Last winter, we at Stauffers of Kissel Hill were looking at different marketing strategies to use for the spring season. We felt strongly that due to the economic conditions we needed to aggressively promote our garden center.

Our company had not done a direct mail campaign before and thought this would be a good direction to explore in addition to our planned newspaper inserts, radio and TV advertising. I contacted Clipper Magazine (which is distributed in more than 30 states) to see what they would have to offer besides putting an ad inside the coupon book.

They suggested the best value would be a Detached Address Label (DAL). We would be able to produce a full color two-sided jumbo postcard that would go out at the same time as Clipper Magazine. This means that instead of having the household address on the back of the Clipper, it would be on a jumbo full-color two-sided postcard. We were able to use the full front glossy postcard and half of the full color back side for advertising. The back half…is where the household address typically goes.

This jumbo postcard arrives separately (but at the same time) from the Clipper Magazine; therefore most people thought it was a solo direct mail piece. We did this twice in the spring and have scheduled another one for the holiday.

This idea can work for you, no matter the size of your garden center. By partnering with Clipper Magazine, you are able to buy what works for your budget. You can choose distribution by zip code, which means you don’t have to buy the entire market that your local Clipper covers. Prices average between 11 cents to 15 cents each depending on the quantity with a minimum of 10,000. This price includes everything: design, printing and mailing of two-sided full color postcard.

I’m of the opinion that because you are investing in the cost of the campaign that you need to give customers a great offer. Too many times companies are hesitant to do this because they are not sure what the result is going to be. If you are spending  the money, then you want a great return on investment.

Our offer for both April and May mailings was $10 off $25 or more of a garden center purchase. There were no exclusions (i.e., advertised specials, etc.). Our customer count increased, the average purchase of the customers redeeming the coupon was over $65 and our redemption rate was 10 percent. The national average is 2-3 percent.

We believe we would not have had the strong sales increases this spring without the DAL program. At the same time, our buyers were focusing on the retail pricing to help offset the discount of this aggressive offer. As a result, we grew both top line and bottom line during this spring season.