Should I Share my Leaflet Distribution?

Many people often fall into the trap of sharing their leaflet distribution with one or more other companies in order to save money rather than spending a bit more money to have a solus delivery. While this may work for some, it is not always the best way to generate sales and leads for your business. This article discussed the pros and cons of sharing the distribution of your leaflets, flyers and other marketing materials

The primary advantage of sharing your leaflet distribution with other companies is to save money. The question that you need to consider is whether saving money outweighs the disadvantages which are outlined below.

There are many disadvantages to sharing your leaflet distribution with other companies, some of which are listed below:

1. The impact of your leaflet will be diluted when it is delivered with other leaflets. The degree to which this dilution will impact on the response rate will vary depending on a number of factors, including the design of the leaflet (how well it stands out from the others) and the number of other leaflets it is delivered with. In general, the more leaflets that it is delivered with, the less chance you will have of having a decent response rate.
2. Depending on who you use to to distribute your leaflets, they could end up being buried among a number of other leaflets. Royal Mail and other prominent mail deliver companies are particularly bad for this. They usually deliver at least three leaflets together and worse, they will put all of the smaller leaflets inside the largest item. This means that there is a very good chance that yours will never even be seen because the leaflets will be binned if the recipient is not interested in the leaflet that the rest are encased in. For futher information, see the comparison between the door-to-door distribution service offered by 2112 Leaflet Distribution and the Royal Mail.
3. You could end up sharing leaflets with your competitors. We recently received four leaflets delivered through our door by the same company (I know because I saw the person delivering them). Two of the four were for companies who were direct competitors in the same area. This was clearly not a good ‘investment’ for either company.
4. The more companies you share with, the less impact your leaflet is going to have and this is likely to have a negative impact on your response rates. By far the most effective way to increase your chances of obtaining a decent response rate is to deliver one leaflet on its own. If you really want to share then the fewer other companies you share with the better. We would suggest that you should never share with more than two other companies and that you should ensure that those companies are not competing with you, either directly or indirectly.

Some people argue that it does not make any difference if you share because there is a chance that your target audience will have received leaflets from other companies on the same day as yours, whether you chose to share your leaflet distribution or not and this is a decision that you should think carefully about. While may be true some of the time, it is by no means certain and it is something that you cannot control. You can, however, control whether you share your leaflet distribution with others or not. This is not a decision that should be taken lightly.