When you think of direct mail, this is what you probably picture: a mailing program where we target specific prospects based on location and demographics, and then handle a bulk mailing on your behalf.
What Are the Steps?
1) List Research:
First, we ask you to describe your ideal prospect to us. We start with geography: zip codes, or counties, cities, or a radius out from your location. Then, tell us what sort of home value and/or income level you associate with your best prospects. Most of the time this can be as simple as "they live in these 4 zip codes, and their homes are worth over $500,000."
2) Proposal:
We will prepare a proposed mailing schedule, based on the size of your list, and the type of work you are trying to promote. How often should a lawn and landscape company mail? This is a common question, and it depends on your type of business. Typically we recommend that lawn care and maintenance businesses mail 3+ times, front-loaded into the beginning of the year. Landscape Design/Build benefits from a more balanced, season-long mailing program.
3) Design:
We design your mailing pieces. The majority of our clients opt for oversized postcards as their mailer, but we also produce brochures and company newsletter-style pieces, especially if the landscape company we are working with offers a wide array of services.
All of our mailing projects are custom designed, and we encourage you to send us photos to include, as well as any examples of current advertising pieces so we can maintain brand consistency.
4) Mailing:
We will process your list in order to achieve "pre-sort standard" postage rates (formerly referred to as "bulk rate postage"). Currently this runs in the $0.35-.36/piece range, but it varies based on how saturated your list is. We handle addressing each individual piece and mailing them from the bulk mail center in Cincinnati.
How Long Does it Take?
Like your business, our schedule fluctuates through the year, with December-April being our busiest period. For the sake of planning, consider this basic schedule for a traditional direct mailing:
- 1.5-2 weeks for initial design, revisions and approval.
- 1 week to print the materials
- 1 week to process the mailing and drop at USPS
- 1 week for the post office to deliver