60,000 Valpak direct mailers

Over here we have something called the Bayou Pages which is basically a commercial yellow pages. It cost us $158 a month for a half page add with 4 coupons, a quarter page add and two spots with number one under pressure washing and one under pressure cleaning.. so for that price we are in 4 spots with two full color adds. the publication goes out to a couple 100 thousand businesses and residence and it also goes out to 150,000 people via cd. its has been AWSOME
 
Thats a Nice Insert
Mike Sullivan said:
My best marketing is with Valpak. Brings me more work than my yellow pages ads and my website.

It's expensive and it takes balls to suck it up to spend the money but it's worth it. I started out with 20,000/month, 50K last year, 60K this year. A lot cheaper than trying to mail them yourself though.

$335 per 10,000 = 3.35 cents per ad

$2010 for 60,000 envelopes per month.

Valpak mails 8 times/year- January, March, April, May, June, August, September, and November. I ordered 6 mailings. I broke even on November's mailing last year, so this year I decided against it. I haven't tried mailing in January and don't want to, I'd probably lose money.
Click to expand...
 
Valpak, I lost money on that. Good $K's, so sad..
I think is important what area, what kind of coupon etc, etc.. Any way I did't get return..
 
Good. I'm now doing Talk of the Town direct mailers. Similar to Valpak, except the print quality is better and more circulation.

I'm now doing 75,000/month, 3 times a year. May, June, and September.
 

Attachments

  • WASH PRO - front - TOTT.jpg
    WASH PRO - front - TOTT.jpg
    558.8 KB · Views: 43
  • Flyer back.jpg
    Flyer back.jpg
    902.1 KB · Views: 35
Hi Mike,

I have chimed into another thread as well. I am glad that Valpak worked for you, I think that Greensboro is a tough market for us. I am running a power washer up here that is having some success for his first mailer. Although, with the terrible weather right when his mail hit did not help.

Let me know how Town Direct Mailers works for you! Sometimes a smaller company with less national garbage in the envelope is the way to go!

PS: Did you use Valpaks call tracking? How many calls did you get off of 60,000 mailers?

Mike Sullivan said:
Good. I'm now doing Talk of the Town direct mailers. Similar to Valpak, except the print quality is better and more circulation.

I'm now doing 75,000/month, 3 times a year. May, June, and September.
Click to expand...
 
wjs0311 said:
A member of my BNI group is a valpak representative and I was thinking about giving this a try but am hesitant. Lets just say my ROI for my phone book ad is a big fat goose egg.
Click to expand...
Silly Wade, when was the last time you found someone in a phonebook? ....
 
Mike Sullivan said:
Good. I'm now doing Talk of the Town direct mailers. Similar to Valpak, except the print quality is better and more circulation.

I'm now doing 75,000/month, 3 times a year. May, June, and September.
Click to expand...
I hope it works great for you Mike! Valpak is expensive, but they are far too big of a mail order company to play games. Many of the Val Pak wanna bee's CLAIM more circulation, but they LIE !
Be careful! Unless you can verify the mailings by a post office receipt
 
What is his/her name? I have been in the network for a long time and know a few people!

My current power washing client has 5 jobs in the 3 days since the mailing went out. He spent $600. He has 3 house washes @ $230, $179, $315. He has book a roof cleaning @ $339 and $279. He mailed 20,000 homes in May, I expect to see another 7-10 calls, and another 5 jobs out of it.


Next time can you just mail me your phone book money? I'll buy you lunch for a week and we can call it even :)



wjs0311 said:
A member of my BNI group is a valpak representative and I was thinking about giving this a try but am hesitant. Lets just say my ROI for my phone book ad is a big fat goose egg.
Click to expand...
 
It's all a matter of what you consider expensive :) I think something that you don't see a return on is expensive.. Tampa has a FANTASTIC market for Valpak. Heck, the manufacturing plant is the town over from you!

Valpak does not play games. We give you a price, Tell you the exact 2 days that it will go out, and how many are going out... Then we give you a mailing receipt :)

There are some other companies like; money mailer, supercoups and clipper magazine. In some areas they work better than our product... I am not afraid to say that either.

