two weeks after the initial mailing. Include a postage-paid self-addressed envelope.

Bear in mind though that the response rate for direct mail is extremely low in most cases, even as low as 4%.

Costs include the printing of questionnaires, envelopes, postage, the cover letter, time taken in the analysis and presentation, the cost of researcher time, and any incentives used.

Leaflet drops and handouts

If your business is local, one of the simplest and cheapest form of direct marketing is via unaddressed leaflet drops. For example, if you:

* offer services locally - such as food delivery, taxi services, gardening or double-glazing installation
* want to attract people to your shop's sale or say the opening of your new restaurant

However, leafleting brings significantly lower response rates than direct mail. It's less targeted - you don't know the characteristics of the recipients of your leaflet and you can't personalise your message. As a result it's often best to use leaflets for products or services of universal appeal, or when you need a large number of leads.

Blanketing drops means getting your leaflet into every building in the area. You might prefer to hand information to people in the street near your business.

If you're blanketing, using the Royal Mail postal service is one alternative to organising your own door-to-door distribution. Often people will read something sent via the mail that they won`t when pushed through their door, or handed to them on the street.

Hello sir, I have read your discussion on direct mail v/s leaflet drops. It is very good. Direct mail is a cost-effective solution for business owners who want to dramatically increase sales. The benefit of direct mail services is that their visibility greatly heightens the awareness of your product with the customers. For distribute leaflets you can distribute leaflets to large number very quickly and the general public will look at the leaflet more than once, usually once they are handed the leaflet and later when they arrive home. This type of distribution is good for campaigns that do not need to be targeted but can be more expensive than other distribution methods.