If I had £5.00 for every time a client (agency or direct) has said to me “I know all about door drops – but I have not used them for a couple of years”, I would be a rich man!

One or two strategic questions quickly determine to an experienced door drop planner and buyer just how true that statement is.

Clients’ actual knowledge of this underrated medium is often driven and limited by seminars run by industry associations or, even more commonly, by advice handed down by their line managers or passed on by peers.

All too often, this advice is out of date - and wrong.

The medium has made huge strides in recent years and there have been many changes.

At the forefront of these changes is targeting and validation, but just how many users are truly up to date with current trends and developments?

How many clients or agencies include a door drop session within their in-house training programmes, either annually or, even worse, bi-annually?

How many clients’ campaigns are failing to deliver a realistic level of ROI because their door drop planning is fundamentally flawed?

Horror stories have existed about door drops for decades and whilst it is not a perfect science (is any medium?), the facts are that the industry has improved its levels of performance enormously yet, to many, is still tarred with the same brush.

So much experience and advice exists in the door drop industry and is available at the touch of a mouse or telephone and that experience should help to fine tune clients’ campaigns.

But look around and take advice from a number of potential suppliers.

As consumers, buying a car is a major purchase. Who buys from the first (and only) dealer they see? Everyone looks around. So, when planning a door drop campaign, which could be a similar budget to buying a car, adopt the same practice.

But exercise caution.

Only approach door drop suppliers who are members of the Direct Marketing Association. As members, these companies will have signed up for a Code of Practice and must represent themselves in a professional manner. The DMA also operates a complaints procedure in conjunction with the DM Commission, so recourse is available if necessary.

All too often stories are told of unhappy door drop clients who have used suppliers who are not members of the DMA, where their complaints are never full answered or are totally ignored.

And if you are approaching media owners, think laterally and don’t automatically accept their in-house solution, as the most suitable option. It may suit the media owner and be a reasonable response, but it may not be the best solution available to you.

 If your proposed supplier only offers one solution, ask about alternatives.

The door drop industry provides three primary door drop options: Royal Mail door to door, alongside free newspapers and team based solutions either on a shared or solus basis. Each system has its relative strengths and weaknesses.

Each system can work in isolation, but increasingly door drop media plans are constructed using any appropriate combination of all three options, possibly even topped up with a little direct mail.

Door drop planning agencies and some media owners, will offer advertisers a one stop shop service to access all of these options and should also be able to provide additional support.

This may take the form of targeting data at the outset, liaising with printers, handling the delivery of bulk supplies to the required destinations and working with validation companies.

It’s a combination of any or all of these skill sets which make the appointment of a door drop specialist to plan and book your activity fundamental to its success.

Clients occasionally allow printers, design agencies or even courier companies to arrange door drops! These companies have their own unique skills sets, but are they really experts in door drop planning and buying?

 Each door drop option will be better suited to certain business areas.

This again is where experienced planners should be able to advise potential users.

Cheapest is not necessarily best.

The different door drop options inevitably have varying requirements, limitations and opportunities.

In April 2010, Royal Mail will reduce the minimum lead time for bookings to five weeks, but because they only carry three items per week per postal sector (the unit of geography at which all bookings must be completed), rural and/or affluent areas can become fully booked at an early stage.

Options do exist to make “last minute” bookings at 3-5 weeks, but availability can be limited.

There are many Royal Mail users who will book their door drop activity a year or more in advance to guarantee the slots they seek are available. Many of these users will typically be local or regional authorities for whom coverage of every household (and business) is critical. But other business areas adopt the same policy.

Royal Mail are the only door drop supplier whose coverage objectives are every household and every business in every sector in the UK, although users can purchase coverage to households only.

They also guarantee product or service exclusivity, but users should be careful on exclusivity because there can sometimes be close comparisons.

Royal Mail operate a rate card driven by a combination of volume and weight, for tiers of volumes under 200,000 items, which attract set charges.

Volume and weight continue to be key criteria for volumes in excess of 200,000, but at that point charges are further driven by a complex structure through which every postal sector is assigned to one of five charge bands.

Late sales and new users attract preferential rates.

Bulk supplies are required at least one week in advance of start dates at one of five depots across the country, packed and labelled to strict criteria.

In comparison, free newspapers possess other strengths and weaknesses.

Some of free newspapers’ strengths could be recognised as ease of accessibility, as late as one week in advance of actual distribution, with no restriction on the number of items that can be carried. Historically free newspapers have been accused of creating a “clutter” issue, but one of the “positive” effects of recession in 2009 has been the reduction of volumes carried by newspapers and weekly averages are not dissimilar to the maximum three items Royal Mail will carry (research 2009 DMA statistics).

Newspapers will not cover every household in any sector and coverage patterns are subject to change, but in addition to coverage at “sector” level, the opportunity of targeting and distributing to newspaper rounds (units of hundreds of households) is now widely available.

This relatively new system minimises wastage, improves ROI and reduces users’ door drop carbon footprints and should be particularly attractive to users with high value door drop items such as money off coupons, product samples or multi page brochures and magazines.

Free newspapers are also the least expensive door drop option, although rates will vary by area and will be driven by a combination of size, pagination and weight of the item.

Bulk supplies are generally only required 48-72 hours in advance of each weekly drop, although if using carriers, lead times may be longer.

Newspapers’ weaknesses could be assessed as not covering every town in the country; there are no newspapers in towns such as Dundee, Bridgend or Bath. In addition, even within towns where there is a newspaper, not all sectors will necessarily be covered.

