junioreality

@DJVan, Yes, and as I think of it, even most people where I live cut their lawn themselves. As for oil changes and brake repairs, those are indeed good niches for discounts.

Another question I had in mind was about anyone using SMS or twitter for the coupons instead of the customers cutting them out? Are you getting good responses with this setup?

Marketingvideocreators.com

SallyJo

LOL.... "Captain Kangaroo"?!?!?!?

Has CK been reincarnated or is this the CK from the 60's back in Minnesota?

Or was CK syndicated even then to other places?!?!?!


.... sorry... but my radar went up when I saw that! lol

Vtoy

Wow that picture is just inspiring.

Tyke

Wow! Amazing thread. I didn't read all of it (20 pages is a bit much at one sitting!), but the amount of detail you provide, Bob, is amazing, and many of the other people posting add some great value as well. Thanks to one and all.

I'm interested in getting into the offline world so I started a thread asking for the best way(s) to get started and was referred here by one of the respondants. I think I came to the right place!

The person mentioned a WSO on this method, so I'm now off to track that down and start taking over my local offline world!

Cheers,
Ray

Need a killer sales letter written, but funds a bit tight? It's your lucky day!

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Mr Squeeze

Hey guys,

How are the ones taking action with this method doing?

How did your campaigns go and did your local businesses find value in your service?

I'm off out today to start prospecting businesses I will keep you posted.

Regards,
Stephen

hademade

You can get the wso here, but i don't know how long it will last. I bought it a while ago and it is really helpful.

http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...down-soon.html

BUFFALOBT

So for so good...12 ads filled in 3 weeks...I think 30 days to get 14 ads is ideal.

A business owner either gets it or he/she doesn't...you move on from there.

The goal is to find 14 who get it...simple business model. How many businesses you have to talk to in order to get there varies of course.

We've got a "zero to $1,400 in 30 days" marketing program in place for Territory Reps interested in the selling(I call it sharing) only- none of the production, design, printing, mailing, etc...we do all that for them.

SeLeCteD

I was wondering if you guys keep the postcard as one solid piece or has anyone decided to perforate each coupon? Or would this case it to maybe separate and and fall apart before it got to the user.

DJVan

I have dot commed a site to mirror coupons with a click here to print for a black and white coupon that won't eat up their ink.

I see SMS as an add on profit center to be sold.

chemo38

Thanks for the info Bob,

I know this will work because I see it working in my town of 150,000 residents. I found a flyer on my doorknob one day. Here is a pic of it:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/14292129@N02/6789701544/



I took one of these flyers and found a phone number for the marketing company. I spoke to a sales rep about price. This particular flyer had 20 banner-style ads on it. The ad dimensions were 2 inches by 4 inches. The business owner paid a one time fee of $250 to the marketing company. Next, the marketing company prints out 20,000 of these flyers and hires a company to place these flyers on 20,000 doors knobs in my town in a particular zip code! The marketing company just did this ONE TIME and made $5000 GROSS That is all!

chemo38

stlcardsfan

5000 gross

minus the cost of a graphics guy making the ads, the printing and shipping, and the guys hanging them on the door. I would guess they are only making 1500-2000 net. Then overhead after that. Not sure if that price point is high enough.

greggorio28

Hey guys, to those who wrote PM's or couldnt because my inbox was full....sorry! I havent had time to login in like 2 weeks!

Here's an update to my progress:

• Used a combo of emails/phonecalls/cold walk-ins to fill the first card....took 4 weeks or so.
• First card filled and delivered to 10k households as of Feb 5
• Filled 15 spaces and gave many away at a STEAL because I was rushing to make my deadline. Less than $900 profit (lesson learned!)
• First 2 weeks was GREAT for about 3-4 advertisers....high responses....rest were average and some got NOTHING
• As of today, I would say that more than 50% of my advertisers are happy and saw a decent return, and some had a WAD full of coupons under the cash register!
• Already have 4 definite repeats and 2 new referrals to follow-up with

Expecting a HUGE turnout for the next mailing in April - stay tuned! This system works.....you just have to work hard to get the first one filled! I plan to have 3 cards going each month within 6 months....already working on the next one

Professional graphic designer and entrepreneurial Jedi Knight in training...check out my portfolio

Digimax

Hey Greg and fellow warriors,

Been doing some research into pricing for competition (moneymailer, valpak, local newspaper saver). The newspaper is doing 5x3" two sided color newsprint in a "coupon book" for a penny per household (40K count) - gave me pause about pricing.

