I asked this question on another forum but I’m really looking for feedback.
Do you guys who specifically market pressure washing services get that 1% return on EDDM?
I answered this question on another forum. 
The answer is yes. But perhaps not on the first mailing.
We have done mailings that hit 3% response in the first week. We’ve done mailings that we’re still waiting on the one percent point to hit. Repetition builds results. It sometimes takes the second or third mailing before we are pleased with the results. I had hoped to mail 100,000 pieces this year but we got busy early and I fell behind.
EDDM is just one piece in the bag of tricks. In the last two days I have made sales or completed jobs that originated from; website, saw the truck at Sheetz, yard sign, referral from past customer, newspaper, and EDDM.
People get tired of yard signs out front (although we do have one that has produced over 3k in sales), you can’t make people go to your website if they don’t want to, you can only spend so much time drinking coffee, not everybody reads the newspaper and customers don’t always talk to their friends about us.
There are, however, two things that are going to happen in almost every American household today. Somebody is going to use the toilet and somebody is going to go to the mailbox. Stay out of their bathroom, get in their mailbox.
hey they have a like button here LOL
For us, no. We ran 25k jumbo postcards (the Make Your House Sparkle card) this spring. We had around 70 calls (0.28% call rate) and booked 36 jobs (0.14% book rate). The whole process cost us around $6k and led directly to about $18k in work. We are just now getting around to round 2, I’m eliminating all of the routes that didn’t generate anything and I’m left with about 15k to send out. Hopefully things pick up this time or I need to rethink this investment. It takes a lot of time to do the bundling etc in house.
[MENTION=7612]PressurePoint[/MENTION], 25k separate addresses?
I’ve got 16,000 addresses, broken into several smaller groups. A group gets repeated a few times before the next group gets anything.
EDIT.
The post was about repeated mailings. I did not intend to repeat the post.
Repetition, repetition, repetition.
I always tell guys not to bother mailing to anyone that you’re not going to mail to at least four times.
6k spent and 18k made. Not too bad. Not great but take In to account the repeat business. The metric gets tricky to track when that one post card landed you a client that you have for 5-10 years. We are at just over 9 to 1 return on our dollar from Eddm. That is first time clients. If you figure in the lifetime of the client value, this number climbs significantly. If it was your first big mailing and you turned 3 to 1 you should be dancing around. I have mailed to areas 4 times before a call, this one in particular now has produced about 60 clients.
9-to-1 is a great number.
Keep in mind that is for new clients this year. Meaning they had been mailed to multiple times last calendar year. So the 9 to 1 doesn’t take the previous year into account. But yes we have done very well with them this year.
EDDM isn’t the greatest if you are in need of quick returns. Its a part of our arsenal though. We still use direct mail with post cards, flyers, fax flyers, email blasts, etc… The biggest thing with all of them is to know your client and who you are marketing too. That can eliminate which options you use for which customer.
What would that 6k have had to made for you to have been pleased with the results John?
I have always been under the impression that if your not getting 10 to 1 for ROI in advertising its time to move on or change up the strategy
Dave are you getting those #s with any other advertising now?
Yea a sustained 10-1 is pretty crazy in any marketing application. If every $1k brings me $10k I would have no worries.
with some not with all. when I mail to past customers yes better, when flier proximity yes, when I do a huge flier route NO, always tweaking and looking. Im hoping with street bidder I will. It also really depends on what time of year. I have a church add I don’t but I will keep it in their.
chris what do you consider a good roi for a flier or mailing campaign
I was hoping for 5 to 1 or better (so $30k in work). I’m not totally displeased as the 30 some clients were very good clients who weren’t just looking for a low price. I fully expect to keep doing this and fine tuning it. I was intending to mail out just about every month but I got busy training our guys and just keeping on top of things. I think it would have much easier had I dropped a little more money and had someone else do our design edits and bundling/usps drop offs. I think I would have done a second and third round by now if I wasn’t dreading all of the leg work again.
I was hoping for 5 to 1 or better (so $30k in work). I’m not totally displeased as the 30 some clients were very good clients who weren’t just looking for a low price. I fully expect to keep doing this and fine tuning it. I was intending to mail out just about every month but I got busy training our guys and just keeping on top of things. I think it would have much easier had I dropped a little more money and had someone else do our design edits and bundling/usps drop offs. I think I would have done a second and third round by now if I wasn’t dreading all of the leg work again.
Ill stick with it if its giving me 3:1
