Flyer Distribution Fort Worth/Dallas

[ChemicalKing]

I was wondering anyones opinion or experiences with flyer distribution services in the Fort Worth/Dallas area. I have used H&H, Reed and Ace. We demand physical verification of the distribution using one of our staff, it is time consuming but well worth it. Ace has been the only company that at least communicates with you, although they will toss your flyers as quick as any of the other services. H&H and Reed were a total joke/rip off. Door Hanger distribution works great if they actually make it on the doors...would be nice not to have to micro manage & check every area. Anybody know something better, short of doing it in house?:usflag:

[xtremelawn]

We have used H&H and Reed:angry:I don't recall to much about H&H it has been a while since we used them. Reed is a straight up PUNK. We used him one time. I drove around and checked the area he was supposed to pass out in. There were whole blocks that did not get done. I called him and he met me. I showed him these areas and he told me that these people were probably already home form work. 2:00PM. He called his crew leader he said they were done. Funny thing was when they showed up we found over 2000 of our filers in the van. So out of 5000 they did 3000. You can not stop payment on the check you wrote because he will cash it 3 days before work is done.
I have not heard of Ace. Do you have a number for them?

Good luck

[ChemicalKing]

Yea, H&H was even worse. We service Fort Worth & our advertising went out to Plano/Collin county, when confronted they just said "oh we'll make up for it on the next run" (not). Ace has been sort of ok, because I ride their ass daily & insist on a daily map then go check the area. We have caught somebody throwing away some flyers, they have skipped several areas & you can't believe what they say - However at least I am sure that the areas were at least half ass covered. The all important think is you have to know where they are going & check the areas on the same day.

Phone Number - Ace Flyer Distribution (972)235-8480. There is also a couple of other companies, Metroplex distribution & Always advertising (haven't tried them yet).

FYI: Flyer advertising is an inherently dirty business, it seems. If you can't verify on a daily basis - don't waist your money!

Again if anybody out there has a distribution company in Fort Worth/Dallas that they like - Please Post!

Thanks!

[ddcontracting]

This is my other company that I use to pass out flyers to Dallas/FT. Worth Area. We run off of mapsco pages and complete the whole page, to keep track of how many were passed out. There is no games here. We want our clients to get a lot of business so they will stay with my company.
Please call anytime too discuss.
Ryan
214-683-1715

[ChemicalKing]

Thanks for the post, F& D. I will call you today. Be careful with your claims, as we use very stringent verification procedures. However, if you do micro manage your walkers to the degree that the client dosen't have to - I am sure you could get a huge amount of business from local LCO's. Between myself & the 4 companies that I network with, we are doing an annual distribution of more than 1 million pieces.

[NSNdallas]

I too have had a really hard time finding a good Distribution Co. I have been distributing a directory monthly since 1995. I too have used Always, Reed (the worst IMO) H&H and Ace. Please let us know if you decide to try this other Co. I am interested in your results.

[ChemicalKing]

He never returned my call (F&D Distribution). I can't find any listing for them, not sure if this is a for real business or a part timer. What did you think of Always Distribution?

[NSNdallas]

I have used Always off & on for years. As with H&H, if I use them continuously they slack off after a while. The last time that I used Always I was not happy. I have used H&H more then any of the others but I am really fed up with them. There is a new Co. that I am checking out right now. Walk-atisers.

How many fliers a day do you have distributed? I plan to only put out daily what I can keep a close eye on.

[ChemicalKing]

We do between 30-100k per month. I have tremendous resources invested in micromanaging every aspect of the distribution. It really sucks, but otherwise you get burned. Never heard of Walk-aitsers, please send me their phone number.

[NSNdallas]

The Co. is Walk-A-Tisers. The man who returned my call is George Dudley @ 214-777-2787. He is supposed to email me some references soon. I found him on "Craig's List". He was advertising for employees.

Do you have any tips for checking up on these guys? The only time that I used Ace was when he was just starting up his business here. I believe that he was from Las Vegas & sounded like he had done distributing for a long time. He sent my fliers out & I soon was getting one complaint after another from homeowners. I sent someone out to track down the delivery & get my fliers back. He then went to the office of Ace & got my money back.

