Starting a Flyer Distribution Service – Part 2

Delivery rates vary from city to city. However, the average price to insert a flyer in a local newspaper is from $.04 to $.10 cents. The rate the post office charges is around $.12. Keep in mind, that these prices can fluctuate depending on your location.

Flyer distribution services are even more erratic in their pricing structure and are very dependent upon geographical location. However, these private services will offer more choices (and different prices) to the customer. Some offer exclusive delivery, while others will bundle flyers together for delivery in plastic bags – some do both. They might also provide the customer with a choice of what neighborhood his/her flyers are delivered to.

You will succeed in this business by convincing your customer that hand delivering of flyers will yield better results than the newspaper or postal options. You might also add that your company is capable of doing custom orders like small, targeted or exclusive campaigns.

Okay, so now that you have separated yourself from the newspaper and post office model, you’ve got to get out there and sell your services. Having some sales ability will be a huge asset since you will be talking with your customers face-to-face.

Of course, before you actually start selling your services, you need to decide exactly what you’ll be offering. How flexible do you plan on being with your customers? If someone asks you to deliver 100 flyers to one particular street, what will you charge? Do you have a minimum charge? Do your long-time customers get a price break?

One of the best business models for a flyer delivery service is to bundle separate flyers together in a plastic bag and deliver them on a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly basis to different areas. If you divide your city or town into sections, you will find that you can schedule each area for delivery each week, or every second week, or every month. Give the customer the choice of what area they prefer and tell them what days your carriers will be hitting that location. If you get customers asking to deliver outside of your schedule, you might have to turn them down. However, one option you should have is exclusivity. If they need their flyer delivered to a certain area outside of your schedule, then you should try to sell them this service.

Ideally, you’ll be offering both a bulk service and an exclusive service. Make sure you have people that can deliver for you on short notice to handle any custom orders.

One of the reasons the plastic bag method works so well is that you are being paid by several customers to make the same trip. Of course, customers cannot be expected to pay full price if they are sharing a bag with your other businesses. Set a bulk price and stick to it. The number of flyers shouldn’t matter (unless it gets excessive). This method will give you your biggest profit potential. You can imagine the difference that even one extra flyer per bag can make while doing a delivery of thousands of bags. One thing to keep in mind is that you want to avoid bundling together competing businesses. For example, you wouldn’t put two lawn service flyers in one plastic bag.

So, essentially, you will be adding up the cost of the plastic bags, the manpower to insert the flyers, and the manpower to make the deliveries. If you manage to get more than five flyers per bag on a consistent basis, you should be able to turn a decent profit. Even if the bags cost you a penny each, and you are paying each carrier $.10 to deliver it, you should break even after only three flyers per bag if you’re charging five cents each. I’ll talk more about pricing in just a bit.

The last pieces of the puzzle will be getting customers, setting up a price list, and arranging a delivery schedule. Oh yeah, and organizing your carriers. That’s coming up next.