I can just hear potential clients...

"Well, I can get this stuff for a lot cheaper from xx"

I'd like to get my pricing right. Just wondering if you, or others have gotten any pushback about pricing -- any suggestions about setting pricing right?

dtaylor

The area we are selling has a TON of advertising including ValPak, newspaper is very aggressive, 2 local full-color full-size coupon magazines. Lots and lots of competition.

It does not matter. Go see 20-30 people per week (appointments, not drop-ins). A certain percentage of them will be ready to buy just from looking at the card the first time. The first card, you may not make any money on. Some of the ad space will go for a song just to fill space. It still does not matter.

Once you have the first card out there your credibility soars. Many who turned you down the first time are now willing to talk to you.

It is a LOT of work and you must be willing to contact hundreds of businesses to get enough to fill the card.

stlcardsfan

yes, but will they even open the coupon book? You are missing the advantage of this card.

J smith

Push on what makes postcard better - it stands out and draws attention, higher open rate, quicker to see all advertisers(people have to go through 30 ads in valpak to find yours, same for coupon book)
if a buyer is interested in one coupon, they might save the whole card (if it's a buy one get one free pizza, which they want to order for Saturday let's say) meaning there is a chance they will look at it again, see your offer and decide they do actually need your service.

And consider what other value you can add on top of it. Perhaps you can help them come up with a compelling offer, or provide tips on making the text of the ad more compelling.
Add some other stuff on top of the printed coupon - I plan to have a site with the coupons listed on it, as well as a facebook page where those businesses/coupons would be pushed.

Well, this is what I plan to do, I'll let you know how it goes once I have a sample postcard in hand so I can actually visit businesses. But there seems to be decent interest in this, just from talking with a few business owners. (plus thanks to valkpak and all the other junk, I know exactly who advertises in my town )

Tiduslite8

Okay, a small confession to start off with.

I rushed in getting my card out. I designed it with just 4 spaces on back and 4 on front. Sold off the spaces at cost, and still ended up using 3 of the spaces for myself. Why? Because i wanted to get the card out in time for March 1st, and also start making some connections for my own SEO/Places optimization business.

Today is Tuesday (2/28), and I'll be taking the last 2.7K pieces to the post office tomorrow morning. My card covers 4 towns, and I had to do some picking and choosing when it came to the postal routes that met the criteria.

The next card will have a total of 16 spaces on it...at least that is what I have earmarked. That may change due to the following bit of news.

A recipient of the card called, and asked the pricing for an ad space!! I sent him a jpeg of the next card's design, along with the pricing, and as a side note I looked up his business. Turns out that it's a home improvement business!! Siding, windows, etc. that they install.

Aside from the thrill of the call, there is the added bonus that they could really use my help in other areas. Their website is basic, no embedded keywords, and they are coming in 8th in Google Places for a search of "Home Improvement"...in their own town. It's a business that has been around since 1945!!

At worst, they don't run an ad with me. At best, they could be a client using a wide assortment of my services.

Bob, THANK YOU!!!

BlogDiva

That's awesome! You will your next card with no problem!!

DJVan

Even if you did make it the same, some would want a bigger space, or multiples.

DJVan

Personally I hate the above idea. Trying to save a few mailing bucks will make this fail totally. There are tons of publications out for free pickup that are not working!

DJVan

Business owners are too busy running their business. Hard to be the direct mail guru when you're in the back slinging the hash!

