RRG

I think some of you are missing the point here.

It doesn't matter how much you "spend" on postage.

All that matters is the Return On Investment (ROI).

If you're making 5K profit for sending out 10K postcards, do you really care about saving a few hundred bucks in postage?

timpears

Glad you got a kick out of it.

I know it. I just sit there and watch the boob tube.

My wife seems to be a little excited by this too. Not only did she spend her last $37 in order to buy it, but I was talking to her about my desire to be able to outsource it. She replied, maybe I could do it. So I think we shall be doing this together. I see a very good chance that I can tell the disability folks (Social Security) that I don't need them any more.

Someone was talking about objection handlers. I hope Bob included objections and his response to them with this WSO. When I was buying real estate, someone gave me objection handlers and that was a lot of help when you are out there and someone throws you a left curve and you had studied how to respond.

Tim Pears

AROD2102

Sounds like a great idea, but sadly the area I live in, I cant see places paying too much for such thing :/

timpears

You would be surprised. Don't you get coupons in the mail? My mail box is full of them every week. None that look like this and will give the impact these do. But every mailer with coupons is a prospect that you can pitch to. Those damn things are not cheap. So any time you see coupons for local businesses, and even franchises as the franchisee is usually a local person.

Tim Pears

timpears

You know one of the things I really love about this program? No SEO to bother with.

Tim Pears

Doran Peck

Bob, it is great to see what you have done! Go Man Go!!

...Yes I've been away.... waging war with the health issues. Had some pretty severe problems stemming from food allergies, then moved onto the medication problems ...sometimes I think doctors are just guessing....oh don't get me started

So...I've received a handfull of messages from people referencing this thread and I wanted to pop in and....[ Me standing up and applauding vigorously]

I am excited to see direct mail getting some love up in here...It seems too often people are quick to poo poo it.

For local marketing there is nothing that can hold a candle to saturation mailings...nothing.

I will share some of the things that have sort of evolved in my process.

Selling the idea to businesses...

For me it is helpful to have an idea what they are spending on certain other mediums at best, or at least be knowledgable of what they are "doing" with the advertsiing...Have I seen their newspaper ads? have I heard their radio ad? If I know they are spending a certain amount already it makes it easier for me to redirect existing budget, rather than convince them to spend more.

Often but not always, one of the little quips I'm able to throw into the conversation is...something like..."So who in your household gets the mail every day, you or your wife?" ..."well, my wife" ..."I'll bet she gets out of her car and goes right over to the mailbox. " well yeah actually I think she does"....."yep just like my wife...like clockwork....its like a ritual....happening every single day in every household"

Usually I see in their face a hint of light. The realization that regardless of the perception that direct mail goes into the trash...everybody is still going to see this card. Everybody.

You want people to Anticipate the arrival of this card

It is very easy to turn your creation into a garbled mess of ads. "oh that thing again"...flick of the wrist...into the can.

I've come to believe that if too many of the ads are created by the individual companies you end up with huge variances in visual quality...some look like they were designed by an office secretary...or a graphic is pixelated.

So, as much as possible I handle the design of the ads, and they take on a somewhat uniform look....this card is a brand all unto itself. You want to achieve a recognized style and a quality buzz in the community.

....which leads to...the promo's themselves, should ideally be "more worthwhile" than can be found anywhere else. In other words, challenge your advertiser to take it to another level. Your mindset here is "only the best ads get to ride".

Unless you are hurting to sell space...absolutely be selective about what goes on your product. You are holding all of cards...YOU have the most powerfull marketing vehicle in the area. Not the Radio station, Not the TV, Not the newspaper, and especially not Google. Protecting its public perception of high quality is paramount to its longevity.

So to simplify this for them, I present them with an ad after we have a discussion about what they think they can do for a promo. In several industires I have a number of preset ideas where I can just plug them in to whichever they choose. Always willing to adapt.

