Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns: 

With the painting business direct mail is our primary method of advertising and gives us good results, about 1% return.  This is however on much larger projects so a 1% return amounts to a much higher dollar value.  So I thought I would try this method for my lawn care business. 

Attempting to expand in 2008, it was my first year attempting to use a direct mail campaign for my lawn care business.  In 2008 I sent out 2500 parcels (at approximately $.60 per parcel) and only got 1 customer through this. It is a very good, full service, high paying customer. But a high price to pay at $1500.00.  

Direct mail is a complicated marketing campaign since there are many options to choose from. Besides the obvious factors of design and type, the demographics must also be chosen.   

These are the controllable factors with direct mail. However, some factors such as the weather when the mail hits as well as the exact properties that receive the mail cannot be controlled. This is why I have chosen mostly to hand deliver the parcels with mailbox flyers (besides the obvious difference in cost.) With the mailbox flyers you know exactly who you are delivering to and when they will get it. 

However, if you are still interested I will tell you a little bit about direct mail marketing campaigns and my experiences with it below. 

Typically, options for type consist of postcard (available in different sizes), pamphlet, and letters.  

I chose a double sided 4 x 6 postcard, shown below (front and back):

In terms of demographics, there are many choices such as the geography, dwelling type owner/renter, and household income. There are the demographics that were relevant to my campaign. 

I knew the zip codes I wanted to market in. This was easy; the area where I normally do service. I knew I wanted a single household dwelling and not sending to rental houses. However, choosing the homeowner income was a more difficult choice; I chose homeowners with a combined income of $75,000 to $125,000. 

My logic in this was that I didn’t want people that couldn’t afford the luxury of having their lawn mowed, and didn’t want people with so much money their expectations were too high. 

I opted to send the mail in 3 different mailings, 1000 on April 3, 1000 on April 10, and another 1000 on May 5 (note there is an additional $50 charge for breaking up the mailing.) 

What I have learned is that direct mail is complicated and multiple mailings need to be sent out before any usable data is acquired.  Since I only tried it once, I don’t have too much to go by at this point. 

However, I would highly recommend the company I used. The company name is Drive Thru Printing and Mailing and the woman I dealt with was named Kerri.  She was very helpful and prompt.