Direct mail - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

jlomama · 09-01-2007, 09:08 PM

Sent out our first direct mail on Wednesday and got a call today!

For those of you who do direct mail on a regular basis, what percentage of leads should we expect? We sent out around 6000 mailers.

PressurePros · 09-01-2007, 09:50 PM

First mailer between 0-.5% sounds about right.

ruskent · 09-01-2007, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PressurePros

First mailer between 0-.5% sounds about right.

Honestly on a mailer of 6k i'd say .5% is high. I can mail out 100 hand picked addresses and get 1% response every time and then close a big job. But once i start mailing larger #s off of a list, my response rates goes down so low its not cost efficetive advetising.

Just my 2 cents.

welovepainting · 09-02-2007, 03:54 AM

Yeah it seems to me no matter how many post cards we mail out we only get a call or two. If we mail 100 we call one call if we mail 10,000 we get one call. We recently signed up with RSVP and the results have been outstanding. It's only 5 cents per post card. We received like 10 calls and landed 4 jobs all in the same week I will be going in all their mailings. They mail out 5 times a year.

**ChrWright** · 09-02-2007, 07:55 AM

Targeted mailings will always yield higher response rates--but will also cost more.

Realtors call this "farming". They target their networking, advertising, mailing efforts, etc. to specific areas/neighborhoods. The goal is to become the most recognized name in your specific business in the particular area(s) you farm.

Be careful when you buy lists that you aren't waisting money on addresses that will have zero chance of needing your products/services.

Targeted mailings also yield more qualified leads (less fishing).

PressurePros · 09-02-2007, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ruskent

Honestly on a mailer of 6k i'd say .5% is high. I can mail out 100 hand picked addresses and get 1% response every time and then close a big job. But once i start mailing larger #s off of a list, my response rates goes down so low its not cost efficetive advetising.

Just my 2 cents.

I agree 1000%. I teach guys to market to very targeted, very specific short lists and do it frequently (to the same list) until you dominate the area/demographic. I get a 4% response rate on fourth and fifth mailers but I launch very visible campaigns. I start with intro letters, mailers, yard signs, church bulletins, local papers, permiter marketing with door hangers and go all the way to charity work with press releases to dominate an area then I move to the next one and do the same thing.

Thats why I said zero to .5% is an expected response rate for shotgun marketing.

dougchips · 09-02-2007, 12:20 PM

You guys just ruined his holiday weekend! I've had my share of 0% returns from mailers the sting from sending our 100's with no calls is a lot less than sending out 6000.

nobull1 · 09-02-2007, 01:31 PM

I send out 5000 direct mail-outs every few months and get about .2% in new business. I get about 1-2% of the mailers to my website for the couple of days after the mailer goes out. A lot of the people that go to our site also join our newsletter for what appears to be future purchase of our products or services. But! I am also selling products and services for two businesses I own, which should have a positive impact on the responses. We are now getting business from mailers due to the repetition. When people are wondering who to call our name is in their minds, as was said previously about Realtors "farming". I know this because I ask most new customers, how did you find us? I don't consider direct mailers a money maker, but it isn't a loser either. All my mailers are designed to push people to our website, and it appears to work. One postcard can only say so much, but the website has 100 plus pages to help sell my businesses.

Repetition = Recognition = Response = Return on investment

But all businesses are different.

Brian

jlomama · 09-02-2007, 02:30 PM

We handpicked the the zip codes and only sent to people with a certain income. We have already set up an appointment to take a look at the homeowners project. If we get one job it will make it worth it.

Our postcard had a special offer on it so we hope to give the 500 "extras" to prequalified buyers at our next home show in October.

Welovepainting, interesting to hear about the RSVP company. We've been toying with using their services, they've been trying to get us as a client for awhile. Good to know that has worked for you. We'll have to keep that in mind.

mailman · 09-07-2007, 10:38 AM

Not to get too technical, but IMHO, these are two completely different things that often get confused...

"Direct Mail" involves an individual (or unique) mailpiece, from an individual source, delivered to an individual address, but mailed out in bulk quantities.

"Co-op Mail" involves a gathering of sources who pool their money together to split up/share the costs (but also split up/share the benefits/responses) of mailing in bulk quantities.

