Dealing with Flyer Companies

[willretire@40]

I have this flyer company that I am using. Out of 10k flyers I got about 35 calls. Now I know the average is 1% but I didnt even get .5%. My other problem is that they do not get the flyers out when they say they will. Also I told them for my second set of flyers to give me a call about billing them as I was not sure I wanted charged to my card (left this on their machine because they never are in the office). Well they call today and leave a message saying that they only got 2k flyers out so far out of the 10k that I gave them and wanted to know if I wanted them to charge my card. I did not get a chance to call back today but what ya know they charged my card today for the whole 10k flyers. They are really becoming a pain in my butt. They are the only large flyer company in my area. Am I wrong to be pissed?

What do you do to make sure all your flyers get out when using a flyer company?

[garnersgardening]

I usually put flyers out myself. There is no company like that in my area. As far as they bill you for doing all 10k but only did 2k I would call them till I get someone and demand a refund. Do your customers pay you for the entire job when you only did 1/5th of the work? I think not so that should apply here as well.

[willretire@40]

They claim they will get the rest out by the end of the week. I have thought many times including today about starting my own flyer company or something....

[Hanau]

I don't know what you're paying, but you can check out advertising rates in my area for comparison.

http://www.lmtribune.com/pdf/tribune_09_rates.pdf

10,000 flyers delivered for under a grand. Is that a good deal?

[Scagguy]

I had my flyer printed and placed an ad on Craigslist for people to put them out. I had a ton of calls. 20+ people said that they would meet at the agreed upon location at 8:00 am one Saturday morning. Only 9 actually showed. I had them drive to the places I wanted targeted. Meanwhile I went and switched my truck for my Harley and had a full face helment on to check their progress and make sure areas were getting targeted instead of the stuff being thrown down a sewer. I ended up getting just over 1% response rate. But, 2 of those accounts I got turned into extremely profitable ones. So, I would say it worked out well. You have to manage what you expect. Leave nothing to chance.

[topsites]

3-4 calls per thousand, or 35 out of 10,000 is a normal response for fliers,
not sure where some folks get their optimistic numbers from but I see
a bit of it around here, then again I'm just way out there.

[MOHUSTLER]

Look at what you spend on the fliers and then look at what you make for the accounts you gain for the year. If your profit is over 30% higher then you are doing good. Any company who can get a return of +30% on advertising would jump for joy!

BUT if your flier company is giving you the run around, get a new one!

[N.TX]

If im understanding right you got 35 calls off of 2000 if thats all they passed out. Am I right?

[willretire@40]

No the first set of 10k flyers I recieved 35 calls.

[topsites]

I have thought many times including today about starting my own flyer company or something....

Oh no, no...
LOL!

You have no idea, man.

Just try passing them out yourself sometime.

What do you do to make sure all your flyers get out when using a flyer company?

Get a rough idea from the calls you're getting as to the areas...
35 calls ought to be kind of spread out, not saying it's not possible that you can't get a load of calls from one area and none
from another, but as a rule if it's really concentrated that could be a clue (as in it's not definite, but one more piece of the puzzle).

But 3-4 per thousand is normal.

They claim they will get the rest out by the end of the week.

I'm not so sure I approve of this either.

[lawnsaspire]

I passed out 300 flyers the other day for fall cleanups and have already had two calls and just landed a great steady job for one of them. Earlier this year I passed out 500 for mowing and got 12 new customers, 11 of which I still have. I have a great response from flyers, but a lot of the time I knock on every door. If you have time to follow people around on your Harley, than you have time to pass out flyers yourself. You have to knock on doors if you want excellent feedback. Just say "I'm so and so and I provide lawncare service for this area and I have openings in my schedule for more lawns or clean-ups this year."

[DFW Area Landscaper]

++++What do you do to make sure all your flyers get out when using a flyer company?++++

My theory is, they take 10,000 of your flyers and intentionally distribute a percentage of them. I don't trust them at all. I did 10,000 this spring with a flyer company and the response was terrible.

Another problem with flyers these days, in the DFW area...again, my own personal theory...since justmowit came along, the entire industry has kind of learned the importance of advertising. Now days, home owners in the metroplex probably get 10 to 20 flyers per year from lawn mowing companies. I think prior to 2003, back before everyone was trying to mimic the justmowit style of business, home owners weren't getting nearly as many per year.

All I know is, flyer distribution doesn't make a lot of economic sense. I went with two other companies...the workers distributing the flyers were dropping a total of 3 flyers instead of just mine...I paid $.05 each. It was terrible so I tried solo the next time. The rate was $.10 each and the response was still terrible.

In the nicer neighborhoods with larger lots, if you gross $.10 per flyer and pay a worker $8 per hour, I think you'd be lucky to break even. And that doesn't include the labor to manage those workers...if they aren't being watched closely, they find ways to avoid work.

Flyer distribution is very hard work.

[jondcoleman]

This fall I put out about 7000 flyers for fall services (mulching, aeration, leaf cleanup).

We used craigslist hires almost exclusively. I just had like 4-5 people per day lined up for about 2 weeks. Usually 1-3 showed up and I gave them flyers and a map. They use their own vehicle and get paid $.10 per flyer. I went around to check on a lot of them.

So far, we have landed about $1800 in fall sales from these (most in aeration and seeding). We still have some pending as well. This doesn't include estimates for spring cleanups next year and mowing/fert packages of which I expect to get some.

We are not quite in leaf removal season yet so I expect to get a few more calls from that as well.

We paid $.10 per flyer for delivery x 7000 - $700

The flyers cost us about $.04 per flyer for printing x 7000 - $280.

Total cost $980.

I spent probably a total of 6-8 hours of my time getting this to happen.

So, it hasn't paid off right away but I expect to produce some more sales from it. Additionally, we are continuing to get our name out there.

[jondcoleman]

I might add that I feel like I was totally ripped off by a flyer company in 2008 and will probably never do that again.

[willretire@40]

This winter I may just start looking into saturation mailing. 14cents each.