Leaflet drop failure

[Carts69]

Why does leaflet drops through doors bring very little reward, does tapping doors far excel & why, surely if you need a window cleaner you would ring the number on the leaflet, are potential customers waiting for that door knock, this subject baffles me?

 

[Marko067]

The problem with starting a round where I live is that window cleaners are ten a penny. I went out one morning recently and there were four different windies including myself working in the same stretch of road.

It's also been my experience that many people would rather speak to their window cleaner face to face before engaging their service, so that they have at least some idea of who they are letting on to their property when they are not there. Not everyone, but most.

However, some of my work has come from leaving my business card in empty properties. But I still try to make a point of seeing them face to face before I start if I can. It does seem to make a difference.

 

[Iron Giant]

Regardless of the fact that if someone requires a service the number of leaflets that most people get they simply get binned, FB adverts are far better as if you have a good number of reviews/recommendations then people get an insight of a business and that is like a golden nugget compared to a flyer, if you choose to do a leaflet drop then you must follow up within a 2-3 days by knocking on door's otherwise it's a waste paper, time and money!!!

 

[Suhrly]

I've been lucky enough to be in business now for 5 years coming up. I have dropped ZERO leaflets.First thing I done was start a Facebook page and put the call out on my own page asking if anyone would like a window cleaner. This got me a start. On the very first clean I got an extra 2 customers immediately as her aunty wanted her windows cleaned and a neighbour came out to ask me to start theirs. I eventually ended up doing a lot of houses in that estate just off that initial first customer! This I find is a lot more fruitful than dropping leaflets. Recommendations and people over the road seeing you doing a good job. But apart from that, knock on people doors! Show them your well turned out, FRIENDLY/TRUSTWORTHY with a good attitude and that your gonna be reliable the best way you can in that short time you're with them. People have to get a good first impression of you as they're trusting you to be on and in their property. Most leaflets will go in the bin and to me that's a big waste of money.

 

[Poles Apart]

I never knock doors its attracted the worst type of Customer for me, I don't leaflet now either most of new work is from Yell Ad and my Facebook page.

 

[THL4KEL]

Leaflet dropping takes time. You have to do it again and again in the same areas. It works and sometimes you reap the reward of a drop 12 months down the line. I had one recently, over twelve months ago it was placed. Nice little earner gutter fascia and windows. 

If I had the cash I would drop fridge magnets with say four adverts on the fridge magnet. I.e a window cleaner, a sparkie, gas engineer and a taxi number firm numbers on it. 

I got mates in all these jobs and there's more of a chance people will stick them on the fridge than a leaflet which might make it to the coffee table and then the bin after the drop. Plus the cost would be reduced of four contributed to it. 

When I lived in Australia fridge magnets were popular advertisements posted through your letter box that ended up on most peoples fridges..

 

[Carts69]

Leaflet dropping takes time. You have to do it again and again in the same areas. It works and sometimes you reap the reward of a drop 12 months down the line. I had one recently, over twelve months ago it was placed. Nice little earner gutter fascia and windows. 

If I had the cash I would drop fridge magnets with say four adverts on the fridge magnet. I.e a window cleaner, a sparkie, gas engineer and a taxi number firm numbers on it. 

I got mates in all these jobs and there's more of a chance people will stick them on the fridge than a leaflet which might make it to the coffee table and then the bin after the drop. Plus the cost would be reduced of four contributed to it. 

When I lived in Australia fridge magnets were popular advertisements posted through your letter box that ended up on most peoples fridges..

Thanks, mixed opinions as usual, I suppose everyone has their own method of obtaining new work, it’s just im not having a whole lot of success from this method.

 

[Kirksheridan]

I’ve recently started out and had a great reward for leaflet dropping, as I’m trad I’ve mentioned that on my leaflet and had so many customers change over from a WFP guy,
I live in a primarily older affluent area so think they prefer old fashioned trad suits me doing it part time,
I’ve delivered 1000 leaflets and got over 25 customers from that so just ordered another 2000,
But like you say all different on what works and what don’t.
Regards
Kirk


Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Forums

 

[THL4KEL]

Have a think about your leaflet how it's designed. Makes a big difference I found having before and after pictures especially for add on work stuff.

 

[P4dstar]

I've tried both door to door and leafleting. I have experience in sales and I have experience in door to door sales. I never even called it canvassing until I became a window cleaner and started reading this forum. My experience with canvassing was the take up was relatively high. You could expect a 20-30% return from canvassing where you already work and 10-15% elsewhere. The problem comes with the cancellation rate. I once posted about the results I had but I can't even remember them now to be honest. What I can say is the cancellation rate of canvassed customers in this industry is actually higher than I found it for paving. So basically people who agree to spend £2-3k are more likely to go through with it than someone who has agreed to spend £25.

I did one leaflet drop when I first started out, while I was practising on friends houses. The leaflets had far too much information on them and didn't scream ''window cleaner'' at you. I put a good amount of leaflets but got 0 return. I went away and took some advice, researched and tried again. I made the leaflet really simple. I get a 1% return within a week of the drop and about 2% return overall.

These figures may seem really low compared to canvassing but I find the customers from leaflets tend to stick around a lot more. The benefit with canvassing is the work can be compacted. As someone said above it is important to meet the customer before cleaning anything, go back to meet them and do a quote face to face if you can.

I've said it before but I think some people are actually afraid of knocking on peoples doors. They don't say it on here for fear of ridicule but anyone reading this thinking that needs to understand that's fine, canvassing isn't for everyone and there are more ways to build a business. In a lot of areas canvassing is probably the best way to do it but I live in the cotswolds, it isn't the best way here.

I think sometimes the people giving the advice are the guys who did it years ago, things have changed in the last few years. I'm on FB groups for my home town of St.Helens as well as ones round here. Both have constant reports of white vans prowling the area. The bulk of these reports will just be honest lads in a white van but because someone once had a Gypo take some metal from a skip on their drive everyone is all over it. People are becoming super paranoid, someone on here the other week mentioned the Ring doorbell as an example of this. Then you have got the lads who go round saying they're ex offenders with a little ID card giving you the hard sell on some cloths door to door... People are a lot more suspicious now. I remember my mum and over half the street buying a house alarm from a door to door salesman, you don't see that nowadays

 

[THL4KEL]

You have to come at it from all angles i.e. google my business listing, website (SEO optimized), Facebook, canvassing and leaflets... Until you have the four hundred customers and refinement of customers kicks in..