[Journal] 100 Letters = $XXXX?? in How Many Weeks

[PurpleSEO]

This is my journal following the method outlined by 7878 in this thread.

He did 22 letters, I'm doing 100 letters just for the sake of it! It was a PIA finding 100 companies to generate letters for, took me almost 2-3 weeks I think.

I didn't add too much creativity to this and I think it's largely because I got lazy due to how I scaled it. I went with the dice method, even after I found out 7878 is in my area, and he possibly already used this method on the same folks I will be sending letters to.

When I purchased the die, I bought a box of 100 purple die as opposed to 200, which 7878 called for (2 dice in each envelope).

I attempted to drop off the 100 letters last night at my post office, but they told me I could not mail it for .44 because of the dice in each letter, it made it a "package." Also, they said if they tried to run the envelopes thru their machine sorter, the dice would get ripped out of the envelope and not delivered. They said I would have to mail it in a bigger envelope and pay $1.71 per each "package." I was bummed out and me and my GF left back to the car with the letters.

We discussed it a bit then we changed our mind. We went back because after ALL that time of hand addressing letters and marking up review sheets, we had gone too far. I didn't want to pay $1.71 per letter. If I did more of a laser targeting thing, then ok maybe... but not now.

We bought the 100 stamps, then dropped the letters off at two different mail boxes in the city.

On the mailbox it said something about letters .13 oz or more need to be mailed at the POST OFFICE! I don't know how heavy the pieces were, but I dumped them in the box anyway! I'll probably have 100 returned undeliverable letters in a week or so.

In two weeks I will be making up follow up calls to the businesses with the worst reviews. Wish me luck!

 

[incognito876]

Wishing you the best of luck!!!

But 7878 did warn about the increased postage. I think in your shoes I would have sent 20 or so of the letters at $1.71 and waited to see a result or two, then sent the rest as soon as I could afford them. It will be a shame if the letters get sent back to you.

At least you've acted on it, kudos to you, and I'll be following your progress.

 

[lincolnave]

I would say try a different post office next time. I think the bit about a larger envelop is BS.

Side note: you could've just cut the address off each letter and taped on a larger envelop. IMHO

Best of luck great you took action.

 

[highrider778]

or you could'a took out the dice and put in a nice sponge bob sticker....people love that little guy

 

[Execute]

Best of luck! Hope it works out, I am tempted to give this a go in my local area so looking forward to your results, ive found about 15ish prospects which I am going to mail to first as a test run.

Just wondering,

Have you made a website?

I am thinking of making a webiste to seem more professional but just wondered in you had.

Thanks

 

[moneyneeded]

Dude glad you took some action. I got my hands wrapped around a few different projects currently but I am going to try 7878 method soon myself. I wish you luck my fellow bhm.

 

[PurpleSEO]

Wishing you the best of luck!!!

But 7878 did warn about the increased postage. I think in your shoes I would have sent 20 or so of the letters at $1.71 and waited to see a result or two, then sent the rest as soon as I could afford them. It will be a shame if the letters get sent back to you.

At least you've acted on it, kudos to you, and I'll be following your progress.

I must have forgotten that part or overlooked it. I should have reread the thread one more time before I set everything up.

I would say try a different post office next time. I think the bit about a larger envelop is BS.

Side note: you could've just cut the address off each letter and taped on a larger envelop. IMHO

Best of luck great you took action.

TRUE, but I figured it would look tacky... but at the same time I kind of just threw my hands and the air and said lets get this shit moving!

or you could'a took out the dice and put in a nice sponge bob sticker....people love that little guy

lol. yea, sponge bob is awesome, but I didnt want to go thru readdressing my hand.

Best of luck! Hope it works out, I am tempted to give this a go in my local area so looking forward to your results, ive found about 15ish prospects which I am going to mail to first as a test run.

Just wondering,

Have you made a website?

I am thinking of making a webiste to seem more professional but just wondered in you had.

Thanks

I kind of have a website, kind of dont. I have a domain for an old in-field marketing company I was going to start. I was going to keep the domain and convert for offline use, but the name doesnt make much sense. I am trying to think of a catchy name for the company and then set things up.

I have a few methods that I am going to force myself to use for offline IM, so I def will need a web presence soon! got any ideas for a name?

IMHO - a pair of dice is BS. Too large and thus too costly to mail as you found out. Ouch. $1.71 each. Yikes. I agree with another OP that you ought to have mailed 20 test pieces and waited on the results.

BTW - back in the last-gasp days of direct-marketing mailings, some 25+ years ago, we tested and used many attention getters and, believe it or not, found the best to be a new, shiny copper penny (1 cent) glued to the top of the letter using a glue stick. Fast, affordable and attention getting. We changed the letter's classic intro referencing the one-dollar bill to a one cent piece... and could bang out dozens of mailing pieces fast.

Try it; you will like it.

YES! Indeed a lesson learned! My next method I will use the penny trick. Did you just glue it to the center I assume, and not where the stamp goes? And can you post the $1 reference intro. I would like to try this.

Dude glad you took some action. I got my hands wrapped around a few different projects currently but I am going to try 7878 method soon myself. I wish you luck my fellow bhm.

Man, I've got like 4 different projects in the air. youtube, adsense site, a custom SaaS company I am starting, and this ORM method. Next friday I will have implemented another method I found about offline clients. By the time thats in the mail, I will be following up with the clients from this method!

I've got nothing to lose and I might as well do as much as I can!!

