Continue to Site

Any Experience With The Company Mail Shark?

pakulas? your average sell is 10.00?
I am banking on 5% sending out 500, looking to get 25 back. 450, food cost is 126 and cost of mailing is 179
bringing my total to 305 if I have to add more labor to cover 25 orders a week than I have bigger problems.
Again along with the 4 percent additional sales we will be building relationships with new customers
 
Last edited:
I’ve heard good things about them (I live in the pizza marketing world) and their particular system…mainly on the price because it is very affordable and broken up over a long period of time. The right marketing strategy depends on your business and goals. Saturation menu mailing is an industry standard best practice while additional specialized mailing programs may help develop your business even further.

Best of luck with everything!
 
Last edited:
Chris@Taradel:
I had a customer in Raleigh call me this morning and tell me his mailers increased sales 90%
Click to expand...
90%? :shock: Over what period of time, and from what to what? Not to be a wet blanket - but again we have a crazy number without any explanation of what it means. If a “normally” running pizza shop gets a sustained 90% increase in business - or even a sustained 45% increase in business - through any single campaign of mail, I’ll eat my shoe - any yours too.

If the place was about to close, doing $100 per day, and is now doing $190 - I’d understand.
 
Last edited:
I know that big glossy menus “designed to sell” get the job done without question.

Chris,
Mailing out big glossy menus is exactly what they do. The only difference in what they do that you don’t is allow smaller, more frequent mailings over time; without additional drop fees. This makes it much easier to manage cash flow and avoid a big cash outlay at one time.
 
Last edited:
If someone were to receive a 4% return on their mAiler I’d say that’s a good start, but not what these companies tell you is probable. When I started a direct mail thread a couple of weeks ago someone said , you WILL lose a lot of that business when you stop mailing. So when you break it down, how many people stick with you and become regulars and how many jump ship for the next coupon? I’m not trying to belittle anybodys methods of marketing, just trying to get the full scoop.

Ps I wouldn’t be worried about the return of coupons from a mailer but more what % my business goes up as a whole.
 
Last edited:
What’s important to me is that I consistently do something and in fact I believe you should use as many different marketing vehicles as possible. By doing so you will realize a higher % return on all that you do. I have a marketing plan that includes doing mailers among other things. I evaluate my marketing as a whole and not on what % return I get from one particular element. It’s quite likely that someone could see the mailer and not place an order, however I have still made a “impression” on them that is to my benefit when they are willing, able and ready to make a purchase. I have found that it is these multiple impressions that come from a variety of advertising vehicles that will help me gain market share over time. If you really want to find out how effective your marketing is stop doing it and see what happens to your sales…I don’t think you would like the results.
 
Last edited:
48.png
pizzasource:
It’s quite likely that someone could see the mailer and not place an order, however I have still made a “impression” on them that is to my benefit when they are willing, able and ready to make a purchase.
Click to expand...
Beautifully stated, it took me awhile to learn this lesson coming from the nightclub background, but what I’ve learned as an Indie Pizza place is that my name has to constantly be floating around or a high percentage of potential customers will succumb to the barrage of traditional advertising from the big boys.
Chris@Taradel:
That being said, would I sign up for their particular strategy, probably not. I know that big glossy menus “designed to sell” get the job done without question.
Click to expand...
Really? You want us to use your single shot strategy over a multi tiered concept from your competitors (who are also less expensive). I responded to an email tonight from Josh at MS saying that I was concerned about committing to a program that big without knowing if it would work in my market. He responded after hours, from his cell phone, wondering if he could call on me tomorrow to talk alternatives and explain how I could get out of the contract if it wasn’t working for me…

…meanwhile, I’m still waiting on those extra 2,000 menus Taradel promised me last summer for being a new customer from TT, an apology for failing to add the folding to my order, or an explanation why the proofs I emailed you on that Monday had to be opened and processed by a coworker 4 days later when I called back to see if everything was ok.

-IP
 
Last edited:
Chris, you seem to take a lot of the credit for your cusotmer’s skyrocketing sales. What role did Taradel play in it? Don’t you do the same thing as Mail Shark, only for much more money?

I agree that a beautiful menu works, but if that’s the strategy why not just order them from Gotprint.com, which is about 32% cheaper than Taradel for the same menu?

As a vendor, I don’t think you should post in a thread where we’re having a discussion about a competitor since your opinion is obviously going to be biased. I don’t run the board and I’m not a moderator, just my humble opinion.
 
Last edited:
48.png
Piper:
As a vendor, I don’t think you should post in a thread where we’re having a discussion about a competitor since your opinion is obviously going to be biased. I don’t run the board and I’m not a moderator, just my humble opinion.
Click to expand...
I like how Royster is always active in discussions that relate to his business, talks about what his customers have done or are doing, but never makes a sales pitch.
 
Last edited:
I agree about consistency being the key which is one of the big factors on why I decided to sign up. That said let’s not forget and of course my outlook is more than likely different than others that one of the main purposes of the mailer is to generate new customers & or win back old ones. If I can drive new customers in and win back old ones I try and look at the total dollar amount that they will spend the entire year. I know this is tuff to do because it is easy to focus solely on coupons but I look at the bigger picture. I also try to make sure that when my staff does see someone come in with a coupon that they are really treating that customer like gold and trying to win them over and beat my competition. There’s a lot that we cannot forget once we have gotten the customer in our door.
 
Last edited:
Hi everyone, Josh from The Mail Shark here. A few of my customers have let me know about this site and suggested that I chime in and address a few of the more frequently asked questions. Don’t worry, I promise I won’t go off on a tangent and ramble on about how great The Mail Shark is and how were the best direct mail company in the world, ha ha.

-In your annual programs why are there 50 weeks of mailings yet there are 52 weeks of payments?

There are two weeks that don’t get mailed during the year which is most commonly chosen by the customer to be the week of July 4th and the week of Christmas. What we do is take the entire cost of the annual campaigns and instead of spreading the payments over 50 weeks, we have simply spread them over 52 weeks to assist our customers further with cash flow.

-Are there any other art setup fees, additional costs, taxes, etc. to any of your prices.

NO, all of our prices include the Custom Design, List, Print, Mailing Services & Postage.

-Is there any money up front or required as a down payment.

NO, there is not money due up front or as a down payment and your first payment is not due until we physically deliver your pieces to the post office.

-What if I sign up for an annual mailing program and need to end the contract prior to the completion of the program.

This is not a problem at all. We have two pricing structures, our annual pricing and our open rate pricing. Our annual pricing is a reduced pricing structure that you receive when you sign up for an annual agreement and is based on the volume that you will be mailing with us throughout the entire year. Our open rate pricing structure is the pricing that you would pay if you chose to only mail any quantity of pieces not associated with an annual program, eg. 10,000 Menus or 5,000 Postcards, etc.

That said the most fair way that we could think of to handle clients that need to end their contracts early is as follows. For all of the pieces that we have mailed for you, you will be charged the difference between the annual pricing and the open rate pricing. You are not being penalized for ending your contract early you are simply paying what you would have had you just chosen to do those mailings with us and not entered into an annual program.
 
Last edited:
Pakula's Pizza:
If someone were to receive a 4% return on their mAiler I’d say that’s a good start, but not what these companies tell you is probable. When I started a direct mail thread a couple of weeks ago someone said , you WILL lose a lot of that business when you stop mailing. So when you break it down, how many people stick with you and become regulars and how many jump ship for the next coupon? I’m not trying to belittle anybodys methods of marketing, just trying to get the full scoop.

Ps I wouldn’t be worried about the return of coupons from a mailer but more what % my business goes up as a whole.
Click to expand...
I started direct mail 18 months ago. Last year our business grew 12%. The first quarter of this year it is again showing an increase of 9%. I have stuck to my direct mail route mailings since inception and have not changed anything except for lowering some of my prices. It would be crazy for me to stop mailing but if I did I am sure it would effect business.

After my first year I spent $15,000 on direct mail including menu printing. I saw an $80,000 increase in business and my food and labor is 50%. So I spent 15k to add 40k profit. Works for me. 🙂
 
Last edited:
You netted an extra $40K in profit and are up another 9% so far this year? That is amazing! Are you just mailing menus or do they have coupons in them? I noticed a big shift in my net profit when I just started getting my menus and magnets on doors without any type of discounts attached.
 
Last edited:
I really think there is a magic middle here, when we do coupons its mostly package deals, BUT let me tell you about something that happened last year, I did a val-pak 4 different coupons and one of them was a large gourmet pizza for 15.99 It was the best seler of the four, and you know what? it also was the menu price…people love the dotted line around a price. …thanks dominoes.
 
Last edited:
indie pizza:
You netted an extra $40K in profit and are up another 9% so far this year? That is amazing! Are you just mailing menus or do they have coupons in them? I noticed a big shift in my net profit when I just started getting my menus and magnets on doors without any type of discounts attached.
Click to expand...
The menus have meal deals on them with the dotted lines around them like a coupon. The main 3 things I try to create in a menu mailer is to make people hungry, save it because it looks so good, and put your offers in their heads. The biggest thing for me was to remind people we are here and have been for over 50 years. We have a huge customer base and these mailings have helped so much. Even though we lowered our price of our best selling pizzas we are still bringing in more sales than ever.
 
Last edited:
2nd week gone out, its real cloudy on the sales this past week because we had them all over town as well I will say that so far I have seen 15 returning customers on delivery, (2 weeks) and NOT FRIDAY OR SATURDAY seeing an additional direct impact of about 50.00 a day, (remember I am only on the 500 mailer program)…one thing is my post office has been pretty quick so they have been getting out on tuesdays…I am torn about this…it spreads out thru the week but curious what kind of impact it would have if thursdays were my drop dates
 
Last edited:
What would you say your weekly % return is? So you have done 1000 menus and 5% would be 50 new people? I’m thinking of doing a deal with mail shark as well but I was waiting to see more results. For those of you out there that say they do direct mail; You just mail your menu out every week or day? Can someone email me a sample of what they mail?

Thanks
Casey
 
Last edited:
% return as in what % of folks order will only be part of the calculation…You need to consider the $ value of the orders in both the short term and long term to truly make a decision as to whether or not it is profitable.
 
Last edited:
As Royster said, don’t get too hung up on the % return vs. the number of pieces mailed. Instead, think long term and the overall roi vs. the amount of $ invested.

Also, IMO, expecting a 5% return on a saturation mailing program would be shooting for the stars. A well designed piece with compelling offers/coupons will be doing well if it achieves a 2% response rate.

A mailing to a defined audience, such as your customer database, will pull much higher and realistically could approach the 5% that is often talked about.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top