Has anyone tried direct mailing as a marketing strategy?

I just started my portrait photography business and wanted to know if using direct mailing would be a good idea to get my name out there. I know word of mouth is the top way to do it but I need something else to keep me going so I'm not waiting around for friends to talk about my business. Any suggestions would be great.

If you have the funds to acquire a mailing list, make flyers/brochures, and pay for postage it could get you some business. The average is about 1% response rate(many are lower) . That's just responses, not conversions (sales). Conversion rates are anywhere from 1%-20% (20% being amazing). So, send out 1000 and if you are average, you will get 10 responses. Then if you are REALLY good and average 20% conversion rate, you will get 2 sales. That's 2 sales out of 1000 mailers sent.

If you are up for it, you can try it. But I think it's a waste of time.
Get on social media and run some ads for your business page. Facebook has a pretty decent ad system now. You can specify your ads to run within a given radius as well. Same goes for Google Adwords, if your site is up to par with the proper meta info and text for a relevant landing page.

I am the media and marketing developer/manager for a small not for profit and have had reasonable success with direct mailers in the small towns in our area. That being said I would make sure you get your social media, and web presence on point before looking at paid marketing opportunities. There are tons of online opportunities for fairly cheap/free and effective marketing.

Now back to the mailers, just be aware that this can be a very pricey venture. If you want to send a nice looking professionally printed mailer out you will either need to pay someone to design and print it for you plus postage and envelope stuffing. You can also do these things yourself but depending on your experience with design and the printing equipment you have on hand the quality of your add will vary.

I would have to look at the distribution numbers for our last mailer but I recall that the last one we sent out was around $4,500 with the design being done in house by myself. This may be worth it for you depending on your pricing and how good of a response you see, but since you are just starting out it may be a bit of a large investment for little return.

For more basic fliers I have had a lot of success with sending adverts through the local water and electrical bills. A lot of utilities companies will sell add space on the back of their bills and although the designs have to be in black and white the distribution numbers are very large and I was pretty surprised by the return we got from these. They were also much cheaper, $250 for half of a page or $350 for the whole page.

Hope that helps.

solepatch wrote in post #17565404
I am the media and marketing developer/manager for a small not for profit and have had reasonable success with direct mailers in the small towns in our area. That being said I would make sure you get your social media, and web presence on point before looking at paid marketing opportunities. There are tons of online opportunities for fairly cheap/free and effective marketing.

Now back to the mailers, just be aware that this can be a very pricey venture. If you want to send a nice looking professionally printed mailer out you will either need to pay someone to design and print it for you plus postage and envelope stuffing. You can also do these things yourself but depending on your experience with design and the printing equipment you have on hand the quality of your add will vary.

I would have to look at the distribution numbers for our last mailer but I recall that the last one we sent out was around $4,500 with the design being done in house by myself. This may be worth it for you depending on your pricing and how good of a response you see, but since you are just starting out it may be a bit of a large investment for little return.

For more basic fliers I have had a lot of success with sending adverts through the local water and electrical bills. A lot of utilities companies will sell add space on the back of their bills and although the designs have to be in black and white the distribution numbers are very large and I was pretty surprised by the return we got from these. They were also much cheaper, $250 for half of a page or $350 for the whole page.

Hope that helps.

I do the same here! lol
We are in a very specific niche so we spent some $$$ on a very targeted mailing list. I did the design on the mailers. But it was the postage that was really shocking.

The utility company is a good idea. Especially for something like photography that could apply to a wide variety of people!

Surprisingly, we have the most success by being active on forums!

Yes, I didn't mention it, but should go without saying anyway - get your site and web presence in order before you start paying to advertise it.

BlakeC wrote in post #17565417
I do the same here! lol
We are in a very specific niche so we spent some $$$ on a very targeted mailing list. I did the design on the mailers. But it was the postage that was really shocking.

The utility company is a good idea. Especially for something like photography that could apply to a wide variety of people!

Surprisingly, we have the most success by being active on forums!

Yes, I didn't mention it, but should go without saying anyway - get your site and web presence in order before you start paying to advertise it.

Holy cow postage is so expensive! I was floored the first time I saw what it was going to cost us to send a very targeted mailer just to previous volunteer group leaders we had worked with in the past. I would have much rather just used constant contact for such a targeted message but our ED believes very strongly in the power of putting paper in peoples hands.

I haven't really explored the possibilities of creating a forum presence for us although that seems like a great idea if I can find some active forums that pertain to our field and our area. We seem to see the best return through FB and Youtube ads right now.

solepatch wrote in post #17565432
Holy cow postage is so expensive! I was floored the first time I saw what it was going to cost us to send a very targeted mailer just to previous volunteer group leaders we had worked with in the past. I would have much rather just used constant contact for such a targeted message but our ED believes very strongly in the power of putting paper in peoples hands.

I haven't really explored the possibilities of creating a forum presence for us although that seems like a great idea if I can find some active forums that pertain to our field and our area. We seem to see the best return through FB and Youtube ads right now.

We also use CC for emails! lol
I only send emails once a month though, just to make sure it is all relevant and not "spammy."

Forums work well for us because we are an automotive shop and e-commerce store.