DJVan

Buy the WSO, you will be glad you did, if you're not afraid to talk to people.

porkchopexpress

Hello all, this is only my 2nd post here on WF.

This post is going to change my life. Thanks Bob Ross!

I have been doing research - in one part of town, i found over 100 local businesses spread over more than 20 categories that I am going to approach with this concept. I excluded chains and larger stores that I see alot of advertising already for. And I didnt even search hard, just (category) + (town) + (state) and sorted the results based on location.

Half of these businesses will be begging to be a part of such a slick advertising campaign - i dont see how they could refuse. It would be stupid to.

I figure there are at least 4 more neighborhoods in my town I could run this promotion in....i am hitting 10k at a time, my metropolitan area and suburbs have over a million people....which means that each mailer of 10K is only hitting 1% of the city population....sounds like there is money to be made.

can anyone with a finished flyer sell me one? Maybe bend it in half and mail in a manila envelope? EDIT: or just mail it to me as it is with no stupid envelope or bending needed for .82 lol i promise i will paypal shipping costs!

also, bob ross, is there any way to buy your product still/ I honestly think I could get along without it, but I dont mind giving you money for this idea. I feel I could run 3 of these every 2 months in different neighborhoods without a problem....but lets crawl before we run!!

thanks bob ross, and all the people on this thread for the information. it seriously is going ot change my life. This weekend my marketing website goes up and next week i start emailing and visitng storefronts.....i anticipate very easy sales in a competitive environment.

teledude

I agree! This ROCKS!

I just found this forum two days ago and have immersed myself in this opportunity. Just purchased Bob's WSO and am getting my ducks in a row. very excited.

I'm in rural Iowa and there are only about 4500 mailing addresses ion my little town. If I expand coverage to the entire county I can get close to 8000 which is what I am planning now. Larger cities are only an hour away though, so after I get my feet wet here I plan on expanding.

I see no reason I couldn't do two of these marketing campaigns per month once I am established, rotating other counties and cities ...possibly more if the repeat business is strong. I think for my community running this about four or five times a year would be a good strategy. don't want burn it out, it should be something special.

Quick question...do we need to charge sales tax for this advertising product? I used to have a retail sales tax permit but haven't now for a couple years. Do I need to get another one?

Thanks to everyone in this forum for all your great insights!

You guys are awesome.

Simoshere

It would be hard for us to tell you. Look it up on your state law/statute website. Or their business website. Then also look it up on your county website and the city one. Or just trade an ad space or your marketing services with a lawyer for free information.. lol. thats the easy route.

teledude

Just checked my state website...looks like Advertising is 'EXEMPT'

Whoo Hooo!

This is great.

The future looks very bright.

TWalker

I'm glad you posted this because I come with a similar situation and have questions:

What are potential problems with scaling down?

• Obviously cost per piece is going up?

• Obviously one has fewer prospects to sell to.

• Targeting 100% would also include lower income areas (bad)

>On the positive side one could claim 100% saturation (for most intents and purposes) for the local mailing population.

In my case I have 18,000 in the county and 10,000 in the village which if I understand correctly would be 7,200 and 4,000 addresses when divided by 2.5 per household.

I also have larger and smaller cities within reasonable distance: 40,000 within 50 miles, 100,000 within 100 miles and 650,000 at 130 miles.

I also would be very excited to place my own business ads in every home here! That in itself is sweet deal.

I also have had a few ideas along the lines of simple affiliate ads also. I won't name the specific one I'm thinking of but I sure get a lot of them in my own mail.

I would appreciate suggestions on anyone sees my situation.

Robert Domino

Thanks for sharing your results. I have everything set up and now I only have the dreaded part left to do: find businesses.

There aren't a lot of "low hanging fruits" around here, and few places actually advertise. I mostly want to do one in this small region and then expand to the nearest bigger city (which does have dozens of businesses that advertise already).

