direct mailing help

[f150 with bobcat]

i will be putting out a wave of direct mailings in a highly wealthy area my question is what should i include in the letter? how should i word it? any ideas is greatly appreciated

[NEW CITY LAWN CARE LLC]

i will be putting out a wave of direct mailings in a highly wealthy area my question is what should i include in the letter? how should i word it? any ideas is greatly appreciated

I'd consider a postcard with a coupon or some sort of special to get their interest.

[f150 with bobcat]

do i need a permit to direct mailing

[DLAWNS]

I'd consider a postcard with a coupon or some sort of special to get their interest.

This would be my advice also. Check out Quantum Digital for help with your mailing. It was a little bit of a pain in the beginning but once I got it going, they were very helpful and my mailing turned out great.

[NEW CITY LAWN CARE LLC]

do i need a permit to direct mailing

I've never heard of someone required to have a permit to send postcards in the mail?

[DLAWNS]

do i need a permit to direct mailing

I do not believe there is any kind of permit that you would need to get. At least I hope not, I've been doing it without any kind of permit.

[NEW CITY LAWN CARE LLC]

This would be my advice also. Check out Quantum Digital for help with your mailing. It was a little bit of a pain in the beginning but once I got it going, they were very helpful and my mailing turned out great.

Does Quantum have a website?

[DLAWNS]

Does Quantum have a website?

Yes sir...http://quantumdigital.com/

[NEW CITY LAWN CARE LLC]

Yes sir...http://quantumdigital.com/

What did this cost and for how many mailings? Did they provide the mailing list as well?

[DLAWNS]

I provided my own list, and I believe I hit about 2100 homes and I believe it cost around $900. It worked out well for me. The postage was what drove the price up.

[paradisescaper]

d lawns what was your return on that?

[DLAWNS]

d lawns what was your return on that?

I got about 20+ calls and about five very good accounts and some one time job type of things. I was just kind of testing the waters with the direct mailing last year. I think it was worth it and I might be interested in doing a huge one soon. We'll see how things go.

[ford550]

Direct mailing is a very good way to advertise. We have been doing it for about 3 years now. We are actually pulling out of the phone books because they are so useless and directing those ($1400/month) into other forms of advertising. The biggest thing to make sure you are hitting your target market with the direct mail. We have compiled a list of about 2000 that we target. We use vista print, provide them with our list and they do the rest, about $850 per run. We have tracked this return from this form of marketing and about 30% of our gross comes from direct mailing. Hope this helps.

[pasto_guy]

Where do you get your lists from. I have several large neighborhoods that I would like to target but how do I get all the addresses and names?

[DLAWNS]

Where do you get your lists from. I have several large neighborhoods that I would like to target but how do I get all the addresses and names?

This might sound ridiculous, but I picked out the areas that I wanted to cover and made my own lists. In the winter I drove around and would write down the street names and the numbers. When I would get home, I would enter them into a database. It was kind of a pain in the a**, but it wasn't too bad.

[NEW CITY LAWN CARE LLC]

This might sound ridiculous, but I picked out the areas that I wanted to cover and made my own lists. In the winter I drove around and would write down the street names and the numbers. When I would get home, I would enter them into a database. It was kind of a pain in the a**, but it wasn't too bad.

That sounds like a lot of work, here in my town the county has a website where I can type in a street name and it will show me every tax lot with addresses on the street and surrounding streets, makes things a whole lot easier. I've also heard you can go to a title company and they will provide you with a neighborhood search with mailing labels.

[DLAWNS]

That sounds like a lot of work, here in my town the county has a website where I can type in a street name and it will show me every tax lot with addresses on the street and surrounding streets, makes things a whole lot easier. I've also heard you can go to a title company and they will provide you with a neighborhood search with mailing labels.

It was a lot of work, but I was bored in the winter anyway. :) I'm not sure if a title agency would give you that info for free. But thanks for the push in the right direction. I'll look into it.

[NEW CITY LAWN CARE LLC]

It was a lot of work, but I was bored in the winter anyway. :) I'm not sure if a title agency would give you that info for free. But thanks for the push in the right direction. I'll look into it.

Yeah, I'm not sure if they would or not, I have a Real Estate agent friend who told me that, it might be only something they do for them, not sure?

[DLAWNS]

Yeah, I'm not sure if they would or not, I have a Real Estate agent friend who told me that, it might be only something they do for them, not sure?

