5000 fliers 2x or 10000 fliers 1x?

[Team Green Property Maint]

I am gearing up to distribute 10000 fliers (paying 845 for printing, design and shipping...good, bad?) i have a quick question...in your opinion which would bring more results..

5000 fliers distributed twice to the same customers once beginning of March and again in April?

or

10000 fliers all at once to different households in April?

[daveyo]

I am gearing up to distribute 10000 fliers (paying 845 for printing, design and shipping...good, bad?) i have a quick question...in your opinion which would bring more results..

5000 fliers distributed twice to the same customers once beginning of March and again in April?

or

10000 fliers all at once to different households in April?


I'm not sure on price but I know a 4x6 postcard for 10,000 is anywhere from 2500-3800 depending on the colors, design etc.

I am doing to sets of 5000 hit em now to get my name out and sign some early clients and then later to reinforce. I'm in winter still not sure of your area. Where did you get them made up?

[Carolina Cuts]

was thinkin' the same thing.... $845 is dirt cheap for 10k flyers..

I got a price yesterday of .49/post card... 4x6 mass distribution.

[LB1234]

always do multiple mailings. I would even think 3333, 3x

[gringo gardener]

its been said time and time again by marketing gurus that a client will need to see your advo 27 times before they even associate your company within your field/industry

this being said 10k fliers gets you known in about 340 households

[DLAWNS]

its been said time and time again by marketing gurus that a client will need to see your advo 27 times before they even associate your company within your field/industry

this being said 10k fliers gets you known in about 340 households

I would probably do 5,000 2x. Just my opinion.

[gringo gardener]

Bill - roflmao !

actually the point i was trying to make was that if people do not plan to continually market their services then they arent going to find the results they are looking for.

if i want to get into a new subdivision or area then i plan on marketing future services in addition to the mowngo so that my name is seen like every 3 weeks.

this way if someone is not happy with their guy/gal come late may or even june my name has been seen enough to at least warrant a call - otherwise they probably wouldnt have saved or remembered me from march.

[DLAWNS]

Bill - roflmao !

actually the point i was trying to make was that if people do not plan to continually market their services then they arent going to find the results they are looking for.

if i want to get into a new subdivision or area then i plan on marketing future services in addition to the mowngo so that my name is seen like every 3 weeks.

this way if someone is not happy with their guy/gal come late may or even june my name has been seen enough to at least warrant a call - otherwise they probably wouldnt have saved or remembered me from march.

No my fault, I accidentally quoted your reply instead of just hitting "post reply.

I see your point about repetitive marketing. I was just throwing my two cents in saying that out of the two choices he gave I would suggest doing it twice instead of once. Sorry for the confusion.

[jhastrello]

Interesting discussion. Direct mail generally has a success rate of 2% or less, depending of course on quality and format.

I am taking a 'targeted' marketing approach, and will hand out/post door hangers or flyers (full 4 color printed, high quality stock and message) to my target markets. Harder to do, but I expect to get a better response (or hope to). Hoping to get a 5% return rate, but of course . . . . .

To your question, since it's direct mail, I would think 5K x 2 would be better.

[rnd]

Go to RNDSIGNS.COM. (http://rndsigns.com) Green industry specialists can give you feedback on mailer results. See hundreds of advertising print ideas online. Hundreds of professional photographs also. Request a FREE marketing handbook for ideas to grow sales. Design work available. Very affordable.

[Team Green Property Maint]

thanks! I like the, sending out 3333 three times idea. What I was going off was the general consensus that I should see a 2-3% rate for call backs and maybe half of those call backs will become customers. I want to get 150 customers before from my marketing plan.:weightlifter:

I will pay someone .11 cents a flier to go door to door for me and .08 cents a flier to print 10000 full color fliers (currently trying to haggle). to get my name out there more, I plan on mapping out a grid on a map and posting a full page color ad in all the public places in that area, for example: restaurants, grocery stores, gyms, mower repair shops, etc., then im going to reach the home owners association for each neighborhood (about 7 or 8 neighborhoods 6000 homes or so) and put and ad in each of their monthly community news letters- $195 for three months...deep breath... then put up those little yard signs on the corners of intersections- $99 for one hundred and fax those full color ads with prices and services to all the property management and real estate companys I can find. [:

I figure by the number of people I reach I should get 150 weekly customers...or 3600 cuts for the 24 week season.

the number sound good to me!

[Team Green Property Maint]

check these guys out for the 100 yard signs for 100 bucks
http://www.866signguy.com/100YS924W1C1SNS.htm

[LushGreenLawn]

check these guys out for the 100 yard signs for 100 bucks
http://www.866signguy.com/100YS924W1C1SNS.htm

Keep in mind the stakes for the signs are extra.

[jhastrello]

Just remember, the statistics on % return from direct mail, are the contact calls that you get. Not the number of new clients.

Good luck with your process. Hope that it pays fruitful dividends.

