THE YEAR TO DATE
In the first few months of the year, our trading performance has been very encouraging and in line with the much publicised general growth in the use of door drops as part of the marketing mix.
Both the number of clients who have used our services and the overall number of orders placed, has exceeded the last couple of years as we all emerge from the dark days of Covid.
Historical clients have returned to regular activity and we are delighted to be working with them all again, particularly when so many businesses have gone to the wall during the last couple of years.
But pleasingly, our level of new business is high, from both clients who simply discover our name and enquire about our services, or the competitive pitches we have completed.
Though perhaps the most pleasing are the new clients via referrals.
To us, size of order is an irrelevance.
Whether its thousands or millions, clients are treated exactly the same, because client service has been a constant key element of our philosophy.
We will always take time to understand the client’s objectives and help to shape a campaign’s format, based upon decades of experience.
Our independence and impartiality assumes significant value at this stage.
With no in-house final mile distribution services to offer, we can genuinely provide any client with a plan, designed with their objectives and best interests in mind, rather than fuelling in-house services.
That’s not always the solution the client thought might be the best, but that’s the benefit of talking to experienced suppliers, rather than using an online service or suppliers who only offer one final mile option.
And we always assign a realistic charge to every piece of activity we quote for. Sometimes that will be higher than a client has been offered elsewhere, but the question has to be asked how realistic some of these cheaper quotations are.
I’ve written before about the potential issues which can accompany such quotations (How much do you pay for your solus distribution? – Letterbox Consultancy) and it continues to sadden me that some final mile suppliers promotional propositions commonly lead with headlines which include the words cheap or cheaper. In my opinion, it devalues the medium as a whole.
JICMail continues to provide advertisers with golden nuggets across many business sectors identifying the success of door drop campaigns.
Having worked in this industry for 50 years, I cannot recall there ever being an independent service regularly publishing such informative data sets to empower the medium. Historically its been the major door drop suppliers advising clients on response/redemption rates (and still is to some degree), but JICMail is taking the medium into uncharted waters.
So, in my opinion, the medium should feel confident about selling its services at realistic rates and not tarnish its image by being cheap and cheerful.
There will of course always be clients looking for a bargain and service providers willing to fulfil their needs, but we will not be one of them.
For us, the bar is set very high. We are confident that our year on year growth will continue and we are always happy to talk through your distribution requirements.
You can contact us on 01992 63733 or email sales@letterboxconsultancy.co.uk and be assured of a prompt, professional response.
Graham Dodd, CEO