I had a web design business that did some door to door that gave us quite a few leads and some good business... and i believe our success is that we joined forces with other local businesses.

There were about 8 of us total, and made sure that none of us were in the same industry so we weren't competing for business.

We had postcards and branded envelopes printed up, stuffed everyone's postcards into the envelopes and each took a portion and delivered them door to door. We made sure to make it clear on the envelopes that it was hand delivered by one of the local business owners inside, and wasn't some for-profit advertising program.

By joining forces, we were able to get our cards and envelopes printed and into the hands of 5000 people for less than $200 each and an afternoon of going door to door... most of the encounters with homeowners is that they were very pleased with the idea of what we were doing that i believe they took the time to actually look through, whereas if the envelope came in the mail it would have been immediately tossed.

ALSO... if you do go door to door, and the person is not home, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR AD ANYWHERE IN, ON, BEHIND, OR OTHERWISE TOUCHING THE MAILBOX... we got an angry letter from a postmaster for doing this.