Make Leaflets Connect With Your Audience

Interacting with your audience is paramount when it comes to creating a strong, long lasting relationship with them.

As Gloucestershire’s leading leaflet distributor, we have seen a great rise in bright colours, witty slogans and attractive leaflet layouts to help catch the wandering eyes of target audiences, but what can you do to stand out from the crowd and make leaflets connect? How about exercising various degrees of interactions between you and your audience?

imagesIncluding your audience in your leaflets can help to keep their interests and spike their curiosity, it can help you transform your leaflet from simply informative to exciting and audience friendly, helping you create a strong, long lasting relationship you can be proud of.

Questions

Asking questions in your leaflets can spark thoughts and ideas in your audience. You can make these subtle questions such as ‘Ever thought of…’ or you can make them stand out from the rest of your content such as ‘Did you know…’. Of course you don’t want to interrogate your audience with copious amounts of questions which could make them feel inadequate if they don’t know the answer. Spacing your questions out allows you to give your audience information rather than question their knowledge. This careful balance will help you to keep your audience’s interest when reading your leaflet.

Surveys

One of the main ways of ensuring interaction with your audience is by tagging on a survey or questionnaire to the foot of your leaflet. If this is your first time producing a leaflet, a simple survey asking your audience what they think can spark an interest in your leaflet, thus allowing your leaflet to reach more people and keeping your audience interested in what you have to say.

Features

Including a small feature section, perhaps highlighting members of your business who’ve achieved something amazing, or even loyal audience members of your business, not only directly interacts with your audience, but will also help to spur on word of your business with the potential to be featured in your leaflets.

It’s not all about style and looks, though these initially capture interest; creating a long lasting leaflet is also about what you include and how you address your audience and how your leaflets are broadcasted. For more information on these key points to make leaflets connect get in touch with us here at Hallway Distribution.

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Increase Marketing Strategy

Leaflet distribution is one of those things that you probably don’t ever think of when you hear the phrase “good marketing strategy”.

Many people consider the internet to be the best medium to market services or products because there are numerous ways to approach such a campaign. What these people don’t realise, however, is that leaflet distribution has evolved quite significantly throughout the years and nowadays it is a viable offline marketing strategy that doesn’t even cost much.

imagesLeaflet distribution nowadays has even more advantages in ways to increase marketing strategy than some of the most popular and common marketing campaigns. To understand what it really is all about we will have to take a closer look at how the professional companies handle the leaflet distribution process.

1. Price

What worries many people when they hear about leaflet distribution is the prices for this service because that involves designing, printing and distributing. However, some companies nowadays will not charge you for creating the design for your leaflet if you commit to order printing and distributing as well. And we all know that design can be the most expensive part of any marketing campaign. Finding a company willing to work on the design for free will save you money that you can use on ordering more leaflets for example.

2. Effectiveness

People usually worry about the effectiveness of a leaflet distribution campaign because they think that many of their leaflets won’t even be given to potential customers. Professionals, however, don’t allow this and supervise their employees to make sure all the leaflets have been handed to people. If for some reason there are leftover leaflets, they will be returned to you. In this case you can decide whether you want them to be distributed again or whether you will use them for something else.

3. Planning

A leaflet distribution campaign usually starts with a good amount of planning with the goal in mind to increase marketing strategy. When you choose the location where you want your leaflets to be distributed, the company you’ve chosen will integrate that into a digital map. This map will have boundaries that the distributors will not be allowed to leave and addresses that they must visit.

4. Tracking and reporting

Being able to see where your leaflets are being distributed in real time is of utmost importance. This gives you control over how the distribution process is going and certainty that your leaflets are being delivered as they are supposed to.

A professional leaflet distribution team will be equipped with GPS trackers so that you can check the progress of how everything is going in real time. The campaign will also be monitored by the company and the supervising team to make sure that no mistakes are made. The location of each individual distributor will be marked with a time stamp of every 5 seconds. In terms of reporting you will be able to see which addresses were visited and which houses were missed by the distribution team if any.

5. See for yourself

Not many companies offer this service, but some do. You will have the chance to go in a car with a supervisor and check on the distribution process yourself. This way you can be 100% sure that your leaflets are being delivered to the exact addresses that you want to target in your marketing campaign.

