Question for mailing out advertising

[KINGjosh]

If you do flyers for mailing, then i take it you use envelopes. But if you've mailed out postcards, do you put them in an envelope or do you just put the address on the post card it self. If so what do you use to put the address on, do you print it on or have the little stickers that you put on them?

[Mark McC]

You might want to use the search function using "direct" and "mail" as search terms. You'll find a lot of information that way.

If you're mailing postcard-sized items, no envelope is needed. Envelopes cost more in postage.

[LB1234]

If you do flyers for mailing, then i take it you use envelopes. But if you've mailed out postcards, do you put them in an envelope or do you just put the address on the post card it self. If so what do you use to put the address on, do you print it on or have the little stickers that you put on them?

IMO, the envelope just adds cost and garbage. Cheaper way to go is have labels placed on. I'm doing flyers first time this year. Will be going out by the end of this week...and no I do not have envelopes. Hope in your vehicle and take a walk down to your local postoffice. Give them a sample of your flyer (or just bring a piece of paper) and ask them if how you are going to fold it will work. they will tell you where you need to put tabs, place return addresses, etc. My advice would then to fold a sample flyer and drop in post office to mail to yourself. See what condition it comes to you in or if it even gets to you at all.

Like guy said above...search.

[tonygreek]

i wouldn't use envelopes for a postcard for the reason of cost and more importantly, you've taken capturing the attention of someone immediately, to hoping they actually open the piece of junkmail. this is also the reason that you should have them professionally designed so that they stand out. i use the front side of mine to capture the attention, typically through the use of a humorous photo and lead-in message. my goal is to get it hanging on someone's fridge because it's funny, which creates sticky'ness for my brand.

[KINGjosh]

Ok I have spent quite a bit of time searching and still no results on what i am looking for. Lets say you are doing post cards, do you do one side print and the pther side blank so you can print the address on the blank side. Or do you print both sides, now the question i have with the printing on both sides is, where do you put the address? Right over your print, and you mean to tell me that your supposed to make 10,000 little individual sticky lables for all those.

Or does the mailing company do all that stuff. Im really confused on wether to get one sided or double?

[tonygreek]

instead of searching on here, head to your mailbox and take a look at any postcard you've received. you can cover 80% or so (give or take) of the back with info, leaving enough room for the stamp and address info.

hit 48hourprint.com, order their sample pack, and you can get a feel for the printing area that way.

the address application is a bit more complicated and depends on how you arrived at those addresses. you can go through companies that will handle the addressing based on zip+4 or whatever other method of targeting you want, as well as postage. you can also do them on your own if you can handle that.

btw, do you actually plan on a 10k mailing or was that a "for example" number?

[KINGjosh]

I was considering ordering 10,000 just so i dont have to order again for a while.
I will order 10,000 and probably mail out 500 a month to selective address's, then hand deleiver about 200 a month, then namelessly have 1000 or so every other month delivered with the sunday paper. Sound good?

[LB1234]

I was considering ordering 10,000 just so i dont have to order again for a while.
I will order 10,000 and probably mail out 500 a month to selective address's, then hand deleiver about 200 a month, then namelessly have 1000 or so every other month delivered with the sunday paper. Sound good?

Why not order enough to do two mailings. If its found they are effective than order your 10,000 minus what you did. Otherwise, if you find that they aren't working then you don't have so many thousand left over.

[KINGjosh]

Ehh, What the heck now that i think about it I might just mail out all 10,000. They say the rate of call back is 1% so i figure i'll get 100 calls. Then out of those 100 calls i might be able to get maybe half as high quality customers. So 50 customers for $835, for the cost of printing and mailing. Not including the mailing list. Am i crazy or what?

[tonygreek]

you're crazy... ;)

i'll retract that if you can explain how you can send postcards, all-inclusive, for 8.4 cents per.

[KINGjosh]

Well thanx to the members of lawnsite for letting me know how. I too will let you know. http://www.48hourprint.com/mailpricing.html

[tonygreek]

if that link is in response to me questioning your math, you might want to recheck if that $835 is inclusive of the ballpark $2,000 in postage. :)

[KINGjosh]

Wow I guess i am a dumb ass. So that little price in red is just to set it up for mailing, and does not include postage? Well in that case i think ill still take 10,000, but i guess i will be walking a whole lot more on my days off. There was a post on here aweek ago or so that someone had them printed and mailed out, postage included for about .26 cents or something. Im gonna try to find it.

