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FAQs

What type of mailings do you offer?

Below is a list of the types of mailings we offer. We recommend giving us a call to determine which option is best for your business.

Full-Service Mailing Options
We Design, Print & Mail for you.

New Customer Acquisition Mailings

1. Target New Customers by Carrier Route (Further Breakdown of a Zip Code)

The route that your postal worker takes each day to deliver the mail is called a carrier route. Targeting prospects by carrier route allows you to get very specific about the areas you would like to target without having to target an entire zip code.

Carrier route mailings are the most cost effective and recommended strategy for most home services business.

In addition, carrier route mailings provide additional capabilities to remove certain types of addresses. For example, with our full-service mailing option, most importantly, we can remove apartments from your mailing. This is critical for most home services business as individuals who rent will most likely not need your services.

We are also able to identify and remove other potential less than desirable addresses most home service businesses do not want to target, such as trailers, college addresses, seasonal addresses, etc.

Finally, we apply key demographics to each carrier route, such as median income, median year homes were built, etc. to further strategically help you select the most viable routes to target.

A carrier route is simply a further breakdown of a zip code and is the route that each USPS employees take each day to deliver the mail. Targeting areas by carrier route allows you to get much more specific about the areas you are targeting as opposed to targeting everyone in an entire zip code. Carrier route mailings are also the least expensive option to send out mail.

2. Target New Customers by Profile.

With a targeted Profile mailing, we work with you to create your ideal customer profile. We then find and purchase a list of only those individuals that meet these specific criteria.

Database Customer Retention / Loyalty Mailings

Database mailings target your list of current or previous customers. Whether you want to target your current customers with a retention or loyalty mailing, or you want to target your lapsed/lost customers in hopes of reactivating them, we have you covered.

All we need from you is the list of the customers you want to target from your database, in an Excel or CSV format, separated by first name, last name, address, city, state, and zip.

We will then run your database through our postal software to ensure all addresses in your database are valid and deliverable.

In addition, for a nominal cost, we can run your database through the NCOA (National Change of Address) System. This process compares the names and addresses of the customers in your database to the NCOA database of approximately 160 million changes of addresses going back 48 months.

This process ensures the customers in your database have not changed their address. The benefit to you is the cost savings of potentially sending mailers to customers that have moved out of the area and will never need your services again.

Business to Business Mailings

Targeting businesses is done by identifying and selecting the businesses you would like to target by their SIC code. An SIC Code (Standard Industrial Classification Code) is a four-digit code that categorizes the industries that companies are in based on their business activities.

This allows you to dial in and identify only the specific types of businesses you want to target. From there, you can begin refining your search by utilizing a wide range of additional criteria, such as company size, revenue. etc.

That said, we do not typically recommend that home service businesses offering commercial services should execute business-to-business mailings. Although we can help you target the exact businesses you want, it does not mean that these businesses own their building. They may be leasing and therefore, would never have the need for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, or landscaping services, etc. that would be handled by the landlord. Because of this unknown element, it poses a challenge for this type of mailing.

If you would still like to explore doing a business-to-business mailing, it Is best to get in contact with one of our direct mail marketing experts.

New Mover Mailings

The new residents moving into your area will be in need of many home services. These new movers represent the ideal prospective customers because they do not already have established relationships with other local home services providers.

Our new mover program targets these new residents once a month in an effort to get them to utilize your services before they go to a competitor.

There are no minimums and no cancellations costs. Give us a call and we will tell you the average number of new residents moving into your local market on a monthly basis.

Do It Yourself Option – EDDM Retail

EDDM Retail is a do-it-yourself program that the United States Postal Service created to make it easier for business owners to target prospective customers, by carrier route, with direct mail marketing, by physically taking the mailers to the post office yourself.

There are several guidelines and requirements that must be met in order to be able to execute an EDDM Retail mailer. Below is a short list of what you will be responsible for.

1. You are responsible for ordering the print material that meets the EDDM size and indicia requirements and having it delivered to you.
(We can help you with this)

2. You are responsible for bundling the mailers per EDDM guidelines.
(We can help you with this)

3. You are responsible for going onto the USPS website, choosing the carrier routes you would like to mail and printing the corresponding postal documentation/paperwork that must accompany each bundle of mail.
(We can help you with this)

4. You are responsible for delivering the mail to each local post office that is responsible for the areas you are targeting.

5. You are responsible for paying postage at the time of delivery to the post office.

In addition, there are several other important items you should be aware of with EDDM Retail.

1. One of the biggest drawbacks to utilizing the EDDM Retail program for a home services business is that you cannot remove any apartments, trailers, college addresses, and/or any other undesirable types of addresses.

Unlike our Full-Service option that comes with a mailing list and physical addresses, giving us the flexibility to remove these unwanted addresses.

2. You cannot remove your current customers from an EDDM Retail mailing.

We recommend giving us a call to discuss all the options to determine which will be the best fit for your business.

How much does it cost?

The cost of your mailing/s is driven by many factors including quantity being mailed, mailing list, product selection, etc. Simply contact us for a no-nonsense transparent quote. The all-inclusive price we provide you with includes everything you need from start to finish; There are never any additional costs taxes or hidden fees.

Why Is Your Annual Program So Effective?

Our annual program is extremely effective for several reasons.

