How Many Leaflets Should I Print & Distribute?

Ayup! You’ve hopefully arrived here having wondered: how many leaflets should I print and distribute? It’s a great question and one that business owners often underestimate. This quick read takes you through the last three years averages and when and why you might need to go higher or lower.

How Many Leaflets Should I Print?

First up, decide what the intended use of your flyers or folded leaflets will be. I’ll focus on a leaflet printing and residential distribution campaign for this article.

Depending on which distribution company you’re working with, the minimum quantity will usually range from 1k to 5k.

However, there are plenty of use cases that won’t require such numbers:

• Printing flyers to place on your reception desk.
• Something to hand directly to your customers.
• Small direct mail drops to new or existing customers.
• Flyers for networking events or a trade show.
• Leaflets that you’ll never actually use (it happens to the best of us).

With the above in mind, consider ordering around 500 to a thousand. Consequently, it will be more expensive per thousand buying this way, instead of buying 5k or 10k in one go.

Leaflet Distribution Averages

Over the last three years, I’ve tracked the average print and distribution numbers here in Derby and Burton. Even though we deliver as little as 1k per job, the results may surprise you.

2023 – 8k (-0.6K)
2022 – 8.6K (+1K)
2021 – 7.6k

Basically, we can round that out to a solid 8k per campaign. But where does the bar start and end?

Smallest – 1k
Biggest – 40k

Top Tip! Lots of leaflet distribution companies won’t take on anythign less than 5k. Keep this in mind when planning your campaign.

It’s important to realise that in terms of leaflet marketing, 1k would be considered a very small number. However, there are also instances when dialling down your campaign is crucial. Let’s take a look.

1k is Enough, Right?

Business owners or marketing managers who are wondering how many leaflets should I print and distribute, this one’s for you.

1k is usually the default number for anyone new to leaflet distribution. Admittedly, this is fully understandable. You want to test the waters, right?

In this situation, a couple of areas to avoid that’ll help keep you out of the zero-response club:

• Designing the flyer yourself without any input from a graphic designer or leaflet distribution company.
• Printing your flyers on the cheapest stock possible. Cheap = Thin. Thin = crumpled flyers as they go through the letterbox.
• No social proof or website link. This comes across as untrustworthy.

These are just some of the rookie mistakes that are frequently adopted, particularly among property developers.

Ultimately, if you deliver (or have delivered) 1000 flyers that look unprofessional, printed on cheap paper with zero social proof, it will not bring in any responses.

Comparatively, if your artwork is designed for purpose, on a decent paper stock with social proof and a website, there’s no reason why testing out one or two thousand would do any harm. Nevertheless, 5k is the recommended minimum, as you’ll see further down.

If you offer local services, then leaflet distribution is an ideal way to spread the word about your business. When it comes to launching a new venture, such as a shop or restaurant, leaflets are especially effective.

Marketing Donut

When 1K is Justified

Here in Derby and Burton, we’ll gladly take on smaller, custom jobs for the right clients. In this instance, this is usually for planning permission companies.

These campaigns need to target a small and very specific area (I believe it’s a legal obligation to do so). The purpose of the door drop is to notify residents of the proposed plans and building work that will be happening close to where they live.

If there’s a solid and justified reason for delivering 1k or less, then it is, of course, advisable to do so. In contrast, if you’re a business looking for new leads, it can take time to gauge your response correctly on such a small number.

Related → How long do 1000 leaflets take to deliver?

The Magic Number For Your Business

How many leaflets should I print and distribute for my particular business? Well, this will usually depend on what you do.

As mentioned above this usually ranges from 1k to 40k, whereas smaller 1k drops are usually only for planning permission companies.

The top end of the scale, from 20k to 40k is usually for big established businesses, political parties or councils.

Smaller businesses would rarely have the budget to (or need to) cover this many properties.

With 8k being the average over recent years, this would undeniably be a decent starting point. In light of this information, you’ll probably still want to see if it actually works the first time around.

Starting Point: 2K – 5k
Most small businesses start around this mark. I’d highly suggest pushing towards the 5k option if the budget allows.

Most Popular: 5k – 10k
Leaflet distribution campaigns rely on a big audience seeing your message. From 5k to 10k seems to be the sweet spot.

Experienced: 10k – 20k
Once you’ve tweaked your campaigns and know the results are coming in, it’s time to increase the number of eyes on your flyer or leaflet. 15k is a popular number in this category.

Pro: 20k – 40k+
More often than not this category is reserved for political parties and councils with fairly larger budgets. In the same fashion, established businesses usually opt for somewhere around the 25k mark.

How Many Leaflets Should I Print & Distribute – Conclusion

Although it’s an option, 1k would be considered a very small amount in terms of printing and distribution. With an average of 8k over the last three years, it’s important to realise that this form of marketing relies on big numbers going out.

Another key point is how your flyers or leaflets look and feel. They need to display that you are a credible business within milliseconds.

The quality of your artwork and graphic design is everything. Additionally, 170gsm is the minimum leaflet printing recommendation intended for door drops. 250gsm is, however, the most suitable option. This will prevent any of your flyers from getting crumbled in the letterboxes.