Without necessarily giving results from each business, could you tell us which ads worked and which didn't? My gut feeling tells me your restaurants probably worked great.. but like, who got zero return? I won't even bother seeking these businesses if I know it likely won't work for them.

him77

I'm going to put this into action today. I will add it to my local coupon website and do a joint deal which I'll have completed this morning to show business. This is a blessing and it's so good to hear the success stories. I will use this to open the door for other services I can offer. Thank you so much !!!

P.S.

Get this WSO if it's still open and you don live in the Atlanta area . I have never recommended one before, but this is amazing and I would;'ve paid so much more for this.

markraymondlim

very interesting and doable..coming from a third world country, i think nobody is doing it here in our place, maybe it can be a good business for us here.Thank you for this very nice post it will really help a lot, especially those who are starting to plan for a new business.Thanks again.

befree22

Nice that you're keeping the post office busy.

The turtle always wins.

Digimax

Extremely helpful input - very concise and hits the bullseye - Many Thanks!

360utah

Awesome information Bob Ross. I will be buying the wso and getting to work on this right away. Thanks for sharing.

Mobile Tactics

You could still sell them on a 10k mailer, but you have two editions printed up at the same time,5k pieces each, and they go out 30 or 45 days after each other.

Pierre!

This was my 'Take Action' weekend!

I'll try to keep this brief as possible with lessons learned at the end...

I had ordered a set of the postcards from BobRoss (Got Em Saturday Jake! You ROCK!) but I spent Friday with minimal 'show n tell' - I printed a color copy 8.5x11 of the layout-mockup BobRoss provides in his *awesome* WSO...

Started Friday morning after burning the WSO and it's Rapid Response and OTO into my brain during the week. Even did some role playing with my wife - who delights in being *evil* for my benefit (Hope to return the favor soon! (LOL))

Hit the bricks around 9am Friday, and went to a major corner in my area. Visited everyone there and had some good chats... Learning and tuning my pitch.

When I had completed that corner, I just hopped across the street to repeat!

Got some interest - A local Florist, a local Sports Bar, and a 40 year old Mexican Restaurant (who was in the local paper talking about how badly they were struggling)... but no deals closed.

The owner of the Mexican Restaurant was trying to play it cool, but I could tell he was excited. I didn't have the mockups yet, so I said I would be back on Wednesday. He said he would discuss this with his partner and I could talk to her as well on Wednesday.

Had the intention of getting out Saturday AM, but the pressure of Taxes was buring my behind, so I stayed home and started putting things together to get this off my back.

The 2pm mail came, and there were the mockups that BobRoss had sent out Wednesday! No way I could contain myself to I headed out to do some more prospecting...

First visit was *brutal* - Sushi restaurant, Very Sharp Manager... He declared my pricepoints were waaaay out of line. He gets 30 to 50K circulation for the same price - I countered with 'Exclusive Offerings? or in a stack of coupons?' - He rebutted with 'it's a coupon stack, but I just love it' - which brought me to the moment of clarity... It's time to leave and find someone *brighter* than this guy!

Continued on though the complex the Sushi restaurant occupied with very little interest, or no owners available. Worked my way down the street finding many retail shops already closed down, or looking Nationally Owned.

It was about 4:00 when I dropped by a barbershop - Dave let me know the owner will be in on Monday, it should be quiet, see him then... Noted.

Last little complex - Didn't realize I was interrupting the owner having her 'supper' before the dinner rush - 'Just leave me the info and I will talk with my husband' - to which I replied 'I am sure you can understand the proprietary nature of this new local promotion, and I will be happy to get with you and your husband later next week...' No Samples! Not gonna have someone's brother in law rip this off...

Just got back this morning from visiting with the Barber Shop, and the owner really likes it. The 3 other barbers also share in the promotion/advertising costs, so we will get together on Wed or Thursday...

So - Off to a running start! Looking for a close here soon, and I know that this will be the week!

Lessons Learned:
#1 - GET THE MOCKUPS! The visual reactions on the 2 days was very noticeable!