My journey has now brought me to tying the card to a community directory style website. (yes..more space to sell advertising)

If your website has an instant and consistent audience of 100% of the community...you are going to be popular with local businesses who like to advertise

Your website must be useful to the community...how?...a reference point ( business listings)...a social point (forums)...information...communication. ( events) (jobs)

Aside from ads there are other mechanisms to keep the attention of the public...other eye candy....hidden visual cues associated to a promo....select curiosity grabbing headlines from newsitems, or forum entries from the website. A comis strip along one portion of the card....people are compelled to read a comic....they simply can't, not do it.

...oh whats this? ...video ads on the website?....cha ching.

"what is the little girl holding in her hand in Tim Edmonds commercial?" go to the website, be the First ten to answer and WIN!

Creativity has no bounds.

Now you are in position #1 when these businesses need help with other aspects of their marketing.

"we want to do some text marketing"...oh yes, I can help you with that.

For me, this card also represents an opportunity to sell individual direct mail projects to these businesses. Thats the business I'm in. I of course have an advantage in owning my own digital printer and mailing equipment, I am able to keep my costs way low but still provide the whole gamut of services to the client.

Individual saturation mailings represent an opportunity for a company to educate its own public...this is an immensely powerful thing, and it cultivates sales. A dentist that spends $3000 a month sitting in the yellowpages, is going to mopped all over the floor by the dentist spending that $3000 on postcards to the 10,000 people nearest his office. Which guy is going to position himself as the authority? Which guy is the guy "they" feel like they know? Which guy becomes a household name first?

Not the guy sitting in the YP waiting for calls, and not the guy sitting atop google places waiting for people to look for him.

They already know the name they want.

Your Co-Op mailer gives this advantage to your clients.


There are alot of great contributions to this thread, and its exciting for me to see enthusiasm for a direct mail product.

one thing that stuck out.....finding a printer....really the best deals are the ones you negotiate. There are so many internet printers now....many of which are actually brokers like myself. ( even some of the better known ones) They all, for the most part, use the same presses, buy their paper from the same sources, use the same UV coating machines. ...well..the exception being vistaprint...they are low end everything from top to bottom.

Pretty much, you just pick a printer and get it done. You will never find a printer that will never make a mistake...so, just know that now.
...anyway your first order of business should be how to make a profit by selling ad space...not by trimming costs...thats a do later thing

Here's to the success of everyone! go and do!

jrobconsult

The other problem is what if the owner asks for proof of you sending 10,000 postcards. It could cause for a lost customer or worst them contacting the others on the direct mail piece. The ROI is huge on this and like someone else mentioned, with the same effort to reduce mailing costs, you could create another one of these.

San Antonio Estate Liquidators
Estate Sales San Antonio

jrobconsult

I have followed Doran's and a few others posts in the past with great interest. They know some old school marketing tactics still work and unlike many on this website that only believe in the internet. The Direct mail piece is just a start and there are so many ways you can go, depending on what your goals are. The example given by Doran about the wife looking to get the mail is the same here.

I mentioned one specific postcard success. While, I was running promotional sales, we would send out weekly letters. In every case, the owners would be impressed how an inactive customer would spend in a few weeks much more than previously in their lifetime. Most of the businesses even with a mailing list did a poor job in direct mail.

Email marketing or SMS Texting, or Fanbook pages are great ways to keep in contact with customers, but without direct mail you are leaving a lot of money on the table. Now with this, you are the "marketing expert" in your area.

San Antonio Estate Liquidators
Estate Sales San Antonio

bsvoboda

Glad I kept reading this thread. I was just about to approach a local printer who belongs to one of my networking groups... Then I remembered how he got a sh*t load of free marketing ideas from me when I was just starting out without ever becoming a client.

Cheers,

Brenda

warrioradam

What's the best way to combat against these two objections.

1. Not in the budget
2. We tried or we do val-pack

I was thinking about asking about how val-pak measures there success or if they offer exclusivity?

