timpears

So far my search has only turned up a price of $2,500 for 5K, which is quite a bit more than the OP is paying.

My fear with this is that I would only be able to sell three or four spots and look like a fool when I couldn't perform and have to refund or lose money. And that the response to the mailing would not be anywhere near to what the OP has experienced. I should probably not worry about it and just go out and do it. I am not sure whether I have fear of failure or fear of success.

Edit: Goprint gave me a price of over $9,200. What the hell am I doing wrong researching prices.

Tim Pears

Vikuna2009+

Not to worry Tim, "Doubt indulged soon becomes doubt realized", Frances Ridley Havergal said that (its from one of my "better myself" books, lol).

As far as the cost of the flyers, up until this point, I have found one printer that does 10,000 for $2,400 plus shipping. And, that was only contacting ONE printer. UV coated both sides, 14 or 16pt. If the OP can find it for much less, so can I. It only takes a little research.

The biz that I would contact are the ones already advertising. To build your self-confidence, do some research to see how much they pay for that.

Fear of failure or fear of success, that's a biggie. Only you can decide if you are willing to put yourself out there or just take this as an "entertaining thread". With all the info the OP has given us, I would say "Move forward young man, there's a world to conquer".

I've had similar ideas like this thread but my fear of failure or success prevented me to move forward. Now there's proof in the OP's pudding!

Thank you Bob!!!!!!

NameThatCandy

For those of looking for printing prices, I am doing the same thing. So far this is the cheapest I can find.

for 10,000 postcards, color and gloss both sides:
8.5"x11" : $1199
8.5"x14" : $1925
11"x19" : $2255

with coupon code: SHIP2MEFREE, free shipping and 10% off.

here is the link:
Large Postcard Printing | Online Printing Services from 48HourPrint.com, high quality, guaranteed,standard postcard printing,mini postcard printing,custom postcard printing,postcard templates

I have never ordered from them, so I don't know the quality of their work. And I am affiliated with them.

NameThatCandy

u said it costs 88 cents to mail, 0.88 x 10,000 = $8800. Is my maths wrong?

Vikuna2009+

I think he meant that if you send them first class, it would be 88 cents but this program is only 14.2 cents. Please correct me if I'm wrong, Eva

NameThatCandy

That makes sense now!!

SirThomas

Bob, thank you for your post. Appreciated!

Now, the technical stuff... :-)

How do you track the response rate? Do you pick one business, like pizza place and ask them to track orders/responses?


Thomas

SFOasia

This article of yours gives so amazing information to us and its very good to promote the local trader on the web and help people know about their business.

Family Businesses Asia | Business Network Asia

Vagabond 007

Some of you are over complicating this...

GotPrint.com can get you 10,000 postcards (9x12) for $919 and $225 to ship. Shipping will vary depending on where you live but I can't see it being much more than what I am getting quoted.

Total to your door is $1,144.

Mailing at 14.2 cents each = $1,420

Say 15 advertisers at $400 = $6,000

Profit of $3,436.

Get it up and running smoothly in one town, then go to the next town over and the same thing. Now you're at $6,872 per month. Not bad, not bad at all.

Obviously you can charge what you want. If you get similar results as the OP claims he is getting, then you should have no problem getting $450-$500 per month. Part of me doesn't see businesses get that great of results.

Then again, it will depend on so many factors.

Things going for this...

1. I agree with the OP, the large postcard will stand out and get noticed.
2. Less competition compared to a YP ad, coupon mailer, ValPak, etc.
(great selling point)

I'm not sure if certain businesses would benefit as much as others. Obviously a lawyer or some type of business with a big LTV will only need 1 new customer to make it worth it. While Joe's Pizza will need A LOT of people responding to the ad to make it worth it.

I recently had a convo with a local pizza shop owner who is advertising in the Clipper Magazine. He is paying $425 a month for a half page ad. It's just your basic ad with coupons.

He says he loves the results. Which I'll be perfectly honest, caught me a little off guard. I didn't expect him to "love" the results. But it's nice to see him happy since he's spending the money. Btw, he is going to be doing a EDDM campaign soon.

If you think about it, pricing is about the same as the OP is using but the OP's idea would mean there is only ONE pizza place on the postcard. That is a HUGE benefit! SO perhaps getting great results from a simple business like a pizza shop isn't that far out of the question.


