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Audience research is essentially any research conducted on a customer base to find out about their attitudes, behaviours, and habits – to understand them. The sample can be made up of any group of interest – whether this is nationally representative, or focused on a particular age, gender, region, ethnicity etc.

The purpose of audience research is to answer a range of business questions, such as to find out what interests them, who influences them, what problems they have, what they think of existing products etc.

Conducting audience research will enable you to get a better understanding of your audience, which in turn will help you connect with your customer and help your company grow. Audience research can help you prioritise how best to meet their needs or decide who to focus on, how to reach them, or what to offer them.

When planning a leaflet distribution campaign, you should know as much as you can about the type of people that are most likely to buy your product or use your services. This way you can target them directly with your flyers to be put through their letterbox.

Demographics of your customers should be considered when conducting the research. If your regular customers are male, then maybe consider where you would find the most male customers. You could also make the design of the leaflet more appealing to male residents. 

Another demographic that is often considered is the wealth of an audience. If you are selling something expensive such as high-end watches, then you would need to target areas that are wealthier and are full of residents with more disposable income. Again, the design of the leaflet should be considered with this as, a more high-end product would need to look more formal and less playful to get the response you want from potential customers.

You can conduct this research using existing data of your previous customers. If it is a particular sale, you are advertising, then you can consider who is most likely to benefit from that deal and who is most likely to engage with the offer you are presenting. People with less disposable income for example may react better to 90% off sale.

There are companies that can conduct this research for you including our office staff. Having this information presented clearly and correctly can improve your marketing campaign dramatically. 

You would then use this, alongside the information you gather on the location you plan to deliver to. You will then get your flyers to the correct audience instead of wasting thousands, trying to find someone who MAY buy your product.

Having a plan behind your leaflet distribution campaign is extremely important. You should not just blanket drop a load of leaflets to a large area and hope for the best results. The design, print and where the leaflets are delivered should all be thought of thoroughly to increase response and get the return on investment you need.

The following list is a step-by-step guide of everything you should consider when planning your distribution campaign:

1. Research your audience – Knowing your audience is something you may already have information about. Knowing what type of people would usually use your services or buy your products is important as these are the people you would wish to target when delivering your leaflets. 
2. Gain information on the location – Finding information on the location you plan to deliver your leaflets is hard without the correct software. Most credible leaflet distribution companies would have software that can gain this information and you may need to liaise with your distribution company to get this information. You may want to know which areas will have the wealthier residents who may have the most disposable income if you are selling something relatively expensive. This information will help with where your leaflets should be delivered and by targeting the correct audience, you should see a higher return on your investment. 
3. Design your leaflet – The plan on designing your leaflet should be taken very seriously, down to the last word. The information you provide on your flyer should be short but to the point. Images used, should be eye catching and encourage engagement. If you are going to use a graphic designer for this, then you should use someone with experience in designing material for distribution as the way it is designed should get a prescribed response. 
4. Print your leaflet – The quality of the printing when regarding leaflets is hugely important. Having a plain paper leaflet will not gain the same response as a high gloss double sided thick flyer. You would want your leaflet to be kept by a resident and one of the best ways is to drive them to feel it is worth something more than to just end up in the bin. 
5. Quantity of leaflets – As your response rate is usually measured as a percentage, choosing the number of leaflets you print and distribute is important. Having a low quantity of leaflets may result in small number of customers using your services. Increasing the number of leaflets, you distribute will result in more customers. You should have a budget in mind when planning your campaign and stick to that. The more you can deliver will lead to better results and bring down the price per thousand with most companies. 
6. Choose your distribution method – Solus distribution or shared distribution is a hard choice when you are selling a product, but you must consider whether the price of the services or products you are offering will cover the cost of the solus campaign. There is not a huge difference in response rates compared to shared, however, catching the attention of your reader is far more likely when your leaflet is the only one on the door mat of the resident. 
7. Timing of your campaign – Choosing a correct timescale is important when planning your leaflet distribution. You can ask your distribution company when the most likely time is to gain a response for your type of business. This is something they may have recorded previously with companies in the past they have worked with, in your industry. You can also ask on online forums with other businesses that have tried it. If you have a date on your leaflet you must plan to get all the leaflets delivered by the date of the event. This should be mentioned to the distribution company so that they do not go past the date. 
8. Ensure other marketing is up to date – Having your social media posts to correspond to the offer on the leaflet at the time of distribution is something to consider. If your leaflet shows one offer but your Facebook page another, this could possibly lose you trust by the potential customer and lose sales. Having an up-to-date website is hugely important if that is where you are driving your potential customers. If your flyer gives your web address and then the resident goes online to read more, but you have underperforming website, this can be at a huge detriment to your response rates. 
9. Choose a reputable distribution company – If you do not choose to use the leaflet network to find a reputable company, then you must consider several things when choosing a company to deliver your flyers. If they are too cheap, then it is probably too good to be true. Check the reviews of the company you are using. Make sure you back check the distribution campaign following completion. 
10. Monitor your response – When designing your leaflet, we would encourage some sort of code that is specific to that campaign, or a phone number that is only used on that leaflet. This way you can see what customers came organically and which ones came from your leaflet drop. Keeping a record of this can give you insight into which areas worked for you and which ones did not. If you choose to retarget areas, you will have better information to work with than just the demographics provided and planned at the beginning. The more precise you can become over time and time and delivering leaflets, will result in better and better results.
11. Repeat areas – In marketing it is important to remember that most people will not buy from the first advert they see of a business, product, or service. You must build trust over multiple times of seeing your branding. To gain the best possible results you should repeat delivery to the exact same houses, maybe changing your design and print slightly each time. It can take up to 3 times in one house before you gain a response from some residents. In our experience you should see an increase in response rates each time. After the third time, give the area a break before you target it again. 