#2 - Practice Your Pitch! You will come up with more valid points to share as you talk about it! This morning I threw this out:
'And I am sure you understand how 'sticky' this postcard will be!' Barber shop owner looks at me funny... 'Sitcky?' he says... "yup, with all these vendors in this promotion this is one postcard that will be *sticking* around the house for a while, and your offer will be seen again, and again and it's going to *stick* too! Yah, it's a Sticky Postcard!'

#3 - Rejection is your friend! You have a solid answer... dust yourself off on the way to the next call knowing you are one step closer to the close!

#4 - I have a 2 binder system - receipt book in the small binder along with the Square Visa M/C system 'fob', the other binder is typical 8.5x11 notepad carrier that conceals the 9x12 mockup just fine.

#5 - SMILE - There is some really unhappy business owners out there! I met many of them Saturday! (LOL) Be The Ray Of Sunshine! Might as well make em laugh...

That's my observations so far... Gearing up and *planning* my Wednesday launch today. Will do Thursday planning as well today if I have the time.

Get The Mockups, and Get Out There! Even without a close I am having a blast getting out and talking to owners...

Hope this helps you out...
Patrick

TWalker

Great idea. Thanks

snakez0r

I'm really inspired by your effort in pursuing the jumbo postcard business suggested by bob and I take my hat off to you!

Could you shed some light on what kind of businesses achieved positive results, and what kind of businesses achieved a negative result?

Thanks in advance,
Ben

Eddie Spangler

What are your price points?

Pierre!

BobRoss lays out his price points in the WSO, so I am using them... Quote High, Deliver LOW...

So this space at 11.3 cents per household is ONLY $1130, but I am pushing to get the first card out... so today it's only $595! Just think, you can reserve your spot for only $245! The balance of $250 is due when you sign off on your promotion proof.

When you sell them all at $595, you net $5K - I have $3300 in outsourcing, printing and you still are over $5K...

Do yourself a favor - Build a spreadsheet with the figures and play with them a bit. Use the 'retail' pricing BobRoss suggests, then his actual figures, then price it out all at $595... Shocking the cash potential of this product!

Seems to me that the pricing info starts on Pg32...

Hope That Helps!

Patrick

wesker123

thanks for the great idea bob ross. I just got some few questions..

Robert Domino

Thanks for sharing your experience doing cold walk-ins with us. I personally think those prices are a bit too high for your first card, but hopefully it'll work out. I believe Jake lives in the New York area, where everything is more expensive. In Arizona, prices may be lower.

I did two cold walk-ins today. Not enough but a start. First one I nearly froze but since they were already thinking of advertising, they told me to come back tonight and talk with the wife (who I assume handles that part of the business).

The second one was short and to the point. A gruff looking restaurant owner quickly told me he "didn't like coupons", and "doesn't do coupons" despite me saying that the results were very good in other cities.

We'll see how tonight goes. One appointment out of 2 is really good, but jesus.. cold walk-ins are tough. Writing emails hiding behind a keyboard is so much easier than going in there, not always knowing who you're even supposed to talk to.

Rationally, I know very well that rejection doesn't matter and it's their loss. But I think it's going to take a while to build a shell. I used to do calls for an alarm company and a car dealership and those were easy as hell compared to walk-ins. Just imo.

PS: I have to go scavenge my balls from the trash can so I can try again tommorow.

bob ross

A few things:

Location:

I live in UPSTATE new york, which is completely different than New York City. Where I live, you would swear you're in a small city in kentucky or something. There are more cows than people around here. The average income in the city I live in is around 14k, and it's about 28k in the suburbs. Unemployment is around 11% and you can basically buy a mansion for $300,000.

It doesn't matter where you live, coupons and direct mail work, period.

Pricing

For the pricing structure, the key point is to make sure that you're establishing the value of it first with the high price. Every price you give on any product or service you sell should be much higher than what you actually will be selling it for.