Another idea, that was somewhat talked about, but put a QR code in the middle of the postcard letting people know they can view these specials on a mobile website as well. Also gives the option for people to show the site/coupon on their phone while they are at the business (no need to carry the large postcard).

Just grab WillR's course on how to build a mobile website, and there ya go, another thing to add value to the businesses paying you a few hundred bucks for this. The mobile website could be started and done in an hour or so. Updating it in the future would only take a few minutes.


Btw, here are some links for getting up to speed with Every Door Direct Mail...

EDDM section on the USPS site
USPS - Every Door Direct Mail

Overview
http://www.uspseverydoor.com/assets/...owTo_Guide.pdf

Details on the actual piece being mailed (dimensions, address label, etc)
http://www.uspseverydoor.com/assets/...specs_bulk.pdf

.

The Ultimate Sales & Marketing Mind Map (Just updated - now twice as big!) - scott_krech - "Quite possibly one of the BEST WSO's ever."

www.UltimateMindMap.com

Karen

I still haven't found a printing source for the 9x12 inch postcard size.

However, I did find a printer that will print 8.5x11 or a folded 11x17. And, they have a service for 3 cents additional per card, where they will prepare the batch of cards so they are all ready for you to deliver them to your post office.

For the EDDM postal service, the cards have to be organized for each carrier route, bundled in packs of up to 50, with a printed label on each pack. So, there is quite a lot of manual labor involved if you just order the cards in one huge batch, and then prepare the packs yourself before you take them to the post office.

After contemplating the nitty gritty details of getting an EDDM mailing ready to go, the 3 cents charge per card sounds to me like a great offer.

I ordered the sample kit from this particular printer. I'll report more after I see their samples.

---<--<-@ Local Florist in Little Falls, NY @->-->---

rideotm

Bob, this is great info and I for one truly appreciate your time and input here. You have graciously provided more than enough information for anyone to move forward and make a good living in most any city anywhere. I do hope you eventually create a WSO, especially going over the pitfalls and issues you encountered getting this going. You deserves something for your contribution. Others here have provided good insight and info too. Gene mentionsed Joe's Pizza a couple of posts above. If Joe makes, say, $5.00 on each coupon and gets a 10% response, he makes a profit of $4,505 on a $495 investment...not bad mozzarella!

My dentist sends out 6" x 11" post cards on a regular basis. I am sure he is well over 4.95 cents each per 10,000. He will be contacted very soon.

I see on your last card that you have that there are 7 businessses on the side shown. I assume there are others on the other side, so, did you do the layout so as to not cause an issues if the card is cut up?

Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo

bob ross

Great reply! You definitely understand what I'm getting at and how this works. Like I mentioned, gotprint will print them this cheap but I personally don't like to use them because of past experiences. But they certainly will print them for that price.

Thanks again for this reply.

Hey Karen you live RIGHT next to me! I live in the mohawk valley too. I'm 99.9% sure I know which printing company you found and they do have a ton of resources for using EDDM, but they are expensive. I've gotten their samples as well, which will come with price sheets.

The bundling is available with the printing source I use as well but the way I see it... paying $300 to do something me and my wife do while we watch tv for a couple hours is worth us doing.

It can get somewhat complicated dealing with carrier routes and preparing everything properly but it's really easy once you actually do it once.

thanks for such nice words,lthough I r to when I not .

Pizza businesses will make a ton off this card and will definitely be one of the higher response ads. Like many services, they only really need to get a few "new" customers becase they will come back and make them money over time. The lifetime value of new clients is an important thing to make the owners aware of. (surprisingly, many of them have no clue about this).

You'll probably see around 100-300 responses from the pizza ad alone, depending on what kind of offers you get them to give out. People often spend $25-$35 on pizza and wings, and if they're getting even 50 responses with orders like that, that's a huge ROI for them. 10,000 cards sent out will only need half of one percent response in order to make them ecstatic.

Your dentist will LOVE you if you get him on board with this, or get him to do his own mailings through you! You were literally be able to save him thousands and thousands, while also getting him thousands more postcards mailed at the same time!

About the ad spaces, there's actually 8 spaces on that cards layout but the pizza ad in the top corner is composed of 2 of them (they pay for that). I've spent countless hours figuring out how to layout the front and back without sacrificing another coupon but really it's not a terrible issue if they don't.

