This article discusses the key differences between the leaflet distribution services that the Royal Mail (and other similar companies) offer and those offered by Distribution Unlimited.
Booking
With Royal Mail, you have to book your delivery with Royal Mail six weeks in advance.
Distribution Unlimited are not bound by any timescales so they can deliver your material when it suits you.
Delivery of Materials
For distribution in Scotland, you have to deliver your materials to Royal Mail in Perth between 10 to 14 days in advance
Distribution Unlimited can accept delivery of your materials the day before they are due to be delivered. They can even collect your materials from you if required.
Distribution Areas
Royal Mail will only deliver to full post code sectors and may exclude some sectors.
Distribution Unlimited are not limited to any distribution area and can deliver anywhere, from town, district, estate or even down to individual street level.
Distribution Support and Advice
Royal Mail can’t help you to identify the best distribution areas for your campaign because they can only deliver to a full post code.
Distribution Unlimited will work with you to help you to identify the best distribution areas for your product or service and can then distribute only to those targeted areas.
Volume
Because Royal Mail will only deliver to complete post codes, the volume of marketing materials you need to supply tends to be high and because it is not targeted much of it is wasted. See the case study which looks at targeting the correct audience.
Distribution Unlimited will deliver as much or as little as you want and will work with you to make sure that your marketing materials are being distributed in the best areas for your business objectives. They can also tell you how many houses are in any given area, even in any given street which means that you won’t waste money printing materials that you don’t need.
Shared Distribution
Royal Mail usually delivers up to four leaflets at the same time. Worse still, every leaflet will be stuffed inside the largest item which means that there is a very good chance that yours will never be seen.
Distribution Unlimited normally deliver on a solus basis – your material will delivered on its own. When asked to share a distribution, Distribution Unlimited will always deliver the items in such a way that they land separately when put through the letter box so yours will never be hidden. For further information on shared distribution, read our article entitled “To Share or Not to Share”
Time Scales
Royal Mail will only guarantee to deliver in a window of one week. This means that you won’t know when your marketing materials are being delivered so it will be difficult to measure response rates. It will also be impossible to plan your operations to deal with enquiries that result from your distribution.
Distribution Unlimited are not bound by any time restrictions and will deliver your materials on the days that suit you so you can plan your campaign more accurately.
Reporting
Royal Mail will never report back to you so you will never know when or even if your distribution has been completed.
Distribution Unlimited will always keep you informed of the progress of you distribution and will even tell you where they could not deliver to and why, right down to individual house level.
Further Information
For further information on any of our services, call now on 0141 416 3845 or complete our enquiry form.
