Wish me luck sending out 80,000 postcards

[Brian R]

80,000 post cards were just sent to the post office today.

It will take a week to get them deliverd...maybe less.

I can only hope my investment pays off.

Scary.

 

[Scott]

Re: Wish me luck

80,000 post cards were just sent to the post office today.

It will take a week to get them deliverd...maybe less.

I can only hope my investment pays off.

Scary.

Let us know!

 

[Jeff Madsen]

Re: Wish me luck

Brain,

I'm dying of curiosity - have you run a smaller test with this postcard? Say a couple thousand or less?

What was your offer?

 

[Ken Snow]

Re: Wish me luck

Very cool Brian~ who is your distribution going to?

 

[Brian R]

Re: Wish me luck

This is my test with a national post card company called RSVP

I am targeting high end houses (over 2500sqft) in surounding areas.

My offers are a little less than what I am used to but given the volume and upsales I think it will do well.

Basicly I stick to my regular prices until about 1000sqft of actual carpet to be cleaned and then they come down a bit. The Idea is that if anyone uses me for smaller areas I won't lose and if anyone calls me for larger areas, there will be upsales with stairs, protectant, Tile and other.
If this works really well my next mailing will have slightly higher prices until I can reach an optimum ratio of time/money.

I will let everyone know how it works.
I just recieved an email stating that they should be mailed by late this week.

If you don't hear from me for awhile...you know it's working. :wink:

 

[Ken Snow]

Re: Wish me luck

I do RSVP about 4 times a year Brian and it has been very successful for us. In the Detroit market it is 100,000 per mailing and while it is a form of marriage mail it is a higher caliber than valpak and some others, and still a fraction of the cost of mailing individually.

Good luck and I would plan on doing it at least 2 more times in a row before you determine how successful it is for you.

Ken

 

[Brian R]

Re: Wish me luck

I plan on doing it a couple of times at least unless it is a huge waste of money.
So what kind of percentage do you get off of a mailing Ken?

If I did 1% I would crap myself but know that is unreal given the type of direct mail.

 

[Ken Snow]

Re: Wish me luck

We are getting closer to 2% brian but we are fortunate to have pretty high brand recognition in our market. I would say if you get 1/2 to 1% you are doing great and you should see an increase each time you so it as you become more familiar to people who open it and their need for cleaning occurs.

Ken
Ps Just so you know the pricing is very negotiable for that product especially if you hem and haw about wether or not you really want to be in it. I have saved many thousands of dollars playing a little hard to get with the franshisor in our marlet for RSVP.

 

[Brian R]

Re: Wish me luck

duely noted ken, thanks.

So are you saying that with 80,000 mailings I should get
400 customers?? :shock: Or am I missing something?

 

[Brian R]

Re: Wish me luck

If I get 400 serious calls...I will get 400 customers.

I've can't think of a time that I lost a customer who wasn't price shopping.

 

[Greg Loe]

Re: Wish me luck

Best of luck!!!!!!

Who made your card design?
What kind of offer?
What is your call to action?
Can you post your card here?
Can you send me 5 bucks?
What was the cost for 8000 cards?
What is your favorite color?

 

[nickreal]

Re: Wish me luck

Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I'm just looking at this from another angle. How long can you expect a marketing campaign like this to pull for? Will the calls come in right away?

If one could get 200 to 400 calls from this, even at 4 jobs a day you're still looking at 50 to 100 days of work for a one man show to get it all done on top of cleaning for regular clientele.

My new clients almost always want to have cleaning scheduled within a week. Maybe new clients on other areas are a little more flexible than in mine.

curious.....

 

[Steve Toburen]

Re: Wish me luck

Rick brings up a good point, Brian. You say you would "crap with delight" if you draw 400 calls. Let's say you get half that (200) and convert half of those calls into jobs (100). And yes, I am sure you do better than that with "non-price shoppers". (My off-topic comment here would be that many so-called "price shoppers" aren't really cost focused. They just don't know what else to ask!)

Anyway, you now are faced with 100 jobs, the majority of which will be coming in over probably a 10 day period after the card hits and most of whom will want to be cleaned fairly quickly. (Ken would be able to give us real world data on this.) I don't know the size of your company, Brian, but I assume you already are fairly busy. Remember that carpet cleaning is an "emotionally driven event" and we have become (sadly) a nation focused on Immediate Gratification. Something to think about. Please keep us posted ...

