Door to door Leafletting

[manicinsomniac]

I regularly deliver large numbers of leaflets through people's letterboxes - either advertising amateur dramatic productions or political canvassing.

I hate it. As I approach someone's drive I can feel my chest getting tight and my breathing getting faster. My hands shake pushing the leaflets through and I have to restrain myself from running away from the door as quickly as possible when the letterbox rattles. Gravel driveways are a particular nightmare and I find myself trying to tiptoe without looking obvious. If there's someone in their garden, car or garage that house gets missed out straightaway.

The reason for the anxiety is that I feel people see the leafletting as an invasion of their privacy. That I have no right to be walking onto someone's property and up to their door without being invited. That lots of people have firm or even aggressive signs about cold callers and junk mail. I am scared of annoying people and even more scared of the door flying open and someone shouting at me.

But everyone else who I leaflet with thinks I'm crazy to worry like this and that we aren't bothering anyone, have a right to put whatever we like through the doors etc. There's one person who's nervous of dogs behind letterboxes but nobody else is scared of the process itself.

So I want to know how crazy (or in fact, reasonable!) I am being. Do you think it's unreasonable to use private letterboxes for advertising or campaigning? And does it annoy you?

YANBU! I got roped into leafleting for something recently, and I felt exactly the same as you OP! I felt ridiculous, but I hated it! The organiser even commented on how good I was at it, but it was only because I was legging it away after posting each one in case someone came out and shouted at me! Funny enough, I have no problem receiving leaflets through my own door.

Have you got any local newsletters OP? We found a decent amount of success publicity wise from entries in those.

Also signs on local railing etc, leaflets in library, post office, local shops.

Any leaflets that come through my door go straight to recycling with an inward sigh at the waste of the planet's resources.

Probably too big a place for newsletters but there may be Jaques If there are, I expect the publicity officers do use them - they know about local radio, papers etc so they're pretty well clued up.

Elphame - if they go in recycling, aren't you 'unwasting' the resources? I imagine most people put them in recycling if they don't want them so I don't think it's as bad as all that. And a very small amount of waste when compared to packaging, magazines etc. I suppose the waste is in not knowing which households would say yes to them in the first place. Maybe we should all hang signs by our door with check boxes for 'no junk mail' 'services' 'local events' 'food' and other categories!

I took upon my self to do some leaflets dropping through letterbox’s for FairPlayForWomen.

OP I with you! And omg some of these people’s letter boxes, it was as if I was trying to break into their house! Amount of scratches I got on my hands to.

Respect to leaflet droppers and postman

i have a sign up saying no cold callers or junk mail. I don't want it, end of.
if I saw someone putting junk in it I would say something .

YANBU OP. Leafletting DOES work, especially for local matters (events, politics etc) and your figures just prove that. I work in marketing and if I got an uptake of 25% I can promise you I'd be doing that activity again and again (although your ROI isn't quite as good as you'd imagine as those leaflets will cost a bit more than 1p each! )

If people don't want leaflets they can get a "no junk mail" sign. Otherwise, I'm afraid they can't complain. (And I say that as someone who has a very lightly-sleeping baby who is awoken by the letterbox!)

Hi OP, I don't mind leaflets if they're for local things. I've found out about things that I would've missed if I hadn't had the leaflet.

If it's not something I'm interested in, it goes in recycling (after I've read it).

I put all leaflets straight in the recycling. I don't read them, just get rid straight away. I have a no cold calling sign (and I count leaflets as cold calling as I've not asked for them).
I can't say I get angry about it, I just am not interested as don't pay any attention.

peachgreen - apologies - just to clarify, we don't get sales on 25% of the leaflets we deliver! (or if we do, I'd be VERY surprised!) Someone gave the 25 in every 100 leaflets example when I said that 30-40% of our ticket sales come from leafletting. But that's over 3-4 performances in venues that seat 100-200 people. So if capacity is, say, 450 tickets then 135 of them might come from leaflet sales. But I think we have 1200 leaflets and it's 1 per household not per person. So actual return is going to be 2-5% tops (unless my maths is really screwy which is entirely possible!) But yes, it's worth doing and we still make a lot more money from doing it than we lose.

As Ellisandra said

I don’t usually look that closely, might briefly think ‘not more leaflets’ but certainly wouldn’t blame the deliverer or company or be angry for it. Most people wouldn’t give it a second thought.

Sorry but i hate people who post crap through my door. It IS an invasion of my privacy as it IS trespassing

@MakeAHouseAHome Ridiculous over reaction. Of course it's not trespassing. Do you know how the Post Office makes most of its revenue these days? Delivering junk mail. So is your postman a trespasser?

Most unsolicited stuff we get goes in the bin but anything advertising local things / events I would at least read. I wonder if some of the sour pusses on here ever engage with their local community at all.

If it's any consolation, I always read any leaflets I get and have sometimes used services as a result. Any that don't interest me just go into the recycling. You and your leaflets are most welcome at my door, @manicinsomniac.

@manicinsomniac  That seems a bit more realistic - and still a good ROI given people likely by multiple tickets!

OP I sympathise I have on occasion had to leaflet about PTA events in case we cause disturbance to the local residence and I find it mortifiying but I have to do it for diligence sake e.g. fireworks displays and other possible disturbances.

I don't mind local things - a lot of people are trying to get by financially these days. The pizza ones and estate agent stuff is annoying.

There is evidence that political leaflets work. They work best when combined with social media delivery as well.

And even in the biggest by election campaign the leaflets you get will be less paper than 1 free newspaper. And most parties use recycled paper

Awww, yay; some less scary responses. Thanks!

I used to deliver political leaflets. A wooden ruler is great for houses with dogs, know lots of people that got bitten fingers without

OP - are you me?! I do this exact same thing. I'm more chilled about it. I know loads of people who would never have heard of our group if it weren't for the leafletting. I just don't post through doors which have the no junk mail sign in or any down long drives. I'm fine about getting leaflets and often keep handyman / gardener / plumber type ones in case I need them. It cant be trespassing - what about the free papers people - they would have been banned years ago otherwise.

OP I used to do leafleting and I hated it, however I don't think there is actually anything to be afraid of and if you hate doing, say, blocks of flats I recommend taking a friend along. Actually I found that (out of election season where the leafleting is ridiculous) quite a lot of people were happy that we were leafleting about things happening in their area even if they didn't agree with our politics, and for elderly and lonely people we were sometimes the only contact they might have in their day, so we'd often stop to chat and see how they were.

What about advertising using one poster in local hostelries or GP surgery where like minded people might notice?
Leaflets are a pain in the ass. Good money spent lying over pieces, disregarded or picked up and binned tout de suite, otherwise the porch is littered.

I like leaflets for local things. I just pop the rest onto recycling.

i wouldnt begrudge your leaflet op.

We get tons of junk mail it drives me nuts and would rather not receive it. We also get loads of junk mail for previous owners and two years later despite registering with MPS etc we still get it. The worst one to get rid of has been Chums they claimed they had removed our address from the mailing list turns out the old owners had opened several accounts and each one had to be removed individually