Direct mail the cheap and easy way | RealtyTechBytes.com by Jerry Kidd

By now you have probably used a blast email service to contact your sphere of influence. The convenience of email is truly great. You simply select a blast email provider, upload your list of emails, write your email and hit send. Just like that you have sent 100s of targeted messages to people who will read them and give you a call.

Right!

If your email makes it past the recipient’s spam filter there is still no guarantee that it will get opened or read. Most people have inboxes full of unopened and unread emails languishing away waiting for that moment when someone has nothing better to do than to sift through thousands of unread emails.

There is another issue with using email to reach people and that is how to get their email addresses in the first place. As we know, there are a number of time consuming ways to do that, but in the end, the best way is to simply ask for them.

Contrast that with sending good old US mail to your sphere. You already know their physical address, so all you have to do is write a letter, get it printed, address an envelope, put a stamp on it and take it to a mailbox. Added (bonus?) … if you don’t have an address you can get it from tax roles.

In either case there are pluses and minuses.

However, in these days of endless amounts of email spam, I’m leaning more towards postcards. Postcards have the advantage of not needing to be opened in order for your message to be received. Even if the recipient sorts their US mail over the recycle bin (as I do!) your message is still delivered as they have to at least glance at the card on its way to the recycle bin.

I believe that postcards are advantageous theses days but they come with a lot of overhead! You have to design them, print them, address them, put postage on them and mail them. So when I learned about Mailjoy I was pretty excited!

Mailjoy is an online service that you can use to design, mail and track personalized postcard and letter campaigns. Very similar to what you can do with email.

From their website here are a few quotes:

Use postcards and letters to grow revenue and delight customers

Compared to digital channels, mail is an unsaturated channel that until today has been generally inaccessible and lacked personalization. Mailjoy is the tool to reach customers or prospects with mail that’s relevant and timely to them. Start by customizing any of our free postcard templates.

Mailjoy provides a ton of features to help you create mailing lists from your contacts, design beautiful postcards and letters, track the results, and integrate with other tools you already use. Sending a campaign takes only minutes. Use Mailjoy for a single campaign or make it a part of your marketing toolkit.

Professionally printed. Mailed fast

We professionally print each postcard (UV coated front; double sided) and letter in full color. Each mailer is mailed within two business days via First Class postage to ensure delivery occurs within 2-4 business days of mailing.

There is no charge to use the system to design your mail piece. You only pay per actual piece mailed. There are no minimum requirements. They have pay as you go pricing — print, postage, and tracking included:

4” x 6” postcards are .90 each

11” x 6” postcards are 1.50 each

Letters are 1.50 each

Mailjoy always includes for free:

Simple drag-and-drop letter and postcard designer

Dozens of letter and postcard templates to customizeUnlimited personalization per mailer

Live design preview and PDF proofs

Effortless contact importing

Mailing list management and validation

Delivery and conversion tracking