London is a vast area with many different types of properties and demographics. Therefore consideration must be given before undertaking a leaflet distribution in the Capital.
Firstly you need to look at the mechanics of your campaign, The housing in London goes from the gated driveway type property, to Victorian mews, to tenement blocks. The difficulties in covering each type must be considered if you are to gain the best possible penetration over an area.
Gated properties are difficult simply because of the difficulties in gaining access to them. Leaflet distribution is often frowned upon, and residents therefore will discourage the distribution teams from entering the property. Gates are often locked and many of them have no direct letterboxes, which can often lead to material being stuffed in gates or hedges causing littering problems, so bear this in mind as it may be a good idea in areas such as these to have the teams follow the postman around early in the morning.
Many of the Mews properties have been split into multi occupancy flats, which causes more problems for distribution teams. It is difficult to know how many copies should be left, often the team will look at the door bells and leave enough copy for each door within the property. This seems like the sensible solution, but can lead to complaints of multi dropping, leaving the householder frustrated and annoyed and therefore less likely to be receptive to your message. It is important to make sure that you inform your distribution company what you want the teams to do in this event.
There is now so much advertising activity in the London area that many properties now display notices on the doors banning the delivery of junk mail. You may not feel that your material as junk mail so therefore believe that it is acceptable to place the item in the letterbox, but again make your distribution company aware of your feelings on this matter. The distribution company may have its own policy on how to deal with this issue so make sure that you clarify this beforehand.
London is made up of many pre and post war blocks of flats; these have their own problems for distribution teams.
Safety is a prime consideration when distributing here, there are often needles and various drug paraphernalia left in stairwells. Distribution teams have encountered groups of people in stairwells administering drugs, and clearly the safety of the distribution teams must be paramount. You must ask yourself if you feel that distribution to these areas is essential to the success of your campaign.
Obviously if your material is a community awareness project, then it must go to all types of property in the area, and it may be that these are the communities are who you are trying to get your message out to. If you are advertising up market new cars for example that perhaps you might think about avoiding these areas. You would be surprised at the amount of clients that say they want to cover London and yet only have five thousand copies to do this.
You must think about your target area, ask your distribution company to provide you with figures for the area you want to target. This will; allow you to be realistic about the area you will be able to cover with the amount of copy that you have printed.
The above logistical pointers will help you achieve the best possible results form your leaflet distribution in London.
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