How Many Flyers Should I Print For a Distribution Campaign?
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How many flyers should I print and distribute? Our clients here at Leaflet Lion often ask this question. Maybe you have too?
This quick read covers all the information you’ll need to help choose the right number for your next campaign.
I’ll cover the average total, popular options, if 1000 is enough and why/when you’d need to print more. Let’s get into it…
How Many Flyers Should I Print?
Before you reach your ideal amount, there are a few areas to take into account. For example, what’s your marketing budget, and what’s the intended use of your flyers or leaflets?
The Quick Answer
For a door-to-door distribution campaign, 1000 would usually be the bare minimum. Additionally, it’s worth noting that lots of distribution companies have a minimum order of 5000.
This is because 5000 is a solid starting point. It’s important to realise that only printing and delivering 1000 flyers isn’t going to be enough to bring in a decent response.
Most businesses and organisations print and deliver between 5k and 15k per campaign.
What’s The Intended Purpose?
Firstly, what will your flyers be used for? In this article, we’re focussing on distributing them residentially. However, you may also place your leaflets in a holder for customers to take or hand them to clients when you see them.
In these cases, you wouldn’t need quite as many as I’ll discuss further down.
Related: How much does leaflet distribution cost?
House Count Data
Most of the campaigns we work on here in Nottingham, Leicester and Derby base their total number on our house count data.
Our clients will either:
- Request the total number of properties in the area they want to target.
- Indicate the total number of properties they want to target in an area.
In both cases, we would then map out their chosen area and provide the exact number of properties within it. This, of course, helps to make a well-informed decision on how many flyers to print for your campaign.
Edwalton, Nottingham Area Map – 2000 Properties
How Many Flyers Should I Print? – The Current Average
To give you an idea of the current landscape, let’s take a look at this year’s average in Nottingham and Derby in comparison to previous years.
- 2024 Average – 7.4 thousand
- 2023 Average – 8 thousand
- 2022 – Average – 8.6 thousand
- 2021 Average – 7.6 thousand
Keep in mind that our minimum distribution quantity here in Nottingham and Mansfield is 1000. Companies with a minimum of 5000 would, therefore, have higher averages.
Popular Flyer Printing & Distribution Numbers
Taking a look through the jobs we’ve worked on this year, a few popular numbers are evident. These nearly always fall in line with our available print runs.
Most commercial printers have specific options. For example, 10k, 15k, 20k, 25k etc. As a result, we can see that some of the most popular choices are:
- 5’000
- 10’000
- 15’000
Note: It’s often cheaper to purchase the standard options rather than request a custom number. To illustrate this point, here at Leaflet Lion, if a client wants 4000 flyers printed, it’s cheaper for them to buy 5000.
Related: Does leaflet distribution work?
Is Printing 1000 Flyers Enough?
In general, I’d say no. But there are certain cases when it’s perfectly valid. This is usually when we work on planning permission consultations. These jobs need to cover a certain (small) area close to the new development site.
It’s usually between 500 and a thousand properties. Conversely, if you’re a business looking for a healthy response rate from your flyer or leaflet campaign, 1k isn’t going to cut it.
Related: The best paper for printing leaflets on.
Minimum Orders With Leaflet Distribution Companies
As mentioned further up, it’s worth considering the minimum requirements when planning your flyer printing and distribution job.
It’s fairly standard practice for the minimum to be 5000 with an independent distribution company. The Royal Mail also has a minimum spend per campaign.
Related: How long does it take to deliver 1000 leaflets?
How Many Flyers Should I Print? Conclusion
To conclude and answer the question – How many flyers should I print?
Most businesses print between 5k and 15k for a residential (also known as door-to-door) distribution campaign.
1k can sometimes be justified if you need to target a small area, but this is usually reserved for planning permission consultations.
As a business, keep in mind the current average of 7.4 thousand in 2024. You may also want to gather house count data based on the area of your business. This can help you choose the total number of flyers to print and distribute based on the number of properties.
Thanks for stopping by…
My name’s Mike Hindle. I’m the owner here at Leaflet Lion. I also work in digital marketing (local SEO and web design) over at my other business, Clearcut Derby.