Never... goes straight into the junk mail file.

Junk mail. In the past I have looked at them once in a while, but I never used any of those service providers. We only go with references.

I recently had our upholstery cleaned. The company told me that about 1 yr ago they completely stopped any form of advertising but instead strongly encourage all their customers to post good comments on Angie's List. The co-owner told me that they have never been busier and now don't pay 1 cent for ads. MIght that work for you?

I do not. I have been known to thumb through the card packs, but when you consider I may do it briefly, (standing over the trash can) maybe every 10th envelope I get, that's not much impetus to advertise in them. I would be more likely to notice a newspaper advertisement truthfully.
Interestingly enough, about a year ago, I was handling a deposit for one of my customers who does a "Valu-pak" business. I made small talk about this very subject and he told me that they put in a coupon for a free $50 bill in every 1000 that they send out. He was serious. I think I still only opened one in the last 12 months.

Red

Into the recycling bin for me, too. First, I don't know most of these companies from a hole in the wall, so it's unlikely that the mere presence of an ad is going to make me choose your company. Second, call me suspicious, but I always think that the companies offering "big" savings are doing it off prices that are set to compensate for the "bargain" they're giving you. No, thanks.

I've stopped opening those packets at this point. They go straight into the recycle bin. It's almost a given they will contain the same uninteresting (to me) ads and/or coupons each time. Nothing more than 'spam' mail.
Many towns/communities publish newsletters on a weekly or monthly basis. You may want to look into advertising there. I usually try to deal with local businesses first, if at all possible. I tend to hang on to a couple of copies of the the local town newsletters to see who's available for whatever I may need. They seem to be far more useful than those coupon packs, in my opinion anyhow.
Good luck!

We open the packet up... and pull the restaurant ones. The rest get trashed...

From my experience when you put out a junk mail filler at best it will receive about 10 seconds notice before being deposited in the trash.

We can put out thousands of flyers but unless they arrive at or about the same moment in time that the homeowner needs our service it is highly unlikely they will still have it when the need arises.

For the same cost as a thousand flyers you can have a couple hundred refrigerator magnets made. Many people put the magnets on the fridge out of habit and these have the advantage of continued visibility as well as being present when the need for your service arises.

lazypup,

I LIKE your refrigerator magnet idea. How do you distribute them?

Mike

Anyone who has ever done any direct marketing can tell you first hand that closing a sale on a cold call such as telemarketing or door to door is difficult. The key is to first identify those who may have need of your service.

First off, i solicited the aid of my local independantly owned corner hardware store. I left a box of the magnets at the store and when people come in and buy plumbing parts they drop one of my magnets in the bag at the checkout, in turn I recommend their business to my customers.

Quite often when in the hardware or homesupply centers I see ppl in the plumbing section looking rather perplexed so I offer them a bit of advice or assistance then i give them a magnet and tell them if the project gets too big or if they have future need of a plumber to give me a call. You would be amazed how much those few moments of goodwill will expand your business.

Check with your local real estate agents. Many of them put out packets of information to their customers and they will be glad to put your magnet in the pack. Here again, you are targeting your advertising budget directly to prospective customers rather than just blanketing a neighborhood.

From my experience, even though I put out much less advertising, my advertising return on investment is much higher.

I advertise in a number of ways and have asked people who use those valu pak envelopes about their results. They don't track how people come to use their prod or service. I do, and we always ask new clients --how did you find us? Multiple ways inclding referral.
Personally I don't open the envelopes any more, because there are several competitors and the ads are the same,full of teeth brighteners, plastic surgery, spa treatment and dog training, psychic healing for your cat, scammers claiming they are having "financial planning seminars" (or is that just SoCal?)
I agree with lazypup--getting something keepable to yur target is a wonderful idea. I am an attorney and give out pens with my name and address. I have had calls from other states as a result. Try different methods and track where you get clients from. Everything works--but its not all equally cost effective

See if there any coupons, carpet cleaning, window cleaning or eating out.........the rest I don't even give a glance to.

I "might" take a glance at 3 or 4 I have an interest in. Once I ordered a garden-related catalog using one of the cards. Here's the economics of it all:

I get 20 cards. In the best case I look at 4. That gives you a 1/5 chance of exposure. So whatever you pay, divide by 5 for the number of actual views.

For online advertising, you might pay $0.10 to $.50 per "targeted" exposure. Let's use $.30 as an average. To be comparable to online advertising, you would want to pay no more than $0.06 per mailing. So if you can get these out for a nickel or less per mailing, it "might" be worth it. The advantage would be you would reach the non-online crowd.

You might do better by running an affiliate program and paying $0.10 per catalog sent out or getting in an affiliate network like Shareasale and paying a percentage of sales. This way you pay only for results and a whole bunch of webmasters will advertise for you.

For a business like kitchen renovation or countertops, I should think that an ad in the real yellow pages would be invaluable. That's what I use almost like a reference book. I toss the "other" yellow pages because I'm only keeping one book. And if a company does not have an ad or listing in the ywllow pages, I figure that's a fly-by-night, and if it is a new company, then I hope they last long enough to be in the next year's yellow pages. It's a sign of stability, in my mind.

And again, I use it for reference. I want to look up companies that do stone countertops when I am interested in the subject, not just because I got some card in the mail.

I suspect that many other people feel the same way---the Yellow Pages is a basic reference work.

Junk mail does not even make it into the house, straight from the mailbox into the garage and the trash can.

Straight to the recycle bin w/o a second look.

I agree. I never look at the cards, but do look at the community catalog that comes each quarter. It has restraurant menus!