[tonygreek]

i didn't say it... :)

i figured you didn't catch that. 48hourprint doesn't do a good job of explaining that this is simply the set-up and delivery fee. that in itself is probably worth it, but they could do a better job to avoid disappointing confusion.

[KINGjosh]

so whats your web sites for printing and mailing?

[tonygreek]

we use 48hourprint and i have a database i use for targeted mailings, however we typically only use newpaper inserts and display ads. of the 10k we have going out, 6,500 are through newspaper inserts, with 3k going out door-to-door, and the remainder as targeted mailings.

[KINGjosh]

Is a data base a mail listing you can use unlimited amounts of time for a monthly due?

[walker-talker]

you're crazy... ;)

i'll retract that if you can explain how you can send postcards, all-inclusive, for 8.4 cents per.
Crazy as a lunybird!!! I am just kidding, but it is crazy for that cheap. I did 5000 postcards last year and it cost me just over $2000. That was for the design of the postcard, mailing list, mailing services, print of the postcard and postage.....everything. I thought they were decent looking postcards also. I don't want to piss on your parade, but I never received anywhere close to 1% response rate. I am not saying you won't, because I have heard of other that have. I received at most 1/2% response rate and picked up only 4 weekly mowing accounts. My problem with my postcard was that I didn't market mowing....just a broad spectrum of my services. I listed all my services....and that is what I got calls on. If you are targeting mowing clients, then better design your postcard with that in mind.

[Mark McC]

I don't believe it makes sense to hit someone with a mailer detailing a zillion services. Makes more sense to offer just one each time you mail and hit the homes with at least three mailers, each one offering and only one service, but not the same service twice.

I'm going to hit 2,500 homes with three mailers: one for mulching beds, a second for seeding/aeration, and the third for lawn care.

CALL FOR ACTION?

If your mailer does not call for action, such as "respond by xx/xx to get a $x discount," you have not stimulated them to do anything. We all just drop it in the pile and MAY get to it...unless there's a reason to. Getting money back is a reason to call you. To get them to call you by a certain date, the offer should expire.

[walker-talker]

I don't believe it makes sense to hit someone with a mailer detailing a zillion services. Makes more sense to offer just one each time you mail and hit the homes with at least three mailers, each one offering and only one service, but not the same service twice.I agree. I just posted what I did so that other might be able to learn from MY mistake.

As far as the rest your post Mark, all good advice. Especially about "calling for action".

[KINGjosh]

well after a while of looking, i found a local company that is going to print 10,000 flyers and put them in a discount coupon envelope. Total cost for printing and mailing is $435. I would post the company but there only a local co. I will inform on the results. They are scheduled to go out in march.

[b727guru]

how did you find them?

I mean, what type of business did you look for when did your searching?

[tonygreek]

all lawns, by "flyers", i assume you actually mean something like a 2"x6" coupon insert that homeowners receive filled with coupons? ie, ValPak or some other?

if so, let us know how the response rate is.

[KINGjosh]

Yeah its exactly Valpak. I didn't know they were everywhere. Yeah i will let you guys know. 10,000 all at once to one zip code. I hope i can get 1% hit rate.

[tonygreek]

the valpak guys also publish the Reach Magazine coupon "magazine" that goes out.

the only problem with getting a hit rate in the ballpark of a flyer is that by design, every potential customer touches your ad, even if only to trash it. even if you add an evelope to a flyer as a mailing, you've ruled out x number of people who will throw it out without opening it. throw in the added layer of sifting through many coupons and you've made it even harder to capture their attention. the plus side is that the cost is relatively low, so even signing 1/2 of a mowing client for a year would cover it.

let us know how the response rate is.

[Team Gopher]

Hi All Lawns & Landcare,

Will you offer any coupons in your value-pak advertisement?

[KINGjosh]

Hi All Lawns & Landcare,

Will you offer any coupons in your value-pak advertisement?

Hey Mike, Yeah i will have 1/2 off second months lawn maintinace bill.
Also 10% off jobs over $200. I think if i dont offer any coupons it defeats the whole purpose of advertising in a Valpak.