Without a doubt, leaflet distribution is one of the most effective types of ways to increase marketing strategy campaigns nowadays. Even though online campaigns have their advantages, offline marketing is still alive and kicking. And the best way to measure results, achieve maximum effectiveness and reach a large number of people with a low budget is through leaflet distribution.

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10 Leaflet Distribution Scams to Avoid

Every week businesses get duped into using leaflet distribution companies that quite literally fail to deliver. Below are 10 leaflet distribution scams to be aware of when selecting  your advertising door to door leaflet campaign company.

imagesDon’t forget that if you do your research properly and investigate a company thoroughly you should be able to avoid some of the more obvious pitfalls. However, here are 10 known scams to avoid.

The non-delivery leaflet distribution scams: Some unethical companies unfortunately have absolutely no intention of delivering your leaflets. They get away with it because in law you have to prove that they haven’t delivered them to get any recompense. Make sure you use a reputable company who has good code of practice terms and check their references prior to using them.

The postcode sector scam: It is critical to check how the distribution company has calculated the number of homes within a postcode sector. Many companies may sometimes overcharge as they use unadjusted generic Royal Mail postal code data which includes rural properties that are too costly for them to deliver to.

The low price scam: If it looks too good to be true it is too good to be true. If it takes a full day of walking to deliver 1000 leaflets and you are being offered a price of £20 per 1000 to have yours go out on their own then do the maths! Either the company is making a big loss, not delivering your leaflets or employing people well below the minimum wage (who will probably throw the leaflets away). Ultimately, you get what you pay for and any reputable company will charge you a fair price for a fair job.

The backchecking scam: Make sure the company you use has a genuine and reliable way of checking that the distribution has been carried out properly. We recommend you use a company who has invested in GPS tracking. It’s not necessarily cheap but it’s the best way of watching the distributors walk up and down the long driveways so you know they have delivered to specific addresses. The backchecking some less ethical companies say they will carry out can be in reality completely worthless… if it doesn’t seem convincing to you then stay well clear!

The targeting leaflet distribution scams: You may wish to target affluent areas or other demographic communities but how can you be sure that the distribution company will pick out the areas that will work for you? Some less ethical companies will promise demographic targeting of your leaflets but will have no means of doing so. Ask them what software they use to target areas and precisely how their targeting works.

The terms & conditions scam: Always read the terms and conditions of any leaflet distribution company. Some unethical companies will spend more money and time writing very one-sided terms and conditions to make it very difficult for you to proceed with action against them should they not deliver your leaflets. It’s sometimes a sign that something is perhaps not quite right so ask questions as to what their terms and conditions really mean.

The timescale leaflet distribution scams: Do you need your leaflets out really quick? If so, be wary of companies who offer unrealistic timescales to get leaflets out. If you need to get 20,000 leaflets out in one day then do they really have 20 willing distributors in that area available to carry the work out? Some companies may have but many will not. Some unethical companies may promise a speedy delivery service just to take your money so it is worth investigating what their true capacity really is and ask them what guarantees they give on any promised timescale.

The multi-drop scam: So you may have got a great price for your leaflet delivery going out on its own without any other items (referred to as solus delivery) but all may not be as it seems. Many less ethical companies often promise “solus” delivery but if given an opportunity will put the item out with other businesses without you knowing. That might be quicker and cheaper for them but not great for the visibility of your leaflets… We recommend that you always thoroughly check the references of your distribution company, we really can’t stress this enough!

The fake testimonial scam: With many review sites popping up all over the Internet watch out for companies that post their own reviews online. It can sometimes be quite easy to spot if the review site highlights the fact that the IP address of the company is the same as the person who submitted the review. Worth checking if the reviewer also gave a business name so that the review could be independently verified. Always corroborate the references of the distribution company you are using.

The Google complaint scam: There are disreputable companies out there who have so many catastrophic reviews online that it is amazing that they manage to stay in business. How do they do it? They create scores and scores of blog pages that rank highly for their company name combined with a word such as “complaint” or “review” so that genuine web forum reviews get pushed on to the second or third page of Google! Check for unusually irrelevant or contrived blog pages that rank for these keywords such as “Insert Company Name Here Reviews” it will be a sure sign that something is not right.