Apple Roof Cleaning said:
I hope it works great for you Mike! Valpak is expensive, but they are far too big of a mail order company to play games. Many of the Val Pak wanna bee's CLAIM more circulation, but they LIE !
Be careful! Unless you can verify the mailings by a post office receipt
Click to expand...
 
Next time the phone book calls you, tell them that you will pay them $15 for every call that they get you. They SHOULD agree, then give you a call tracking number..

All my customers use call tracking numbers, that way I know that they are not pulling my leg when they are asked about results.

wjs0311 said:
Haha I know I know. I was thinking most older people don't have the internet, boy was I wrong! Expensive lesson to learn.
Click to expand...
 
Valpak Rochester said:
Next time the phone book calls you, tell them that you will pay them $15 for every call that they get you. They SHOULD agree, then give you a call tracking number..

All my customers use call tracking numbers, that way I know that they are not pulling my leg when they are asked about results.
Click to expand...

Sounds like valpak runs the show. Also seems like they collect a lot of information about their clients business. Is that part of this tracking number? Collecting peoples info and blabbing it all over the internet?

Valpak Rochester said:
What is his/her name? I have been in the network for a long time and know a few people!

My current power washing client has 5 jobs in the 3 days since the mailing went out. He spent $600. He has 3 house washes @ $230, $179, $315. He has book a roof cleaning @ $339 and $279. He mailed 20,000 homes in May, I expect to see another 7-10 calls, and another 5 jobs out of it.


Next time can you just mail me your phone book money? I'll buy you lunch for a week and we can call it even :)
Click to expand...
 
No "blabbing" without his permission :). However, the call tracking number captures a physical street address (used for mailing post cards the following year if they don't use your service), it also collects their name, number, and will record the conversation.. This is NOT a feature that you have to use if you want to use Valpak. I have never had a customer stop using Valpak, or their call tracking number since the day they sign up with one.

There are plenty of other companies that run the show as well.

Ralph Q said:
Sounds like valpak runs the show. Also seems like they collect a lot of information about their clients business. Is that part of this tracking number? Collecting peoples info and blabbing it all over the internet?
Click to expand...
 
It's also a matter of what type of customer you want to target....if you want to spend money targeting $279.00 house washes, then thats what you'll get. You'll also get the customer that will take that coupon and shop it on the phone and find someone that will do it for $199.00. When you target $279.00 House Wash Customers, you have to make sure you are targeting cookie cutter type neighborhoods and preferably ones that the homes are all siding and hopefully you can book 3-5 in the same day. Most are not going to spend more money than the coupon offers, because after all they are coupon shoppers. They are looking for a deal.

Most importantly is targeting neighborhoods that you feel a larger % will OPEN the envelope.
 
Most of his customers are spending more than the coupon value. We put a 2,000 sq ft maximum on the coupon. First time running a power washing company, wondering how it will play out.

Doug Rucker said:
It's also a matter of what type of customer you want to target....if you want to spend money targeting $279.00 house washes, then thats what you'll get. You'll also get the customer that will take that coupon and shop it on the phone and find someone that will do it for $199.00. When you target $279.00 House Wash Customers, you have to make sure you are targeting cookie cutter type neighborhoods and preferably ones that the homes are all siding and hopefully you can book 3-5 in the same day. Most are not going to spend more money than the coupon offers, because after all they are coupon shoppers. They are looking for a deal.

Most importantly is targeting neighborhoods that you feel a larger % will OPEN the envelope.
Click to expand...
 
Valpak Rochester said:
What is his/her name? I have been in the network for a long time and know a few people!

My current power washing client has 5 jobs in the 3 days since the mailing went out. He spent $600. He has 3 house washes @ $230, $179, $315. He has book a roof cleaning @ $339 and $279. He mailed 20,000 homes in May, I expect to see another 7-10 calls, and another 5 jobs out of it.


Next time can you just mail me your phone book money? I'll buy you lunch for a week and we can call it even :)
Click to expand...

Her name is Jean Edmunds.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top