Thanks. Tracking is tough but really important to do. You have to make sure the advertisers are tracking them properly. Some will put them into their POS sales systems, some will put the coupons in a jar somewhere, etc... but you HAVE to try to get them to track them so you can ask them later. This is an important sales tool for you to use later, when you pitch new businesses.

You got it!

Even if you used that printer, you couuld still make a bunch of money with this, it's just nice that there's some printing out there that's half as cheap as that. I'm SO sorry I can't just give that information away at this point. There's always gotprint.com though, you just have to cross your fingers that the prints come out right. I don't know what you did wrong with gotprint's pricing haha sorry.

I can totally understand your fears, I dealt with the same exact thing and it's not fun, but it's totally doable if you pitch it right. There are a bunch of ways to reduce the risk of pissing people off... one is simply contacting a lot of businesses and asking if they would be interested. Then you have a fairly firm base of people that are open to doing it without committing yourself or them.


expiration dates go on most coupons but some will be good forever. I try not to allow any regular "branding" ads that aren't deals. It de-values the card.

coupons to the same area is best, although I've switched neighborhoods around a few times as I've learned more about spotting neighborhoods that are high-coupon likely. A crucial key to any direct mailing is to repeat your mailings to the same people for at least a few times. Your response will keep going up as they get more familiar. As I keep getting more and more recurring clients, I plan to start expanding the mailing to 15,000 and 20,000 pieces.

Thanks for the kind words.

Karen

Hi Bob,

Yes, we're just about neighbors. I did notice the towns you had on your sample card you uploaded. I'm actually in tiny Little Falls.

Thanks for the encouragement about being able to do the organizing and sorting myself. I might see if one of the business owners in town who I've been helping and have become friends with wants to team up with me on getting a mailing done. I talked to her briefly this morning and she seemed very interested in the possibilities.

I am thinking now about how to integrate QR codes and text message marketing into this. You got the gears turning in my head. LOL

Karen

---<--<-@ Local Florist in Little Falls, NY @->-->---

Vikuna2009+

Not that I want to complicate things (but I probably am),here's an idea...
Have you thought of maybe further down the line to do a "special" kind of flyer card for for ex. "After the Holidays", Valentine, Easter, Back to school or whatever?

Or, I guess, just keep it simple (there goes my mind again, lol).

Thanks, Eva

M_Jones

Wow what an awesome post!

I'm definitely going to try this out.

The 14.2 cents rate is awesome too.... But does anybody know of a way for a business to send out postcards at a similarly reduced rate?

One of my clients has a customer list of about 10k people, but they can't even afford to mail them a post card because 44 cents times 10k is $4,400 bucks and thats too much for them to do at once. I recommended doing a handful every week (10k / 52 = about $200 a week) but even then it adds up too fast.

Is there any way to get something closer to $0.14 cents?
(besides sharing the postcard with someone)


Also, it seems like there is HUGE potential for upsells down the road (referrals, websites, seo, qr, local marketing/places/fb, mobile, hosting, etc...)

limonzmn

I have tried but no response.

agonce

awesome, just give up then... if someone implements all this in two days then i dont think they will have success with the final product.

Marvin Johnston

Head over to your friendly USPS bulk mailing center and ask them what can be done. They see this stuff every day as it comes in, and should be able to provide some useful input.

I asked them a lot of questions when doing non-profit bulk mailings. The first thing I found out was they don't bite, and are willing to help .

Marvin

P.S. - if you are doing this to make money as a business, then whatever the postage costs are need to be factored into the ad price.

oogyboogawa

The $.14 rate had absolutely nothing to do with the mailer being "shared". That's not $.14 per business on the card, that's $.14 to mail the card - total. You just have to use the "Every Door Direct" program to get the special rates.

Sebulba

I have played around with the wizard the EDDM wizard and I see how it works. My question, how can you determine what carrier routes are where. Within a zip code and a few streets away you could have 2 carrier routes, one a great area with upper middle class demographics, and a few streets away a carrier route that is a total dive. Is there a way to know which areas are which routes?

Seb

https://2021rocket.com
https://gmbliftoff.com/

Vikuna2009+

Seems like someone wants to up their post count....

Anyway, I'm heading to the post office in a couple of hours to ask some questions. In the back of my head is "what if I only had to mail half of them and how would I distribute the other half and not lower the response rate".