[nnj18]

Do 5000 2x.....as far as signs, if anyones interested I know a guy that does them for like $4/sign with stakes included, both sides printed and like 18x24

Thats a really good deal, I'm paying like $.50 for mine, but mine a tr-fold and really, really nice (tons of colors, hi-resolution pictures, etc)

[grasshopperslawn]

thanks! I like the, sending out 3333 three times idea. What I was going off was the general consensus that I should see a 2-3% rate for call backs and maybe half of those call backs will become customers. I want to get 150 customers before from my marketing plan.:weightlifter:

I will pay someone .11 cents a flier to go door to door for me and .08 cents a flier to print 10000 full color fliers (currently trying to haggle). to get my name out there more, I plan on mapping out a grid on a map and posting a full page color ad in all the public places in that area, for example: restaurants, grocery stores, gyms, mower repair shops, etc., then im going to reach the home owners association for each neighborhood (about 7 or 8 neighborhoods 6000 homes or so) and put and ad in each of their monthly community news letters- $195 for three months...deep breath... then put up those little yard signs on the corners of intersections- $99 for one hundred and fax those full color ads with prices and services to all the property management and real estate companys I can find. [:

I figure by the number of people I reach I should get 150 weekly customers...or 3600 cuts for the 24 week season.

the number sound good to me!

Why not get post cards and use them as flyers ? GOTPRINT.COM has 5000 fullcolor postcard for $105.00 . They work just as good

[grasshopperslawn]

I'm not sure on price but I know a 4x6 postcard for 10,000 is anywhere from 2500-3800 depending on the colors, design etc.

I am doing to sets of 5000 hit em now to get my name out and sign some early clients and then later to reinforce. I'm in winter still not sure of your area. Where did you get them made up?

Check GOTPRINT.COM for postcards this is my second season using them and they are pretty good full color both sides 105.00 plus shipping

[Perfect Image TLM]

Check GOTPRINT.COM for postcards this is my second season using them and they are pretty good full color both sides 105.00 plus shipping

Checked out this site and it has good deals! And to answer the question of this thread... 5000 x 2!

[Carolina Cuts]

I always use gotprint... cause they gotprices! good ones..... never a problem.

[daveyo]

Check GOTPRINT.COM for postcards this is my second season using them and they are pretty good full color both sides 105.00 plus shipping

Yea but there not shipping them, you have to figure .23 per card total costs.

[grasshopperslawn]

Yea but there not shipping them, you have to figure .23 per card total costs.
They do ship Them

[daveyo]

Check GOTPRINT.COM for postcards this is my second season using them and they are pretty good full color both sides 105.00 plus shipping

10,000 mailers is $2920 on gotprint which is expensive, thats total. You can definitely get better deals, but like you said 5000 for 150 is pretty good thats shipped to your house and you distribute.

[ParadiseLS]

with ad strategies, there are so many variables. i saw someone talking about a low success rate with direct mailers. in my area, direct mailers are very worthwhile. and in certain sectors of my area, they are borderline worthless, and door-to-door leaflets are fruitful.

the biggest factor i think is the composition of your business. a few years ago, we needed to majorly expand our customer base, and direct mailers were just what the doctor ordered, along with some signage posted up customer's lawns and along our busy streets. this year, i'm debating whether or not i will be doing any direct mailing at all since 3 years of doing so, we've managed to hook into a strong customer base with a low turnover rate.

also, there is the question of how much work you can manage and when you can manage it. for us, work starts April 1st with clean-ups, aerating, dethatching, fertilizing. a lot of people who have no intention of getting any of these services do not necessarily see our flyers and call us because they have it in their mind that they have another 3 weeks til they need to get their ducks in a row re: lawn care for the season. and the people who call me in early april or late march are usually the people who have their **** together really well, and they've allotted themselves time to shop around and get multiple quotes, bargain you down on your prices, and generally be a pain in the ass. if you already have a lot of customers who get multiple services and you are maybe looking to complement that customer base with people who don't get as much service, don't pay as much, but also don't take up a lot of time and energy, then you might be better to leave your advertising a little later. or if you don't have enough office support to help you manage all the phone calls and quoting on top of getting your work started, then you're better to spread your ads out over a few weeks.

in summary, do you have enough time to manage a surge of quotes and queries, or are you better off spreading things out? will your service schedule be booked for some period based on existing customers and referrals who will require the first couple weeks of your service time, or can you afford to fit new customers into your schedule immediately? does your business need to expand, or are you just filling in your gaps among a strong existing base?

[AllAmericanlawn]

Colorcopysite.com is another great priced website to get copiesw made. I usually design my own flyer on MS word. I am pretty good with Word and i can make a smooth looking flyer. Send it to Brett at Spinn print/Colorcopysite.com and its less expensive than the brochures and post cards. I make 2 flyers to a page 4.5x11. Brett will also cut them for free and i will have them in 3 days. 5000 flyers = $175. I get a return of 5-10 calls of each 1000 flyers i distribute. Not bad for a self designed cheap alternative. I will probably have a high res. flyer designed next year or in the future. But the direct marketing of that flyer has taken me from 0 accounts to 65 quality accounts in 2 years after i have gotten rid of most of the dead beet customers.

Morale of the story is:

You dont have to pump an insane amount of money into marketing. But you do have to have an effective marketing strategy. And direct mail or posting flyers is the most cost efective way in this business.