Basically, it's the difference between sending out your own mailing vs. being a part of a shared mailing.

Now, results are results...and if it's working for you, stick with it.

VTECK999 · 09-19-2007, 07:01 PM

how much are you paying in postage for 6k postcards?

ruskent · 09-19-2007, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VTECK999

how much are you paying in postage for 6k postcards?

All depends on how you mail them! Are you doing satuarated mailings or target mailing?

VTECK999 · 09-19-2007, 07:24 PM

Not sure what those are. But I was planning on buying a list of appx. 10k, having the printing done separately, then mailing them. Today I go to the post office and find that doing bulk mail (after the $175 start-up + $175 annual fee) is appx. 21 cents per piece. So lets see 10k postcards x .21 = $2,100?!?!??! IN POSTAGE!?! Please tell me i'm crazy.

VTECK999 · 09-19-2007, 07:24 PM

oh and 21 cents for 3rd class, which i was told could take up to 3 weeks for local delivery!

ruskent · 09-19-2007, 07:26 PM

THats what it cost to do a mailing. Do some searching in this forum. We have discussed better ways to do mailings without mailing 10k peices.

PressurePros · 09-19-2007, 08:23 PM

10,000 post cards times x .2% = 20 calls

Close 50% of those for 10 jobs.

10 jobs x $3,000= $30,000 in gross sales. Would you not spend $2500 to get $30,000 worth of work? There are way better ways to market than shootin a **** gun at the wall but one can't argue that one way to do advertising is view it as a numbers game.

jlomama · 09-19-2007, 08:52 PM

Allright, still only one phone call from the mailing. D%$*! It cost 3k for 6,000 mailers, printed and mailed plus we purchased a list of names in certain zip codes with incomes between 150k - 200k.

We are going to try and follow up with some of those addresses with our company brochure that we have boxes of sitting in our garage!

We did bid the one person that did call and it could be a fairly big job, we believe we are still in the running for that so if we get it at least it will pay for the mailer.

Lesson learned...

jamesfl · 09-20-2007, 09:28 AM

Here in Florida we have deed restricted neighborhoods that allow tile roofs only. The average tile roof is around 30k. So my partner and I drive around the tile neighborhoods looking for old roofs, then we mail those people only. We only do this in three neighborhoods, around 400 letters total. We change the letter every time we mail(3 months apart). This has sold around eight or nine jobs averaging around 32k a job.

We feel that these are good results.

James

varybarry · 09-20-2007, 10:39 AM

That's a good strategy you have there, jamesfl. I think it all depends on the types of jobs you're trying to sell. If you trying to sell basic jobs that have little revenue potential, then it's pointless. If you're selling big time projects, the it could be cost effective.

tekwrytr · 09-21-2007, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlomama

Allright, still only one phone call from the mailing. D%$*! It cost 3k for 6,000 mailers, printed and mailed plus we purchased a list of names in certain zip codes with incomes between 150k - 200k.

We are going to try and follow up with some of those addresses with our company brochure that we have boxes of sitting in our garage!

We did bid the one person that did call and it could be a fairly big job, we believe we are still in the running for that so if we get it at least it will pay for the mailer.

Lesson learned...

I hate to be the one to say this, but the 150K-200K income range have different habits, different likes and dislikes, and--especially--speak a slightly different language than, for example, the 50K-75K demographic. I don't know who you had design your ad materials, and whether or not they are slick enough to understand syntactic nuances based on demographics, but it is a BIG deal in marketing.

Your target demographic is a choice one, and you might want to do a bit of research, hire a professional (who knows what he or she is doing--many don't), and craft a specific rhetorical strategy for your target audience. It is likely that most of your ad material was tossed by the maid or housekeeper before the decision-maker even looked at it. Anything not specifically from someone (virtually all mass mailings) is considered junk mail.

Yes, Publisher's Clearinghouse makes money on mailings. Ever notice that the "You may already have won!" has a name on it? You might consider a simple app that does mail merge from a list, to "personalize" your appeal, and even go the extra distance of using first class letters. For your target audience, a high quality ivory envelope and dark brown print might be appropriate.
tekwrytr