DO NOT make the mistake of pricing something for what you plan to sell it for. You're going to get a whole lot of objections and "think about its". You have to establish the value and explain why it costs what it costs. A postcard this size sent in the mail on this high quality of paper will cost well over a dollar EACH piece to send. They have to understand that. Postage for this size postcard is 88 cents (probably more now after the postage change).

Just printing a postcard of this magnitude with the high gloss UV coating on both sides in full brilliant color costs over fifty cents each.

That's well over $10,000 to send out a mailing of 10,000 pieces. You can explain to them that by grouping local businesses together, using your special print source, and taking advantage of certain post office incentives... you can bring the cost down to around a thousand dollars each space.

When you explain it this way to your prospects, they understand the value much better.

Now that you've established the "why" it costs what it does, you can show them how bad you want their business and that you're willing to do it for X amount if they want to "lock up a space now, instead of a competing business".

Tell them that you're so positive they'll be happy, that you're willing to let them get a taste of it by getting the spot on the cheap. The value is all relative, so if you're having problems with the pricing, you're NOT building enough value. Plus you're hurting yourself tremendously if you're not offering any kind of discount to do it right now.

This is the SAME way that coupons get response, by offering a discount in exchange for doing it now. Yes you have a great system for them but you have to give them an irresistible incentive to do it now. You can't expect them to make decisions right then and there if you don't give them a powerful reason to do it now.

Coupons

For those of you who aren't premium members of my group and didn't hear the seminar, or if you forgot about it... don't use the word coupon so much. Talk about "special offers" and how they can put a special offer on it.

Like some of you have noticed, coupons can have a negative connotation for business owners. Consumers don't have a problem with them at all, it's just the business owners egos. The word coupon does have a "cheap" feel to it which is way you'll get resistance sometimes, but no businesses will have a problem advertising a "special offer".

Coupons or special offers do a few things:

they bring back old customers
they bring in new customers
they bring get people to leave a competitor and try you out

I like to really play hard into the whole "economy" thing, explaining that the economy has changed so much that the coupon user demographic has completely shifted from lower income people to primarily the middle and upper class. It's the suburban middle to higher income families who are going crazy over coupons, looking for deals and ways to save.

"They still love to spend money, Mr Prospect, but they want to spend it where they're going to save a few bucks in the process".

The large majority of the TEN THOUSAND locals who will be holding this in their hands, will be looking to see what deals they can take advantage of.

Even if you got only HALF of ONE PERCENT of them to come in and take you up on your offer, that's fifty people! If they spent a measly twenty bucks, that's a thousand dollars in revenue plus the acquisition of some brand new customers, which is worth a hell of a lot more, right?


P.S. We're almost at 1,000 posts in this thread and almost 50,000 views! We've also got over twenty people with cards out now, it's crazy. Direct mail FTW.

Eddie Spangler

Solid reply post from Bob.

That's well over $10,000 to send out a mailing of 10,000 pieces. You can explain to them that by grouping local businesses together, using your special print source, and taking advantage of certain post office incentives... you can bring the cost down to around a thousand dollars each space.

So even at $1000 it is an extremely good value Mr customer BUT since we are all helping out small biz owners tell you what Im gonna do.....

Also I dont think that these guys understand the demographic stuff, how it is INDEED the middle -upper middle class using these coupons and when the economy improves and they are making more money they are likely to be more loyal and require smaller incentives especially if that business provides a superior product, service or experience. Also they tend to be excellent social media users who will tell friends about the opportunity although thats a whole other course in itself.

FOr those that dont like to discount they can always provide a nice value added offer like free cheese sauce from Mexican restaurant or free desert, double prints from a photographer, The other way to do it is to CREATE a special meal offer like Chilis 2 for $20 type thing. You shift the focus from discounting to creating VALUE for their customers.
Just keep in mind that whatever it is they have to think like the consumer. Is this going to be enough to get me to try a place Ive never been to?

