They’re versatile, can be tailored for varying budgets, reach the exact people you need, and help diversify your marketing strategy. Yes, we’re talking about the ever-so-popular hand-to-hand leaflet distribution. If you’ve landed here, perhaps you're curious about the ins and outs of this approach for your own business. If the thought of setting up a hand-to-hand leaflet distribution campaign has got you scratching your head, have no fear. At Runnel, we’re here to help course providers, businesses, and brands take on hand-to-hand leaflet distribution campaigns, big and small. Here are the basic facts you need to know to get your journey started.

Why You Should Start a Hand-To-Hand Leaflet Distribution Campaign

There’s a reason hand-to-hand leaflet distributions are one of the most popular and timeless channels out there. If you’re looking for a reason to start your own campaign, consider these important pros early on.

Get a Free Quote for Your Hand-To-Hand Leaflet Distribution

Cost-effective alternative to scaling your existing digital ad campaigns.

One of the biggest reasons why people choose to make a big change to their marketing strategy is growth. Whether that’s because you’re entering new markets, expanding your product range, or increasing your course intake, the hunt for customers and students can lead you into one of two directions: scaling your existing digital ad channels or introducing a new one. Scaling your existing channels can be a tempting option, but it isn’t always the easiest option and definitely not the cheapest! While not refining your audiences is one of the easiest ways to waste your ad spend, you’ll also need to consider…

• Keyword bidding wars with competitors, increasing your CPC (cost per click).
• Algorithms showing your leads other ‘relevant’ (competitor) ads, once they’ve interacted with yours.
• Lower lead quality, decreasing your ROI.

With the number of ad hoc platform policy changes to Meta and Google in recent years, there’s no guarantee that you’ll keep getting the same return on your investment. In comparison, launching a hand-to-hand leafleting campaign allows you to keep your campaigns hyper-local and hyper-focused, and you have fewer restrictions when it comes to what your audience sees and hears.

Reaches The Exact People You Need It To

As we touched on above, one of the biggest benefits of hand-to-hand distribution is hyper-local and hyper-focused campaigns, helping to reach the exact people you want to get your ads in front of. While digital platforms do have massive reach and targeting options, nothing can beat the conversion rate and return on your investment that comes from the specificity of hand-to-hand leaflet distribution.

Benefit From The Omni-Channel Effect

We ask a lot from our digital campaigns, and many struggle to meet our expectations. You may have found yourself longing for…

• More leads
• Improved conversion rates
• Higher ROI (return on investment)

Whatever your needs, in a new digital-centered world, many campaigns are in need of an integrated approach. Incorporating hand-to-hand leaflet distribution could be just the solution your brand needs to build trust and increase campaign scale.

Types of Hand-2-Hand Leaflet Distribution Targeting Use Case

Hand-to-hand leaflet distribution campaigns are highly versatile, and there are plenty of targeting options available to suit a variety of businesses, course providers, and brands. Here are some of the most popular segments you might consider targeting.

Parents

Whether you’re looking to target parents with information on family-friendly events, educational resources, or even parenting workshops. Hand-to-hand leaflet distributions outside of schools and venues that host extra-curricular activities for kids can be a cost-effective way for you to reach the exact audience you need when they have plenty of dwell time to engage with your leaflets.

Travel Enthusiasts

When your ideal customer is a travel enthusiast, it makes sense to pick a location such as an airport, coach depot, or even a busy train station. If you’re targeting a train station, where it might be harder to distinguish between someone on their way home from work vs. on their way to the airport, you could consider a second layer of targeting (such as people with suitcases) to help single out the people more likely to engage with your brand.

Students

Just because you're trying to target students doesn’t mean you have to rely on social media advertising. Hand-to-hand leaflet distributions outside of university campuses and colleges can be a great way to cut through the 5,000+ adverts the average student sees on a daily basis. For this reason, leaflets can have a higher perceived value and help to build more trust, leading to better response rates. This approach is popular if you are selling tutoring services, study tools, provide educational opportunities, and student-oriented events.

Fitness Enthusiasts

When targeting a hyper-focused segment such as fitness enthusiasts, hand-to-hand leaflet distribution outside of gyms and leisure centers can ensure your ad gets into the exact people you want to reach, saving you money in wasted ad spend. These campaigns also have the added bonus of catching fitness enthusiasts when fitness is at the forefront of their mind, proving effective for business and brand promoting fitness events, supplements, and fitness classes, supplement companies, and classes.

Busy Professionals

With an ever-growing selection of subscription-based services focused on freeing up time for busy professionals, deploying a hand-to-hand leaflet distribution campaign as part of an omnichannel strategy can help to keep your brand front and center and contribute to the three times your brand typically needs to be seen for someone to take action. Which is why it’s popular for campaigns to take place outside train and tube stations alongside busy office blocks, which have a plentiful flow of commuters on their way to and from work or on their lunch break.

How Much Does a Hand-to-Hand Leaflet Distribution Campaign Cost?

Before you start any campaign, it’s important to set a budget and work out a marketing strategy. At Runnel, our experts can help advise you on how to get the most out of your campaign. Simply click here to get started. If you’re creating a campaign from scratch, the cost of your campaign will vary hugely depending on these deciding factors:

• Your approach
• The scale of your campaign
• Location
• Printing costs
• Time of day
• Footfall
• GPS tracking

Because of this, a three-hour campaign in London could cost anywhere between £50-£150 for one distributor. Don’t forget to try our Instant Quote Tool to get an idea of how much your project might cost.

How Long Does It Take To Set Up a Hand-To-Hand Leaflet Distribution Campaign?

While each hand-to-hand leaflet distribution campaign is unique, it’s likely you’ll be running through a similar list of tasks as your competition. Traditionally this process has felt fragmented and confusing; however, with platforms like Runnel, you can sit back and relax as our team guides you from point A to point B. Most campaigns will undergo these stages before they start seeing results from their campaign:

• Leaflet design
• QR Code creation
• Landing page design & development
• Print production
• Targeting strategy
• Reporting framework
• Choosing a distributor

Other Important Considerations

As with any marketing campaign, there’s a lot that will go into your end results. Here are just a few other factors you’ll need to consider in your hand-to-hand leaflet distribution journey.

Size and shape of leaflets for hand-to-hand leaflet distribution.

Leaflet size and shape might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about your leaflet distribution, but it’s a highly important element. Leaflets are the all-important medium that advertises your product, so if you get it wrong here, it can have serious implications for the rest of your campaign. A big size consideration is whether to use A4, A5, or A6 for your campaign. While this will vary from campaign to campaign, you’ll need to analyse your customer journey and decide if your leaflet size and shape align with your buying lifecycle. For example, if you want your target audience to respond to your leaflet when they get home, consider making your leaflet small enough for them to fit in their pocket.