Our Background

How did we start…

Zone Marketing was established in 1987 was initially established in Harpenden, Hertfordshire to provide discount voucher marketing services to local shops and businesses. This was a concept that our founder Jeff Frankling had first seen working in the USA in the mid-1980’s.

In the USA letterboxes or postboxes are not in the door but at the front of the drive or on the perimeter of the property. The postboxes are the sole domain of the US Mail, and independent companies are not allowed by law to place items or marketing material into them. Therefore a system of co-operative envelopes containing vouchers and offers from local shops and businesses has been established by many companies who use the US Mail to deliver them.

While on a fact-finding mission to the US Jeff Frankling saw this system and realised that nothing like this existed on this side of the Atlantic and set out to establish a similar operation in the UK. Jeff called his discount voucher operation Val-U-Pak and developed it in several areas until Val-Pak of the USA purchased the brand.

Val-Pak is a very successful operator in the US and apparently they wanted to set up in the UK but despite a small start in London in the mid 90’s it never got going for them and soon after they retracted back to the US.

What happened next…

In the early 90’s as the demand for dedicated door drops grew rapidly and from his voucher pack experience Jeff Frankling established DOR-2-DOR to fulfil the local need. From the outset, it was clear that DOR-2-DOR could be built into a franchise system so that expansion of the service to other parts of the UK could take place.

Many pilot operations were set up in the late 90’s so that we could develop marketing and management systems. In 2001 we appointed our first fully fledged franchisee based in Bristol, south-west England.

Since then the unique DOR-2-DOR system has been developed significantly, and we now provide a broad range of services to those businesses who want to find new customers through the medium of the letterbox. The franchise network has also grown considerably, and we currently cover over 100 main conurbations across the UK with hundreds of surrounding villages also included. The Franchise network continues to grow apace.

Where are we now…

The letterbox as a marketing channel is now well established for the 21st century and despite the growth of the internet, email and social marketing it is proving a very attractive option for local businesses. In fact, every home has a letterbox and every new home built has a letterbox included usually in the front door.

In 2008 we introduced our DOR-DROPZ cooperative mailer. The DOR-DROPZ cooperative mailer is in A4 format printed in full colour and distributed to local households. It offers local businesses a low-cost method of getting their messages to the letterboxes of local residential householders.

In 2010 we launched our D2D-Print website where you can order anything easily online not just leaflets but also a full range of business stationery namely business cards, letterheads, compliment slips, etc. The website also offers over 15,000 editable templates for leaflets and stationery in dozens of business categories.

Our print service is very reliable and predictable and the quality of the finished product of the highest standard. We invite you to give us a try – you will not be disappointed.

To compliment our print services we also offer a high-quality design service through D2D-Design, another of the Zone Marketing group services. D2D-Design isn’t just a simple design service; we offer our ideas and expertise on creating leaflet/flyer designs that don’t just look good but also produce great results!

DOR-2-DOR has also been granted a PostComm licence by the government communication regulator Ofcom. This legally entitles DOR-2-DOR to deliver addressed mail. There are a limited number of distribution companies across the UK who have a PostComm licence. The most well-known one being the Royal Mail who are a major deliverer of unaddressed mail in the UK.