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The Law Of Attraction

The law of attraction can be applied to almost anything in life if you really think about it. So why not make your leaflets, flyers or magazine cover an instant attraction feature.

As a part of the direct marketing mix, magazine and leaflet distribution is one of the most successful methods of building a new business or expanding and consolidating an existing one, as we all know you only get one chance to make a good first impression. It’s that law of attraction thing again!

Research has shown that over 95% of people receive and see a magazine or leaflet that lands on their doormat.

Research has also revealed that over 55% of adults will keep a door drop leaflet for more than a week and over 80% keep the magazine for even longer; in fact, door drop leaflets are kept for an average of 38 days, longer than any other piece of information that comes through the letterbox, except for utility bills.

These distributed leaflets & magazines are kept in various places in a household.

There is the holding area where they are held in abeyance, waiting to be dealt with by various members of the household. A random holding area such as a convenient space on a cabinet or mantle-piece or a drawer, where they are kept after being read and wait to be read again.

Finally, there is the display area. The display area is the area where leaflets are on permanent display.

These days a domestic appliance has become the most prominent display area in most households; this is the family sized fridge freezer. It is on this display area leaflets should aspire to be placed, and, if possible, aspire to take pride of place in this display area.

The family fridge is a display place for all sorts of material, shopping list, reminders of school runs, and many other pieces of information required to keep a busy household functioning. The competition for space on this display board is fierce enough and it is made more competitive because most people will use a fridge magnet to display information they think worth keeping.

There are companies in the market who manufacture illustrated fridge magnets, but I feel they do not lend themselves to leaflets for distribution either for cost or for weight. However, you can do something to have your leaflet displayed on the fridge door, and it will not add any cost to the production of your leaflet.

If your offer is an attractive offer and your message conveys this, why not add a line at the foot of the copy and suggest they put it on their fridge door to remind them to contact you when the time is right. Make the law of attraction work for you.

Most people have fridge magnets and may be happy to put a well-designed and printed leaflet on this very important area in the home.

Just ask, besides what have you got to lose?

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One Leaflet One Business One Promotion

We at Hallway Distribution believe that each leaflet promotion should have just the one business advertised on it, one leaflet, one business, one promotion works the best.

A few questions I was asked just the other day by a potential new client was, “is double sided leaflet distribution a good idea”?

Should you ever put one product one side and another product or business on the reverse side?

Should my friend advertise their business on the back of mine? They are completly different businesses.

I would like to put all my contact information on the reverse side of my leaflet? This is ok as it keeps it one leaflet, one business.

My usual response is no, as after years of testing things like this, what works best is simply having one leaflet for one business.

Of course this does depend on what you do, but in many cases it lessens response. We work on the principle that the recipient will initially read your leaflet for 3 seconds only. It is often hard to think of a header which will capture their attention in that time. Printing on the reverse means that you either have to think of two great headlines or you risk loosing their interest. Putting one product on one side and another on the reverse, e.g kitchens/bathrooms, hair/beauty might mean that they never read one side get to it because they didn’t turn it over. The same applies for two businesses on either side. You will definitely lessen response.

Another question I get asked is shall I repeat the same design on both sides. For me this is a definite no, no. You work really hard to engage the viewer, excite them to react and then if they turn over they are confused because you have repeated the same message they might even find it annoying. There is nothing to gain by doing this.

National businesses, where the brand is well known use double sided because people know what they do and most of their leaflets are offer based. A double sided leaflet can also work well if you are a company with a lot of interesting headlines and Unique Selling Points or if you are producing a menu. But as a rule of thumb, one leaflet, one business.

Getting leaflet distribution right can be an art and consultancy is always free with our service, even if we do not actually print your leaflet.

Here are 4 facts you should know about.

