Back in January I received a leaflet from Harvey Water Softeners and have been meaning to write a review ever since.

I know it was January and I also know it was delivered by Royal Mail door to door, because of the simple coding shown in one corner of the A5 card; RM185 (01.18).

The code’s typeface is so small however that I’m wondering if it is relevant to any subsequent consumer transaction?

Certainly there is no instruction to quote the code when applying for their free trial, unless that happens during the consumer’s telephone enquiry (see further comment below)?

Whilst I like the fresh, clean appearance of the card, I have no idea of whether this is just one creative version of the items they drop.

But if we were their door drop supplier, I’d be suggesting a few tweaks to test.

Biggest of all would be the shape of the item.

The kettle image on one side is great, but I think it lends itself perfectly to a die cut, to really generate impact on the doormat.

Personally, I don’t like the wonky copy on this side of the card, totally get the blue water at the bottom, but why not make the words “The Hard Facts” at the top, match the colour coding assigned to water hardness areas on the other side?

On the reverse side, the image of the UK showing water hardness areas is good and I suspect a useful guide for consumers, but why not make “very hard” water areas red for danger, rather than orange, matching the “The Hard Facts” strapline ?

The copy is mainly succinct, bullet points, where one of the headers – Problems caused by hard water – could again be red for danger, but it’s all very easy to read.

Not sure about the image of the water softener unit itself, as there are no dimensions and my immediate reaction was that it looks big to go under the kitchen sink, possibly putting people off?

Is it shown because history proves many enquirers fall out of the sales process when they realise how big the unit is – assuming it is big in the first place – and seek to alert consumers to that?

And why just a telephone number as a contact point?

Why not provide email contact details and print your website address as well?

Sure the consumer can Google the company name and visit the site, but make contact with you as easy as possible.

Interestingly over the years, when clients claim no or little response to a door drop and we have been asked to review the drop, response to a question “have you experienced a surge of visits to your website?”, commonly receives a positive response.

Ensuring the website address is a dedicated landing page only shown on a door drop leaflet, will demonstrate that the door drop is actually working because the hits will not have come from anywhere else?

And personally, I’d like to see the company’s Head Office address, just as another point of comfort.

Sure it can again be Googled, but unless you know the telephone code 01483 is Guildford (Harvey are actually in Old Woking) you have no idea where this company you may be purchasing from at some point in the future is based.

I retain an overall positive view of the leaflet, but think it could be made to work harder and hopefully for Harvey create a higher level of response.

I’d certainly be testing a die cut if nothing else though.