Solus distribution refers to your leaflet being the only piece of marketing material being delivered to the area by the delivery team on that day. This means that, if there are no other distribution teams delivering to that area on that same day, then when the resident goes to pick up their mail from their door mat, yours will be the only advert waiting for them. This can result in a better response rate.
Benefits of a solus plan can include the flexibility that comes with this campaign. You can choose roughly when the distribution starts and when it ends. You can also be more specific with what areas and households you aim to target.
In a shared distribution run, your flyer will be delivered along with up to 3 other leaflets at the same time. There will be no conflicting businesses among these 4, but there will be other advertisements that the resident will have to look through to find yours. Experienced leaflet distribution teams will plan their runs to those areas carefully and try and use businesses that will complement each other.
Shared distribution campaigns are far more popular as the price per thousand leaflets delivered decreases dramatically. This is because up to 4 companies are sharing the cost of the delivery. For the cost reduction you can usually get over double the amount of leaflets delivered for the same cost as a solus campaign.
When a solus campaign is conducted, your leaflet still lands on the doormat along with other letters that have built up there from the day. This can also include other adverts depending on the postal sector and whether other teams have been delivering marketing materials there that day as well. So, in effect, you have paid for a solus campaign but still get the outcome of a shared campaign.
Therefore, we would often recommend a shared campaign to busier areas to reduce cost. As we previously mentioned, you can have a shared campaign for less than half the cost of a solus distribution run and will result in you getting more leaflets out for your budget. The quantity increase alone should result in a higher response rate.