Here I go again, complicating it, lol, Eva

SirThomas

The 14.2 cents per piece only applies to "Every Door Direct" program. They won't deliver it to your client's mailing list at this price. It goes to every address in a given area. It's meant to cover neighborhood routs.

Your client will have to pay a standard mail delivery rate to deliver to his own personal mailing list.


Thomas

oogyboogawa

And actually come to think of it... if your client has an actual list of 10k people and is just doing post cards, I think you can get even cheaper than the 14 cent mark... I want to say 9-10 cents? Might have to be sorted and barcoded, and I"m not sure what goes into those barcodes, but I wouldn't think it would be that complicated...

M_Jones

which USPS program do you speak of?

oogyboogawa

I was just talking about their regular bulk mail which has different pricing systems and limitations than the every door direct program that the original post was about.

It's a different system for a different purpose, but would likely be more useful for your needs, so would probably be worth your time looking into it.

KaterSD

i probably missed this but how many advertisers do you have on your postcard? are they on the front and the back?. what does the back of the postcard look like.

on the image there is only 8 advertisers. if you put offers in the back of the card how do you keep it so people dont cut up other offers they might be interested in ?

timpears

I went back there and priced it again and came up with over $9K for this before shipping. 14pt UV both sides in color both sides. I don't know how you are coming up with $900.

Tim Pears

KaterSD

your doing something wrong i just priced it and it came out to $919. plus $180 for shipping

Kelvin AIP

you might be selecting the wrong qty

Attached Thumbnails

 

timpears

You can take half over the first day and then the rest the following day. Or even half in the morning and half in the afternoon. If you are married, you take some and your wife take some. Pretty simple.

Tim Pears

Kelvin AIP

hi bob,

was just curious... how did the ad run workout for the beauty school? did it increase his traffic? what was his feedback on your mailer?

thx again for your contribution on the mailer... better than most wso's!

timpears

I swear I need a bigger monitor screen. I had selected 100,000, not ten thousand.

Talk about deaf, dumb and blind. I fill the bill on all counts sometimes.

I got $895.64 this time. With $264.xx for ground shipping.

Tim Pears

Vikuna2009+

Tim, you misunderstood me. It wasn't about being lazy and mailing the rest another day. What I meant was to ONLY mail half and distribute the other half some other way to save postage, possibly lowering the cost of the ad for a higher closing rate on the ads.

Question is; HOW would I distribute them in a manner that would make the receivers still appreciate and use the coupons as the ones that were mailed.

And no, I am not lazy

timpears

Sorry. I don't think there is any way to get these delivered for less than 14 cents each. The only way it could be done is for someone to deliver them as any other method would be illegal under USPS laws, I think. The USPS has a monopoly on this kind of mail delivery. Although I could be wrong on this. But no one is going to do it for less than the post office anyway. They can do it only because they are going to every address anyway and this is just one more piece of paper to drop in the mail receptical.

Tim Pears

Kelvin AIP

describing yourself like that you'd make a great testimonial for bob if (when? -haha) he decides to do a WSO on this.

despite the odds, Tim managed to make a recurring 5k/mo doing this part time and with one ear, eye, hand, and foot "tied behind his back!"

Vikuna2009+

Got that Tim. I was looking for some creativity, lol.

!. Paying a company that already delivers flyers to homes by "flyers in a bag" type of door hanger?

2. What about, say you had 15 advertisers, what if you gave each advertiser 200 flyers each to give out with each purchase. If each advertiser agreed to cross-promote each other like that, that would be 3,000 flyers distributed by the advertisers.

My concern though (as prev. mentioned); would the flyers be equally, worse or better perceived? I guess only a test could determine that...

3,000 flyers x 14.2 cents = $426 saved in postage. If you were charging $495 like the OP, split the savings between 15 advertisers and now you are only saving them $28 a piece (sell the ad for $467).

If you skipped the postage all in all, you would have to give each advertiser 667 flyers. If they were to give out 22 flyers each every day, all flyers would be delivered in a month. You would save the $1,420 in postage and could sell the ads for $400 and still make the same profit.

Now, you couldn't do this program on a monthly basis because it would take a month to get them all distributed. You would have to go with a bi-monthly program so now you just shot yourself in the foot

It was a good exercise though

Eva

godinu

Quick question about your postcard layout: If you print coupons on the front and back, that means that if a consumer cuts one out, they're cutting through something on the back as well. What is your way around that? There are ads on both sides, right?

