Every business must advertise. The only way to let the public know what you have to offer them is by getting your message in front of them. It’s usually in the top five expenses of any business owners ledger, yet it is a necessary expense if a business wishes to flourish.

First lets quickly review the alternatives

Newspapers: What would it cost to put a full size coupon in every newspaper in Calgary? Even doing so, you would not reach every household. Not everyone reads the news, and even those that do, will not necessarily see your ad, as very few people read a paper cover to cover. Ads get lost among other ads or are placed in sections that are not necessarily of interest to everyone.

Radio campaigns: There are many options for music choices. Not everyone listens to the same radio station. Even if someone listens to the radio station that you have an ad on, they may not be listening WHEN your ad is on. Add in the that have satellite radio, or listen to cd’s and ipods as an alternative to radio, and you are lucky if one person in twenty actually heard your message.

Television campaigns: The same barriers that apply to radio, also apply to television. With hundreds of channels to choose from on cable, and the increasing use of satellite TV, video rentals and commercial free subscriber channels, you are lucky to have one in twenty people ever see your message.

Direct Mail: It can target 100% of a geographical area, or an entire city. You can actually hit every available house, apartment and condo in the city. Unfortunately, it is extremely expensive. Take the City of Calgary for an example. There are close to 400,000 households housing over one million people. For a simple mailing of a dedicated piece to every household, it would cost you over forty thousand dollars. Printing of forty thousand flyers would cost about the same or more. You can spend eighty to a hundred thousand dollars on just one mailing. It’s a great way to get your message out if you have the bankroll to do it, but what about the little guy’s? The smaller chains and companies? How can they afford all of that up front cost?

The Shop Easy ADvertising Approach

Shop Easy: We believe we have the answer. We can get your message out to EVERY available house, apartment and condo. More importantly,  we can do it affordably. Using direct mailings through Canada Post, we can make sure that your message is delivered to every available mailbox. By co-operative methods, we can cut costs. This is done through our Shop Easy Coupon Book System.

What is the Shop Easy Coupon Book System?
Ads are put into a small forty eight page booklet. Two pages are company and contact info for Shop Easy, while the remaining 46 pages are company ads and coupons from retailers, restaurants, and services such as yours. Each page is seven and a half inches wide and about two and a three quarters of an inch high. This allows each advertiser to have an image ad and coupon on each page, or just an image ad if they like. By sharing the printing and mailing costs, you can reach every available house, condo and apartment….up to 400,000 households, for as little as seven thousand dollars. That’s a lot cheaper than the eighty to hundred thousand it would cost you on your own, isn’t it?

Managing Distribution: Different business’s have different expectations for ad success. A pizza takeout may expect a one percent conversion rate on their coupons. Obviously, if we sent out ALL 400,000 coupons at once, there is no way they could deliver 4,000 pizza orders in one day (Unless it was split between many locations). Likewise, a service such as carpet cleaning, furnace cleaning and haircutting as just as a few examples, would not be able to service everyone in a timely fashion. If a carpet cleaning company has an expectation of a half of a percent conversion rate on their coupon, there is absolutely no way they could service 2,000 carpet cleaning jobs in one week. It does the business owner absolutely no good to have more clients than they can properly serve at once. Turning away a prospective customer or client will only discourage them from seeking you out in the future. Not being able to attract a customer is NOT the worst thing that can happen to a business, as they still have the potential to attract them in the future. Indeed, the worst thing for any business, is to attract a customer and then not serve them. They will never give you a second chance.

How we solve that: We have broken the City of Calgary into five quadrants. N.E., N.W., S.E., S.W., and the Downtown Core. We then split those five quadrants into two cycles. In other words, each quadrant is split between two mailings. So the schedule is as follows

N.E. – 1 half
S.E.  – 1 half
N.W. – 1 half
S.W. – 1 half
D.T. – 1 half
N.E. – 2 half
S.E. – 2 half
N.W. – 2 half
S.W. – 2 half
D.T. – 2 half

As you can see, we split the City of Calgary over ten weeks. The advantages to this are many.