Me as an example I see these rinky dink offers that some places make and just think they havent thought things through. I mean if they are swamped with business more power to them but if they are slow and need a boost then they need to be aggressive. If I like a place 10% or a free drink MIGHT get me to make an unplanned trip there but If I never heard of you it wont move me.


Also you can check out a post I made on page 7 of this thread that is kinda of "script" for how to do this with a cold walk in. Its not so much the exact words but its the psychology of how they are being led.

Robert Domino

Hi Bob,
Thanks for the additional insight.

Just to mention though (for anyone else going to do this), the guy who "hated coupons" and didn't do coupons mentioned that pretty much before saying Hi.

Robert Domino

Update:

lol. Went back to the second place tonight as scheduled. The lady seemed mildly interested but almost had a stroke when I pitched the price down from 1$ for direct mail to 50 cents if you did it all yourself to 8 cents standard rate to 6 cents per card if you acted now.

Then the money objections started. "The economy is bad, we're not getting a lot of business", "$600 is almost a day's worth", "We don't advertise", "I can't discount any more".

Even though I believe I handled some of these objections pretty well, ie "that's exactly how you spark business, as these postcards have been very successful for restaurants". "you don't actually need to discount more since you're already offering specials. All you need to do is advertise the offers that are currently working well for you", it ended up with the good old "I'll have to think about it".

I don't want to be sarcastic but if they insist on not advertising, it's no wonder they aren't doing well. A better salesman might have closed them, since they expressly said that it was a good idea.

But here's the kicker. My wife decided to have date night there anyway since we're actual customers there once in a while. Later during the dinner, we heard the waitress talk with the lady owner and say something like $600 is INSANE but it's a good idea so they should "print on bright paper and do like my uncle and drive around and put it in people's mailboxes".

I'm actually not upset at all. I know they're completely oblivious to the real costs of advertising. I can imagine this lady driving to 1,000 homes to drop off sheets of paper and then figuring out that even "free" has a cost in time, gaz, printing paper etc. It will probably bring them "some" sales, on a small scale, but nowhere near what 10,000 of these giant postcards could.

With that said though, here's where I'm reaching out to people who have been doing this with a serious question. I had made a list of restaurants in a 15 miles radius and it amounted to 20 + national brands (ie McDonalds, Arbys, etc).

Out of those 20 restaurants, 8 of them are very small neighborhood type places in a very small town (3,000 homes.. yes, 8 small restaurants for 3,000 homes). And I pretty much struck out on 2 of the 12 bigger ones. That doesn't leave a lot of room for error. I would have to successfully close 50% of them to start filling up the card nicely. Even if I aim for only 10 advertisers on the first card, it feels like the pool of potential advertisers is low now.

Basically, my question is, with the numbers I've given, is this area too small to support the card? I wanted to do one here and then have something to show when I scale it up to the bigger city (which has 70,000 citizens) instead of these 20,000 spread out over 2 1/2 zip codes. From everyone's feedback restaurants are what get the best results, and I only have ~10-12 of those prospects left.

Sorry for the long drawn out post. It's not the rejection that worries me since I didn't set the bar high in the first place. What worries me is the low number of prospects. If you get a 10% response out of 1000 then you're doing great. But if I get 10% out of 20-25, that's horrible.

I wonder if I should stop wasting time with this low-baller area and immediately move on to the bigger city (people earn more there, there's more addresses per zip code, several of them already advertise in the newspaper aka more low hanging fruits). Or should I grind my teeth on this place and gain experience, "pay my dues", with low expectations, so I'm better prepared when I go to the other place?

Thanks for the feedback. I'm usually more of a "behind the scenes" person, like I've made some pretty good money with online affiliation. To take action in the real world is tough for me so I don't want to give up but at the same time, I don't want to struggle finding 5-6 advertisers and barely break even.

PS: There's obviously more than 10 prospects if you count the non-restaurants, but since these have gotten the best results according to Bob Ross and others I've asked, they're what I focused on in this message.