These steps may apply to your business, depending on the type of business you have. As with any marketing campaign, these should be tailored to your specific industry and potential customers. If you are unsure about the planning of the campaign, it will be well worth your time to use someone in the leaflet distribution industry to help. Although you may have to pay for a full planning of the campaign, the results you get back should more than cover the costs of this.

Back in the 1400’s it would have been common practise to go into the streets and cry out at the top of your voice if you had information to share to the locals. This would, however, work out to be rather ineffective and messages passed on in this way would change and twist as it was relayed on among people of the area.

People with an important message soon realised that if they wanted to get it out to people of the area, then they would need to write their message down and pass it on. Handwritten newsletters were handed out to relay important news of the area.

In 1450, Germany invented the printing press, and the handwritten newsletters soon became printed newspapers, and it was obvious to see that this had a far more reaching effect than your typical handwritten note. In the British civil war, printed leaflets were used to pass important information among troops and even spread bad information about the enemy.

The movement to abolish the slave trade, the women’s rights movement, and propaganda for the second world war were all printed and distributed as leaflets!

In 1950, after the war, printing evolved and became much more visual, selling goods to consumers – everything from fridges, to cards, to holidays.

In recent years leaflet distribution is still an extremely effective form of marketing, despite the invention of social media and pay per click advertising. This is because there is no other form of marketing that can advertise direct to the consumer. Online adverts have quickly become something to expect when scrolling through your news feed of Facebook or making a Google search, and you simply pass them, as if they were not even there.

Leaflets have a much more personal touch, including more information about the business. At the very least, an uninterested resident will not want to throw it out as it looks and feels important and will often put it on the side table with other letters where, someone of that household who may use it, comes across the flyer. Therefore, no matter how technology progresses, leaflet distribution, will always remain one of the best ways to advertise.

If your marketing campaign is completed correctly, then digital advertising as well as leaflet distribution can work well together. Having an effective website for a potential customer to go to following receipt of your flyer, can work out to be extremely useful. Therefore, it is important to get all aspects of your marketing campaign thought of when arranging a leaflet drop.