Steve Toburen
Director of Training and post card promoter
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success

PS I second Greg's request:

Who made your card design?
What kind of offer?
What is your call to action?
Can you post your card here?
Can you send me 5 bucks?
What was the cost for 8000 cards?
What is your favorite color?

Thanks in advance ...

 

[Wayne Miller]

Re: Wish me luck

Good luck, Brian.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks I see is a reluctance to invest in marketing. It's scarey and it's costly but consistency and repetition are key to successful marketing. People forget it's a numbers game, too. The chances for succes are a lot higher with a mailing of 800K than it is at 800. And, all too often, when 800 -- and sometimes even less -- don't produce a month's worth of work, the natural response is to think, "I can't afford to keep doing this" when the opposite is true.

Ken mentioned his success with RSVP is helped by his high brand recognition in his market. That recognition didn't come cheaply and it didn't come overnight.

It's not so much luck as it is commitment. Marketing, just like equipment and education, is an investment in your business. Whether we see an immediate payoff or not, when we keep at it, it will certainly come back to us further down the road.

 

[Ken Snow]

Re: Wish me luck

I would aso assume that they would respond within 10-30 days depending on their need cycle. Our offers have a call to action timeline of 3-4 weeks so that we prompt quick action rather than letting them end up being pitched. Our capacity is such that we can handle this kind of volume influx without noticing it, but as Steve said if you can not handle that kind of influx and service the client within a few days to a week you may end up losing a lot of callers esp if they have not used you before.

If they don't know you and haven't used you there is not likely to be any loyalty to wait for when you can get to them.

Ken

 

[Brian R]

Re: Wish me luck

Best of luck!!!!!!

Who made your card design? RSVP created and I proofed
What kind of offer? Some room offers with sq ft limits
What is your call to action? expires Seft 30th
Can you post your card here? I will see what I can do
Can you send me 5 bucks? gfys
What was the cost for 8000 cards? it was 80,000 and I really can't dislcose because of the deal that I may or may not have gotten. All I can say is it will be paid back with 4 or 5 jobs...dependingWhat is your favorite color?

Was green (not because of you Greenie) but now I like dark red I think.

 

[Brian R]

Re: Wish me luck

Nick, Steve and Wayne.

From other direct marketing that I have done I have come to realize along with quality, more is better.

I wish to god that I get more calls than I can handle.
I have other carpet cleaners that I trust that I can contract out to for 50/50 or 60/40 depending.
Most calls from marketing will be spread out over a month or so and yes I will still take the offers that come in after Sept.

I will try this company for marketing a year or so depending because I like their product and think that I would look at it if it came to me in the mail. Only thing I am conserned with is if they do what they say they will do.

Alot of callers ask for price who are not price shoppers
Price shoppers will ask for a price without asking what they get for it and usually will cringe and hurry to get off the phone once they find out.
With that said, I only give ballparks over the phone and make sure they know that they will be recieving the highest quality of work and solutions for that price.

I can even convince a price shopper to go with me every once in a while.

I am a one man show but if this takes off well I will have another truck next year. I was planning on doing that anyway but this plan may make it easier

Ken,
I get what you are saying about servicing everyone as soon as possible or as soon as they want. I do get a good amount of callers that will assume that I am booked out a couple of weeks and are surprised when I tell them sooner.
With that said, yes most people want it right away, I probably would also. I believe that if "too many" calls come in that I will be able to accomadate most myself or like I said, contract out to trusted CCers.

On a "Selfish" note. If I can't handle all the calls, I will at the very least make so much money off the ones I can handle that I will better handle the next batch.
I may lose a few customers maybe, probably.
But the law of average is on my side I think.

 

[Brian R]

Re: Wish me luck

Best I could do with crappy scanner but you get the idea.

 

[billyeadon]

Re: Wish me luck

Brian,
Thanks for all of your answers. Who is answering your phone? That will play a huge part in your booking success. If it is you when will you have time to clean?

And by the way good luck.

 

[Brian R]

Re: Wish me luck

Brian,
Thanks for all of your answers. Who is answering your phone? That will play a huge part in your booking success. If it is you when will you have time to clean?

