Marketing With Direct Mail

How much would you or your company pay for the opportunity to make one-on-one presentations inside the homes of 10,000 potential customers who fit your target customer demographics perfectly and could significantly increase your current route density?

That opportunity does exist, and the creative, aggressive strategic marketers can take advantage of it to grow their businesses through direct mail advertising.

Of course, this is not to say that there aren’t downsides to a direct mail program – the response rate is typically low (one quarter of 1 percent to 1.5 percent), there is an increasing amount of direct mail populating consumers’ mailboxes and contractors already find themselves with limited advertising dollars to spend.

But there are benefits to direct mail advertising as well, and the direct mail industry is enjoying a return to popularity.

"When lawn care really got started, direct mail was the only way to market because it was consistently generating a 3 percent response," recalled Mike Dauer, national sales manager, Americalist, North Canton, Ohio. "Then direct mail got burned out because everyone was doing it and telemarketing became the marketing approach of choice.

"Now, with all of the Caller ID systems, people being online at home and answering machines being used to screen calls, businesses are going back to direct mail in order to get their message in front of consumers," Dauer noted.

START WITH THE LIST. "The most important part of the program is the address list," said Dauer. "Too many times, contractors buy a list that just requests single-family residences at certain income levels and certain zip codes. If these contractors would really target their market for route efficiency and set up a list on a street-by-street basis they would realize there are some streets in these zip codes that they don’t want because the lawns are too small or the houses are condominiums."

Dauer explained that a common variation to going street by street is targeting people who live within a certain radius of current customers.

"Then we could pick some customers in key areas and select names who live within 1/10 or ¼ of a mile from them," he said.

A GOOD PIECE. The most accurate and most targeted list in the world can still fail miserably if each address on that list receives an ineffective promotional mailing. And while the specific cost of a direct mail program will certainly vary based on a number of variables – number of people mailed to, type of mailer, list work required, etc. – Dauer said the average direct mail program features about 10,000 pieces and costs about 33 cents per piece or $3,300.

"On the mailer itself, contractors have to make sure they sell their service based on what they do best," Dauer noted. "We see a lot of contractors get into a situation where they focus on pricing, and while pricing is important contractors should still sell based on their company and what differentiates it from the competition."

The next part of the mailer to give thought to is the offer the card makes.

"There needs to be some sort of offer or discount on the card, such as a free final application in a five-application program," Dauer recommended. "And there should be an expiration date as well because it is the key to getting people to act right away."

Many contractors do a great job up to this point, but Dauer pointed out that a company has to have a plan in place for how it will handle customer inquiries.

"The direct mail piece can offer a phone number for people to call or a business reply card for them to mail back," he observed. "If you use a phone number, make sure you have a real person answering the phone because people who call are going to have questions they want answered and they don’t want to leave messages. They’re thinking about buying your service at that moment, and that’s when you need to talk to them."

There are also additional aspects to consider with a business reply card format that contractors may not be aware of, including having a permit to use postage-paid cards that don’t cost your targets anything to mail.

"Such permits require a one-time fee of about $200, and makes requesting company information simple and quick," noted Dauer.

HIT THEM NOW. The next step to implementing the direct mail strategy is timing.

"I’ve seen mailings go out in the past that resulted in a big surge for companies that weren’t prepared to handle all of the customer inquiries," cautioned Dauer. "As a result, companies end up not being able to act on a lot of leads and those prospects will probably never talk to your business again.

"The solution to that problem is to stagger the mailing so it goes out in waves every five or seven days," Dauer continued. "The other potential timing problem occurs when the pieces go in the mail and the area gets hit with snow the next day."

A staggered mailing can also protect contractors in this instance because they would be able to delay the second and third portions of the program through bad weather.

The author is Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.