Direct Mail Marketing

Has anyone ever used direct mail marketing? One of my employers wants to do this and my boss is clearly smitten with the idea ... he's suggested it several times and now it looks like the board has decided we're going to do it. Meaning me ... I'll be doing it. We have about a dozen groups that rent our function hall on a regular basis (mostly weekly, a few monthly) and he'd like to approach each of them about paying for ad space in whatever we create.
I took a look at got print and vista as they both offer these services. I'm trying to think what is that thing called that comes in the mail with coupons and adverts in it?
I did a small direct mail campaign years ago for the b&b to introduce the place ... this would be very local.
Does anyone have experience with this?

Is it Valpaks?

seashanty said:

Is it Valpaks?.

Click to expand...

seashanty said:

Is it Valpaks?

Click to expand...

Yes. Valpak. Honestly? I never even opened that mailer.
You can create your own ad and use the post office website to create a mailing list for your zip code. Or, do a single sheet you put in the local paper.

What's the purpose of this direct mail campaign? To sell ads? Get more people to rent the space?

outreach. To let people know we're there. I am not for it and vote against every time.

seashanty said:

outreach. To let people know we're there. I am not for it and vote against every time..

Click to expand...

seashanty said:

outreach. To let people know we're there. I am not for it and vote against every time.

Click to expand...

Well, like we say around here - the boss is always right. (Don't forget that we then roll our eyes.)
So, locally, right? I'd work on a newspaper insert first. I do look at that yellow Stanley steamer insert everytime. Pink is always the mobile medical office that checks you for bone density and aneurysms.
You can use constant contact for the mailing list but I think the post office doesn't charge for the service other than the stamps. If you presort it's less.It goes out to 'resident'. If you buy a mailing list from CC you have no guarantee it's 100% accurate.
I'd do a postcard. More people will glance at that than will open an envelope. Snappy photo of the place decked out for some group meeting. You could design it like a place mat at a diner instead if the boss wants to sell ad space on it.

I've done a couple of every door direct mail campaigns, for my sister's store and for a friend's political race. They went very well. I followed the USPS website info to put the correct image and text in the correct place for the "address" then the rest of the card, front and back, was mine to put whatever I wanted.
I had gotprint do the printing, with full color glossy finish front and back. The USPS website prints all the coversheets for your stacks (each carrier route gets a stack of cards, the coversheets label which carrier and how many go in the stack). So it took a little time to count out and label the routes, but then it's just a matter of dropping it off at the post office (you pay online when you print your coversheets, or you can pay at the post office when you drop them off). There are a lot of approved sizes available at gotprint so you just pick the one best for your needs.
The website lets you click a map to indicate what routes you want, and it keeps a running total as you click, showing how many cards clicking that route will add to the total, and what the postage cost will be. So it's easy to target where you want the cards to go.
In the case of my sister's store, she was advertising $75 gift baskets and targeted the local neighborhoods that were more middle and upper class. For the political mailing we were able to target just the houses in the Ward the councilwoman was running in. A great value for targeted mass mailings!