I had the same experience with Reed as you had. I even found his men sitting on the curb waiting to be picked up. They had only done the corner houses of each street. I even filed a complaint with the Ft. Worth BBB on Reed. He denied my allegations & the BBB threw my complaint out. I am sure that it was because he was a paying member at the time.

[cpel2004]

ChemicalKing how has the results been with dropping 30k-100k fliers per month consistently. I'm presently in negotiations with a local company and that been my biggest concern. The company quoted me .15 per 10000, for an individual drop with no other companies being passed out at the same time mine. If you don't feel comfortable please shoot me and email cpel2004@yahoo.com, thanks.

[ChemicalKing]

It oversaturates the market & your end response% is much lower, than if you just did Spring flyer drop(s). However, when I compare the overall ROI,response%, cost per lead, closing rate & most importantly, marketing cost of aquistion per customer with direct mail it is comparable. Would you share your distribution company with us as we have all done?

[ChemicalKing]

The Co. is Walk-A-Tisers. The man who returned my call is George Dudley @ 214-777-2787. He is supposed to email me some references soon. I found him on "Craig's List". He was advertising for employees.

Do you have any tips for checking up on these guys? The only time that I used Ace was when he was just starting up his business here. I believe that he was from Las Vegas & sounded like he had done distributing for a long time. He sent my fliers out & I soon was getting one complaint after another from homeowners. I sent someone out to track down the delivery & get my fliers back. He then went to the office of Ace & got my money back.

I had the same experience with Reed as you had. I even found his men sitting on the curb waiting to be picked up. They had only done the corner houses of each street. I even filed a complaint with the Ft. Worth BBB on Reed. He denied my allegations & the BBB threw my complaint out. I am sure that it was because he was a paying member at the time.

We have 4 things we do to manage door hanger distribution:
1. Schedule our applicators & salesman in the same areas on the same days & give them maps of the proposed drop areas. They report in daily.
2. "Traps" - clients, friends, employees, aquaintances that live in the area & report to me if they got one on their door.
3. My operations manager checks the areas, often street by street daily.
4. We know our numbers... We track every marketing lead source (door hangers just one of many), I export reports of door hanger leads to something called mapping assistant & it visually shows me where the leads are coming from. We import both marketing & accounting numbers to excel spreadsheet & have ROI, response%, cost per lead, cost per sale, closing % on those type of leads, ect. Also like to compare customer attrition rates based on lead type - is often enlightening.

Anyway - There is the 5 million dollar secret! Enjoy!

[cpel2004]

The guy im dealing with is in South Florida so I dont think it would help you.

[cpel2004]

ChemicalKing do you use the RealGreen System?

[ChemicalKing]

Yes - LA3 unlimited, multi user w/ Mapping Assistant on a Novel network. I have been using it since 1994. What methods, if any, do you guys employ for door hanger verification?

[NSNdallas]

We have 4 things we do to manage door hanger distribution:
1. Schedule our applicators & salesman in the same areas on the same days & give them maps of the proposed drop areas. They report in daily.
2. "Traps" - clients, friends, employees, aquaintances that live in the area & report to me if they got one on their door.
3. My operations manager checks the areas, often street by street daily.
4. We know our numbers... We track every marketing lead source (door hangers just one of many), I export reports of door hanger leads to something called mapping assistant & it visually shows me where the leads are coming from. We import both marketing & accounting numbers to excel spreadsheet & have ROI, response%, cost per lead, cost per sale, closing % on those type of leads, ect. Also like to compare customer attrition rates based on lead type - is often enlightening.

Anyway - There is the 5 million dollar secret! Enjoy!

That is pretty much what we do too with the exception of #4. My directory is for a variety of home improvement companies so it is the response that they receive that is important. Different services receive a different response during different times of the year. This makes it pretty difficult to gauge a delivery by response.

How well has Ace been working for you?

[cpel2004]

My verification method would be to pay someone $8-9 an hour to be onsite managaing the drop. They can provide instant feedback while the drop is on going. My tentative agreement with the distrubution company is to only pass out the fliers on Saturdays so it makes it a little easier to manage the process. plus we would only drop 10k-15k at a time.

[NSNdallas]

My verification method would be to pay someone $8-9 an hour to be onsite managaing the drop. They can provide instant feedback while the drop is on going. My tentative agreement with the distrubution company is to only pass out the fliers on Saturdays so it makes it a little easier to manage the process. plus we would only drop 10k-15k at a time.

