a guide to getting your leaflets distributed - for small businesses in the UK & Ireland

1. UK & IRELAND LEAFLET DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES

2. Tips for effective Leaflet Distribution

Carrying out a leaflet distribution / door drop (variously known as Door Drop Marketing and Letterbox Marketing) is a cheap way of getting your printed advertising material straight into the hands of your potential customers.

Furthermore, as long as your item can fit through a letterbox, creatively there is no limit to what you can do with a brochure, leaflet, sample, directory or catalogue. And even if it can't fit through a letterbox there are ways of getting it to your potential customers.

Additionally, these days there are methods you can use to focus your message precisely, to those customers more likely to be interested in your product or service. A leaflet distribution can be targeted in a huge variety of ways:

(1) Geographically-targeted leaflet distribution by postal sector

If you were a public sector organisation such as a local council or a police authority, and wanted to target only certain areas, e.g. BS1 2, BS1 3, BS1 4...etc, you could do it this way.
Distribution goes out with local free newspapers ('Newshare') or on its own ('Solus'). It could even go out with other non-competing items ('Shareplan').
Personally, my advice to a small business would be to go for the Newshare and Shareplan wherever possible, to keep costs down, and fill in with Solus.

(2) Geographically-targeted leaflet distribution by post code

(3) Demographically-targeted leaflet distribution

You provide the leaflet distribution company with details about the type of customer you wish to target - household income between £X and £Y for instance, own at least one car, read certain newspapers, shop at certain supermarkets, etc etc... and the leaflet distribution company will turn this into a Demographic Profile, which they will then use to show you the best areas in which to distribute your leaflet.
Usually this is done by postal sector, but some more high-tech leaflet distribution companies can do this down to road or postcode level. Leaflet distribution is then carried our either by individual distributors or teams, or in conjunction with local newspapers. Costs can vary. Not many distribution companies can afford the high costs associated with access to the required demographic data (MOSAIC or ACORN) so check that the one you choose does.

Some leaflet distribution companies will offer to create a bespoke delivery round of x thousand households around a certain point (e.g. a grocery store) or within a certain drivetime of a central point (e.g. a supermarket or petrol station).

(6) Street Marketing / Field Marketing - leaflet distribution in person

The leaflet distribution is done from a single point and is targeted at people as they walk past. A female-only gym may use this service to target only females who use a certain shopping precinct for example. A fashion outlet may use this service to specifically target people between the ages of 15 and 25. Or a nightclub may use the service to target people leaving a music event.

3. A bit about Leaflet Distribution in general.

In the UK, Door Drop Marketing (leaflet distribution) has a turnover approaching £277million [1] for the 9.036 billion items [2] delivered through letterboxes, and 76% of consumers admitting to acting on a promotional leaflet dropped through their letterbox. And considering how cost-effective it is, it's not difficult to see why it's so popular.

[1] 2008 DMA figures
[2] 2008 DMA figures

4. So what should you look for in a leaflet distribution company?

(1) Ideally a leaflet distribution company should be trustworthy. Have they been in business for a long time? Do they have many blue-chip clients? Do you know who's behind the company? Who owns it? Who will you be dealing with? Is their website open and honest or do they appear to be hiding behind it?

(2) Are they affiliated with industry bodies? The Direct Marketing Association is the obvious one (and the one that probably carries the most prestige), but there's also the Institute for Direct Marketing, and the Institute of Sales Promotion. All of these bodies have guidelines and codes of practice for their members so it would be worth asking if your leaflet distribution company is associated with any of them. In addition there are more specialist organisations such as the Data Publishers Association, and some distribution companies form themselves into alliances with common sets of standards to ensure that any work referred between them will always be carried out to a high standard. The Door Drop Alliance is one such organisation, among solus distribution companies.

(3) Accountability: does the leaflet distribution company perform quality control checks, such as face-to-face backchecking (asking a householder if they have received a leaflet), telephone backchecking (phoning householders in the area to find out if they recieved a leaflet) or even GPS tracking of their distributors? If there's no mention of such a thing on their website or in person, ask.

(4) Do they offer other services that show they are a solid enterprise? I'm thinking of things like directory distribution or newspaper distribution, that require methodical structures to be built up and maintained to a high standard.

6. UK & IRELAND COUNTIES

Visitors from outside may not be aware of the counties of the UK & Ireland. This should help - but included in this list are both ceremonial (traditional) counties as well as the modern-day postal ones.

Scotland (UK)
Aberdeenshire, Angus (Forfarshire), Argyll, Ayrshire, Banffshire, Berwickshire, Bute, Caithness, Clackmannanshire, Cromartyshire, Dumfriesshire, Dunbartonshire (Dumbarton), East Lothian (Haddingtonshire), City of Dundee, City of Edinburgh, City of Glasgow, Fife, Inverness-shire, Kincardineshire, Kinross-shire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Lanarkshire, Midlothian (County of Edinburgh), Moray (Elginshire), Nairnshire, Orkney, Peeblesshire, Perthshire, Renfrewshire, Ross and Cromarty, Ross-shire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, Shetland (Zetland), Stirlingshire, Sutherland, West Lothian (Linlithgowshire), Wigtownshire

Wales (UK)
Anglesey, Brecknockshire, Caernarfonshire, Cardiganshire/Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Clwyd, Denbighshire, Dyfed, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Gwent, Gwynedd, Merionethshire, Mid Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire, Powys, Radnorshire, South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan

England (UK)
North: County Durham, Cheshire, Cumbria, Northumbria, Lancashire, Liverpool and Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Tyne and Wear, Yorkshire.
Midlands: Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire.
South: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Greater London, Oxfordshire, Norfolk, Somerset, Suffolk, Surrey, West Sussex, Wiltshire.

Northern Ireland (UK) : Province of Ulster
Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Derry/Londonderry, Tyrone

Republic of Ireland : Province of Ulster
Cavan, Donegal, Monaghan

Republic of Ireland : Province of Connaught
Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo

Republic of Ireland : Province of Leinster
Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow

Republic of Ireland : Province of Munster
Clare Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford

7. MAJOR TOWNS OF UK & IRELAND

8. LONDON BOROUGHS

City of London, City of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Wandsworth, Lambeth, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Islington, Camden, Brent, Ealing, Hounslow, Richmond upon Thames, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton, Croydon, Bromley, Lewisham, Greenwich, Bexley, Havering, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, Newham, Waltham Forest, Haringey, Enfield, Barnet, Harrow, Hillingdon

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