As the world slowly awakes from enforced hibernation, there has been a proliferation of service providers, including us, encouraging advertisers to spend precious marketing budget on in-home forms of marketing.
With huge swathes of the workforce still working from home and many perhaps also holidaying at home during the summer, there is undoubtedly a strong case for door drops, in isolation or integrated with broadcast and\or social media.
But with no cashflow for 3 months, will some advertisers be prepared or be able to spend?
And if advertisers are prepared to spend, will they be looking for the best financial deal possible above all?
My feed on LinkedIn occasionally regurgitates the what the client expects in comparison to the budget provided analogy.
A picture of the Mona Lisa side by side with a hand drawn cartoon, pictorially demonstrates the possible gulf between the two points.
A recent posting triggered memories of our most read blog ever; “How much are you paying for solus distribution?”
The Truth About Solus Door Drops
If you are seeking souls door drop activity at £40.00 per 1,000 (or less!), don’t call us until you have taken time to read the following:
First published in 2012, updated in 2017, I thought it appropriate to re-visit the blog, but was horrified at what I read:
Why horrified?
Because three years on, there are still door drop providers suggesting they can provide solus distribution at £40.00 per 1,000 (though some have risen to £50.00!).
Let me assure you, it couldn’t be provided in 2012 or 2017 and nothing has changed.
If a supplier of team distribution is offering you a service at £40-50.00 per 1,000 (sometimes less), it has to be a shared drop where your leaflet will be distributed alongside others.
Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but assuming you are advised it is a shared drop in the first instance, insist your item is not distributed alongside a competitor of yours, a service Royal Mail door to door provides.
And be wary if shared distribution is on offer in any area (postal sector) you wish to cover, possibly before you have even identified where you wish to drop.
There may be some clients out there who, for a really sharp deal, are prepared to have their item dropped anywhere, at any time, therefore acting as a shared party through a service provider, but I’d suggest even those clients are not receiving value for money.
Properly planned and targeted door drops are far more likely to generate a greater return.
I worked with shared distribution for decades and it can be like completing a jigsaw without having the picture.
Target markets such as affluent singles and young families are not necessarily found in great densities within postal sectors highly populated with affluent greys.
Blandly dropping two items together, with different target markets, is most likely not to achieve success for at least one client.
As a specialist door drop agency, we receive regular updates from some team suppliers about shared availability, where they nominate the postal sectors and volumes to be covered in a weekly cycle, up to a month in advance and we welcome that input.
Its planned activity, so if there is a postal sector fit to your own requirements, it may well be an option, but you still need to be careful.
Ask in advance what percentage household coverage is on offer in relation to full coverage of any given sector?
It should be less than 100%, but by how much, why and where?
It may be the base client only seeks partial coverage of postal sectors, but I’ve seen distribution company contracts where coverage (anywhere in the UK) is specified as a “minimum of 85%”. Not great if your target market predominantly exists within the 15% not covered!
And why do I believe you cannot buy solus at £40.00 per 1,000?
Here is the updated calculation :
General industry advice is that an individual distributor, subject to the demographic nature of the area they are covering, should be able to distribute between 700 -1,000 leaflets in a 7-hour working day. We believe the number may be nearer to 700-800, but for sake of the mathematics, let’s agree 1,000 leaflets in 7 hours (maximum volume/shortest time).
- National Living Wage for adults from April 2020 – £8.72 per hour
- 7 hours x £8.72 = £61.04 per 1,000 – i.e. just the direct cost of labour, no additional overheads – transport/management, no margin for the provider
- If it takes 8 hours to distribute 1,000 leaflets, the cost per 1,000 rises to £69.76 per 1,000 (emphasising perhaps the difference between urban and more rural drops).
If distribution companies are not paying their workers an acceptable hourly rate, will that affect the quality of your distribution?
Over to you, your choice.
If you need reliable, professional guidance on how help ensure your door drop works, please feel free to get in touch at any time.
Our solus charges will reflect the rates shown above simply and solely as a direct team cost, so, if you are seeking solus door drop activity at £40.00 per 1,000 (or less!), still don’t call us!