Do door hangers, flyers and direct mail still work for a service business?
They can, when the work is tied to a place: a tight service area, a job neighbors can see, or a seasonal service most homes need. Print reaches homes whether or not anyone is searching, so it tends to build familiarity more than it catches urgent needs. Give each drop its own phone number, short web address or code, ask every new customer how they heard of you, and judge it by jobs won, not by pieces sent.
When print can suit a service business
- A tight service area, where most homes on a route could use you.
- A job others can see, such as a roof, a fence or a lawn, where the houses nearby are the likeliest next customers.
- Seasonal work, such as gutters before winter or pest control before summer.
- A new business, or a move into a new area, where few people know your name yet.
- It usually does less for emergencies, because people with an urgent job tend to search at that moment rather than look for a flyer.
What Every Door Direct Mail is
The Postal Service's Every Door Direct Mail lets a business send flyers, postcards and menus to every address on the mail routes it picks, addressed simply to "Postal Customer". Its online tool maps ZIP Codes and neighborhoods and can filter by age, income or household size using U.S. Census data. The retail version, which USPS describes as great for small businesses, takes at least 200 and up to 5,000 pieces per day per ZIP Code, dropped off at the Post Office, with no special mailing permit; larger mailers can use a bulk option. Postage is listed on the USPS page.
The page also advises mail with "a clear offer and call to action", and says that if a customer has asked to be taken off your mailing list, their address goes in the "Do Not Deliver Address" column on the facing slip.
Make every drop traceable
Print has no click to count, so give each drop something only it carries: its own short web address or code, its own phone number, and the source question on every call and form. The related answer on tracking leads from flyers, signs and vehicles covers all three. Log those leads under campaign, with the drop named in the notes, such as "spring postcard, north routes".
Judging whether it worked
- Set a window before the drop, such as the following six weeks, and count the inquiries and jobs won that trace back to it.
- Compare what the printing and postage cost with the jobs won.
- Change one thing at a time between drops: the routes, the offer or the design, so you can tell what made the difference.
- Expect some effect to show up later, when someone remembers your name and searches for it. The related answer on which source gets the credit explains how to record a lead that touched two channels.
- When you follow up an inquiry from print, call or text only with the person's consent.
Sources
Related answers
- How do you track leads from flyers, yard signs and truck wraps?
- Which source gets the credit when a customer found you several ways?
- How can a small business get leads without paying for ads?
Lead generation and lead tracking
A lead that waits a day goes cold, and a lead with no source teaches you nothing. Ascent Vision fixes both.