The Clean and Green Club

Postal direct mail isn’t cheap, and if you only have a two percent response (considered pretty good, believe it or not), that means a mailing that costs you one dollar per envelope costs you fifty dollars per sale! A one percent response costs $100 per sale. Big ouch!

Here are a few ideas to bring down the costs of those mailings:

• Organize your own Val-Pak-style co-op—get a few other businesses to share the cost, and postage drops dramatically (hint: Your response rate will be much higher if the offers are related in some way, and the list is targeted—so, for instance, a florist, caterer, and DJ could mail together to a list of couples that registered for an upcoming bridal show)
• Use postcards instead of envelope-mailings, and give your URL prominently on the postcard (with a reason to visit)
• Let your own computer do some of the postal processing (sorting, bar-coding, etc.) and take advantage of postal discounts
• Enclose a flier when you’re mailing something else already (such as filling an order)
• Partner with others to enclose your fliers when they mail, and vice versa
• Trade lists with others who reach a similar customer profile

By the way, I have an extensive section on how to implement these and other postal mailing cost-savers in my fifth book, Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World (which was a Finalist for Foreword magazine’s Book of the Year Award)

About the timing of this article

In October, 2008, I devoted this newsletter to thinking strategically about when to use postal direct mail—and I promised a part 2, on reducing direct-mail costs. And then I guess I forgot to look at my notes the following month. I never lack for ideas, so I went on and wrote about a bunch of other things. Today, I went to the archives and saw that Part 1 staring at me, with no Part 2. But I try to keep my promises, so here, a year later, is the long-awaited article.