1. Direct Mail does not work
Direct mail works with the right offer. Tell them to give away something good for free and listen to their response. Most will object proving your point.
I used to do Going out of Business Sales and we would send out 7500-9500 4x 6 one sided postcards about the sale. Most of the stores would do about $1500-2000 daily. We would get 300-800 cards turned in the first day and the businesses would do $20,000-$30,000 with most items a 13% discount. There would be as many as 175 people waiting at the door when the sale began.
2. Most people will trash the card.
Who cares about the 90% who trashed the card. You are concerned about the 10% who will visit 1 or more companies listed on the postcard.
3. Why not use Valpak, SA Circular or some other competitor?
They are not exclusive and the size of our mailer sticks out and the ads are easily seen. We picked businesses and offers that lead to a higher response and target the postcard to where more people will use them. We also donate 8% of our profits of the card to a local charity.
4. Why not use Groupon, LivingSocial or Deal of the Day Site that I do not pay cash up-front?
Long term, it will not be as productive as direct mail. Studies have shown a low number of repeat visits by a Groupon customer to a new business. The customers who get the direct mail piece will not be as coupon oriented and with the right follow up, many can be turned into regular customers.
5. I don’t think this will work for us.
This has worked tremendously for other businesses in other local areas.
6. This postcard service is too expensive
You can’t get any kind of message that will be seen by this number of households for this price. We also guarantee that if you use our service 3 times and have a negative ROI, your 4th ad is free.