And by the way good luck.

Thanks Billy,
I have a wonderful lady who has been in the industry for 35 years. She is awesome on the phone and books most if not all serious callers. I call her Mom.

 

[billyeadon]

Re: Wish me luck

Well with that kind of expertise you may book more than the 1%. Take good care of her you may tire her out next week.

Brian,
Thanks for all of your answers. Who is answering your phone? That will play a huge part in your booking success. If it is you when will you have time to clean?

And by the way good luck.

Thanks Billy,
I have a wonderful lady who has been in the industry for 35 years. She is awesome on the phone and books most if not all serious callers. I call her Mom.

 

[Steve Toburen]

Re: Wish me luck

Well, Brian, I can't think of anyone better than "Mom" to answer your phones. Hopefully you have several lines and you may need to get her some help. You can only hope to have this type of "problem" ...

Best wishes,
Island Boy

PS Even Mom's can brush up on their technique. Have Mom e-mail me at stoburen@homefrontsuccess.com for a script on how to nail those pesky-price-shoppers-who-really-aren't-but-just-don't-know-what-else-to-ask-callers.

OR ask your Mom to send me her phone script. I have no shame in steali ... err I mean "learning from the best". Heck, I've even ripped of lots of stuff from Yeadon, which is really "low". Get it, "low" as in Yeadon is a bit vertically challenged. LOL I am so funny. Oh well, gotta go cut my mother-in-law's grass.

 

[harryhides]

Re: Wish me luck

What a great thread even with all the "corn" scattered here and there.

:mrgreen:

 

[Royal Man]

Re: Wish me luck

Brian,

Hope this doesn't happen. But, there is a very good chance that the post office will put a paper sticker with bar code along the bottom portion of your card on both sides.


From the post office : "The mailing address should be placed at a 5/8" minimum from the edge of the postcard because the Post Office will print a bar code for postal scanning in this area. If there is text in this area, the Post Office will affix a white label here to cover up any text. Therefore, we recommend that you avoid placing anything in this 5/8" area from the edge of the postcard."


If your printer was experienced at all they should of warned you about this!

This will cover up your phone number & e-mail address which will likely turn your mailing into land fill.

It's smart to mail a card to yourself as a test before you make a mass mailing.

Or leave the bottom 5/8 " blank to avoid problems.


Steve,
The photos are stock photos. Everyone uses them.


Brian,
Was wondering you said just a few jobs would pay for costs.
Just looked at the rsvp site. They are talking about .o5 cents per card which is a great price.

That's still is 4 grand which would likely take 40 or more jobs after to show a profit after costs@ $175 average. (Atleast for me)

Wish you luck.

Report your results.

 

[Ken Snow]

Re: Wish me luck

Dave~ card is part of a deck card grouping that goes out in celophane with 15-30 others. No post office marks on the individual cards.

As for the price I doubt he paid anywhere near 4,000 and very likely not even half that.

Ken

 

[Royal Man]

Re: Wish me luck

Good to know Ken,

I just wanted to warn others about putting important text on to bottom of mailings.

Trying to guess on the break even point.
Like I do with all marketing.

 

[Ken Snow]

Re: Wish me luck

Sure thing Dave and as you know breaking even is not generating the revenue that it costs, though that is what salespeople try to pitch (esp yellow page ones). Got to figure all your costs to perform services (COS), plus factor in a portion for overhead, and misc expenses then the % is divided by the cost of the product. The result is the revenue needed to be generated to B/E. Figuring profit desired changes it dramatically.

Ken

 

[Steve Toburen]

Re: Wish me luck

Ken,

I sure hope you never decide to do the seminar gig. With the real life experience you bring to the table Big Billy Yeadon and I might be out of a job! And Bill, unlike me, is waaaaay too old to go back to pushing a wand!

Island Boy

PS Seriously, Ken, thank you for unselfishly sharing so much of your business knowledge on the boards.

 

[hogjowl]

Re: Wish me luck

I just hope the poor dude gets enough new business to afford to buy a new set of shoes. Those clod-hoppers he's wearing in that picture look like something I'd slop pigs in.

 

[hogjowl]

Re: Wish me luck

Always called it that in my family. My grandmother used to make me "slop the hawgs" when I was just a boy.

She thought I liked doing it. :roll: