Mail Shark

[dash]

Anyone ever use Mailshark and if so how was the outcome with them and did it hellp your sales as they claim?

 

[royster13]

This subject has been well discussed in the past…I am sure some current members will chime in, however, if you look in the archives, you will find lots of posts from folks who not visit TT very often these days…

 

[pizzaduo]

I use Mailshark and have been pleased with the results. Josh, my sales rep., is always prompt and professional. Mailshark is one of the very few companies that I deal with that actually seems to care.

 

[perfect_pizzas]

We have been using mailshark for 1.5 years and have been very happy. 2011 sales were $250,000 higher than 2010 sales. Direct mail works, especially for delco stores.

 

[royster13]

Is there something unique about Mail Shark that you cannot replicate as a “Do It Yourself” project?

 

[314]

royster13:

Is there something unique about Mail Shark that you cannot replicate as a “Do It Yourself” project?

I agree that nearly everything can be replicated on your own btu TIME IS MONEY and if your short on TIME then spending a little extra is worth every penny.

 

[NYFLPizza]

314:

royster13:

Is there something unique about Mail Shark that you cannot replicate as a “Do It Yourself” project?

I agree that nearly everything can be replicated on your own btu TIME IS MONEY and if your short on TIME then spending a little extra is worth every penny.

Yep, that’s all there is to it.

Simply put, time is money. Payroll, bookkeeping etc. is a DIY project for many, myself include, but lots of people choose to hire an accountant to handle that. There’s only so much time in the day to dedicate to business. MS eliminates most of the time spent on marketing. A bit pricey in my opinion, but it certainly has the potential of being worth it for someone who is interested in paying someone to take care of their marketing for them.

 

[GT1]

We have used them for 2 years now and have been pleased with their service and with the product. Also the results are better than with other forms of print media that we have done.

 

[tommieknowspizza]

I use MS, and have found it to be worth every penny. If you think they are expensive try doing it on your own. I did some investigation on the cost of menu’s, cause they were quoting me 14 cents per for a run of ten thousand, and I saw other print houses offering 6.5 cents per… When I brought this to their attention, and they agreed to cut the cost down to 8.5 cent per… as long as I doubled my mailing size. So I am spending about $500 wk per store, but I am mailing 2000 pcs a week per store, on a ten week rotation, I am hitting the nearest twenty thousand customers with a menu with coupons, and my redemption is about 10%. Which is a far better return than VAL PAK, Money Mailer, or Red Plum.
Obviously the rate of return is inverse to the price vs value of your coupon. I am sure that if I offered a $1.00 large unlimited pizza, I would get near 90% percent redemption, but charge a dollar more than your competition and you get 10% like me.

 

[Hickory_Station_Pizz]

We’ve been using them since August and sales have been up 15%-20% from last year. Yes, it is something you can do yourself, but i like that it’s a “set it and forget it” deal. One less thing I have to worry about, every week the menu’s, postcards etc. are mailed out and I can concentrate on other things.

 

[pcuezze]

I’ve been using them for 9 months now and am pleased. As a company, they are professional and responsive. They produce a final product that is as nice as any menu company I’ve used. Sure it’s costly and I could do it myself. I could also fix my own refrigeration, wait my own tables, cook my own pizzas, deliver my own mail, etc. But you have to pick and choose what to spend your time on…

 

[royster13]

I agree that it is best to leave many tasks to the experts, however, some folks here seem to have more time than money and may need to do projects such as this on a “Do It Yourself” project until cash flow permits…So i was just curious if they could…

 

[Roger]

royster13:

I agree that it is best to leave many tasks to the experts, however, some folks here seem to have more time than money and may need to do projects such as this on a “Do It Yourself” project until cash flow permits…So i was just curious if they could…

They can do it themselves and target which day they want their flyers to hit the houses. With Mail Sharks you never know exactly which days the flyers will hit. Some weeks my flyers would arrive in the mail boxes on Mondays (which resulted in a lower response rate) and other weeks on a Thursday or Friday (which had a higher response rate).

With the Post Office’s EDDM program, you can do it your self and save $116 a week. You can get 10,000 menus from GotPrint for $530 (5 cents a piece) including shipping and mail out 2,000 EDDM flyers for $284 (14.2 cents a piece). So the total for mailing out 2,000 flyers would be $384.

