I received a packet in the mail today of local businesses with their coupons, about 35 this month. The company charges each business $500 a month - for one time, goes out to about 10,000 homes. I got to thinking why can't I make it better and deliver nice colored plastic bags each month to 1000 homes each month, rotating neighborhoods and hitting all different people for a 6 month contract. And charge them say $95 a month and they supply the coupon to be put int he bag. I think the advantage to this is their message will get to the homeowner personally - as most people will open up a bag and see whats in it versus sending a packet every month that most people just toss out the entire envelope - it is considered junk mail. What do you think? Is that my selling point to the business - its personal, you'd be reaching 6000 people over the 6 months actually for the same price as one month. Thanks, any thoughts would help.

cheryl lynn

There are a number of companies doing door-to-door adverts with bags, it's been going on for years (I remember doing it when I was a kid- got paid .02 for the first piece, and a penny a piece for each additional piece in the weekly adverts...and I had a 200 home route with usually 6 to 8 pieces! Thought I was ** in tall cotton). Of course, just because there are other companies doing this, doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement... You might have the next best thing.

You do have to consider your expense and obsolescence. Print adverts still have a place for a lot of people, but if they don't perceive an immediate benefit, it's just another piece of paper coming in their door or mailbox that they are going to pitch. What will you do to make your service stand out and be better than anyone elses?

So, direct mailers contend with printing (ink, paper), mailing list, handling, postage and such. You would be printing (from home? On an ink-jet?) cutting, stuffing (handling), and delivering (gas money) for 6000 homes. That is very ambitious and time-consuming. The direct mailers have printers that can print/stamp multiple pages at a time, collate them, fold and staple them and stuff them into an envelope, slide them down to a pre-printed envelope with a postage indicia (cheap postage) stamp for bulk mail, and can get it done in a matter of a few hours for all 10 thousand homes. How long will it take you for 6 thousand?

You might even be able to contract with a local printer to do all of the above for you (at a higher cost, I'm sure), they can do it on a deadline, and then you would have to adjust your cost to your advertisers for it.

How many businesses does this other direct mailer service? (Count the ads-you said 35) Consider that they may also have contracts with other counties also, and due to the sizes of their orders can keep their costs "low" at $500.00 per business. So, while they may be reaping $17,500 per month for these businesses, their overhead must be considered. BTW, don't forget the sales force required to actually sell the ads to begin with... I know I've left a lot out, but I'm not into direct marketing; this is

Just my 2 cents... Good luck!

Connie and David Spicer, Artists/Entrepreneurs