Not too long ago, PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising was shiny and new and being hailed as the best thing since sliced bread for businesses. Fast forward a few short years, and a considerable number of businesses are becoming disillusioned with digital.
In January 2023, it was reported that CPC on Google search campaigns had decreased, on average, by 35%, with some E-commerce companies reported as down by 50%. While digital marketing takes a dive, leaflet marketing is stronger than ever, with UK businesses spending a whopping £1 billion a year on their campaigns. In this article, we’re sharing the top 10 advantages of leaflets.
The top 10 advantages of leaflets
1. Framing your key messaging
Like digital advertising, leaflets allow you to feature a headline and a grabby image to pique your customers’ interest. Unlike digital, however, a two-sided leaflet will enable you to put further information about your product, service or event at your customers’ fingertips – without them having to expand a social media post or clicking on a link. For this reason, leaflet advertising scores a healthy 4.4% response rate in comparison to the email response rate of 0.12%.
2. Return on investment
For many businesses, ROI is God when it comes to advertising spend and, leaflet advertising shines in this department. Cheaper than TV, radio and press advertising – and more reliable than digital marketing methods, cheap printing and laser targeting mean that leaflets will consistently deliver a robust return on investment for businesses.
3. Worth the paper it’s printed on
While digital marketing may have its moments, they are usually just that; moments. With this type of advertising, it’s incredibly easy to scroll past or to have Facebook refresh your page, at which point an advert is gone. Leaflets, on the other hand, have a much longer life span. It’s a simple fact that you can’t simply scroll past a leaflet and, while you can, of course just put it in the bin, studies show that 79% of leaflet recipients will either keep it or pass it on to friends or family.
4. Relationship building blocks
Leaflets are proven to be highly effective for promoting local concerts and events – but that’s not all. Leaflets and flyers can also be handed out during an event to inform customers of future events that may interest them. This can be extremely useful as, when a person is enjoying themselves at an event, they are likely to be receptive to repeating the process – and will therefore hang onto the leaflet and, in many cases, take further action such as visiting the website.
5. Tangible = trust
We often make the mistake of thinking that digital rules the world these days; however, this is very much not the case. Many people, and not necessarily older folk, are reluctant to put their trust in the internet as a way of making purchases – and perceive a tangible advert such as a leaflet as much more trustworthy.
6. Flexibility
“I would recommend DOR-DOR anytime because they delivered on their promises and reliably met our deadlines. The response and the whole experience was very good from our perspective”. Julian Gilbert, Wealth Matters
With digital advertising – even when you pay for extra – you will only have limited space in which to showcase your products or services. The beauty of leaflets is that you don’t have to stick to the simple one-dimensional version. Folded and gatefold options offer the opportunity to include as much detail as you like; without having to resort to squeezing up the text or using teen-style abbreviations.
7. Samples
When creating a leaflet campaign, it’s possible actually to include a sample of your product with the leaflets. Particularly effective for food and drink products, samples allow your potential customers to try your product for free – something which is proven to increase sales for a huge number of companies.
8. Improved targeting
While digital advertising may promise super-focused targeting, it rarely gets it right. For customers, this means money wasted on messaging, missing the target and therefore being ignored. At DOR-2-DOR, we offer intelligent targeting for your leaflet campaign, meaning that we don’t just target a particular area – we can drill right down to a specific street and even a particular door. This means that every penny of your budget is spent accurately and relevantly.
9. Multi-platform targeting
Contrary to popular belief, leaflets and digital are not mutually exclusive – just the opposite, in fact. Many marketers choose to give their leaflets extra oomph by adding QR codes which take customers straight to a landing page or website, thereby increasing the ways in which the customer can access the information.
10. Diversity
While digital advertising may be convenient, it offers limited ways of reaching customers, namely those that happen to be online. Leaflet marketing, on the other hand, offers a much further reach through a number of distribution methods which include:
- Door-to-door distribution – As the name suggests, this involves a team of distributions physically posting your leaflets through customers’ doors. With this format, you can choose Solus Distribution, whereby only your leaflet is delivered in any given drop or shared distribution, where it will be delivered along with non-competing ones from other companies.
- Hand-to-hand distribution – This method is designed to reach customers when they’re out and about in shopping centres and other places with a high amount of footfall. Here, your leaflets are physically handed to members of the public, and this method is super effective for local businesses such as restaurants, hair salons and independent stores – particularly when the leaflet includes a time-sensitive money-saving offer.
- Business to business – In 2023, collaboration is the name of the game for small businesses and at DOR-2-DOR, we can help to facilitate those new partnerships with business-to-business distribution. For this model, we deliver your leaflets to local non-competing businesses, who may then display them on their premises, thereby fostering collaboration and a sense of community.
It all adds up
As the cost of living crisis rages on, businesses can ill afford to waste money, particularly on their marketing budgets which, in many cases, are stretched tight already. As we’ve shown in this article, leaflet marketing is a really effective – and cost-effective way of making your budgets go further, as well as your marketing reach – to find your potential customers wherever they may be.
If you’re looking for a marketing boost for your business that doesn’t break the bank, our friendly and professional team is on hand to offer advice or a free, no-obligation quote. We can help with every aspect of your campaign – from designing your leaflets to creating a distribution map to make sure that every penny of your budget works as hard as you do.
