◦ the honest sums ◦ Richmond upon Thames ◦
What it costs to reach10,000 Richmond homes.
Same doormats, three ways to reach the people behind them. Here is what each one actually involves, so you can do the sums on the back of an envelope.
go it alone · solo mail drop
£4,800+
print and postage alone, 10,000 A5 cards
- ✗You carry the whole card yourself
- ✗Design, artwork and print management on top
- ✗Runs past £5,000 once someone designs it
- ✗No way to know if it worked
48p per household, all on you
patch post · one slot, shared card
£900
same 10,000 homes, one exclusive slot
- ✓The only business in your trade on the card
- ✓Designed, printed and posted for you
- ✓Your own QR code, every scan logged
- ✓Monthly report: scans, dates, real leads
9p per household · front half slot £1,500
renting leads · ads and directories
No end
the meter runs for as long as you do
- ✗Trade keywords are some of the most contested clicks in local search
- ✗You are billed whether or not they call
- ✗Your competitors sit on the same page
- ✗Pause it and you vanish overnight
leads rented, never owned
Same postcard. Same doormats. 48p a home alone, 9p a home shared.
A solo drop makes you carry all ten thousand homes on your own. Sharing the card with five non-competing local advertisers splits the print and postage, keeps every doormat, and adds the one thing leaflets never had: a QR code that proves it worked.
side by side
The straight comparison
| solo mail drop | patch post slot | google ads | checkatrade | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reach | 10,000 homes | 10,000 homes | Whoever clicks | Whoever browses |
| What you put in | £4,800+ in print and postage alone | £900 back quarter (£1,500 front half) | Per click, open-ended | Membership fees, ongoing |
| Design and artwork | You hire it or do it yourself | Done for you, included | You write the ads | You dress the profile |
| Your competitors | Off your card, but running their own | Banned. One business per trade | Bidding against you on every search | Listed on the same page as you |
| Proof it worked | None. You guess | Your own QR code, every scan logged | Dashboards, if you can read them | Hard to trace to real jobs |
| When you stop paying | The cards already landed | The cards already landed | The phone goes quiet | The profile goes dark |
ad and directory columns are how these channels work, not quotes · your figures may vary
You already know what the other routes feel like.
google ads
You know what a click goes for in your trade. Every search puts you in an auction against every other plumber, roofer or electrician in the borough, you are billed for the click whether or not the phone rings, and the day you pause the campaign you stop existing. Nothing lands, nothing lingers, nothing sits on a fridge door.
checkatrade and directories
A membership fee before a single job arrives, and your profile sits in a list with every competitor a homeowner could want to ring instead. The platform owns the audience and the reviews. A Patch Post card puts you in 10,000 kitchens with no competitor in sight, and it is still pinned to the fridge long after a membership lapses.
claim your spot
Reach the same 10,000 homes for £900, done for you.
Tell us your trade and your patch. We will confirm your category is still open and send you a mock-up of the card with your business on it. No commitment, no call you did not ask for.