Thank you:
Thank you to our guest speaker Tom Ridges from Alliance Partner Herdify for this insightful session.
Tom Ridges, Founder & CEO of Herdify, explored how agencies can future-proof door drop and mail campaigns in 2026 as rising costs and reduced volumes place greater pressure on ROI. Using behavioural science and network theory, Tom demonstrated why understanding local influence and offline word-of-mouth is critical to smarter targeting and better acquisition outcomes.
Key Takeaways for Agencies…
📉 Do more with less in 2026
With increasing costs and potential drops in consumer spend, success will come from improving performance at lower volumes, not scaling inefficient targeting.
🧠 Behavioural science beats demographics
People are heavily influenced by friends and local communities. Consumers are far more likely to act when they see others around them doing the same.
📍 Local influence matters most
Most purchase journeys happen close to home. Identifying postcode sectors where real-world conversations are happening delivers higher-quality prospects.
🚫 Stop chasing competitor strongholds
Targeting areas dominated by competitors is often inefficient. Growth is more effective when brands amplify places where they already have trust and influence.
📢 Word-of-mouth is still king
Offline advocacy remains one of the most trusted drivers of behaviour, even as digital reviews and influencer marketing lose credibility.
🤖 AI can predict future performance
Modelling influence clusters helps predict where campaigns will perform best, rather than relying only on historic sales or demographic data.
🔗 Channel integration drives uplift
Door drop performs best when combined with other channels, creating a multiplier effect and improving customer quality.
🎯 Agencies own the opportunity
Smarter targeting allows agencies to protect ROI, strengthen the mail channel, and unlock budget from other channels by delivering provable performance gains.
If you have any questions for Tom please reach out to him on: tom@herdify.com