For the budget objective I want to try and say something like I know $xxx seems like a lot but it's only costing you $.049 cents per view and who gets the mail at your house? It's always seen yada yada yada

dtaylor

I plan on carrying a couple of Val-packs with me unopened along with a sample of my card. Which one gets seen? How many other carpet cleaner ads are in this envelope? How many envelopes just get thrown away unopened?

The beauty of the card is that it is so visible. They have to handle it, the whole thing, at one time....even if they are on the way to the trash can.

This is the type of card that gets placed on the refrigerator (a picture of that would make a great visual aid).

There is nothing to open, read thru, sort thru etc.

DTaylor

bob ross

Doran, great to know you're alive! Awesome tips and thanks a ton for showing me originally that saturation isn't at all bad. I was a firm believer against saturation prior to talk to you bud.


"Not in the budget is COMPLETE BS", it's a classic bs objection that really means they aren't seeing the value in it, which is a problem with your pitch. "

ValPak is totally different and inferior, people throw valpak right away and when they do open it they have to find you squished in between a ton of other businesses including the competitors!

There's probably a million reasons you can come up with why this system is so much better than valpak, just hammer them down on paper and come up with a plan to overcome it.

You're on the right track about the .049cents thing.

tylerjaysen

Hey Bob..is your Avatar a pic of that dude who does all those oil paintings on those weird cable channels?...that guy is awesome to watch..I used to watch him all the time with my mom...who was and still is an avid oil painter.

Anyway, this sort of reminds me of that dude who built that website about 10 years ago...where he made a $1 million selling ad space on his site....like 10 pixel ad space each or something.... per client...and sold all the spots to fill up his ad space. I know not really the same thing you're talking about here.

But yeah great idea though.

Do you have clients sign contracts...and if yes...what do you include on the contract?

warrioradam

I need to refine my pitch you're absolutely right. I've been at it for about 2 hours today and am eating lunch right now. Be headed back afterwards. I usually stop into the business and say....

Hi Can I speak with the person who is in charge of advertising.

Person comes out....

My name is Adam and I am starting a new JUMBO post card mailing that will reach 10,000 homes here my city. I have 14 exclusive spots available.

What kind of marketing does your business do right now?

Person answers: We do some news paper and radio ads.

Me: What kind of response do those ads generate?
Them: A good one or a bad one depending how they answer......

This is where my pitch starts to stall because I don't really know how to close them to well.... or how to build the value in my mailer. I know it's there I know you guys know it's there to but explaining it to a business owner for whatever reason has had me running out of luck. I'm getting worried because I have talked to so many businesses in the last day and a half this town is 60k people but I haven't sold one ad spot. So maybe I suck or maybe I need to keep getting out there.

I sent out emails to twenty or so dentists twenty or so chirpractors and a handful of massage people. I got one response back for more info.....If it's this hard to close on one spot for me I can't imagine trying to sell the other 13. I know that I can't give up because I have done a lot with the little I have and I actually have gotten out there.

any advice or suggestions?


Features of the mailer
JUMBO sized
High Gloss
Thick
Exclusivity
Full Color

Benefits of those features
100% read rate
Visually appealing
No competition for the business advertising
Doesn't get "lost" because there jumbo sized ads.

timpears

If you can get 10K delivered for £200, then you got a better deal than the US Post office is giving us. Run with it. Quit thinking why it won't work.

If I get a menu in the mail, I think, so what. It may be nice but are there any bargains there? Probably not. You are sending out special deals that are going to save me money, so that is incentive for me to use them. Thus your client is going to make money, and sign up for your mail piece next month.

People like to use coupons and there are many examples of this in my mail box each day. Did you get any coupons in your mail, or hung on your door in the last month?

Change your attitude and think positively.

Tim Pears

RentItNow

Has anyone done the canadian math on this? Dont think it's possible to make profit here on it. Anyone? Canada Post Rates just too high and printing costs much higher than states.

secoff

Adam,

I don't think you suck, but your pitch doesn't strike me as engaging or hitting a nerve. This sounds like a sales pitch off the bat and that immediately puts everyone in defensive mode.

I might try starting off with...

