Mailers?

[Knight_Vision]

Does anybody use mailers anymore, or has this been replaced by renting email lists or targeting on social media sites? Curious if the ROI and costs still make snail mail mailers a viable option? Thank you

[rd]

I LOVE snail mail @Knight_Vision. I try to send them our near holidays but not for holidays. The last mailers we sent out was for National Maple Syrup Day (in December) and they worked great! We usually put some kind of call to action like "Call us and we'll send you out a bottle of maple syrup to celebrate." and get a lot of calls and interaction. I find that people appreciate a physical piece of mail that's not a bill. Plus we are advertising a bit that we do mailers and that gets us business too. We are a lot of the time able to partner, promote and share the costs with some of our clients or other businesses.

On another note I find the USPS direct mail service to be great. Additionally you don't even need a mailing list to send out via USPS. They have a great Every Door Direct Mail that we often use for targeting specific areas, cities or even zipcodes. Prices are great for mailers in bulk (under twenty cents per piece). Mailers are a great way to announce and introduce yourself to a community. We tend to send out about four mailers a year for ourselves and try to keep them sporadic, unexpected and time sensitive.

[estieg]

We send to buy ads in the local community newspaper that highlighted our martial arts school was just down the road and had a promo code so we knew how the student found us. I can’t soeak for snail mail, but I do know the Community newspapers are a good way to market certain types of businesses.

[TalkwithGail]

Snail mail that is personalized. I will write a handwritten note to a client/s simply saying that I had recently been visiting another client their neighborhood. And as I drove by thought of them and was hoping they were well and enjoying the (spring, summer, or such thing) whatever. Sometimes I use note cards with my business  logo, sometimes just a pretty little picture note card and insert my business card. In this manner it is a gentle reminder of who I am without saying--Hey, remember that whatever you were gonna buy from me? 

    People love and need to be remembered. More often than not, that same client will call me just to say "thank you" for thinking of them. And then follow it up with  "Oh by the way, could we set an appt? I'd like to get going on that whatever." 

   Your next best sale comes from a past sale!   Write the note, spend the 52 cents on a stamp and 5 minutes of your time. Beats anything else out there.

[aliceadenise]

I agree with what's being said. I think as long as it's personalized and fits your business, then do it. Incentives do work as well. 

[IrishPhantom]

Hello Knight Vision

Absolutely use mailers.

There is nothing, but nothing, more powerful and influential than a well written letter. Engaging. Persuasive. Informative.

Despite the enormous reach of GoDaddy and a host of other e-mail and social platforms, there is an insatiable craving to receive something in the mail.

We love to open something sent to us.

Yes there are dozens of flyers and mail drop packages every week (or daily) and some are must have and others are must-nots.

Direct Mail still outperforms most other media in efficiency and Return On Investment.

Especially true today as so many clients have abandoned it in favour of the shiny object that is Digital, that Direct Mail has enjoyed a resurgence due to increased targetability.

I've never been a fan of relying on only one media to deliver your message. Two or three or more is better to maximize your reach.

I don't know where you are Knight Vision, and that's not important as you can reach everywhere electronically. I would direct you to Canada Post's website where there is a lot of information on just how impactful direct mail campaign can be to any marketing effort.

Did you ever see The Firm with Tom Cruise? He uses one line near the end where he tells Ed Harris....'It's not sexy, but it's got teeth!'

Direct Mail may not appear to be the most glamorous, but it works.

I wish you well.

Irish Phantom

firstimpressionsmedia.ca

[ralphselect]

Nothings more important than getting your name out there. Was just talking to a friend a few weeks ago about her Harley store. You'll get a kick out of this. Now we all know if it says Harley Davison on it people are going to go there to lets take that into account but let's also take into account that's not a cheap name to do business with. But she does ads and has events at her shop and even has an app people can get to stay informed. Now that's a new one on me. An app so customers can stay informed. Pretty cool. So getting to my point, she spends all that money on ads and such but doesn't sell much. By that I mean its industry standard in the 2 wheeled HD business that people don't become customers until their 21st visit to the store. Now how is that for a blow to the advertising budget.

My point is, it doesn't matter what your media is (some are slightly better than others and those usually come with higher costs too) but you just got to keep putting your name out there in front of people.

One of the replies here said fking through the usps themselves for sending out mailers. Now I could get on board with that. Especially if your market targeting. Heck do it and you might figure out where not to advertise.