I can get 4% returns on direct mail.. want to know how?

Another article from my blog/forum.. written with my industry but it should apply to painters as well.

How To Systematically Dominate a Market: Part 1

I see so many companies that offer excellent service and superior workmanship floundering at lead generation. The biggest issue is not applying what they already know to their marketing agenda. Let me explain:

Most of us can tackle a job in our chosen field from A-Z with relative ease. We know what comes off the truck, where to begin and where to end. We can predict accurately the results of our efforts. When it comes to advertising there is so much rhetoric and empty promise that many of us get stuck spending money on low performance, single run campaigns that generate nothing. We end up frustrated and bad mouthing that particular form of advertising. Where are we going wrong? We are not following the same type of systematic approach.

The Rule of Repetition
Everyone has heard about this and, if you watch TV for a few hours every week, you have witnessed it in action. Yet, we will stubbornly deny this rule exists. We'll run two postcard campaigns (or maybe just one) and when we get two calls from a thousand names.. postcards go out the window. Everyone buys on trust.. no matter what the purchase. Repetition creates this trust.

But Repetition is EXPENSIVE !!
Not if you do it right. The key is what I call "small target domination".

What is Small Target Domination and Where Do I Begin?
Compile Your Target List
1) The first thing I do is establish the geographic area I want to target. It may be one zip code, or it may be a few. Drive to that area. Is it rich with contractor activity? Is it a keep-up-with-the-Joneses neighborhood? Take notes on what you see. Write down street names. More on why you do that in a moment.
2) Return home and begin to compile a mailing list. That does not mean you mail to the entire zip code. The zip codes are your starting point. You are looking to get the list narrowed between 500-1500 prospects depending on your budget. You can use a service like infousa.com to start narrowing your criteria. Criteria I use..
a) Ownership of the home for five years plus. These people have recovered from the inital purchase and are ready to start spending money on upgrades or curb appeal.
b) Household income at least twice that of the state average.
c) The value of the home itself. Odds are, if you have gone to the right neighborhoods in step-1 you will have a general idea of the home pricing there. I disclude houses over $2,000,000 as the homeowners are hard to reach. The majority of my customer's properties range from $350,000 to $1,000,000. It also goes without saying that you want to narrow only to homeowners and disclude renters.
d) Carrier routes: The reason I write down street names is so that I can determine the carier routes. I may only want to target half of a zip code. You can use the 'zip plus four' system as well.
3) Once you have your list of residences research the area. What newspaper do these people read? I'm talking about small geographic distribution/local papers. What do these people like to do for liesure? What is the dominant religion for the area? What schools do they send their children to? What restaurants and eateries do they frequent?

Now What?
Get Your Name Out There
My goal is to begin branding. That is a bad word to many experts with respect to small companies. Perhaps it is in the semantics of the definition. Let's call it 'trust building". As I stated in this thread, trust building is achieved via repetition. The more they see your name, the more credible you become. These are the steps I recommend.

1) Introduce yourself. Send out a letter of introduction. The key is to get people to open it. There are a couple of methods I use.
a) I send a standard letter envelope and include a magnet or drink coaster. (more on the drink coaster in another thread). When people feel something inside an envelope, they open it. Make sure the envelope is addressed to the homeonwer, not "occupant" or "resident". I have spent money on custom envelopes with "Special Offer Inside" and it produced no greater return. Spend your money on what's inside. The letter itself should be informative and have a friendly, personalized tone. Your goal with this intro is not neccessarily to sell your service. Its a "Hi, how are you, we're here if you need us letter". You can include a seperate coupon (print it on glossy stock) call to action if you want but it drives up cost and again, I did not see added return when I did that. The return on this first mailer will be nil to .25 percent. (by the end of the campaign, you should expect 3-5% returns)
b) As an alternate, send out an introduction greeting card. This envelope size is the most opened. I'm not going to get into what you say on the card, bit it is a great method for direct mail. I utilize it now as the second mailing in my campaign.

2) Now is the time to set up your support advertising. Remember when we compiled the lifestyle information about our target area? You use that now to determine where you will run ads.
a) Get listed in the contractor section of their local paper. If your budget is higher, place an ad in the paper somewhere.
b) Advertise in their church bulletin. This one is huge. There is a psychological advantage that occurs when people see your ads here.
c) Go to their local eateries. If there is a bulletin board, put a flyer up there. Talk to the owner. Many shops sell advertising on their takeout menus. I have gotten into leaving drink coasters with local upscale pubs. I had a call last month from a young girl that took one of my coasters home and called me. She didn't need service but her mother just had construction done and her house was filthy from the dust. That job paid for my next 8000 coasters.
d) Golfing is big in my demographic. These people are perfect. Disposable income and they don't DIY on the weekends when they can be out on the course. I have gotten to be friends with the guy that runs the clubhouse at a private course near my house. I leave flyers there and this spring I am co-sponsoring an outing. You'd laugh if I told you how inexpensive this exposure is.