[closecuts]

I normally do 3. But 2 will work. It will get those same people seeing what you've got twice. Hopefully by the second time you can set the hook and land some.

[mngrassguy]

3 flights works best. Like others have said, get your name in front of them multiple times. The more the better. Work the areas closest to your shop and your customers. Chances are good they have seen your trucks and/or your work more often.

[LB1234]

I'm using a local print company. I tried the online printing thing but I can't get any of them to place the wafers on my brochures.

FYI:

Full color, dual sided, tri-fold brochure, 100# gloss text with aqueos coating, and one wafer seal per brochure is running me $700 for 5,000. I email the design to the print shop, they make sure every picture shows, bleeds are set, folds are correct, etc. I sign off on the copy and pay. Takes two weeks to process. Once they come in I pick up. Also, I have my bulk mailing permit through USPS so my permit imprint (i.e. stamp) is already on the brochure.

I do two mailings of 2,143 addresses. Depending on the responses, I have ~700 flyers left to do a third mailing. Annual permit costs ~$150 and postage costs $0.260 per brochure. Therefore 5,000 mailings postage is going to run me $1,455.

Now, I have a lot of work to do on my end. While the brochures are in print I have to start printing address labels on my laser printer. Also, once the brochures come in I need to place all those address labels on the brochures. address labels run me about $35 and I use about 0.50 of my toner cartridge which runs about 100 bucks. Also, I have to sort each zip code into bins for the USPS in order to receive the discount on the postage.

All told, not including my labor with tax its $750 brochures, $90 labels, & $1,455 for postage. So I'm in the $0.46 cents per flyer range. I don't think thats too bad. Direct mail really works for me. By having my mailing permit it gives me the flexibility of when (and where) to send the flyers. I usually send one out about mid-march. I wait for the weather forecast to show a really nice weekend when people might start thinking about outdoor projects. If snows in the forecast I can hold off. I mail out Wednesday evening so it arrives Friday/Saturday when they start to get outside and do some work or think about it cause spring is in the air. I place me second mailing in the mail late may/early april. The third one (if needed) will go out mid-April.

[jhastrello]

Nice reply. What is your response rate on this type of mailing? Are you getting the type of customers that you want?

Working on my marketing now. Our first mailing will likely go out towards the end of the month, when our 'spring fever/weather' starts up. Beautiful lately, but still pretty cold here in E. Texas at night.

[THC]

You're not going to get 150 customers with 10k flyers, I bet you don't even get 25.

[LB1234]

Nice reply. What is your response rate on this type of mailing? Are you getting the type of customers that you want?


Received 13 new customers from about 4500 mailers.

A) 1 paver landing installation and front step repair
B) 3 mulch installations
C) 2 lawn contract
D) 2 lawn contract & mulch installation
E) 1 lawn contract, mulch install, & 5-step fert program
F) 1 lawn contract, mulch install, 5-step fert program, & aeration/overseed
G) 1 5-step fert program & mulch install
H) 1 lawn contract & fall leaf cleanup
I) 1 small perennial bed install

Of those 13 customers I received 4 new from word of mouth. Neighbors that wanted there lawns, mulch, and/or 5-step fert program peformed.

We had one person come up to us due to our uniforms. Landed a half day job from her. Another took our number off our truck and we landed another half day job from that.

Needless to say we did very well with the flyers last year.

[hustler king]

I recently went out at night in a commercial zoned area where I travel quite a few times a week. I began wandering what would be the best way to get my name out here and pick up a few commercial accounts. I didn't want to piss anyone off by calling and asking about ground services so I came to a fast inexpensive solution that is a little more intelligent than a fly by night flier. purchased neon green paper from Walmart, security envelopes, mailing labels, and blank business cards. I spent a few hours one night retrieving addresses from all of the business. Then the next night I printed 100 fliers in regards to today's economy and ways to cut cost. To make it short and sweet it should have them thinking "Hey, this company might be worth the time to at least call and get an estimate." I have professional business cards already. My idea was to make a more simpler card with 2 sides. One my business name and info, the other side is a printed coupon saying "Call before April 1st and save 25%off first full month mowing. I printed all the mailing labels with the company name and address, hand signed each flier and put them in the mailbox. Look, I may only get 2 or 3 accounts out of it but that's 2 or 3 I didn't have before. Remember time is money and no one is getting off there azz to make it for you. My father raised me to think and I believe if you want to make a million dollars you will find a way to do it. Go get em boys!

[kevinsky]

My direct mail company recommends at least five mailings no more than one month apart.

[huskres]

Anyone know a company that passes out flyers door to door? Ive looked before and cant seem to find one. Im in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I know ive seen them out there but cant seem to locate one.

[THC]

Anyone know a company that passes out flyers door to door? Ive looked before and cant seem to find one. Im in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I know ive seen them out there but cant seem to locate one.

Do you get flyers delivered to YOUR door every week?

If not then I must be spoiled because I have several options where I live. I prefer the community newspapers. They add it as an insert and then for people that don't take the paper, they go around with ad bags.

City newspaper also does this btw.

[huskres]

no i dont actually. only had 1 lawn flyer all last year as well.