If you are seeking solus door drop activity at £40.00 per 1,000 (or less!), don’t call us until you’ve taken time to read the following:

As a responsible and professional door drop service provider, it is our mission to try and make clients understand that, in our opinion, solus door drops cannot be provided at prices of £40.00 per 1,000 (or less) and be expected to provide the response you need to make your business grow.

If the door drop prices you are paying are less than £40.00 per 1,000 and you believe door drops are working for you, we strongly recommend that you test paying a more realistic market rate and then compare the results. We’re confident that you’ll be agreeably surprised at the outcome, because if you simply buy on price alone you may well be sacrificing quality.

The Direct Cost of Door Drops

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).

• Minimum Wage for adults in 2017 was increased to £7.50 per hour
• 7 hours x £7.50 = £52.50 per 1,000 – i.e. just the direct cost of labour
• If it takes 8 hours to distribute 1,000 leaflets, the cost per 1,000 rises to £60.00 per 1,000
• If the distributor only delivers 800 leaflets in 7 hours, the cost per 1,000 rises to £65.63 per 1,000
• And so on

So how does the company charging £40.00 per 1,000  for door drops (or less) exist financially? Out of the £40.00 per 1,000 charged, they should include a payment for some form of management control and/or back checking. Without this you have no guarantee that the households you’ve selected for your door drops will in fact receive your item.

If this is included just how much is left over to pay their distributors? Certainly not the Minimum Wage; and you’re trusting your advertising and marketing to these people!

Check Door Drop Prices & Methods

If you have any doubts about the validity of the mathematics, here are a few tips:

• Make an anonymous call or send an email to the distribution company you are thinking about using, pose as a distributor looking for work in the area you are looking to complete your drop in and ask them about their rates of pay. If they come up with a figure of around £30.00 per 1,000 – or less – start worrying! If you really were looking for work, would you accept less than Minimum Wage and could you trust someone earning so little?
• Clarify the distribution company’s definition of solus distribution is the same as yours – i.e. your leaflet goes through the letterbox on its own. Some distribution companies will tell you your item is solus, when in fact they are in reality delivering “solus by type”, “solus by nature” or something similar. So your item will be distributed alongside other items and in reality be part of a shared distribution. Some companies may limit the number of items they carry in any “shared” operation and some may also offer brand/service exclusivity, but you need to be asking the right questions before committing your precious budget to these people. The more responsible companies will explain this service to you, but others may not. So don’t confuse “shared” quotations with genuine solus quotations.
• One final tip. If your proposed supplier reveals that their £40.00 per 1,000 rate is for shared distribution, ask them what their solus rate is.

Alternatively, you can always talk to us for an honest assessment of what’s best to achieve your objectives. That might not be a solus drop since we will look at many ways to achieve the best ROI on your door drop investment.

You never know, we might even change your way of thinking!