1. More than 8 out of 10 people in the UK are happy to receive a door drop leaflet if it is on a topic of interest to them.
2. Over half of UK adults say door drop leaflets are useful for finding out about local information and businesses.
3. With the footprints of local free newspapers in decline, door drop leaflets are sometimes the only way for people to hear about this kind of information.
4. 89% of UK adults report remembering receiving a door drop leaflet communication in the last two weeks.

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Leafleting The Advertising Gem

Door to door leafleting is still, and will continue to be, an advertising gem. It is here to stay and continues to grow against the odds.

It is no secret that the internet is swiftly becoming a vital advertising tool for small and large businesses alike, but that doesn’t mean that it is dominating the market. In fact, it is simply opening up even more opportunities for marketing in the real world for those with a little know-how.

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Nowadays advertising is a matter of utilising all those opportunities, combining the reach of the internet with the familiar touch of leaflet distribution to contact your ideal target audience in a more meaningful way. Cast aside any old ideas of blind leaflet dropping because this is the future of marketing for small businesses, allowing you to contact the future customers that you want, creating a strong customer-brand bond from the word go.

With any advertising campaign you have to consider the method from the customer’s point of view. Anyone who has ever lived in a city will know the familiar clatter of the letterbox as leaflet after leaflet is shoved through, eager to sell you pizza, fried chicken or cheap supermarket deals. This is exactly what gives leaflet distribution a bad name and for those on the receiving end it can be an absolute nightmare. However, every now and then you come across a true gem, invariably from a small company, offering you a worthwhile service or product that you simply can’t resist. This is the true art of leaflet distribution. Blindly dropping leaflets through doors, regardless of the audience is a waste of money. You need to know who you are marketing to and adapt your leaflets with them in mind. If done correctly leaflet distribution will reach out to your customers, enticing them with your beautifully designed advert, maintaining that small business trustworthy feel that we are all looking for.

From the business point of view advertising is all about finding an avenue that targets the right audience in the right manner for a reasonable price. By combining the internet with leaflet distribution you can locate areas with a suitable customer base and deliver leaflets that appeal to their needs and interests. The allure of the small business is the impression of identity. The customer is a person, with real needs and not just a number in a vast database of figures. To maintain this, the flyer needs to present key information in an attractive format, offering the familiarity of your favourite corner shop or bakery. Somehow, by offering a high quality leaflet in ‘the real world’ rather than on the internet, this method reassures the customer of the reliability and familiar nature of the company. Moreover, as the target audience is sourced via the internet you can combine this familiar marketing method with a wide reaching campaign, targeting as many customers as you need to.

While technology is evolving all the time, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the old methods are becoming obsolete. Having something literally in your hands to read is becoming a novelty and with the right design it can catch the eye in ways that the internet simply cannot. Clearly the time is right for all businesses to use leaflet distribution to find new customers locally.

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Direct Mail Doesn’t Work?

When people say that direct mail, flyers and leaflets dont work it makes me laugh out loud, and also they make pronouncements about particular marketing strategies, for example;

Direct Mail doesn’t work!
Google AdWords is expensive!
Yellow Pages are history!
No one reads Emails!
Junk mail is dead!

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Whenever I hear statements like those above, a cheeky little voice inside me says “yeah who says?”. That is quickly replaced with a more professional thought and response (the result of years of training and hard won experience) “is that an opinion or based on market tests?”. Asking that question often leads to marketing breakthroughs, as all too often it turns out that the person making the statement is reflecting their own PERSONAL like or dislike of that type of marketing.

The simple fact is, your views and mine are just opinions. They do not reflect market sentiment. They are not a guide to marketing success or failure. It is fine to have personal views, I have them too, but it is deadly to bring them into the office and impose them on your marketing strategy.

To find out what your market thinks about how they prefer to source suppliers of your products and services, you had better be open to testing, otherwise you will limit your marketing, and your business.

Here’s a good case in point.
Plenty of people think that flyers and leaflets are dead. But that didn’t stop Lana and Stewart Brown of Vibralife from being prepared to run a small test when it was recommended by her Business Builder Program advisor. Vibralife are a new type of fitness clinic offering vibration training technology with luxurious and high-class members facilities.