 

[imprint]

While I'm glad you took action too, I personally think it was a waste, regardless if you put mail through a box or a post office the fees are still going to be the same, they're not going to let a package that cost $1.70-something slide for $0.41 cents. You should have about 100 packages returned to you pretty soon, unless the dice get ripped out and then the envelope gets sorted, but then you lose the nice little 'surprise' for your prospect.

If you do get 100 packages back, you'll HAVE to redo every package (if you want to continue with the venture), because USPS will put a nice little Insufficient Funds stamp on your envelopes. The best / easiest thing you could have done is simply added more 4 more stamps (for a total of 5) that would have covered the $1.70-something postage fee and then some (a total of $2.05 worth of stamps / package).

Also, you said you have nothing to lose and might as well go all in, but I'd recommend you don't spread your self to thin too fast, get one venture up and going (i.e. the ORM or SaaS company) where you know the ins-and-outs and then start outsourcing each stage, starting with prospect finding, mailing then sales. Then while that venture is up and running (bringing you in money for little work), start your next one.

Regardless, I wish you the best luck, and hopefully the USPS Gods smiles on you and lets the package through and you make bank!

Good luck.

 

[marusia]

I'm not trying to be a bitch or anything, but in a day or two, you're going to have 100 envelopes and $44.00 wasted in postage (unless you want to resend with that huge stamp they put on it). Just my experience as a large mailer.

In the future, if you choose to, I'd advise getting a stamps.com account and you'll save money in the long run.

 

[DaBlackHat]

You may get lucky and most will ship, especially if they are local.
good luck please keep updating.

 

[Mrnewbie]

Maybe this is not a popular thing to say but I want to give you credit OP for actually trying this method!!! I can't tell you how many times no one has even attempted a method, now we all know there are roadblocks but you can adjust to it and things will turn out better. If nothing less, it shows your pure motivation which beats a lot of people who "its to much work etc". Very proud of you and remember bounce around ideas, so the dice didn't fly so try something else, maybe different color envelopes or something else but at least your trying.

 

[incognito876]

IMHO - a pair of dice is BS. Too large and thus too costly to mail as you found out.

The idea of the dice is because they make a lumpy package...and therefore people are tempted to open just to see what's in it. Once the envelope is open, they are gonna see all their shitty reviews staring at them, and few people not then read the whole thing.

Although the penny might make the mailing more memorable than without it, it doesn't get them to open the envelope in the beginning. I don't think $1.71 is high if you are able to convert at a reasonable rate, just that 100 might be high when you are on a budget.

Plus, if only 10 percent pf prospects call you, you are dealing with 10 leads all at once. If 30 percent want to know more, that's 30 people...even 10 might be a lot to keep up with when you are first starting out at this. If you get those letters back, don't give up, just resend them in smaller batches, but hopefully you'll get them sent.

 

[joshweaver9]

I also ran into the problem of not being able to mail for .44 however, they mailed it out for .66. Idk where they came up with the 1.71 price.

 

[Barbarossa]

Sub'd. 7878 is from your area? That's not a good news for you or 7878. Specially you op. ;-)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KraftyKyle]

You better re-write the addresses man. They're all smeared...

 

[DaBlackHat]

You better re-write the addresses man. They're all smeared...

they did that on purpose, I believe.

 

[7878]

That version of the letter will actually be $1.77, I specified that in the OP. They can't run these through automated processing so you're forced to pay higher postage to mail them as a parcel. I'd recommend a cardboard, plain white, legal size envelope with the tear-off strip over a standard envelope. They outperform the standard envelopes 2:1.

Take that letter to Chris Hurd and throw it in the trash, he's a douchebag, I used to work for him. There are some highly visible competitors in that niche as well so make sure you know who they are and what they charge before you talk turkey.

 

[KraftyKyle]

they did that on purpose, I believe.

It was what we call a joke my friend.

 

[7878]

While I'm glad you took action too, I personally think it was a waste, regardless if you put mail through a box or a post office the fees are still going to be the same, they're not going to let a package that cost $1.70-something slide for $0.41 cents. You should have about 100 packages returned to you pretty soon, unless the dice get ripped out and then the envelope gets sorted, but then you lose the nice little 'surprise' for your prospect.

If you do get 100 packages back, you'll HAVE to redo every package (if you want to continue with the venture), because USPS will put a nice little Insufficient Funds stamp on your envelopes. The best / easiest thing you could have done is simply added more 4 more stamps (for a total of 5) that would have covered the $1.70-something postage fee and then some (a total of $2.05 worth of stamps / package).

Also, you said you have nothing to lose and might as well go all in, but I'd recommend you don't spread your self to thin too fast, get one venture up and going (i.e. the ORM or SaaS company) where you know the ins-and-outs and then start outsourcing each stage, starting with prospect finding, mailing then sales. Then while that venture is up and running (bringing you in money for little work), start your next one.

Regardless, I wish you the best luck, and hopefully the USPS Gods smiles on you and lets the package through and you make bank!

Good luck.

I'm not trying to be a bitch or anything, but in a day or two, you're going to have 100 envelopes and $44.00 wasted in postage (unless you want to resend with that huge stamp they put on it). Just my experience as a large mailer.

In the future, if you choose to, I'd advise getting a stamps.com account and you'll save money in the long run.

He clearly stated that he walked into the USPS retail unit to ship these and was told about the increased postage. Does anyone read the thread anymore?

 

[VyMarx]

I wish you big luck!

Just one thing - why you started 'test campaign' with 100 letters + all addresses written by hand!

I'm also thinking to do something like that. I already offering mobile marketing stuff - but never tried direct mailing.

Anyway, good luck again, hope you are going to inspire me