"Hi, I'm Adam. I'm surveying local businesses. Do you guys advertise?" (You should already know that they do. Otherwise, you could be wasting a lot of time with businesses that aren't advertising and don't know the value.)

"Is your advertising getting the results you need or hoped for?" (Hardly anyone is getting the results they hoped for so this is a conversation starter. Be sure to listen to what they are saying. When you find yourself doing more listening than talking, you're connecting with the other person and on your way.)

Person answers: "I don't know. let me get the manager." (I prefer to talk to whomever is there. First, they don't feel like you're dismissing them, and second, I've found I have an easier time of it when they're telling me who I need to talk to. People generally like to feel they're being helpful. You'll almost always do better when someone thinks something is their idea, even if you had it in mind all along.)

"Do you think it would help your business if you get your message into 10,000 homes in the immediate area? If there was a way to get a lot more people to take notice of your business, would that interest you? The reason I ask is..."

...then tell them about how you have a way to do just that.

These are just suggestions of course. Go with what you feel is comfortable for you. The objective though is to get their attention and capture interest before you pitch them. You don't want to be perceived as just another sales guy who's wasting their time, you want to be identified as someone who might be able to help them with their business.

Just my 2 cents...

Good luck!

jrobconsult

Small business owners get bombarded from sales guys on the phone and in person every day. The key is to stand out and to be someone who can help them. Secoff has a great approach

San Antonio Estate Liquidators
Estate Sales San Antonio

jrobconsult

I think it would help having a 9 x 12 postcard along with some regular size envelopes to make the point about standing out from regular mail. I just received in the mail a postcard 6 x 11 and it stood out among regular mail, just think what the 9 x 12 is going to do, plus make them hold the card.

San Antonio Estate Liquidators
Estate Sales San Antonio

Karen

Hi everyone,

I see there is some discussion still going on here about the situation in the UK regarding this type of saturation mailing.

Here is the info I found and I already posted it on the WSO thread where questions about if there is anything similar in the UK:

The Royal Mail counterpart of the US and Canadian systems we've been learning about is referred to as "unaddressed mail" and the Royal Mail has a program especially for that called Door to Door.

Here are some pertinent links:

An overview of the entire Door to Door service. Take a look at the "Interactive Leaflets" info, they embed an invisible watermark in the images on the mailer which link a smart phone directly to a designated website!!!

Royal Mail Door to Door - marketing leaflet and flyer distribution

A PDF guide to all business mail pricing:

http://www.royalmail.com/sites/defau...9_May_2011.pdf

See page 16 in the price guide for the Door to Door category. If I'm figuring it correctly, the price per item when sending less than 25,000 pieces is about .06 (not sure what the denomination is). For larger mailings, the price per item goes down.

I skimmed through some of the info and some of the setup, applying to do the mailing, etc., seems more complicated than the US Every Door Direct system, but, it looks like you can do basically the same thing through the Royal Mail.

Hope this helps!
Karen

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

Karen

Hey, not time to give up yet!

Look what I found:

I rummaged around the Canada Post site a little bit and I think they have a very similar service available, called "Unaddressed Admail." The pricing for a 9x12 mailing piece seems to be only a penny more expensive than the Every Door Direct pricing here in the US.

Specifications:
Canada Post

Pricing: http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/su...icesheet-e.pdf

Something makes me suspect that one of the countries' postal services copied the idea from the other one.

Doesn't matter, which, though, just that it looks like bob's system could be just as profitable and affordable in Canada as here.

Hope this helps!
Karen

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

greggorio28

Done so far:
• Ive got my printing and USPS distribution cost estimates, and confirmed that my local post office does honor the EDDM system. Step one complete.
• Developed a unique name/brand for the mailer and laid out the entire ad grid in a nice layout.
• Just finished creating 8 sample ads for my mock-up.
• Established a base pricing model for each space, front and back.
• Ordered a SQUARE® attchment for my iPhone to accept credit card payments

To Do:
• Go on website mentioned in WSO and determine carrier routes to ensure I am hitting 10k households in close proximity.
• Print 9x12 mockup at Staples on their best 10pt glossy stock
• Begin door-to-door marketing ASAP and lock down those ad spaces for a January run!
• MAKE MONEY!

