The power of door drop marketing

Looking for a cost-effective way to reach new customers? Door drops are not just affordable — they are versatile, highly targeted and effective. For small and local firms, door drops can bring in valuable new business, as Helen Peach of the Royal Mail explains                                                        

Where once the door drop was regarded as the poor relation of the marketing mix, today's sophisticated targeting models, better creatives, and more receptive and responsive customers have all helped make the door drop play a more prominent role in the marketing mix.

This is especially true in the current economic climate, where small businesses are constantly looking for more cost effective ways to generate sales.

Every part of your marketing strategy needs to work hard for you, generating awareness and communicating the benefits of your product or service. But it is the door drop where you can literally hit home.

Door drops can be as local as a few streets in your town, regional or cover every household in the country. They play a fundamental role in:

• start-up or entering new markets — launch yourself through the letterbox
• extending existing databases — find new customers
• steering customers into new shops or salerooms
• reaching a large audience cost-effectively — you can door drop the whole country if you want to, the government does!
• sending samples to a wide audience — there's no easier way to get your product in a customer's hand
• supporting other advertising activity, as part of an integrated campaign.

Items can be delivered alongside the addressed mail, via teams of leaflet distributors or as an insert in free local newspapers. They can be as small as a business card, and can come in all shapes and sizes. Targeting software can allow you to select geographic areas where your campaign is most likely to be successful based on profiling current or prospective customers. 

Used well, the door drop is a very powerful piece of advertising. Its key strengths are:

• You have space to educate and persuade your customers using much more product detail than other media allow. And, of course, you can include samples, steer to store, and ask their opinions too, all very cost-effectively.
• You can use it as a response channel inside integrated campaigns. Combine door drops with traditional above-the-line activity to convert awareness into action.
• You can collect data for use in future activity. Include a short questionnaire or prize draw as ways to gather names, addresses and other intelligence on your new customers.

So are door drops effective? Recent research has shown that 35 per cent of recipients have responded to door drop leaflets in the past 12 months, and 30 per cent have made a purchase within the past 12 months as a direct result of receiving leaflets.

The age of the door drop is upon us!

Helen Peach is the head of SMEs at Royal Mail Door to Door.

More on door to door marketing:

Leafleting

How to produce your own marketing leaflets

How to write a mailshot