Our Strengths vs. Other Media

The marketplace is being inundated with new advertising products. More yellow page books, newspapers, door hangers and signs stuck to telephone posts. How can people be expected to pay attention to your advertising message under this onslaught? What can a business do that will create a return on your advertising investment?

We feel we have some great direct mail options that fit particular niches of the market place. We have a proven track record of what works and for what types of businesses. We are not trying to say here that other media is not effective, but in the markets we serve well, nothing works as effectively.

Our key market: Direct Mail

75% of your customers live or work within 5 miles of your business. Coupons deliver their value right in your area to all those people who don't know you. People are used to using coupons, they have seen our shared mailings for years and associate them with valuable services. We have a great track record in this local market. Look over the website and see for yourself. Look at our case studies. They speak for themselves.

We give our clients the ability to fine-tune their market approach along the zip code boundaries and precise mail routes that fit their local markets closely. Our zones are carefully designed to take into account the natural and man-made barriers and dividers which create zones of economic activity in our communities.

How does other media perform in this local market?

Radio: Radio Ads can be effective for particular businesses and particular markets. Is it a fit for your business? Radio ads are not focused very well. Who is listening? Your target market? How many people are listening who are not in your market? If you have a narrow market area; radio is a diffuse and wasted resource for you. Many people change the station when the ads come on. I know I do.

TV: TV is very expensive but can be effective for particular businesses that have a large, easily identified market easily reached by a particular TV show. Is it a fit for your business? TV ads are not focused very well. Who is listening: your target market? How many people are listening who are not in your market? If you have a narrow market area TV is a diffuse wasted resource for you. And everyone I know changes the channel when the ads come on.

Newspaper: Four color ads are very expensive. They can be effective but who is actually reading the paper. Are you sure it is your target market? What sections are they reading?

The newspaper tells you how many papers they printed; however, many are left in the grocery store, many in newsstands. For example, advertising stickers are sold on the front of the newspaper. In Arlington, you have to buy 55,000. Some days they only sell 30,000 papers. You still get to pay for the 25,000 advertising stickers on papers no one saw. Too many business people are left scratching their head wondering why their advertising isn't working. They need to talk to dollars savers.

How many newspapers never get read? If the paper is opened, how does anyone find your ad? Newspapers clamor for attention. They have a myriad of information and ads and news and sports to distract the reader. Your potential prospect opens the paper to read the newspaper. Your ad is an afterthought.

Door hangers: Door hangers are an intrusion onto the sanctity of your private home. People wander through the neighborhood delivering door hangers. People don't like people coming up to their front door and, in essence, leaving litter and therefore, a lot of people don't like door-hanger advertising.

Often the door-hangers are left on the wrong door and really, there is no precise way to audit whether your door hangers were hung on doors or dropped in the trash. That is unless someone follows the door- hanging contractor through the neighborhood. How often does that happen and how does that work? How do you differentiate between the house where no door-hanger was delivered and the house where the door-hanger has been removed by the dweller?

Does the door hanger contractor make it into a gated community? Or is he more likely to end up in the neighborhood with doors 50 feet apart. How many of your potential customers just might take it out on you and your coupon if the door-hanging contractor is walking across lawns and through flowerbeds to deliver your coupon.

The best alternative to reach your local market is direct mail.

The US mail is a legal and accepted way to deliver advertising information to the homeowner. People don't like being called; they don't like being faxed, they don't like being spammed and they don't like someone coming up on their front porch to hang something on their door. We also receive a receipt from the US Post Office to confirm that our mailings are delivered. You make a great offer to a well-selected direct mail prospect and you are on the right road to more business. Give us a call and let's have a conversation. Maybe we can create some new business together.