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

Vikuna2009+

I just came back from my Staples and all they could do was a 9x12 on a 30lb paper, which sucks. Have to find another printer.

Karen

Hi Eva,

How about getting the card laminated. When you show the sample, you can explain that the actual cards are high gloss both sides, but that the sample is laminated since you're dragging it around to so many people.

Karen

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

Eddie Spangler

My way of contributing to an outstanding thread and to help those who may be a little gun shy.

Here is ONE way to break into a new market.
Your goal is to make an irresistible offer and get people in while still making a small
profit, knowing more is to come when they see results.
Also this method will make it easier for those with less experience or for
those afraid of asking for "larger" amounts of money .

**A psychological tip to help you command a little more respect and credibility
is to wear a polo type shirt or button down with company name embroidered on it. Easy to find local place to get done and you can sell them on card while you are at it.

Working with the assumption that our cost for printing , shipping and design work is
3,ooo (could be slight more or less but close enough for now)

16 spots at 500=8000-3000=5000 profit (ideal long term)
16 spots at 300=4800-3000=1800 profit (what we accept now)

Walk in and speak to marketing person and say

Hi Im "Big Balls Mahoney" with Local Biz Marketing

We have a revolutionary way to help YOU get massive exposure and loads of customers with just a tiny investment.

Would you like to hear about it? ( important as they are now giving you permission to go on which makes them feel good and also puts you in greater power position)
They can only say not interested or yes, if not interested then they dont get to hear what this is, good day to you.

Then while whipping out mock up card and PUT IT IN THEIR HAND

We are going to be sending this Kick ass savings card to 10k household in the area. Do you think that if you got this in your mail that you would at least look it over?

Of course and so will everyone else because it grabs your attention and everyone is looking to save these days.

Is there any doubt that if a min of 10k people saw your offer(remember there is usually more than one person per household) then you would get new customers?

You need to hear them say yes again.

Explain the program and tell them to good stuff about it in a couple minutes
or less.

Explain the exclusive part and how you are looking for one "massage place" to participate

Would you like this spot before I can talk to other massage place?

By now if you did our job right they WILL WANT to take part, they just dont
know how much or if they can afford.

How much is it? Thats the best part about it Mr. Small Biz owner

(Another chance to sell the value and make our offer even more attractive)
If you wanted to send out your own mailing to 10 k, between postage, printing and design it could easily cost you over $1 per household , $10,000 or more.
Heck even a simple small 2 color postcard could run over $5,000, that 50 cents per home.

SO you would definitely get more business but it expense could make it cost prohibitive.

But because we can combine your message with the others and take advantage
of a SPECIAL program the USPS is offering to help small businesses we
can get you in for about 5 cents per household for everything.

How does that sound?
Hopefully they say pretty good.

Normally it is only $500 plus $99 for design and set up fee
but as an incentive for action takers we are doing our first mailing
for half off $250 + $49 design and set up. Thats less than 3 cents per household!

We just ask that you give us a testimonial of your success that we can use on our website.

Collect Money. If they say they dont have that much give them this option

"I understand that you like this but dont have the whole amount today. I dont want you to lose your spot so Here is what I can do to help you...

If you can write us a deposit check of just $100 then our designers can get started on your ad and you can pay the $200 balance before we go to print in two weeks"


Collect money. If they dont have $100 then they just dont want to do it.
There is NO legit business that cant pay you $100 today, one way or the other.
If they really cant they are in more trouble than you can help them with!

Note- The way its presented makes it easier to give a 50 percent discount on the first go round $300 vs $600 and at the same time makes it easier to transition to full price of $500 on next round $300 to $500, just
cut them a deal as a returning advertiser by eliminating the $99 set up and design fee.

Note 2- If you are really skilled you can go for the $500 from the start but it will likely take more calls and We are just wanting to get this out as quickly as possible and establish a base for future biz and make a little coin at the same time.

