Direct Mail

james e.

as the marketing arm for a home improvement company i can relate to any/all frustrations w/ lead services. with 20 years esperience i've been thru all the cycles...mail, telephone, your own net leads, optimisers, co.'s that net harvest, shows, etc. right now in my opinion every company should only use some kind of exclusive relationship. services that dish out the leads to multiple contractors can become disappointing and time consuming.also,are your homeowners getting bank turndowns for financing?

Any Season

I have a painting company in seacoast NH/ northeast MA and I have a very comprehensive mailing strategy which I feel I have come as close to perfecting as you can. I did College Pro for 3 years before starting my business 5 years ago and I gained valuable direct mail education through them. If you get fairly nice postcards in the mail from other companies then you have a DM company in your area. Look at the return address and call them up. For example, the company I use is owned by one of the bigger local newspapers so somehow they can offer very low prices but you have to buy a certain number of pieces (10 cents per including printing and mailing), the kicker is they can offer such low prices because you are doing full saturation. I used to buy lists, have online companies print the stuff then drive to local printers, etc, etc. Basically I went with full saturation because you can mail to a whole city for the same price as configuring your list and setting that mailer up. As far as response rates, it varies greatly depending on where you are mailing to, what you offer, time of year, timing of mail drop, and so on. I can tell you that depending on where you live purchasing lists can be a huge waste of money bc (I personally always think it is but...) there are many many self employed people in rural and suburban areas. Usually they are some of the best customers with plenty of money to spend and easy to close but like you or I, they don't represent themselves accurately on income customer lists so you may not be getting your postcard to these people in some cases.

Basically I am of the mind that you need to jump in with both feet and have faith that your mail will pay for itself. Don't be afraid of having too much work, sub it out or hire more people...that is the progression of business.

To put it in perspective I advertise in a local coupon book that goes out to 100,000 people 4 times a year, 230,000 pieces that go out from feb. through may, a select mailing that goes out in february to about 50,000, another 80,000 peices that go out from late august to mid sept. and a thank you card with a voucher for a free bottle of wine around the holidays for anyone I estimated or did work for in the last two years. That is appox 3/4 of a million pieces of mail and I am not a super huge company by any means. Hope this info helps.

Any Season

hey I was reading this thread and came across your post...find a local printer who has mailing services for a good rate bc you can use his postal permit instead of paying $175 and also get the printing and sorting services for 4-6 cents a piece.

bbbuild

I've found that the quality of the postcard/flier makes a big difference in response rates. A high quality marketing piece creates a positive image of your company. I've had good luck ordering materials from remodelingcommunications.com, good looking stuff that's reasonably priced.

Ed the Roofer

I use a coupon mailer pack consistently, with an in home printed and delivered price of 1.9 cents per coupon.

Yeah, it is saturation rather than targeted, but it gets the job done on a regular basis.

Ed

andrew.macias

I am just curious, where did you get the contacts from? Did you simply buy a database or do you have a website where you get an opt-in?

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Second Look

Wow, that's really pricey for using templates. Funny, it almost seems like you might work there, since your only two posts are about this company. I'm sure you're really excited about your postcards and that's just the way it seems though. I can't wait to hear what you have to say about the remodeling business, outside of your direct mail experience with one particular company.

For less money I can get a custom designed piece - copywriting, graphics design, everything. Then I upload the PDF to Vistaprint. Design and copy was $250, then $220 for 1000 cards, 6x9 size full color both sides. That's copy front and back, full color design front and back, full color printing front and back.

When I order the next thousand, I don't pay that steep premium for the use of the template. I don't see where you(r) guys are even doing any color on the back. Kind of hard to tell but when I go for the larger view I get a nice view of a file called noimage.gif, which states "no image available".

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Second Look home improvement www.SecondLookHome.com
Handyman and Home Repair Specialist in Rhode Island
RI Licensed Lead Safe Remodeler/Renovator, RI Registered & Insured Contractor

jamesimprove

I just received my first order of postcards from overnight prints, they were great looking. I also ordered some business cards from STAPLES thru there on-line site and they also came to me and they were great also. STAPLES also does postcards and I like there pricing because for standard ground delivery (UPS) there is no additional charge.

This is my first switch to color products and they really do look better then black and white.

txchristy281

Dang! Where were you people when I was selling advertising all those years???? Most people I talked to didn't have a CLUE about advertising! I am impressed!

If you are doing residential work... find the common thread with your customers. Are they new movers? Have they been in their homes a particular amount of time? Take a real good look at your mail piece... is there a call to action?

Also, you have to understand the basic psychology of buyers.. it takes them seeing your name an AVERAGE of seven times before they build any name recognition and trust. So the first mail piece you send out... may get stuffed in the trash. But with repeated use... Direct Mail can drive a ton of business your way.

My biggest suggestion is this... find out who you customer is and get involved in the community that they are in. Families with kids? Sponsor a little league team. Business professionals? Join BNI and the Chamber. Your name will be everywhere... for everyone to see. THEN direct mail is really powerful. Because you are already known and respected. Now you are calling them to action! And believe me... they act!

bbbuild

As you observed, I am new to the forum (this or any forum). I have found it very helpful and have been reading it for some time. I finally decided to make a contribution about a supplier that I have had good experience with, thinking it may be of use to others. The approach you describe for creating postcards sounds reasonable and cost effective, however, knowing my limitations, a turnkey approach is ideal for me.