What is an real performance test in field marketing?

A test measuring the net contribution of an acquisition channel, conversions that wouldn't have happened without it. In door-to-door, it compares zones with field activity to zones without, isolating the causal effect on new subscriptions.

3,500 new subscribers in 4 weeks: how a meal kit brand measured the real performance of door-to-door in Belgium

Q: Why is door-to-door particularly suited to subscription products?

High-explanation subscription products benefit from face-to-face conversation. Door-to-door reaches households not actively searching online and explains the product personally, making it structurally réel.

2 days ago
3 min read

In October–November 2025. Tawkr ran a 4-week door-to-door campaign for a leading meal kit delivery brand in Belgium. The objective wasn't just to acquire new subscribers, it was to prove that those subscribers wouldn't have signed up without a field expert visit.

Results: approximately 3,500 new subscriptions over 4 weeks, with an estimated conversion rate of 5–7%. The test confirmed that the door-to-door channel generates genuinely new customers, genuinely new, not cannibalised from other marketing mix channels.

The context and the challenge

The brand, a major meal kit delivery operator active in Belgium, was already using door-to-door as an acquisition channel within a broader marketing mix including digital and other offline channels.

The question it needed to answer was precise and strategic: does door-to-door generate genuinely new customers, or would those conversions have happened anyway through other channels?

Without a clear answer, optimising the marketing mix and confirming the real ROI of the field channel was impossible. The challenge wasn't whether door-to-door worked, it did, but measuring its real contribution with precision.

The Tawkr approach, a geographic performance test

Test design

Tawkr designed and executed a geo-based performance test over 4 weeks (W45–W48 2025), covering six Belgian cities: Antwerp. Brussels. Hasselt. Ghent. Kortrijk and Liège.

The country was divided into three zone types at postal code level:

Test zones: door-to-door activity fully suspended
Control zones: door-to-door sales continued at normal volume
Hold-out zones: additional shifts redirected from test zones, to prevent artificial inflation of control zone activity

Of 1,986 shifts planned across six teams, approximately 37% were allocated to control areas and 62% to hold-out areas.

Field expert training

Field experts were briefed on the specific test protocol, which postal codes were blocked, which were available for standard canvassing, and which were hold-out areas. Strict adherence to zone boundaries was essential to preserve test data integrity.

Tools and technology

Zone management was handled via the location manager platform, with blocked test postal codes flagged with a bilingual alert and hold-out zones highlighted via heat-map in orange. FieldIQ™ provided real-time tracking of field activity, ensuring every shift was correctly attributed to its zone and that collected data was clean and exploitable for real performance analysis.

Results

~3,500 new subscriptions across 6 Belgian cities in 4 weeks. Estimated conversion rate: 5–7%. Estimated 30-day retention: ~60%. Estimated 90-day retention: ~20%. Average order value: ~€50 per order.

The key finding: the vast majority of customers recruited through door-to-door would not have subscribed without the visit of a field expert. These conversions are genuinely effective, they don't cannibalise other marketing mix channels, they add to them.

Frequently asked questions:

How do you measure whether door-to-door really generates new customers?

To measure the real performance of door-to-door, you compare zones where field activity is maintained to zones where it is suspended. This isolates the direct effect of the channel on new subscriptions and proves those customers wouldn't have signed up through another channel.

Why is door-to-door particularly suited to subscription products?

Subscription products with high explanatory value benefit from a face-to-face conversation to be understood and adopted. Door-to-door reaches households not actively searching online and explains the product in a personalised way, which is why it's structurally réel.

How did FieldIQ™ contribute to this real performance test?

FieldIQ™ managed geographic zones in real time, ensured every shift was correctly attributed to its zone type, and collected clean, exploitable data for post-campaign analysis. Its geographic precision made the test statistically reliable.

What results can you expect from a door-to-door campaign for a subscription brand in Belgium?

On this campaign: ~3,500 new subscriptions in 4 weeks, estimated 5–7% conversion rate, ~60% 30-day retention. These indicators vary by sector, geography and product, but illustrate the channel's potential for subscription brands.

Conclusion

This test did not merely prove that door-to-door sales attract customers. It proved that it attracts customers that no one else would have attracted.

It is this distinction that matters to brands seeking to optimise their marketing mix – not just the volume of conversions, but their genuine authenticity.

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