This is really a cant lose proposition for anyone this is serious about wanting more
business. $300 is chump change for advertising and they cant get anything of this magnitude for that small of an investment ANYWHERE else. It will be very hard for them to turn you down if presented professionally.
Your attitude is going to play a big part as you are the one doing them
a favor by coming to them with this opportunity.


Happy sales!

greggorio28

Thats exactly what the guy at Kinko's said when I spoke an hour ago. Said it would add a bit extra firmness, add a shine to the piece while keeping it protected. A $5 investment!

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

Big Gee

hahaha @ "Big Balls Mahoney"...my problem is I may rehearse it just like that and introduce myself as big balls mahoney in front of a client..AWESOME pitch I'm going to use it thank you for that and the laugh!

KaterSD

Exactly what I was planning on doing.

Eddie Spangler

The mock up seems like such a problem for so many people for whatever reason.
At the same time I believe its very important for them to see and hold because this is such a unique offering.

Wonder if BOB would be willing to send a copy of his for a small fee? or even as part of the upgraded wso offer.

greggorio28

Agreed 100%. I think the mockup is going to be THE key selling feature. A business has to agree to the pitch but ultimately envision their ad in one of those spaces. I spent the last 3 hours creating mine and I'm very happy with it...but I could understand how a non-designer would have to work very closely with a designer to make this vision come true.

Bob gave samples of his mailers in the WSO but yeah...I think he said he would mail out actual prints on the heavy 14pt UV stock would run like $10....which would benefit 90% of the people using this mailer campaign.

As for me, I will either contact the printer to see if they can do a 10-piece run just to have samples on-hand.....or Ill just do my original plan to use Staples 10pt gloss stock and have it laminated.

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

warrioradam

I closed on 4/14 ad spots available today!

RedShifted

X2 on the polo shirt! Excellent advice. I always do a short sleeve golf/polo shirt usually brighter shades like green/pink/white and then a darker shade of cackies for contrast.

If I style my hair always with wax never gel. Gel just looks cheap and less sophisticated imo.

Now enough on the vanity streak.

Eddie Spangler

I closed on 4/14 ad spots available today! WarriorAdam

Cool Tell us about it

What kind of places?
How much did you charge/collect?

greggorio28

Great job Adam! Are you willing to share your techniques and steps so far?

And you decided on 14 instead of 16 ad spaces?

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

warrioradam

You can read a more in depth post on Bob's WSO thread. But a long story short....Closed on 4/14 spots didn't collect upfront I am sending them a proof of the final mailer first then I recieve my payment.

I sold two big spots to one person for a discount of $150 off he is offering a free month of TV if you sign up for dishnetwork/directv with his business.

The pizza business will be offering a Buy 1 Get 1 Free on any size pizza any day anytime

The Chinese Buffet will be offering $2 off the buffet and a free kids meal coupon.

I have 10 spots to sell and have a very warm lead on a chiropractor that I know that offers a new patient screening of $40 dollars a community events I am going to try and get him to run that on my mailer and I think he will.

So I have between 9-10 spots left to sell, get a proof made, and printed.

greggorio28

My apologies all, I am 4 posts short of being able to send PM's and I think I proved I am not a spammer! Wanna reply to a few folks thats all

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

RedShifted

Great job did you have to approach a lot of clients?

We're only doing 8 ads for our first run and all for free. My brother has a former boss who succeeded hugely in this mail marketing business so he's investing by covering all the costs on our first 10,000.

I love the idea myself just to make it easier to hook some accounts but I also fear that the clients may just take on the service with no intention of using it a second time.

Although even if that does happen we will at least have 8 numbers to show for our second trial. And I'm investing a ton of time & effort to make sure our first canvas is as effective as possible so at this point I'm just kinda keeping my fingers crossed. How are you getting your "leads" we are just walking straight into companies we think we can close.

