Anyone try actual envelope mailing? I have...

I had this idea in my head over Christmas to maybe send out a promotional offer to the people in my neighborhood. After looking at what type of demographics would be interested in this offer, I purchased a mailing list from a third party and went to work.

Since this was my first time, I only chose 88 people to send the offer to. I think I'll record my results in this thread, and when the promotion period is over, I'll probably release the sales copy in my blog.

• First the mailing list cost $13.71 from an online third party.
• Then I had to print my sales copy and an example. The sales copy was in color and the example was in black and white, amounting to $57.58.
• I also bought 90 custom return address labels with the company logo and a return address for $4.07.
• The classic no. 10 envelopes came in a box of 500 for $7.00
• Had to buy a nice piece of stationary for $5.00
• The stamps at $0.41/piece in 5 booklets of 20 (100 stamps) amounted to $41.00
• The total expense totaled $128.36 and it would have been more for the labor, which I ended up doing myself.

Here is all the labor that I ended up doing:

1. I had to create the sales copy and an example of my product and have them printed.
2. I had to purchase all the necessary equipment myself (to avoid shipping charges and all that...)
3. I had to fold all the sales copy (88 pages) to fit inside the envelopes.
4. WRITE down all 88 addresses on the envelopes (since it's more likely that they'd open it up if you do so).
5. Place a sales copy into each envelope
6. Seal the envelopes (I started off licking each envelope, but that was too much, so I got a small shot glass I had lying around and filled it with water and ended up using my thumb to wet each envelope seal and close it).
7. Place a $0.41 stamp on every envelope
8. Place a return address label on every envelope
9. Finally, I sorted out all the duplicates and made sure that people living on the same street didn't get the promotion on the same day (I just figured it would be awkward and classified as spam if the neighbors talked to each other). I just figured I'd send it to them a day apart.
10. Don't forget dropping all the envelopes off in a mailbox (the easiest and most gratifying part).

I finished all the work on Saturday, and sent out the envelopes today.
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I included a toll-free number for them to call, as well as a website address for them to visit. But I didn't stop there.

I went ahead and took their last names and ran it through yellowbook.com to find their phone numbers, put it into an excel spreadsheet. After all the envelopes have gone out (and since first class mail takes about day to deliver), I plan on giving them all a call on Saturday to follow-up and see if they're interested.

I would need to sell at least 2 people to get a balanced ROI. I'm guessing the whole experiment would be done by the twelfth of January.

 

I often have clients who want a combination of an online and traditional direct mail and print ad promotion. Just make sure you preserve the same look and feel with all of your communication as that goes to good top of mind recollection. I often do small direct mail (a traditional newsletter) and get lots of calls following.

You'll have to let us know of the results.

 

Sounds like a lot of work, I hope you get good results. :]

 

Well this seemed to have been disappointing. I sent out all the envelopes late last week and followed up with phone calls (I only managed to get maybe 20 numbers off of yellowbook.com) and nobody is interested. There haven't been any call-ins or orders created through the site.

It seems like such a shame that I actually went to all this trouble now.

 

No wonder if you are doing untargeted promotion. Whats the product about?

 

It's really not untargeted per se, it was for image hosting for Sixty6 Hosting. I chose people that have multiple people living with them and at least an average yearly earning within my local area.

I offered them one of the hosting packages with a Photo Gallery (password protected) already setup (free of charge) and a manual on how to use the site to upload pictures and share with others over the web.

 

The problem that this is niche, has it's fair share of competitors, of which most are free.

I don't know howmany people would like to pay for some image hosting? except if it is really sensationally well done

 

Heh well I learned that the hard way, but it just seemed like a good idea to do over the holidays...

 

People are becoming more desensitized to advertisements. You basically have to send out more to get the same results that you used to get years ago.

 

Flyers work.
If you can get somone to actually knock on a door and hand it over, and you cherry pick where you do it it really works. For shopfitting and vans anyway.

 

That's true...

Mine was kind of an informational flyer...But I guess I could try house-to-house, it was just way too cold in the winter to do that sort of thing, ykno?

 

Not sure if you hit your market there with that one. I don't think that is something that would sell well b2c, it could work b2b if you have a strong offer like a free trial. That way they already have their photos in there and might pay something to stay, if there was a unique attractive feature or two.