YouTube videos/ads have done ok for us as well. I just placed an order for a guy in Germany because he saw one of our videos! crazy how online sales work sometimes!

anyway...sorry for taking over your thread OP. Don't hardly ever meet someone who does what I do!

BlakeC wrote in post #17565462
We also use CC for emails! lol
I only send emails once a month though, just to make sure it is all relevant and not "spammy."

Forums work well for us because we are an automotive shop and e-commerce store.

YouTube videos/ads have done ok for us as well. I just placed an order for a guy in Germany because he saw one of our videos! crazy how online sales work sometimes!

anyway...sorry for taking over your thread OP. Don't hardly ever meet someone who does what I do!

Haha very cool.

I guess we can let OP have his thread back now.

A friend of mine has had some great success with direct mail. Granted, he's mailing art directors at agencies and corporations, not your average consumer. But still...

2014 mailer - http://www.clintdavis.​net …ndmade-2014-promo-mailer/

2009 mailer - http://www.clintdavis.​net …/09/getting-the-word-out/

The cost of these mailers is clearly much higher than just the normal 'postcard' you would see to the consumer... but the potential return is much higher. Your first booked job from one of these outlets is likely to pay for the rest of the project, and your second booked gig would be 100% profit. I haven't asked him for more details, but I would imagine he's booked 5 to 10 gigs per mailer, which is more than worth the initial up-front investment.

Well... those are dope.

The post office has a relatively new program where you can provide them with printed and bundled mailers WITHOUT addresses and they will deliver them to every box in the area. I can't recall if they break it down to neighborhoods or jus zip codes but it is significantly cheaper than old school direct mail. The old way required a high volume to each zip code to qualify for lower postage so any kind of targeted list would pay the full rate.

One thing you absolutely must do is design you piece EXACTLY as they specify. They don't joke around with that stuff, and the last thing you want to have to do is trash a bunch of mailers.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17565942
The post office has a relatively new program where you can provide them with printed and bundled mailers WITHOUT addresses and they will deliver them to every box in the area. I can't recall if they break it down to neighborhoods or jus zip codes but it is significantly cheaper than old school direct mail. The old way required a high volume to each zip code to qualify for lower postage so any kind of targeted list would pay the full rate.

One thing you absolutely must do is design you piece EXACTLY as they specify. They don't joke around with that stuff, and the last thing you want to have to do is trash a bunch of mailers.

The post office program is called EDDM (every door direct mail) and you choose by delivery route. I looked into it for my area and was surprised at how affordable the delivery part of it was. Granted you still have to make up the mailer and have everything else ready (web site and social media). It does help to know the area and neighborhoods your mailing to. However the post office website does have some statistics for the routs including age breakdown and average income.

Direct mail is only as good as the list you purchase. Do your homework.

Lianne, you should check out this thread too: https://photography-on-the.net …read.php?t=1419​577&page=1

Littlejon Dsgn wrote in post #17566666
The post office program is called EDDM (every door direct mail) and you choose by delivery route. I looked into it for my area and was surprised at how affordable the delivery part of it was. Granted you still have to make up the mailer and have everything else ready (web site and social media). It does help to know the area and neighborhoods your mailing to. However the post office website does have some statistics for the routs including age breakdown and average income.

ahh, thanks. did you end up doing a mailing?

FarmerTed1971 wrote in post #17566687
Direct mail is only as good as the list you purchase. Do your homework.

as someone who has purchased quite a few lists in the past, i was a little surprised to see how innovative the post office was being with the EDDM program. We were always very careful about where we bought them and then even ran tests for duplicates after receiving the data.

Despite having NOT done a EDDM mailing, I think in this case (portrait photographer) buying a list is probably the least of her worries. The layout and over all quality of the piece, followed by an effective call to action, the supporting online materials, and then finally the right geographic area are probably the concerns I would put at the top of the list.

Other than looking for top earners with disposable income, i'm not sure who I would look for if i were going to pay for names and addresses. I don't think there is much to be gained over just hitting a geographic area. Thoughts?

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17566897
Lianne, you should check out this thread too: https://photography-on-the.net …read.php?t=1419​577&page=1

ahh, thanks. did you end up doing a mailing?

as someone who has purchased quite a few lists in the past, i was a little surprised to see how innovative the post office was being with the EDDM program. We were always very careful about where we bought them and then even ran tests for duplicates after receiving the data.

Despite having NOT done a EDDM mailing, I think in this case (portrait photographer) buying a list is probably the least of her worries. The layout and over all quality of the piece, followed by an effective call to action, the supporting online materials, and then finally the right geographic area are probably the concerns I would put at the top of the list.

Other than looking for top earners with disposable income, i'm not sure who I would look for if i were going to pay for names and addresses. I don't think there is much to be gained over just hitting a geographic area. Thoughts?

I have not yet done the mailing, I just looked into last week. My online stuff is not up to snuff yet. I like being able to hit specific areas around me. I know which neighborhoods are close to schools for senior stuff, I know which areas have larger homes and chances of more money to spend. And I am not marketing to someone thats an hour drive from my studio.

Thanks for all your replies! Some great stuff to consider