• Our Annual program provides you with the ability to consistently market your business all year long without any gaps in your marketing. This consistency is the key to having a successful marketing plan.
• The Annual program creates the perfect blend of Frequency & Reach.
  • Frequency is the number of times you target those prospects with your message & Reach is the total number of people exposed to your marketing message.
  • Reach without Frequency = Wasted Money
  • Learn more about the importance of frequency and reach on our blog
• The use of a variety of different products to target prospects ensures your marketing doesn’t get stale.

Do I have to do an annual program?

Absolutely not. You can pick and choose the number of mailings you want do, whether that is 1 or 12.

Over how many weeks can I spread my mailings and payments?

You can spread your mailings and payments over up to 10 weeks. If that doesn’t meet your goals, there are other options. Simply give us a call to discuss.

Can I change my Annual Program as I go?

Although our Annual Program is strategically pre-planned, one of its key benefits is that it is not set in stone. Whenever a direct mail marketing campaign is scheduled, you have complete control over changing as much as necessary, including your design and ad copy, mailing area, quantities, etc.

What if I need to stop the Annual Program?

The purpose of our Annual Program is to give you the ability to consistently market your business every week of the year. It is not designed to lock you into future mailings. Therefore, there is an easy and fair way to stop your mailings for any reason.

When you sign up for an Annual Program, consisting of 5 or more mailings during a calendar year, we provide you a discounted rate below our standard pricing equal to one penny per piece.

In the event you need to end your Annual Program prior to its completion, you are simply required to pay back the one penny per piece discount on all of the pieces you have mailed.

This isn’t a cancellation fee; it is merely the cost you would have paid based on our standard pricing, had you not been on the Annual Program.

Additionally, in the event that you end your Annual Program in the middle of a mailing and have remaining printed and addressed direct mail pieces on our shelf that have not been sent out, you simply pay us for the cost of the printing and addressing of those remaining pieces and not postage.

How can I track my response rates?

There is no one perfect solution to track your direct mail response rates. However, there are two methods that should be used in conjunction with each other to track your businesses’ direct mail response rates: match back reports and call tracking.

Matchback reports:

A matchback report compares the new clients you acquire to the mailing list of recipients that were targeted with your direct mail marketing (if you capture your new customers mailing address). This gives you a transparent picture of how many new clients you acquired that received your direct mail marketing.

However, one blind spot of matchback reporting is that it only shows the prospects you have converted into new clients. It does not provide visibility to the number of prospects that have responded to your direct mail marketing but did not convert into a new client.

This is a critical differentiation. If you have 50 people call from your direct mail piece, however, only 10 of them turn in to new clients, it will skew the analysis of your response rates and may appear that your marketing isn’t working as well as it is.

It’s critical that you understand why a prospect calls but does not convert. It could be quite a few reasons, such as poor customer service, scheduling issues, etc. Whatever the case may be, it is critical that you understand these reasons in order to be able to not only properly analyze the performance of your direct mail marketing but also to identify and address the reasons why your prospects did not convert. This brings us to the second method of tracking response rates: call tracking.

Call Tracking:

Call tracking works by utilizing a unique phone number that is only used on your direct mail marketing. Mail Shark can help acquire a call tracking number. Anyone who calls from this unique call tracking number is documented, and the call is recorded.

This provides another layer of tracking and allows you to listen to these calls as well for training and tracking purposes.

That said, one blind spot of call tracking is that any prospect who goes to Google or to your website and calls from the number on your website will not show up on your call tracking. Thus, call tracking is not 100% perfect but does provide an extra layer of tracking.

Call tracking is very inexpensive and highly recommended to use with your direct mail marketing.

Do you use the USPS EDDM program?

For our full-service mailings that we design, print and mail for you, we DO NOT use the USPS EDDM BMEU program.

We put a physical address on each direct mail piece that is sent out, unlike the USPS EDDM BMEU program that uses a generic address on each piece.

The biggest benefit of addressing each mailer is that it gives us the flexibility to remove certain types of addresses that you are not going to want to target, such as apartments, college addresses or trailers, etc.

This is not an option with the USPS EDDM BMEU program.

We do offer printed material that can be used for the USPS EDDM Retail program, where you physically take the mailers to the post office yourself. However, the case is the same with this EDDM option and you are unable to remove any unwanted types of residential addresses.

Can I remove my current customers from my mailing?

Yes, you absolutely can remove your current customers from your mailing.  It is entirely up to you. All we will need from you is your complete database of customers in an Excel or CSV format, separated by address, city, state, and zip.

How Do I Choose the Best Areas to Target?

There are multiple ways to go about identifying and choosing the best areas to target. The process is dictated based on whether you are targeting everyone in a specific area or if you are only targeting prospects that meet a very specific demographic profile.

Often, we start by plotting your current customers on a map in order to identify where your current customer base is coming from. We can then leverage that data along with some key demographics to strategically select current or new areas to target.

The best place to start is by contacting us and consulting with one of our Direct Mail experts to determine which strategy is right for your business. Our team of direct mail experts will simplify and help guide you through this process.

Will you help me design my mailer?

Yes, we absolutely will and as a matter of fact, a custom design is included with every order.

Why is Mail Shark the Best Direct Mail Partner for My Business?

The most important characteristic you should look for in a direct mail partner is Trust. We are extremely proud to say that for over a decade working with 1000’s of businesses just like yours, we have built a reputation as the most trusted industry resource for direct mail.

We pride ourselves on going the extra mile and always doing the right thing, even when no one is looking. We believe in transparency, accountability and do what we say we will do every single time for our clients.