But we also have a special "technique" we are using. Someone in this thread mentioned putting the flier into the hands of the client as soon as you open them. We are actually catering ads specifically to each business (we have pizza store templates, dentist, chinese, mechanic, etc) and before we go into the business we print the NAME of the business we are trying to sell on the flier BEFORE going in.

We already did this and it had a HUGE effect when the client saw it. They did NOT have to use their imagination to assume what their company might look like on the postcard they had a big fat postcard with their company name already on it and trust me this is going to hook a lot of business. Although we are not greedy and do not plan on expanding much further than 16 (8 front/8 back) possibly 20. After that we just want to serve a small clientel but do it as well as we can.

greggorio28

OK...down to three now....

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

Vikuna2009+

WOW! I am stoked for you ! Way to go man and pleeeeeeeeeeese tell us ALL about it !

greggorio28

Down to two.....

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

greggorio28

One more to go....and I'll save it for a relevant response. Thanks guys

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

warrioradam

I am doing the first go completely different I have a great deal on printing of 9x11 mailers for whatever reason and I broke it into 7 spots front and back so 14 total spots. My price point is a little different than Bob's and I offer 3 sizes

6 Total front and back 3x4's I sell this spot for $475
8 Total front and back 2.5x3.5's I sell this spot for $375
and 1 "value" spot that is 1x3 I am going to try and sell this for $249

warrioradam

@RedShifted I think it's great if you can afford to offer it for free but make sure the business realizes that they SHOULD BE paying for it.....I get what your doing you want to prove the model to everyone to make it easier to sell. I think it will work but maybe you could get the businesses you are doing for free that if you get them a good response they will pay you to do it again....food for thought


I really really really reccomend blending text message marketing with this. If you can fit a small spot that says to get deals up to 50% off the retail price text dealz to 444444. Once you do that you start building a list of people that want to solicited how powerful is that to businesses you have people that are opting in and want to listen to the deals.

bob ross

I have no problem sending finished postcards of mine (5-8 copies) but yeah I have to get $17, which I offer if you want in the WSO.

awesome awesome awesome I'm SOOO proud of you! Especially after having such a difficult day earlier.

bob ross

Hey Tyler, yes it's bob ross! I grew up watching him too with my mom, she's an oil painter as well, that's hilarious. My middle name is actually "Renoir".

I don't have them sign contracts, I did at first but I just stopped. Probably not smart really but I don't do it.

timpears

I wear polo shirts every day, with my jeans. Even though I have tee shirts, I have not worn them in years. I was planning on a polo and slacks with a sports jacket until better weather comes along.

But my wife drug out slacks and sport jackets (almost looks like a suite) with a dress button down shirt and tie. I told her the tie goes, ain't wearing one. I think most business men will be wearing jeans and polo or button down shirt of some kind. Real casual in most places unless the business caters to business types.

If I go along with my wife's idea, I think I will be over dressed. What do you think?

Tim Pears

timpears

I am no expert, but I think you are making a mistake here. I can see giving them a discount, even a huge discount, but at least get them to spend some of their own money. Otherwise you are building a list of freebie seekers. At a bare minimum I would recoup my expenses, which sounds like a 65% discount. But I lean more to a 40% to 50% discount for the first time. Otherwise I think you are probably asking for problems.

Just my $0.02 and worth exactly what you paid for it.

Tim Pears

Eddie Spangler

Well I was mainly referring to having your company name on the shirt not necessarily addressing your whole wardrobe per se.

(But for the records I would go with khakis vs jeans)

If you are walking in off the street just the simple fact that you have a company name on your shirt will give you extra "proof" of credibility and makes the business owner a little more comfortable that you are legit.

RedShifted

Yeh see thats the thing I'm worried about too. But I don't see any other way we can get genuine percents to show people. I feel like I'm asking for problems either way tbo. I can do it on a smaller scale (send out like 1,000) but then we won't get a reliable estimate of what type of conversions to expect. Or I assume we won't.

You think it would be better to just give them some type of mean estimate from the data bob gave?

nethead01

Good idea, thanks for the share