7 Direct Mailing Tips For Pizza Shop Postcards

July 2nd, 2009

1. Be prepared with a map of your local area and clearly define the area you want to target. If you have a postcode reference for deliveries on your takeout menu, make sure you deliver your flyers to those people and not others that would be refused delivery. You can still mail to a larger area in case anyone wants to directly go to your business, but make sure you cover everyone in your delivery area first. Your flyer printing campaign will not be very effective if your direct mail distribution does not cover the areas you need.

2. Make sure your postcards are delivered to everyone in your service area. Typically speaking you should leave one postcard per household/business, however, some require you to leave more than this. For example, some households may actually be a shared accommodation such as student housing and some may be broken up into flats. Make sure you know what kind of household you are delivering your postcard to and therefore how many you will need.

3. Make your pizza postcard memorable. A postcard that does not give the reader a strong impression of your business and what you can provide is not going to be worthwhile. Strong imagery and bold attention grabbing text can help your postcard to stay in the recipients mind and they will remember it when they next feel like having pizza.

4. Don’t over do your postcard text. A pizza postcard is still only as large as a postcard is and therefore you won’t have a lot of space to play with. Don’t try to overload your postcard with your pizza menu, all your special deals and business information. Select one or two key features you want to advertise such as 20% off for students, informing them of a new restaurant makeover and menu or just selecting your very best and most popular meal Read the rest of this entry »

How to Make Direct Mail Work For Your Small Business

July 1st, 2009

Is your small business thinking about using direct mail? Is it the right tactic? Perhaps. There are two broad areas you should think about: first, does it make financial sense and then, if it makes sense, how can you improve your odds of success.

Will direct mail deliver a positive ROI?

Direct mail is not as easy to execute as it appears. Sure, it’s easy to put a flyer or a brochure in an envelope, pay for postage, and off it goes. All those potential customers receiving your message. Feels good doesn’t it. But wait, have you thought it through? Direct Mail can cost $650+ per thousand pieces or more. (Cost per thousand includes creative development, list rental, production and postage.) Even if you can do it for less, it’s an expensive tactic.

Some things to consider:

  • All consumers aren’t responsive to direct mail. In fact, very few are and the number is getting smaller every day.
  • All consumers aren’t your customers. Only a portion of the consumers you reach are in your category, and only a portion of them are your customers.

ROI Calculation

Before embarking on a direct mail campaign do a pro-forma ROI calculation.

What will the effort cost? - COST

How many packages will you send? - PACKAGES

How many responses do you expect? - RESPONSE RATE

How many of the responses will convert to customers? - CONVERSION RATE

What’s the sale or the customer worth? - VALUE

((((PACKAGES X RESPONSE RATE) X CONVERSION RATE) X VALUE) - COST) / COST = ROI

Is the ROI positive or negative? If it’s positive move to step two.

How can you improve the odds of success?

To improve the odds of success, you need to understand direct mail’s success hierarchy: List, Offer, and Creative.

List

Generally customer or “House” lists perform best. R Read the rest of this entry »