The key to their success is generating good quality, low cost leads and getting prospects through the door (they are really good at converting).
As part of the overall development of a marketing system for their business they worked closely with us to create and test a flyer to be distributed to 5,000 local households.
The total cost of the A5 flyer including design, print and delivery was £307.

The Result?
Within the first month, the first 5,000 flyers generated 18 new enquiries. So far, they have converted 10 new clients, worth £3,631. That’s a 10x return on investment, and they are still getting enquiries and conversions.

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By extrapolating these numbers, they have worked out that if the flyers were sent every month for 6 months to the original 5,000 households, plus an additional 10,000 households in the area, this flyer strategy could earn Vibralife a return of over £65,000 for an outlay or around £5,000! But the best bit is what this successful test could now mean for the future success and growth of Vibralife.

As you can imagine, they are now busy rolling this out. Needless to say direct mail is not the only strategy that Lana is implementing. They are busy creating a marketing machine for their business of which leaflets and flyers will be an important part.

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Is email Marketing Slowly Dying

If the question “is email marketing slowly dying”? makes you want to punch the air in delight, I am afraid your joy may be slightly premature. However, there are moves afoot to kerb the number of e-mails the general public and employees receive every working day.

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Many companies and organisations across the globe have become concerned about the time their workers waste by opening and replying to e-mails, and to combat this they have taken steps to prohibit the use of e-mails. In some cases, it was discovered that workers wasted forty percent of their time opening and reading e-mails that added no value to their jobs. Forty percent equates to two wasted days each week.

So what is to be the nemesis of the ubiquitous e-mail?

Various tools have been developed to bridge the “social business gap.” These tools have made it possible for employees to share and access ideas and information across the organisation that employs them. Early results have indicated these programmes have immediately reduced the flow of e-mails by almost twenty percent in some companies.

However, as I said at the top of this article, now is not the time to start celebrating the elimination of the e-mail.

The “social business” apps only benefit enterprises with several hundred or thousands of employees. The self-employed or very small enterprises will still use e-mail. (My theory is that those who work for themselves or a very small organisation have more discipline when it comes to reading e-mails.)

I believe e-mail is a victim of its own success. In the early days, it was a boon to business people, but familiarity has bred contempt.

This is especially true of people who use (or try to use) email marketing for their businesses. Because it is free, they put no value on the messages they send. They believe any slapdash message will do, and send out thousands of e-mails that will be deleted before they are read. This method of marketing adds to the “fog” of e-mail spam that is turning many people off the medium.

Incorporating email with leaflet drops

People who are more experienced in marketing know the value of e-mail. Those who use door drop campaigns will often incorporate their e-mail address in their call to action and will request the e-mail addresses of those prospects who respond.

They also have another advantage over the spammers; they know how to produce a compelling and persuasive sales message.

Because leaflet distribution is not free, they know there is no room for complacency or slapdash writing. Leaflet distributors know the value of a concise and well-written sales message, with an eye-catching headline.

To achieve this they use the skills of good copywriting and graphic design. Everything is gone over with a fine-tooth comb to make sure the leaflet is error free and designed to do the job it was created for, to gather valuable leads.

As soon as the enquiries come through, they may start using e-mail as part of their selling technique, which is by no means a bad idea. But, they will make sure any messages they send to their prospects and customers will be well written.

So an email marketing campaign can be used as a valuable and important asset to a well-written leaflet distribution campaign, and another demonstration of how the channel of letterbox marketing can be used even more effectively by incorporating a derivative of the information superhighway.

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We all Like to Receive a Letter

 imagesAlthough door drop campaigns are often described as leaflet distribution campaigns, in reality more items than just leaflets are delivered by door to door distribution companies. These other items include product samples, company brochures and, in some cases letters, we all like to receive a letter don’t we?

Although leaflets are the bulk of the items delivered through the letterboxes by distribution companies and have proved to be highly effective in attracting customers, there are always some people who will prove resistant to leaflets, no matter how well designed and printed they are, resistance may be stronger if the leaflet is advertising an expensive product or service. There are people who often need more convincing when they are asked to consider buying a high priced item.

No matter how persuasive a colour leaflet is, they need more substantial information than a leaflet can convey. They need a well written and persuasive sales letter that arrives through their letterbox in a sealed envelope.

