mspecperformance

I will say that you need to give it at least 3 months, mailing every month, for it to work. Not everyone that gets the card will be in need of service at the time they receive it. Not everyone will react to the first card.

 

My experience was that most of the first time visits were for an oil change, just checking us out. The sales began at the second visit, of if they had a breakdown. You will be surprised at how long they hold on to those cards. Look at the date code when they come in. 2-6 month old cards are the norm.

 

I sent out about 5k mailers a month for the first three or 4 months. Then I increased the count, first to 7500 mailers, then to 10,000 per month. Those I split the drops to twice a month to spread them out. I was getting too many to handle initially then they would drop off towards the end of the month. Then towards the end I spread them out to every 3 weeks.

I definitely understand what you are saying. I am just very surprised to see how ridiculously low my response has been (2 calls, 2 walk ins, 1 appt) since November 12th. Everyone other than 1 walk in (potentially) and the 1 appt have been quality customers. I really have no problem sending out more flyers however I was hoping to get something of around atleast 10 responses from the mailers. So far its been pretty bleak. I was advised by the mudlick rep that i SHOULD have gotten some response even though I sent out heading into the holiday season. At this point over a month into the mailer I have received .1% response out of 5000 mailers which is rather discouraging.

We are always trying something new, but you must track it very closely to see if it works. One of our best is what we call our 3 step letter. It goes out to new move in a 3 mile radius, about 350 each month. We do it in house, in an envelope with a 1st class stamp. The 3 letters are with a 2 week expiration. You must have urgency. We put a magnet in the first letter. We do not get a great response off the 1st letter, 2nd letter much better and the 3rd letter they come in. Of course that has the best offer. We send a coupon page with our 2nd letter that extends longer. On an average get 10 a month back and average ro is $256 for the 1st time in. Last year we went back and figured what each 1st time customer came in later and how much he spent. Most became good customers with multiple cars. We showed this to our flat rate techs who hate doing the low ball offers, how this made more money for them in the future. On our European coupons, we always use a $20.00 off regular price synthetic oil changes. This is because some oil filters are much more expensive.

 

We have been approached to do a 3 time large postcard. I don't like them and throw them away, but am willing to try and see if other people respond to it. It would be targeted to a specific vehicle such as honda, VW or Mercedes. Not sure if we are going to do it or not. Please let me know if anybody has done this with a postcard and mailing it 3 times to the same people.

Where did you get the mailing lists?

Like you, I have a low car count, higher ARO with euro cars only. These didn't seem to work well for my clientel. Most of our customers talk about their Bimmer to their friends, they for on forums and talk, and the word of mouth will carry you the best and give you high end clients that will spend the money on their cars.

I sent out 380 to BMW owners in my area and got 2 cars to come in. Cost $312 and turned $450 in gross sales... so I almost broke even... sure left something to be desired, but I was new and willing to try anything to get more cars in the door. The only thing that has consistently brought in new people has been my old ones...

I got my first appointment yesterday. Lets see where this goes !

Its amazing how these people remember how to breathe....

For what it's worth, I used Mudlick for about 2 years. It took about 3 months before I started to see a response, and worked very well.

After about 18 months the new customers dwindled, and the majority of the response to the mailers was for the low cost oil change we offered. These were repeat customers with multiple previous recommendations for basic maintenance, but would decline anything other than the oil change. Some would price shop and have work we recommended performed elsewhere, others wouldn't do it at all.

 

Overall I think it worked well, brought us a lot of new customers that didn't know we were here, but it reached a pint of diminished return. I stopped about 6 months too late, but I don't regret using them, and probably will again in a year or so. Now I plan to work a little harder on internet marketing and better targeting my existing customer base.

Ok thanks Dan that gives me some hope haha.

Dan, how many mailers did you send out before seeing a response? Was it 1 mailer in 3 months? Did you send them monthly? Quarterly?

I have heard of Diminishing returns after a year or so however the few people who i have spoke to said they got a very good initial response. So far for me, nada. I am thinking of doing another mailer in February/March which would make it around 3 months since my first mailer. I just hope business stays up so my marketing budget will have something in it by then!