TWalker

I feel your concern as I will soon be in a similar situation (starting in a smaller area)

Here would be my rebuttal for the waitress whose uncle stuffs "bright colored flyers in peoples mailboxes"

Uh yes mam but thats a federal crime! Your attorney fees alone would make $600 look like pocket change. Not to mention leaving your contact information at the scene of multiple crimes isn't the smartest thing to do.

This is why its best to leave the marketing to professionals.

J smith

Robert: you should probably talk to that lady owner again (but perhaps after you get some toher place to sign up) and explain to her that not ony is putting stuff in people's mailboxes a federal crime, but "doing it yourself" isn't free.
1,000 flyers is going to cost her $50-100 in paper alone, another 50 to 100 in ink (her printer probably isn't going to work any better after pirnting 1k flyers either) Then she has to get in her car and spend gas money and most important her time, to do what? Save? Save what?

Between ink, paper and gas costs she's already at $200 or more. How many flyers can she place in one minute? 2? 3? Let's say it's 2 flyers per minute, that's 500 minutes or over 8 hours. So not only is she spending over $200 but she also has to spend 8 hours of her time doing this.

And for what? So she can reach one tenth of the people your ad would? So, 8 hours of her time (and a lot of head ache) gets her 1,000 flyers or she can pay you an extra $400 and spend her day doing something more fun than driving around sticking flyers into mailboxes, and reach 10 times more people.

I just don't see how she can say no to that. I mean, if she agrees that doing 1k flyers is worth it, then you should have no problems closing her. Now if she says advertising doesn't work at all, that'd be different.

A question for Bob Ross:
"That's well over $10,000 to send out a mailing of 10,000 pieces. You can explain to them that by grouping local businesses together, using your special print source, and taking advantage of certain post office incentives... you can bring the cost down to around a thousand dollars each space. "

If you place 16 ads on a card, then wouldn't "around a thousand dollars each space" result in around 16,000 which is more than the original 10,000 which is the starting point in the paragraph I've quoted?

It's a nice idea to quote a higher price while you build up value, as that helps convince them that getting it at lower price is even more worth it. But I am curious as to what prices I should quote to prospects.

I was planning to go with a $500 per spot, $400 if you buy it now. But $500 is my target price, so if I wanted to quote a higher price before dropping it down, what price should I quote?
Granted I guess I can go with the whole: direct mail would cost you a buck each, doing this size postcard yourself would be at least 50 cents. Now I am offering it at 7 cents each, but right now, because I really want to get it out there I am offering it at just $500! And if you buy right now you get an amazing 20% discount on top of that!

Anyway, got a sample postcard design made, just need to get it printed up and then I am off cold walking

PS: Bob, going to buy your wso tomorrow. This is an awesome thread, thanks a lot for starting it!

thedog

Great advice, love it. Big post, read 5 posts in... so, apologies if this has been asked.

Is this all cash in hand... or have you ever been asked for any tax info?

Thanks a lot for the info... very generous.

TWalker

Bob Ross suggested using the word "coupon" less and using "special offers" more. I agree with that technique.

I also think using the term co-op can be very effective. A local business cooperative effort is much more appealing than being sold advertising by a company. People are much more inclined to split cost with a local business co-op effort than they are to buy ads, any kind of ads. Use the term cooperate and get the business owners mind off of "buying advertising."

Also "reduce costs by splitting the fees with non-competing businesses" is a good one.

Just a thought.


No Bob has suggested it is almost exclusively checks made out to your business name. Others suggest using a credit card scanner like squareup.com.

Eddie Spangler

One thing to thing about if you are in smaller town or if people are having a hard time with 500 0r 600 dollars. You dont have to do 10,000 you can do 5,000 cards. There is not much difference in your per unit cost to order and now you can ask for 250 to 300 dollars.
Many small biz owners dont really think about value just price. I could walk in there and offer them some BS method and make it sound good and just charge them $100 and they would give it to me all day long because they feel like its a small amount and their risk is small.