How to choose the right areas for a leaflet drop
Start from where your existing customers already are, then choose streets that look like them and sit within the distance you are willing to travel or deliver. Test a smaller area first and only widen it once you can see which streets respond. Postcodes on a map are the last step, not the first.
Begin with customers you already have
If you have past invoices, delivery addresses or booking records, plot them. Clusters appear quickly: a window cleaner finds most work within a few estates, a takeaway sees orders concentrated inside its delivery radius, an estate agent knows which roads sell. Those clusters, and the streets that look like them, are the best starting point for any drop.
New businesses without records can use their service radius instead. Ask how far you are genuinely willing to drive for a job or deliver a meal, and draw that line before looking at anything else.
Match the housing to the offer
Different homes need different things. Family houses with gardens suit landscaping, driveway and extension work. Terraced streets and flats respond to takeaways, cleaning and local shops. Newer estates can be worth targeting for trades that fit out homes. Think about who can say yes to your leaflet: a tenant cannot commission a new roof.
Blocks of flats with locked entrances are often hard to reach, so tell your distribution company whether you want them included, and expect them to be flagged on the tracking where access was not possible.
Town rounds versus rural rounds
In a town, a distributor can reach hundreds of letterboxes in an hour. In villages and rural parts of a county, doors are further apart, so each leaflet takes longer to deliver. Rural rounds can still be worthwhile for businesses whose customers live there, such as agricultural services, oil and fuel suppliers, or trades covering a wide patch, but plan for the drop to take longer and ask for the pricing to be quoted clearly.
Tracking matters even more on rural rounds, where a skipped lane is harder to spot. We GPS-track every round, town or rural, so you can see on the map which roads were walked.
Leave out what you cannot serve
Excluding streets saves money. Remove industrial estates if you sell to households, roads beyond your delivery radius, and areas where you already have more work than you can handle. A smaller, well-chosen area delivered solus often beats a larger one delivered shared, because every leaflet lands somewhere you actually want work from.
- Plot existing customers or draw your service radius
- Choose streets whose housing fits your offer
- Decide whether to include flats and rural lanes
- Exclude areas you cannot or do not want to serve
- Start with at least 1,000 homes and measure
Test, measure and widen
Our minimum drop is 1,000 leaflets, which is a sensible test size. Give the leaflet a way to track response, such as a dedicated offer code or phone number, and note which streets calls come from. After a few weeks you will know whether to repeat the same area, move next door, or change the leaflet before spending more.
Our guides on how many leaflets you need and measuring response rates go into the numbers side. When you are ready, send us your area and we will quote shared (from around £30 per 1,000) and solus (from £45 per 1,000) delivery.
Frequently asked
How do I decide which streets to target?
Start with where your current customers live, pick streets with similar housing inside your service radius, and exclude areas you cannot serve.
Is rural leaflet distribution worth it?
It can be if your customers live there, but rural doors are further apart, so drops take longer. GPS tracking helps confirm lanes were covered.
What is a sensible test size?
1,000 homes, which is our minimum drop. Measure response before widening the area.
Can I exclude certain roads?
Yes. Tell us which roads or estates to leave out and they will be removed from the round.
Not sure where to start?
Send us your postcode, service radius and who your customers are, and we will suggest a first area and quote it.