Welcome to the site. Glad your on board. One of the keys to a direct mail campaign is to figure out what you are trying to accomplish with the mail piece. If you are looking to drive car count you have to have a compelling offer, if you are trying to establish a brand image for your shop you may not see an uptick in your car count right away. I've had good luck with a "Birthday Mailer" to a targeted demographic. I've also have good results with Mudlick Mail with a $19.95 Oil Change. We actually have an ARO of $125 on our Mudlick Mailers. That offer may not work for you with Euro cars, but you need to find some offer that would get them to try a different facility from where they are going now.

 

What type of offer did you put on your Mailers?

Did you do just one mailing or have you continued mailing?

 

I'll be happy to share other things we have done if you are interested.

Good Luck,

Russ

Russ, Thanks for your reply! I worked with my Mudlick rep on what was offered with my mailer. Through his recommendations we went with a 49.95 synthetic oil change offer as well as money off offers (example $25 off $100 or more service). As far as I can tell I have only received 3 calls from the mailer since it was sent out on November 12. One was from a more or less senile old lady who called up 3 times asking the same questions pretty much forgetting she ever contacted us. Another was from a guy who was outraged that our oil change offer was only up to 5 qts. The last was a gentleman who stopped by the shop and guaranteed to be back after the holidays (who knows). So far we have only done one mailing. I can't help but think that the storm with the damage it brought and also a gas shortage not seen in NY area since the 70's had something major to do with the amount of response.

All great comments. Direct mail, as in any other forms of advertising takes time to develop, and the more consistent you are with your message on a continual basis, the better. Don't give up on advertising. I do agree that you need to identify your profile customer and then find those pockets of your demographics that fit that profile. You will need to try different things, some will work, some will not.

 

ID your ideal profile customer, create the message you want to give, give an offering and commit to continual advertising. Metro areas like yours (I'm from the Bronx originally, so I know Queens) are bombarded with so much advertising, it's tough to get thru to your target audience, but it can be done. Can Mudlick help you understand your ideal customer and then target them? This is a question I would have for them.

 

Another thing to consider: A consumer is not ready to buy until he or she realizes a need or an awareness of your product or service. That's why you need to constantly advertise. Look at it this way: you are sitting watching the football game and a commercial comes on about Home Depot. Home Depot does not expect you to jump off your couch and run down to the nearest Home Depot, just because it aired a commercial, right? No, it's just sending a message, reinforcing its brand.

 

Hope this helps and makes sense. Great post and good luck!

Hi Joe. I originally went with Mudlick because i heard some good things about their service and they target higher income individuals/households. I spoke to my rep on exactly what my business was about and we together formulated what he saw that worked for his previous clients whom have a similar business model as mine (less car count, higher ARO).

I simply can't afford to send out Direct Mailers every month. I could possibly stretch it out quarterly intervals. It is just disheartening that I didn't get even one response that generated any money.

-Adam

Hey guys just wanted to get some opinions. My shop is located in Queens, NY. There are a ton of people in and around my shop as well as lot of competition. We are a relatively new shop (6-7 years old) and just moved into our new location in the summer. It was a nice upgrade from our very old and run down and Very small shop. Now we have approx 5,000sqft with a lot of new equipment, renovated office, lounge area, epoxy floors, etc. We mainly specialize in BMW work however I have been trying to open the doors to other German car makes. Although our new space is great, it is not in the most desirable location in terms of curb appeal. I sent out a direct mailer with Mudlick Mail to about 5000 homes. The mailer was sent out at around November 12. I have yet to really get much of a response from the mailer and I am rather disappointed. There are a number of factors that might have been attributed to the low response such as the mega storm that hit over here and also going into the holiday season.

My main goal is really to drive new business to the shop. I have been on a on going campaign to stay in touch with our old customers however with the new space and new bills, I see the need to increase my customer database. Has anyone had any experience with direct mailers in the NYC or highly dense metro areas? I am reluctant to try again due to the costs of sending out mailers but I was thinking of maybe giving it another shot toward the spring time.

Thoughts?