How many leaflets do you need for a drop to be worth doing?
There is no universal number, but there is a reliable way to reach yours: start from what one customer is worth to you, apply a deliberately pessimistic response assumption, and see whether the arithmetic still leaves you in profit. If it does not at a given quantity, that quantity is not a small test - it is a coin toss.
Start with the value of one job
A trade with a four-figure average job and a takeaway with a fifteen-pound order are playing completely different games with the same piece of paper. The higher your job value, the fewer responses you need for the round to pay, and the smaller a viable quantity becomes.
Take your average order value, subtract your costs, and you have the profit that a single enquiry-turned-customer contributes. Everything else in this calculation hangs off that figure.
Apply a pessimistic assumption, not a hopeful one
General commentary on door-to-door response tends to sit at low single-digit percentages at best, frequently a fraction of one percent, and it swings hard with sector, area, timing and offer. Treat any specific figure you are quoted, including in this guide, as a rough industry range rather than a forecast for your business.
Plan on the gloomy end. If the round only makes sense on an optimistic assumption, you are relying on luck rather than on a plan.
The arithmetic, done once
Multiply your planned quantity by your pessimistic response assumption to get an expected number of enquiries. Multiply that by the share of enquiries you normally convert, then by the profit on one job. Compare the result with the total cost of print plus distribution.
Do this at three quantities rather than one. The shape of the answer tells you more than any single number - and it usually shows why very small runs disappoint.
- Profit per converted job
- Realistic conversion rate from enquiry to job
- Deliberately low response assumption
- Full cost of print and delivery, not print alone
Why very small runs mislead you
At small quantities the expected number of enquiries can be less than one. Getting nothing is then the single most likely outcome even when the leaflet, the area and the offer are all sound, and you will draw the wrong conclusion from it.
Per-unit print costs also sit at their worst on tiny runs, so you pay the highest price per leaflet for the least reliable information.
Coverage versus repetition
Once you have a total, decide whether to cover a wide area once or a tighter area more than once. Repeat exposure to the same streets builds recognition and tends to suit local trades working a defined patch, while single wide coverage suits launches and one-off events.
Our distribution is planned by round, so you can hold a quantity steady and change only the pattern between campaigns - which makes the comparison meaningful.
Frequently asked
Is 500 leaflets enough?
For a counter stack or an event, yes. As a door-to-door test it is usually too few for the result to mean anything, because the expected number of responses at that volume can be below one.
Should I do one big drop or several smaller ones?
Several rounds into the same streets suits businesses people need repeatedly or unexpectedly. One wide drop suits an opening, a closing-down sale or a dated event.
How do I choose between more leaflets and better paper?
On a tight budget, reach usually beats stock. A decent standard weight delivered to more of the right doors will normally out-perform a heavier leaflet through fewer.
Can I split one order across areas?
Yes. Printing once and delivering across separate rounds keeps the unit cost down while letting you compare areas, provided each area has a distinguishable response route.
Not sure what quantity to commit to?
Give us your average job value and the area you want covered, and we will price two or three realistic quantities so you can compare.