# Direct Mailer - have you tried them? How did they work for you?



## FJV11 (Oct 15, 2007)

Anybody have any luck using a direct mailer to reach businesses? I was considering a postcard with a 10-15% discount on it along with advertising in local publications. I'm moving my business a few hours north and want to reach out to potential customers right off the bat.


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

*Re: Direct Mailer*

We had a new concept for shirts and sent out 400 mailer to exsisting customers, had not 1 responce.
Good Luck


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## Robin (Aug 28, 2006)

*Re: Direct Mailer*

the only time I had any luck with mailers was when I send actual greeting cards, in colored envelops. Each one was hand written and addressed to a person not a "resident of" 123 Street. Make sure it has a pretty stamp as well. All this and it will very likely get opened.

Plain mailers.....I would have had more fun lighting a match to my money and watching it burn  Didnt work, wont ever do it again.


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## FJV11 (Oct 15, 2007)

*Re: Direct Mailer*

Sounds like I should spend my $ elsewhere, thanks for the input.


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## esentuals (Sep 4, 2007)

*Re: Direct Mailer*

Direct mail has worked for me only when I collected their names from past jobs or referral. I would go with vertical response.


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## Robin (Aug 28, 2006)

*Re: Direct Mailer*

it will work if you are clever about it.

Just a plain postcard mailed out is only going to get you at most a 2% return.

Think about what post card mailers have gotten your attention. There is only one Ive kept and remember because I thought it was so clever!! It was from Best Fitness, legal paper size in length, but about 1/2 the width and the caption on the front were clever, and made me laugh out loud! I kept it!!

It was an odd shape, and it spoke to me personally....even tho it was addressed to "resident" 

So out of the hundreds received a year........that's the one I remembered and kept. I kept it so I would remember to be different!!


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## hoerth (Mar 5, 2008)

*Re: Direct Mailer*

The variables impacting the success of a mailer are: the offer you put on it, the list its being sent to, and the design. I'm not sure the 10-15% is appealing enough. Perhaps offer them a free shirt if they call you and then send you a digital photo or artwork. At least that gets them motivated and they learn more about you. Some people like putting a first class stamp on there but I'd be tempted to go bulk rate (Now called pre-sorted standard) and use the postage savings to invest in the product itself. I'm primarily a printer and always suggest, with a postcard, going larger like 6x9 or 6x11. Doesn't get lost in the mailbox that way. Promote the web site (tell them to bookmark you!) and then check your site statistics to see if it got more hits than usual on those days you expect the mailer to reach people. Even if you don;'t get any direct response, you can tell if it at least got some looks by the web site activity on those days. Finally, if possible plan to do 2-3 mailings. People aren't always ready to buy the first time around.


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## Visual Realm (Jul 15, 2008)

*Re: Direct Mailer*

One thing you have to remember with direct mail, is that you are supposed to get a 0.02% response. So sending out 400 isnt really going to cut it. You have to spend a good amount to make it back and then some.


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