[Trevor8]

O.K. I have a few questions to ask.

1. What is the difference between direct and bulk mail?

2. Can you say you want to mail them to a specific neighborhood?

3. How long does it take for them to be delivered?

4. What would the cost be for 1000 postcards?

5. What do you think is the better option for me?


Thanks for the help

 

[castlerockmo]

at digitalexpress.att.com you can send them out to just certain neighborhoods they do the printing and mailing all you have to do is give them the address our use their maps and do a certian area. the price ranges in how many you want to send out. example would be 0-100 post cards-50 set up then .90 per card. then as you go up in qty it gets cheaper.

The way I fiqured it the time I had the post card printed and mailed, or hand delivered it would cost me that much in fuel,time,material & postage. I am going to try them out this year

 

[rusty_keg_3]

You could use vista print... Their are a few ways to break it down like: income, how long they have lived there, age, all the good stuff. And you can targer specific areas... The price depends on the number, and who (residential or commercial). But they will print and send them out for you...

http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/mailing_services/BuyList.aspx

Prices- depend, but
1000- is about $0.51 (includes everything)
10000- is about $0.42 ea

 

[Trevor8]

I found a website called directmail.com I got 1000 houses printed on labels for $100


thanks for the help

 

[grassguy123]

colorfxweb.com is a wholesale printing and mailing house. they are by far the absolute cheapest route to go for direct mailers. .02 a postcard(high quality) and .20 per stamp.

or you can use the 6 x 11 postcards for .07each and .20 per stamp

 

[Coastal Lawn Maintenance]

i dont know how they are getting away with .20 cents postage, because postcards are .28 cents but if it wors i might have to try it

 

[grassguy123]

its called bulk mail. if you send more than 200 out at a time. you can get .13 stamps if your sending out to entire carrier routes

 

[Plan-It Graphics]

O.K. I have a few questions to ask.

1. What is the difference between direct and bulk mail?

2. Can you say you want to mail them to a specific neighborhood?

3. How long does it take for them to be delivered?

4. What would the cost be for 1000 postcards?

5. What do you think is the better option for me?

Thanks for the help

Here are the answers to your questions...

1. Bulk Mail is the mailing of "usually" advertising materials, that are presorted. as per teh USPS website, "bulk mail" and "Presorted Mail" are used interchangeably.

2. Yes, and no. I believe you have to mail 250 in order to get discounted postage. So, if you had the addresses of that neighborhood, and there were more than 200 homes, then yes you could "bulk mail" to that neighborhood.

3. The USPS most common ways to mail are FIRST CLASS, and STANDARD. (Standard mail rates are much lower than first class.) If Im off by a few days, please understand... First Class is 2-3 business day delivery, 7-10 day delivery. This also depends from where they are being mailed from. (I.E. your customers are in Ohio, and your direct mail piece is being created and mailed form Arizona, time will be increased, than if you shipped them from a closer location)

4. The answer to this question can vary DRASTICALLY. I would say a good estimate would be about .40-.44 cents (=/-) per piece. This wouldn't include a mailing list price, or any design fees.

5. NO... 1000 cards is not that many. The cost of the printer or a local mail house to address your cards for you would probably exceed any discounts you would receive by using standard mail. It would probably be best for you to get the 1000 cards, stamp an label them yourself. If you used 4x6 postcards, the stamp would only be .28 cents.

Keep in mind, 1000 isn't very much. I have read thread after thread on this site talking about the "response rate" of postcards. I disagree with anyone who claims the 2% is still the standard response. I personally feel that if you get 1% you are ahead of the game. I have read that of that response 50% SALE rate would be a good return.

So lets use 1% response rate... 1000 cards would generate 1 phone call. So now you have a50/50 shot at getting a customer.

I'm very sure that there are people on this site that will disagree with me, and have gotten better response, however, I see this all the time. 1000 is not enough.

If you want it to work, here is a very effective way to use "direct mail..."

Get 2000 names, mail to 500 people each month and keep rotating the list. This way those 2000 will see your ad 4 TIMES in one year. This would only cost you about $210 per month for the cards and postage.

Direct Mail is a numbers game, the more you mail the more you get. The more you mail, the lower the cost per sale.

We could talk for HOURS about this, and in fact I have discussed this very issue with many clients. If you want help, or more details, PLEASE feel free to contact me. I'm in the lawn care business along with you, so I know what has worked, and what has not.

Hope this helps,
Bob
www.plan-itgraphics.com

 

[Trevor8]

I have got 3 calls and only one job. one guy I talked to was a @$$.

 

[Plan-It Graphics]

I have got 3 calls and only one job. one guy I talked to was a @$$.

Well that's actually a good response rate. And if you look at it, the customer you got won't cost you anything to acquire next year. So don't get frustrated.

 

[rjh4758]

So lets use 1% response rate... 1000 cards would generate 1 phone call. So now you have a50/50 shot at getting a customer.

www.plan-itgraphics.com

1% of 1000 is 10 not 1.

Lets just think about junk mail here. I hate to say it but that is what your post card is. You have but a fraction of a second to catch a potential customers attention before your post card hits the trash.

Your design is very critical and you had better be offering something very lucrative to get a second glance.

I personally think door hangers are a better way to market to an area. I have seen people take the door hangers off their doors and typically they spend a few seconds reading it. Which would you spend more time looking at something stuck to your door or a piece of junk mail? But response rates I have seen posted here on LS state about the same response rate for both.

 

[Plan-It Graphics]

1% of 1000 is 10 not 1.

Lets just think about junk mail here. I hate to say it but that is what your post card is. You have but a fraction of a second to catch a potential customers attention before your post card hits the trash.

Your design is very critical and you had better be offering something very lucrative to get a second glance.

I personally think door hangers are a better way to market to an area. I have seen people take the door hangers off their doors and typically they spend a few seconds reading it. Which would you spend more time looking at something stuck to your door or a piece of junk mail? But response rates I have seen posted here on LS state about the same response rate for both.

OMG... I'M SO SORRY!! You are right. My math was off!! What an idiot I feel like now!! I still feel 1000 cards isn't really enough. At least for a one and done mailing.

Sorry for the math error.

As for your comment on door hangers. I agree with you 100%. Door hangers get a better response. And i feel you are right as to why also. At least they have to walk the hanger to the trash can. Most people get their mail, and stand over the trash can looking at it. However... you can't argue that direct mail is MUCH easier.

One more clarification... I don't really think it's the "hanger," it's the fact that it's somewhere other than the mailbox mixed in with all the other mail. You could put a postcard, flyer or anything on someones door and get probably the same response. It's exactly what you said. Let be honest, whatever you grab off your door you'll look at on your way to the trash can.

 

[David Gretzmier]

I have done postcards for my Christmas Light biz and my Laqndscape light biz. I do saturation mailing, which means I mail to everyone on a walking route code, aprox 400-700 homes. I only mail to the most expensive residential home value neighborhoods, and that info is available at melissadata.com. You can get full color 4x6 postcards for 2 cents each if you buy 5000 ( that is only 100 bucks ). I use the 6x11 card for about 6 cents each for 10,000 ( 600 bucks) because that is the largest card you can mail and still get the cheap saturation mail rate, and that big of a card at least gets looked at before they throw it out. I have a local mailing company address, postage, and mail them for about 30 cents each. I try to spend 450 a month in mailing expenses sending out cards, or around 1500 folks per month. I rotate around 8 cards or so. and for the record, 10000 cards takes up some space.

I get probably 15 calls per month, or 1% and do about 10 bids and close 3-4 landscape lighting jobs that run from 2500-6000 bucks. we install one per week on average, sometimes 2. we only do landscape lighting in the "off-Christmas" season from March 1-Sept 1. then the mailers have switched to Christmas Lights.

mailers for Christmas get a 2% response, mainly because it is much more seasonal in nature.

So a 450-500 buck investment nets us about 12-15k in revenue, so I am happy with that return on investment. it does not go up from there however. I have spent twice that and not gotten twice the response. In my population of folks around 500,000 folks, there are only so many folks who are buying Landscape lighting at any point in time.

lawn care may be different. When we were doing over a mill per year back in 2003, we closed 75% of our yearly mowing contracts from Jan 1- April 15. So I would concentrate on december- April. maybe may, and then just do branding type marketing.

 

[Trevor8]

well the one house i got is for sale so hope it does not sell

 

[rjh4758]

OMG... I'M SO SORRY!! You are right. My math was off!! What an idiot I feel like now!! I still feel 1000 cards isn't really enough. At least for a one and done mailing.

Sorry for the math error.

As for your comment on door hangers. I agree with you 100%. Door hangers get a better response. And i feel you are right as to why also. At least they have to walk the hanger to the trash can. Most people get their mail, and stand over the trash can looking at it. However... you can't argue that direct mail is MUCH easier.

One more clarification... I don't really think it's the "hanger," it's the fact that it's somewhere other than the mailbox mixed in with all the other mail. You could put a postcard, flyer or anything on someones door and get probably the same response. It's exactly what you said. Let be honest, whatever you grab off your door you'll look at on your way to the trash can.

No biggy on the math error.

I have thought about hiring day labor or looking for some temporary help to post door hangers and make it less labor intensive. But I do run into home owner while hanging door hangers and I would sooner have my business represented by me than some temp help that knows nothing of your business or lawn care. Post card are a lot easier but are also a lot more expensive to distribute.

 

[DLC0806]

David? How do you buy a local mailing list that you can keep re using?