My late winter mailing went out about two weeks ago. I mailed 10,000 cards this time - determined to get a response and so far I have had two, count them, TWO, phone calls.

One was from a lady that wants a wall patched next to her back door where the dog scratches it. The other was from a woman that has a $2500 budget to paint her whole interior.

I am just wondering if I should give up on this type of marketing and abandon my plan of mailing 16.000 out in March/April? If it wasn’t for repeats and referrals I would have had to close up shop.

Is anybody out there getting better results?

I used to love DM. We did huge mailing campaigns. Not anymore. I have 3 years of declining results to prove that it has lost its effectiveness. We still do some (proximity mailers- near jobs with signs up and to past customers). But that's it.
The new thing, that I have had good results with is community based marketing. That is get involved in community activities. Sponsorships, volunteerism, networking. The good news is its cheap. The bad news is it is a lot of work. It can also be fun.
I am hyper- informed in my community. I am determined to weave myself so deep in the fabric of our community that I'll never disappear.
Brutal winter here in Philly (in all respects).
All the best,
Kevin

Thanks for getting back to me. I knew I could count on you for great advice. Seems like nobody else has an opinion.............

We have experienced the same weather down here, the good news is spring is looking pretty good so far.

Winter is a little tough this year up in Canada as well. Not so much weather wise though. I havent had much luck with flyers this year. However i sent out 75 thank you cards to random customers out of my customer database and probably landed 25 jobs from customers i havenet heard from in about three years...

I discovered that about 6 past customers received the bulk mailing which prompted them to call. It turned out to be an expensive way to reach past customers and it makes me wonder why they haven’t replied to email blasts.

I was all set to do a spring mail and I am on the fence. I would really like the phone to ring................