You have exactly as much potential as you believe you do

* 60+ sold! * Business method EVERYONE can implement, no expertise needed: offline perpetual profit machine (WSO)

Simple Secret TeeSpring Cash Cow: easy enough for beginners

godinu

oh yeah, one final question: Do you give the businesses the option to provide their own camera-ready ads?

You have exactly as much potential as you believe you do

* 60+ sold! * Business method EVERYONE can implement, no expertise needed: offline perpetual profit machine (WSO)

Simple Secret TeeSpring Cash Cow: easy enough for beginners

CarrieD

I found this site with the same biz model:
9x12 Postcards - YOU Run Your Business... We'll BRING You the Customers!

Vikuna2009+

Great find Carrie!

Funny though, when you click on "contact us" or any other tab at the top, same page comes up on all of them. The guy is in Georgia, did a good job on the page, Eva

CarrieD

I'm so intrigued with this thread. Thanks for sharing this with us, Bob.

I contacted a local printer about printing one postcard for me so that I can talk to businesses with a sample. He is able to print one 9x12 postcard digitally, 14 pt heavy cardstock, glossy, 4 color, for less than $2. I will supply him press ready artwork.

I'm not a designer so now the hard part will be to come up with sample ads and layout so that the postcard will be appealing to the eye.

HvilleSEO

Someone call him and find out his prices lol.

Spent the night sending out emails to local businesses with this offer. Now to get started on the designing so I can have a sample.

I'll report back with the response rate.

And Bob if everything goes as good as it did with you I'd be willing to pay a little money to find out your print source. Your comments about gotprint.com scare me.

CarrieD

Thanks Eva. I agree that the page is nice even though the links don't work.

I plan to use that site as a guide...there are good points to use when talking to biz owners.

unlimitedmarketing

This sounds like a great idea, thanks for sharing!

Custom Craigslist Image Ad Designs & Videos For Craigslist Ads
Dallas WordPress Content Marketing Blog

Vikuna2009+

Great idea.

Neither am I. Maybe find a "Warrior for Hire" to do it or try fivver. What about the printer himself, did you ask him? Hardest part seems to be gathering the material from businesses you have not done biz with. All I can think of (if he can use scanned images), scan some coupons and use those. That though would probably be considered un-ethical.

Thanks, Eva

godinu

There are some small printshops that will do layout for you if you show them what you want. Definitely talk to your local print shops (since you will want to shop around for prices anyway) and see if they will handle layout for you. At very least they should give you a template for that card size.

Some of the businesses probably have their own ads already mocked up since they may advertise in those local coupon clipper pamphlets.

You have exactly as much potential as you believe you do

* 60+ sold! * Business method EVERYONE can implement, no expertise needed: offline perpetual profit machine (WSO)

Simple Secret TeeSpring Cash Cow: easy enough for beginners

bob ross

Sorry guys, been super busy but I do plan on responding and offering some more insight. I have 25,000 pieces arriving Monday that I have to get ready to mail out asap!

Vikuna2009+

25,000????????

Gosh Bob, what did You do now. If I were in your neck of the woods, I'd come over Monday for a "bundling party" for FREE if I could pick your brain at the same time, lol.

Btw, care to overnite one to me (I'll pay you).

Kiddin' aside, seems you are in the groove and good for you. A true inspiration, Eva

dtaylor

Well, you could offer them to fund-raisers to sell for $5 or $10 each. They would distribute them for you for free.

In my area, we see quite a few fundraisers for people that are injured, babies with birth defects etc. These are held at a fire hall, community center etc. Quite often 500 or 600 people show up so they can sell quite a few at $10 each and raise quite a bit of money for their cause. It would be hard to sell 5000 that way, I would think.

Great post. Thanks to the OP and all of the great contributors. I appreciate it.

DTaylor

timpears

I guess there is my sales pitch I was looking for. I am running out of excuses not to do this.

I do have one question that I am a bit confused about. The cards have to have the carrier route address on them, and there will be a number of carrier routs in each mailing. How do you get the carrier route addresses on each batch? Do you have to print labels and stick them on by hand, or is there a better way of doing this?

Tim Pears