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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 health & wellness services business.

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

New Patient Acquisition Mailings

1. Target New Patients 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.

In addition, carrier route mailings provide additional capabilities to remove certain types of addresses. For example, with our full-service mailing option, we can identify and remove specific types of address you may want to remove such as college addresses, seasonal addresses, trailers, etc.

Finally, we are able apply key demographics to each carrier route, such as median income, & median age, etc. to further strategically help you select the most viable routes to target.

2. Target New Patients by Profile.

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

Database Patient Retention / Loyalty Mailings

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

All we need from you, is the list of the patients you want to target from your database, in an Excel or CSV format separated by first name, last name, address, city, state, 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 patients in your database to the NCOA database of approximately 160 million changes of addresses going back 48 months.

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

New Mover Mailings 

The new residents moving into your area will need many health & wellness services. These new movers represent the ideal prospective patients 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 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 patients 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 and 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.  You cannot remove any trailers, college addresses, seasonal 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 patients 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, product selection, type of mailing, 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;

A custom design, mailing list, all printing costs, postage and delivery to the USPS. 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 are two methods that should be used in conjunction with each other to track your health & wellness business direct mail response rates: Matchback reporting and call tracking.

Matchback reports:  

Every time a new customer contacts you to schedule an appointment you will be acquiring their physical address.

A matchback report compares these new customer addresses to the mailing list of recipients that were targeted with your direct mail marketing. This comparison gives you a transparent picture of how many new customers you acquired from your direct mail marketing.

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

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 customers, 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 also critical that you understand why a prospect calls but does not convert into an appointment. 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 these 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.

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 may not want to target, such as drop addresses, college addresses or trailers, etc.  You are also not able to remove your current patients

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 members from my mailing? 

Yes, you absolutely can remove your current members from your mailing. All we need from you, is your complete database of members in an Excel or CSV format separated by address, city, state, zip.  

How Do I Choose the Best Areas to Target?

In most cases, we start by plotting your current patients on a map in order to identify where your current Patient base is coming from. We can then leverage that data along with 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.