That might be what it is, because my wife used to work at a title agency and I don't believe they did that, because if I heard anything about it, I would have been all over it. lol

[LB1234]

This might sound ridiculous, but I picked out the areas that I wanted to cover and made my own lists. In the winter I drove around and would write down the street names and the numbers. When I would get home, I would enter them into a database. It was kind of a pain in the a**, but it wasn't too bad.


LOL, I did the same thing. Generated a list of about 1k homes that we mail to 2-3 times between march and april. This year I also kept a note of how many calls, where they were from, etc. I'm going to use that to takes some areas off the list and increase direct mailings to others.

Also got our bulk mailing permit from the USPS which helps a great deal on the postage costs. I use a tri-fold two sided brochure and the print shop prints the return address and my bulk postage info for me. Only thing I have to do is apply the mailing labels.

As far as what to include.......go down to a local book store and pick up a few marketing books and make sure they cover direct mail marketing. Lots of helpful tips and tricks to get people to call....from what words to use to when to mail.

[DLAWNS]

LOL, I did the same thing. Generated a list of about 1k homes that we mail to 2-3 times between march and april. This year I also kept a note of how many calls, where they were from, etc. I'm going to use that to takes some areas off the list and increase direct mailings to others.

Also got our bulk mailing permit from the USPS which helps a great deal on the postage costs. I use a tri-fold two sided brochure and the print shop prints the return address and my bulk postage info for me. Only thing I have to do is apply the mailing labels.

As far as what to include.......go down to a local book store and pick up a few marketing books and make sure they cover direct mail marketing. Lots of helpful tips and tricks to get people to call....from what words to use to when to mail.

What was the process of getting your USPS bulk mailing permit? Was it expensive? I would love to get some info on this.

[ford550]

This might sound ridiculous, but I picked out the areas that I wanted to cover and made my own lists. In the winter I drove around and would write down the street names and the numbers. When I would get home, I would enter them into a database. It was kind of a pain in the a**, but it wasn't too bad.


I did this as well, LOL. It allows us to target the neighborhoods exactly. A lot of the 'hoods we send to are new and therefore are not in the maps yet, so that's why we can't do that.

[LB1234]

What was the process of getting your USPS bulk mailing permit? Was it expensive? I would love to get some info on this.

Hi DLAWNS,

Process wasn't that bad at all. Go to your local post office (make sure they do bulk mailing) and ask to speak with the postmaster. Explain to him (or her) what you are trying to accomplish and they should help you out. There is a one time fee (I think $150) and another annual fee ($100 or so I believe) that you are required to pay. If my memory serves me correctly, my first year including both fees I saved something like 50 bucks and I only did about 1600 mailings. I've increase my mailings to around 2k and I definately save over paying first class postage.

FYI, biggest pain was the mailing labels you need to place in the postal service bins. YOu need to call someone in the edison office and have them made up and delivered to you (no extra cost). Allow 3-4 weeks for this...so start now if looking for end feb/march mailings.

Keep in mind you also have to sort per zip code and there are min. mailings. Like I said you need to take a little closer look to see if it makes sense. Oh, and they don't accept CC's for payment...cash or check.

PM me with any specifics.

[DLAWNS]

Hi DLAWNS,

Process wasn't that bad at all. Go to your local post office (make sure they do bulk mailing) and ask to speak with the postmaster. Explain to him (or her) what you are trying to accomplish and they should help you out. There is a one time fee (I think $150) and another annual fee ($100 or so I believe) that you are required to pay. If my memory serves me correctly, my first year including both fees I saved something like 50 bucks and I only did about 1600 mailings. I've increase my mailings to around 2k and I definately save over paying first class postage.

FYI, biggest pain was the mailing labels you need to place in the postal service bins. YOu need to call someone in the edison office and have them made up and delivered to you (no extra cost). Allow 3-4 weeks for this...so start now if looking for end feb/march mailings.

Keep in mind you also have to sort per zip code and there are min. mailings. Like I said you need to take a little closer look to see if it makes sense. Oh, and they don't accept CC's for payment...cash or check.

PM me with any specifics.

Cool, man. Thanks for the help. I will look into it over the winter.

[fman872]

Dlawns and other Jersey: I got the list I'm working on now for free from this site http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/prc6.cgi?menu=index&ms_user=monm&passwd=data&district=1301&mode=11

If this link does not work try this and click on property record search. http://www.unioncountynj.org/taxboard/