Get the most out of door drops

I attended a DMA-organised door to door practitioners seminar in Bromsgrove today. The event was chaired by Graham Dodd, MD of The Letterbox Consultancy. The most interesting speakers were: Richard from TBDA who spoke on getting the most out of door drops; Colin from The Front Door who ran through some recent customer research; Carl from Manning Gottlieb on planning and targeting and Peter Rainey from Royal Mail who spoke on what was being done to offer a more flexible service.

Here are a few nuggets I picked up:

• When targeting door drops, hit areas where brand awareness is strongest
• Follow-up TV advertising with door drop activity (eg Virgin Money)
• 0.1-0.2% response rates ‘about industry norm’ for financial services door drops
• Financial Services door drops have been known to outperform response to personalised direct mail
• Allowable cost per response for Virgin Money life insurance is £124
• Door drops can now be targeted beyond postal sector to the ‘postman’s round’ (at a premium)
• Door to door view by one agency speaker as ‘the best acquisition chanel’
• The Tussauds Group (Alton Towers etc) successfully use multiple drops to the same households (via Newshare distribution)
• Clever radio barcodes are now available to track that leaflets have successfully been delivered!