I have been considering having 1 day a week drop rather then a 1 time per month delivery. In the past they were delivered all at once over a 3-4 days. That has been too difficult to oversee as there are several trucks & crews out at the same time. I think that you have found the secret of being able to really see what is going on.

Saturday is the worse day of the week to have a delivery in this area. I receive more complaints on Sat. then any other day.

[cpel2004]

We will require the Distrubutor to wear our uniforms, to increase customer familiarity with our brand. I hope all of this stuff works.

[Jumping J-Jays]

I am also having a hard time finding a distribution company for all the reasons mentioned above. We have only used H&H once, didn't get a response from the drop. We deal with backyard birthday parties so it's a little different for us. We mostly use the drops when a new business owner starts trading in our franchise system. It seems to me that we should piggy back with one another and then share the responsibilities of checking the work! Any thoughts?? I am talking to Ace right now and have not come to a definite decision.

[Brayzon Landscaping]

Reed is probably the worst. He killed me my first year! God I want to just puke when I hear the name. H&H has done me fair. I tried fighting Reed thru my credit card company (Amex). It did not help. I had a friend try ACE with a decent response from his work. I think I am just going to load up about 10 guys and do it myself this year.

[lawn_jockey]

Reed is probably the worst. He killed me my first year! God I want to just puke when I hear the name. H&H has done me fair. I tried fighting Reed thru my credit card company (Amex). It did not help. I had a friend try ACE with a decent response from his work. I think I am just going to load up about 10 guys and do it myself this year.

Wow wish I would have read this post last week. Just did 22k flyers with Reed.
My lawn mowing crew can run all day long and in an 8 hour day will hand out 800 - 900 flyers each. We usually do 15k in a run that covers all of our service area. we have done it ourselves like 5 times.

Reed says he needs 22k for our service area so I am like fine with me he probably knows of some more neighborhoods.

Info from his crew. 9 people cer crew he used 2 crews on my distribution day

18each 45+ year old people at 700 to 800 flyers per day = at best 14,400 flyers in one day. 0630 - 2pm
Nope he says they did them all before 2pm when the trucks picked them up and they headed home.

That would be 1222 per person / per day. And I was following his crews all day long. they will do half a neighborhood and move through the entire service area so you think they covered everything. You may get calls from the entire service area. but half the flyers go in the trash. Guaranteed.

I confronted him about this and he says "I did them all. And I am not telling you how it is possible or you will start a delivery company. It's a system I have perfected."

I may have been buillied by that logic if I did not blaze through the city with my own crews so many times. His systme has been perfected. (pitch it in the trash)

I paid 11Cents each:angry:

pretty much the same result from H&H but that was back in 2005

Just do it yourselves or pay for postal route delivery .18 each with the addresses printed on your paper at most postal distribution mass mailer companies. But you can guarantee they hit the mailbox. Peace of mind. That is worth the extra $$.

[Grasshopper720k]

Guys I was reading all about this and the whole time I was wondering what the cost would be for just the distribution, if you already had your own flyers or door hangers.

The reason I ask all of this as I do commercial printing and can save the members here alot of money on printing. Full Color Business cards, Postcards, Door Hangers, Flyers
I have no max.
Try me amd see for yourself.

[TXNSLighting]

This is why direct mailers are the best. Much more cost effective as well.

[dce7777]

I hired H & H distributing to put out door hangers for my company. They did a great job the first round, then on the second round, i received a call from a lady stating she saw them dump a bunch of them in the creek. I met with her, got all her information, then completely drove the areas they were supposed to put the door hangers. Out of 5000 they were supposed to put out, they might have hung 500 max. I called and spoke with the owner and all he did was make excuses and accuse me of being difficult then he hung up on me and will not answer my calls nor will he return any of our calls.

[TheBetterDoorhanger]

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[daleytim05]

We've had bad experiences too with flyer and door hanger distribution services in Dallas area.
I agree that door hangers have worked the best for us. You're right, the only way is to physically drive the areas to make sure the work is done correctly.

We've been using local impact marketing for the past year and so far it has been positive in the several times we used them. They do a good job at communicating with us during and after the work is done. It was hard to get the other companies to give me the exact cross streets of the areas done.