Now letters arriving through the letterbox from companies selling their goods and services is not a new thing. Direct mail companies have been sending letters to prospective customers for years. These letters are addressed to named individuals and have personalised salutations.

But the direct mail industry spends thousands of pounds building or buying mailing lists of people who have been identified as possible clients, and they are mailed to households nationwide. Now while buying mailing lists and sending personalised letters may not be a viable proposition for companies operating in a local area and on a limited marketing budget; sending a well written sales letter to all of their possible customers can be a viable and profitable proposition.

A company that operates in a relatively local area selling high-priced items, such as patios, driveways, or even swimming pools, could benefit by using a well written sales letter delivered through people’s letter boxes in a sealed envelope simply addressed to “The occupier”.

No matter how resistant people think they are to advertising, and leaflets, in particular, no one will discard a sealed envelope before opening it. And if the first thing they see is an attractive professional letter heading, with an eye-catching headline followed by an unbeatable offer and a list of benefits the product has to offer, nothing will stop the prospect from reading until they reach an irresistible call to action.

The main purpose of the or call to action is to collect the names of people who wish to become customers. But it also has a secondary but equally important function, and that is the collection and filing the names of people who did not buy after showing some initial interest. These people could be contacted again once a reasonable time has passed, and politely asked why they did not take up the initial offer. Once they have revealed their objections, it could be possible for the seller to overcome these objections and make a sale.

The direct mail industry uses this method all of the time to scoop up those extra sales that may have gone forever. There is no reason why it will not work for those businesses that use door to door distribution companies. A sales letter enclosed in an envelope and addressed “Important Message to The occupier” could break down the resistance of those people who may ignore sales leaflets. So why not copy what the direct mail companies do and pick up some extra sales.

Remember no one can resist opening a sealed envelope.

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Colour Grabs Attention

imagesWith leaflet design colour is not always the answer, yes it might look great and stand out from the crowd but black and white leaflets as well as colour grabs attention if done correctly.

Door drop leaflets, like any other form of advertising, depend on being noticed. It is vital that they attract people’s attention.

Of course the message they carry is important, but the message will never be read if the leaflet does not stand out from all the other forms of advertising it is competing with. To achieve this, most door drop leaflets follow the tried and tested method of capturing the prospects attention.

They use bright colours, illustrations and, if their budget allows it, high quality paper. This rule has served door drop leaflets very well, and should be continued. However there is an exception to this rule, and using bright colours and high quality paper can be put aside if the situation demands it.

An example of this exception to the rule of using full colour or black and white leaflets for printing on door drops came to my attention this month.

Here in the United Kingdom we have just held a general election, and for the past few months we have been subjected to relentless electioneering from all the many political parties competing for our votes; and of course most of these political parties have sensibly used door drop leaflets to get their various messages across.

Most of the leaflets I have looked at from the various candidates promoting the benefits to be gained by voting for them have been printed in full colour, with each party featuring their representative or house colour, and I must confess most of them have been very well designed and printed.

However, there was one leaflet that really stood out from all the others, and this leaflet proved that you do not need to print your leaflet in full colour to catch people’s attention.

This particular leaflet was not from a candidate from one of the main political parties, but someone who was standing as an independent, and had no affiliation to any party, and, therefore, no party colour to identify him. His answer was to use just black ink on plain white paper; but it was used in a very effective way.

The candidate, being an independent, had a very limited budget, but in my opinion he used it very well, a good message for little money.

The leaflet consisted of a single A4 sheet printed in black on both sides of reasonable, but not high quality stock. The sheet had been folded down to a third A4. A headline with the word “INDEPENDENT” in large bold upper case was printed white out of a solid black box, with the candidates name and sub heading and some copy beneath.

Once the leaflet was opened it had a clear and concise message on both sides. This stark, almost minimal approach, made this leaflet stand out. Lack of cash should not be a barrier.

stand outThe moral of this tale is that it is possible to produce an outstanding door drop leaflet on a limited budget. With some creative thinking at the design stage, even those with a little amount of cash to spend can have access to a door drop leaflet plan.

For more info on designing your leaflet CLICK HERE

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