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With thousands of advertisements on the radio, TV, in newspapers, magazines and a mound of unwanted email, how is the small restaurant owner supposed to get his or her message to the customer? Direct mail is still alive and when done the right way can save you time and money. With direct mail, you can pinpoint where and when your customers receive your message. Your customers can change a channel, not have a yellow pages available or never open that mass email you sent, but I can guarantee you they will look and read your menu mail piece when it arrives at their home or office. With some preplanning, a little time and investment, you can do your direct mail program yourself, at least the mailing part. I will show you how to set everything up with your print/mail house. They will do 95% of the work for you. This article will give you the basics and tips to save you time and, most importantly, money.
Printing your Mail Piece
Your mail piece is the most important part of your direct mail program. Work with a company that specializes in menu marketing and mail services. Your mail piece does not have to be expensive to get the job done. Shop around and get prices from multiple companies before you make a decision. Make sure the company you choose has a team of menu engineers who will design your menu mailer to get ultimate results. Get samples of past jobs and see what you would like to do for your menu. Call some of the people from the samples and ask them how it was working with that company and what kind of results they received from the mailings they did. Make sure you work closely with the design team and ask for eye-catching ideas that will grab your customer’s attention and make them want to open your mail piece.
Print companies
who have a one-stop shop tend to offer great deals for your menu mailer. When you find the right company, make sure you have them print, address, tab and put your permit on the mail piece. Shop around, ask lots of questions, get quotes and then decide.
Get Your Own Permit and Save
Why pay a mailing house to use their permit? You can get your own and it only costs $160 a year. You now have full control on when, where and how many pieces will go out. The print/mail company should set everything up for you, printing, addressing, tabbing and all the proper paperwork needed. All you do is show up at your local post office and hand in the amount of menu mailers and you will be charged the lowest postage rate for that piece using your own permit number. This is where the savings come in; you don’t need to pay a service fee to the mail company to drop off the boxes for you and you are paying the lowest possible price for the postage without them adding any hidden fees. This also gives you control on how many pieces will be mailed out per week.
Mailing Lists
There are lists for anything you can think of, but how does the restaurant owner get his or her hands on these lists without being overcharged? The answer is to go directly to the source. List companies specialize in certain lists. If you are located in or near a college town or want to target high schools, you can visit www.studentlist.com or if you want residential lists visit goleads.com. My favorite is www.salesgenie.com. You pay per month but have unlimited access to new businesses, new mover lists, new home owners, etc. For example, if you want a list of all the new homeowners in your area in the last six months you can download it. You can also visit www.dmnews.com, Direct Marketing News magazine’s website. It has tips on marketing ideas and you can also search for different mail list companies.
Saturation Mailings and Carrier Routes
A saturation mailing is simply any mailing campaign that mails to at least 90 percent of the residential and business addresses within a postal carrier route. Many mailers erroneously think that a saturation mailing must be conducted by ZIP Code but the actual definitions from the USPS for the maximum saturation discount uses the carrier route as the defining region. The way to really target your area is by using these carrier routes. There are 40,000 zip codes, but 600,000 carrier routes, which gives you around 15 carrier routes per zip code. A carrier route is the sub division of a zip code which designates a specific area of a zip code in which a postal person delivers the mail. Your restaurant might lay on the edge of various zip codes. This is why you have to obtain local carrier route maps from your post office and see which carrier routes lay near your restaurant. This way you are only targeting homes and businesses closest to your restaurant and within your delivery zone. Some zip codes can go out five miles from your location but the house three blocks behind your store might be in a different zip code and never know that you are there. Your local post office can guide you and they provide free information on this subject or you can visit www.carrierroutes.com
Think about how you would like your mail piece addressed. I am sure you received something from your local politician like: “Current resident or current occupant”. Many people don’t know this, but your mail company can put any message in this spot. I like to use ” To our friends at 426 Jane Street…” This will enhance your saturated mailing because every menu will be delivered regardless of who lives at that address and it seems more personalized.
Mail Regularly
When your menu mailer is ready, don’t mail all 12,000 at once. You will get so bombarded with customers your staff will not be able to handle it and you will be left with a lot of unhappy customers. What you should do is to mail out 1,000 pieces a week. This will not only spread your marketing plan over a 12-week period, it will also give you control on which part of your delivery area you will target that week. This also makes it a lot easier on your delivery staff. Remember the savings you will receive on the discounted postage. You will only pay for postage on 1,000 mail pieces not the 12,000. Around halfway through your campaign, on week six you should make plans to start another printing and setup for another 12 weeks. This process should always flow. On week 13 of your campaign you should be mailing a menu mailer to the names on the list from week one.This time that list will be cleaned and updated with new businesses and new movers in your area. You have to keep the process going before your competition reads this article and does the same type of mailing. The only difference is that you already made these people your customers.
Menu Mailing Marketing Ideas
•Put special offers and coupons on the mailing permit panel and front cover.
•Include everything on your mailer (lunch, dinner, catering etc.).
•Use colorful and legible text and photos. Pick pictures that highlight your food.
• Use buzz words like fresh, free, homemade, guaranteed, family-owned and operated…
• All contact information should be large and legible (telephone, fax, website, email address etc.).
•Print your mailer on good quality, cost-effective paper so it has long lifespan.
•Have a free offer on your mailer. Give away a low cost food item. (garlic knots,etc…) This is another way to help you keep track of the response you get from your mailing.
• When people call up for orders, ask them if they received your menu as a handout or if it was mailed to them. This is yet another way to track your mailing.
• Add “clipless coupons” to your mailer. By numbering each coupon, your customer will not rip it out and ruin the menu. Also, it will be much easier on your staff when they can take coupons over the phone by number, not by description.
This is a quick guide to menu mailing. A little research will go a long way. Try to find the right print/mail company who have experience in menu printing and also offer mailing services. Your local post office can guide you with free information and tips, or you can visit www.usps.com to get started.
Warning!!! Menu mailings can become addictive. If done correctly you can reap the benefits and your competition will never know what hit them. Have passion in what you do and you will benefit. Good luck!