It takes about an hour to count the flyers and bundle them up for the EDDM mailing. I just go to the shop an hour early on Monday and do them. If you really didn’t want to do them yourself, you could always have an employee come in an hour early and get them ready. $116 a week is a pretty good savings. Over a year you will save $6032. That’s enough for a couple Carribean Vacations!

 

[perfect_pizzas]

Roger:

royster13:

I agree that it is best to leave many tasks to the experts, however, some folks here seem to have more time than money and may need to do projects such as this on a “Do It Yourself” project until cash flow permits…So i was just curious if they could…

They can do it themselves and target which day they want their flyers to hit the houses. With Mail Sharks you never know exactly which days the flyers will hit. Some weeks my flyers would arrive in the mail boxes on Mondays (which resulted in a lower response rate) and other weeks on a Thursday or Friday (which had a higher response rate).

With the Post Office’s EDDM program, you can do it your self and save $116 a week. You can get 10,000 menus from GotPrint for $530 (5 cents a piece) including shipping and mail out 2,000 EDDM flyers for $284 (14.2 cents a piece). So the total for mailing out 2,000 flyers would be $384.

It takes about an hour to count the flyers and bundle them up for the EDDM mailing. I just go to the shop an hour early on Monday and do them. If you really didn’t want to do them yourself, you could always have an employee come in an hour early and get them ready. $116 a week is a pretty good savings. Over a year you will save $6032. That’s enough for a couple Carribean Vacations!

I am not an expert on mailing, but there are a few points to consider before you head off on your carribean vacation. First of all, The mail shark menu is an 11x17 tri fold with perfs. You are not going to get those printed for 5 cents each. Secondly, mailshark includes the artwork in their price. Also, mailshark provides you with excellent data so you can choose your carrier routes wisely. You can exclude vacation homes, businesses, and apartments to zero in on just the people you want to hit. Finally, the best part of the mailshark program is it goes out every week, even when you are on vacation skiing, as I am this week. When it’s all said and done can you save a few bucks? Maybe. The real question is which way will give you the best return on your investment?

 

[royster13]

Are the flyers in the Mail Shark program sent via EDDM as well or some other bulk mail method?..

 

[RobT]

I am doing the EDDM myself, and its great. 14.2 cents each. No bulk mail permit, No wait times. I drop them off at the destination post office and they are in the boxes the next day. So you have better control over when they hit.

 

[perfect_pizzas]

They are sent through traditional bulk mail, thus you can exclude parts of a carrier route. We find we can doorhang apartments for less than 6 cents each + 4 cents for a doorhanger. This is why we exclude apartments from our mailshark mailings.

 

[314]

RobT:

I am doing the EDDM myself, and its great. 14.2 cents each. No bulk mail permit, No wait times. I drop them off at the destination post office and they are in the boxes the next day. So you have better control over when they hit.

We are not allowed to do that method anymore here in Colorado. We used to and thats what I did for many years with great success.

 

[jokergerm]

Why is mail shark any better than other companies for direct mail??

We send out 6x11 color post cards 10000 is 2600 total after everything. So .26 a house

We get about 5% return. I can pick the carrier routes and choose what day they hit houses

I would be interested to hear why we should try mailshark over what we do
And I’m too busy for eddm thing. For 500 bucks savings its not worth my time abd hassell

 

[perfect_pizzas]

The reason you may want to try mailshark is instead of dropping 10k postcards on the same day and then waiting 5 or 10 weeks until you do another drop, you would mail 1000 or 2000 pieces each week. consistency works, and you don’t have the peaks, where you struggle to give great service after a large direct mail. The other advantage is mailshark rotates pieces for you. The first piece may be an 11x17 menu. The second a 4x10 magnet mailer. The third a post card, the fourth a 11x17 menu, and the fifth is my personal favorite. A scratch off postcard. We received twice the redemption on the scratch off postcard than we did on the regular postcard.
The other advantage of mailshark, a lot of shops don’t have $2600 laying around to mail 10k pieces at one time. It is really easy to pay mailshark $299/week each and every week.