Newspapers will carry competing items and with the decline in many towns of secondary titles, leaving only one title in any many areas and certainly in most major cities, it would not be unusual for several competitive leaflets to be dropped alongside each other; particularly retailers.

But don’t rule newspapers out of your equations simply on coverage. Although not immediately obvious, there are options in some areas of the UK to increase coverage in newspaper sectors and experienced media planners should be able to help you through that particular maze.

Many potential advertisers often reject free newspapers out of hand because of their perceived “downmarket” image. The reality may be very different. Publishers have long maintained that their coverage patterns are more upmarket than users believe and tracking studies often prove that to be the case.

Team solus or shared options as the final alternative commonly fall somewhere between Royal Mail and free newspapers, although may have more affinity with newspapers.

Access times and individual sector coverage issues are generally pretty similar, although team operators will offer coverage to a much greater number of postal sectors than newspapers, but cannot match Royal Mail’s full coverage.

If a user buys solus distribution, by definition it means delivery through the letterbox on its own. But, with 50% of UK households empty during the day, is 50% of your solus spend compromised if the recipients only see your item as the end of the day when they return home, finding it on the doormat alongside whatever else has been delivered that day?

But also check closely that you really are buying solus - your item on its own. There are options whereby you are actually buying a distribution where your item is shared alongside others, but, like Royal Mail, you are guaranteed product or service exclusivity.

And if you buy shared distribution, ensure that the postal sectors covered are those totally driven by your target market requirements and not the sharing partners. There can be a world of difference between your primary postal sector ranking report and the sectors available on a shared drop, where sectors may be driven by other clients’ requirements and the match to your target market is lower than it should be.

The sectors may be the best available, but may not be the best.

Bulk supply deadlines can be similar to free newspapers dependent upon your exact requirements.

Whilst coverage is commonly at postal sector level, new developments also now see some solus providers offering a sub sector service a la the free newspaper offering, which provides all the same benefits to the user.

So the industry offers a wide range of door drop solutions and taking advice from experienced operators can be of huge benefit in the long run.

In terms of drop duration, Royal Mail and free newspapers can in theory offer their equivalents of national coverage in any one week, or staggered over any number of weeks to meet a user’s demands.

Solus and shared durations will be driven by the localised volumes required. Even in a town which only has 50,000 households, coverage could take two weeks to achieve.

The journey, of course, starts with targeting.

There are a myriad of options. MOSAIC is probably the most common tool used in targeting door drops, although ACORN is also widely used. These types of systems have a wide range of data sources for different types of clients. For example Financial MOSAIC will have specific applications for users in the financial sector.

Most door drop agencies and suppliers will offer in-house targeting solutions and again it is important that users take practical advice. You can of course also approach Experian or CACI for direct advice.

Establishing a target market profile is key.

Don’t base your profile on guesswork or perception. It is not uncommon for users to target an upmarket, traditional ABC1 audience, but are they really the people currently buying your product or service?

If you have a customer address database, profile it. But be careful to ensure that the origination sources will not skew the results. For example, a database driven by addresses collected from competition entries may not accurately reflect the consumers historically buying the brand or service.

If you do not have a database - create one. Take advice on how best to achieve this.

If you don’t have a database and do not have time to create one, take advice on identifying your target market. Don’t guess.

If your target market selections are wrong from the outset, your door drop will not work as well as it could, but don’t blame the medium.

Test, test and test again. The old direct marketing maxim applies to targeting as well.

Within your door drop item, make every effort to capture data which will tell you more about your customers. Increasingly, door drops are used to drive consumers online, so ensure that your tracking codes accurately source the origin of the contact and again provide customer data.

Then re-profile your response data. Use the results to model future and/or repeat activity.

And the journey ends with independent validation.

Stepcheck and The Front Door are two companies with a wealth of experience on validating door drops and for many larger users, are now a regular part of a door drop package.

The first key strength of validation is that it will provide users with a real time fix on the quality of the door drop. Rather than making ill informed judgements on the drop’s overall quality, often based on anecdotal information gained by colleagues, staff or consumers, validation will provide accurate statistical data.

Real time data can be compared against control cell data and users should take advice from their door drop supplier or either validation company about this option. 

Research is generally constructed in cells of 50 doorstep interviews and the number of cells completed is driven by a user’s budget.

Cells can be spread geographically, demographically and/or across the door drop plan, so users dropping via a combination of door drop options can monitor the reliability of each option.

Service providers have historically used the results of hundreds of thousands of interviews held over the last decade or more to improve the quality of their respective workforces.

And there is no doubt that over that period of time the quality of door drops has improved immensely. It is an ongoing process of course and door drops are still not a perfect science. But, using the right service providers, you can avoid experiencing nightmares further down the line.

Validation has one more key attribute.

Users can add in four or five closed research questions which can be asked on the doorstep. Once a consumer has confirmed receipt of your item, they can be questioned about their potential purchase and use. Their perception of the brand or service and such data and consumer feedback has proved invaluable to many users over the years.

Validation has, over the years, also prompted some clients to change the shape or size of their door drop item, revise the creative content to emphasise the key selling features of their brand or service as seen by the consumer and/or adjust the frequency and timing of their campaigns.

Along with targeting, validation has made a massive contribution to the growth of the door drop industry and established a level of credibility previously missing.

So, the next time you are setting a media schedule - think door drop! Used as a standalone medium, or particularly when used in tandem with broadcast media, its potency is increasingly recognised by a wide range of users. And remember -

Test, test and test again

And shop around!