Mailers?

Sal616

I have read on here where people have done mailings by tax records etc, but i havent seen much of people using either valpak or money mailer, the reason i am asking, is in the company i used to run, we used these two companies to get our leads almost exclusively, referrals sprinlked in here and there but for 99% it was these mailers They arent cheap, the owners of the company did the marketing, so i dont know how many homes they hit, or how much they spent but it was alot, we did a little over 4 million dollars in sale last year , with a 33% net profit margin for the owners, we werent cheap, but not to ramble on, i am about to drop about $4,000 for 130,000 homes, and then 2 weeks later will be dropping another $4,000 for another 130,000 homes, i have read alot about the internet leads , some people hate them, grumpy seems to love them, but wanted to get recent insight on this topic being that i would be writing that check for 4k on monday. Is it worth it to go with the mailers ro should i cut it down and add the internet? the thing i hate about these coupons is that is has to come to you, but i have to believe with dropping 130,000 it has got to come back to me.

Peladu

Those Money Mailer things were a complete bust for me. I am a GC and they were absolutely horrible for me. I tried it twice (because face it sometimes you never learn) and had it hit approximately 75,000 households. I never made the money back from the mailings. It’s wasn’t because my price was too high, but for the fact that nobody seemed to call. If I didn’t have family in the locations that they went out, I would have thought they never went out.
Never-ever again will I money mailer….period! I had great, and I mean great success with printing out a flyer and putting it on (not in) mailboxes. After I delivered the flyers, I was swamped with calls. Which is weird because I personally throw them away when they are on my mailbox.
Also, with the mailers they tell you that you should offer something, like a 10% off, or $150 off, or blah blah blah. With my flyers, I offered nothing and the phone was ringing off the hook.

I am a GC, other trades it may work different, I don’t know. All I know is what happened to me. To say I was disappointed is an understatement

jmic

If you had your avatar pic. on it , it must have been the cute face

__________________
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Joe

Grumpy

What I know about mailers is you should mail tot he same people more than once. I don't know the details of Peladu's mailing however I'd have done less houses per shot and sent out more shots.

Peladu

But Grumpy, they sell you package deals....
For example, you can buy mailings for two suburbs or three or ..... ya know..
And they only go out about every 8-12 weeks....
I didn't hit the same zip code twice...i figured this would increase ,my odds...
I figured that if they (suburb) threw it out the first time....they would do it again...
I already struck out in that 'burb once, I wasn't going to pay to do it twice...

But then again, when these fliers went out a few years back, people were
moving into newer homes instead of fixing their homes up due ti IO Loans....
And the new homeowners (who just came out of appartments) were tight, tight, tight with their money (if they even had any)...
So in todays market, will this work?....I dunno, but I am not going to try...

Mike Finley

I've found the best thing to do is try a little of everything. Keep careful track of your ROI and eliminate what was a complete failure and re-use what had potential and keep tweaking it. I have a couple of sure fire things that work for me that I do all year round and I have a budget set aside to try out new things here and there. That's the only way I've found you will ever find your lead gold mine that works for you.

We must have 20 different variations on the the Val-pac thing you are talking about. I've never tried them yet, so I would be interested to see how it works out for you. I hope you post back with an update and your perceptions on how it turns out.

Patty

Home Improvement Companies reap a harvest with products like Valpak. I ought to know. I have sold advertising for Valpak. I have sold it to my boss here at the Granite company. It works like a banchi! And, it landed me a terrific consulting/granite & marble sales sideline that I love. Here's what happened: I get this guy to install granite countertops in my kitchen. He tells me he just started his own business a year ago, but I saw the work he did at a friend's house so I give him a shot. After the job is through, I mention Valpak Direct mail. He listens, he likes what he hears, he tries it on a very small scale. Guess what? He's getting calls which turn into contracts and that's where I came in. He says, "Patty, I need a smart chick like you to help me grow my business. Would you work for me?" I accepted and now handle all his evening and weekend appointments for him. The point is, Direct Mail works! And, it keeps working even after the ad (or ads) have been long discarded. How? It's easy. Everytime we do an install at a customer's house that might have been a direct mail response customer, someone visits his home and sees our newly installed countertops/floors/etc. And the first thing out of their mouth is, "Wow, what a great job. Who did this?" BINGO!!! A referral...or two...or three... But, the originating sale was achieved through Valpak Direct mail. So, yes, although word-of-mouth/referral is the number 1 source of business for ANY business, direct mail is a necessity for home improvement companies. And, God knows, it has performed quite well for us in the Granite/Marble arena. I handle concerns in the Chicagoland market and have had huge successes in behalf of my clientbase. I won't bore you with the overwhelming specifics but I will tell you that branding, frequency and targeting the right markets at the right time are keys to your success. (20 hours of demographic research never hurt anybody, either! But that's my expertise!) But, yes, it works very well and being on both sides of the desk, so to speak, I can provide you with an extremely objective opinion. No B.S. here, guys! The results blow my boss away!

Wallcoat Joe

You hit the nail on the head Patty. You must plan to lose any money spent on this type of marleting as it is best for "branding" and name awareness. If you can get just one sale though it is great because then you can show a ROI thru word of mouth. No home imp. co. can survive on leads from this source but a stream of referrals can be started and that is golden. Home shows are the same, if you sit down and honestly add up what it costs it would shock you and it takes alot of proffitable slaes to just B E let alone make a proffit.

Sal616

thanks for the input guys, i am going to drop the $$$$ on it, that and a few other avenues, i am going to get flyers prinetd up and toilet paper the area too. I will let you all know how it is going in a month or so, valpak doesnt go out until feb 13th.

Patty

Another good advertising venue for us has been the back side of church bulletins in the surrounding area. People feel a sense of trust and closeness with businesses that are local and that will advertise within their community's churches. This generates a ton of business for local businesses as well does it convey a good sense of community service. Try it. It's inexpensive and puts your name in front of your community. And, people tend to read their respective Church's bulletin, cover-to-cover.