Examples

Ex: If you had, for example, a furnace cleaning company. With a conversion rate of a quarter of a percent ( It would be lower as apartments wouldn’t require a service like this), 400,000 mailings would draw 1,000 appointments, all at once, spread all over the city. Just booking the appointments would be a nightmare. But on only 40,000 being mailed per week, you only have to worry about 100 appointments per week. They would also be in the same geographical area, thus cutting down on travel time between appointments and allowing your crews to complete more furnace cleanings per day. You still end up with the same 1,000 appointments as you would on a full mailing, but spread over ten weeks. Your total cost would be $7,000 but what would those 1,000 appointments bring your business in revenue? How many would become regular clients once they tried your service?

Ex: If you had a hair salon in the North East, you probably wouldn’t get a lot of clients from the South West. So perhaps you only want to target the North East. If you were to send out 80,000 coupons at once to every household in the North East, and got a half of a percent conversion, you would have 400 hair appointments. Most hair salons would find that to be overwhelming. However, by sending out only 40,000 initially, and then the other 40,000 five weeks later, you can spread those appointments over several weeks. You could book an extra 40 appointments per week over 10 weeks instead of trying to please 400 potential clients all at once. Your total cost would be $1,590 but what would 400 hair appointments bring your business in revenue? How many would become regular clients once they tried your service?

Ex: Say you had a sports franchise, dinner theatre or comedy club. You want to boost attendance, but you don’t want to disrupt your season ticket holders. If you were to have a two for one promo, you could end up in chaos if you send out 400,000 coupons all at once. A one percent conversion would equate to 4,000 sales. Two for one would mean a demand for 8,000 tickets all at once. Many venues would not be able to handle this kind of demand. By splitting it up over 10 weeks, the same demand would only equate to 400 sales per week and a demand for 800 tickets. This is much more manageable. You would still have the same 8,000 people experience what you have to offer, but spread over a longer period of time. The total cost would be $7,000, but what would 4,000 ticket sales do for your venue? Out of 8,000 people taking in your show, how many would become regulars? How many might buy seasons passes?

Return on investment: Compare other mediums to Shop Easy’s Coupon Book ADmail campaign.

Newspapers – your message reaches 20 percent of the total market. A potential conversion of a half a percent on 85,000 homes is 425 customers. Unless your business is city wide, you can expect even lower results, as many people can’t be bothered to travel out of their way to try your business. Not bad, but not the best.

Radio – Your message reaches 5 percent of the total market. A Conversion of half a percent on 20,000 homes is 100 customers. This is very expensive. For this kind of money, you must be selling high ticket items and services in order to get a good return on your advertising money.

Television – Very much like radio. Again…. Your message reaches 5 percent of the total market. A Conversion of half a percent on 20,000 homes is 100 customers. This is very expensive. For this kind of money, you must be selling high ticket items and services in order to get a good return on your advertising money.

Self directed mailings – potential 100 percent of target market. A Conversion of half a percent on 400,000 homes can give you 2,000 customers. Very effective. However, this has huge costs up front of $80,000 to $100,000. Prohibitive to most small business’s and chains due to cost and service capability.

Shop Easy Advertising’s co-operative mailings - potential 100 percent of target market. A Conversion of half a percent on 400,000 homes can give you 2,000 customers. With costs as low as $7,000 spread over 10 weeks, or $700/wk for 10 weeks, any business can take advantage of the powers of admail. More manageable. Staff do not become overwhelmed. Customers can be serviced in a timely manner.

Television, Radio and Newspapers are effective. If they weren’t, those mediums would not survive. But the fact is, commercials on radio and television can be missed or ignored. They have the highest rate for a call to action, but a limited audience. Newspaper campaigns can be effective, but again, they have a limited audience. Not everyone subscribes to the paper your ad is in, and many people who do will still not see your ad, because it is placed in a section of no interest to them.
Only Admail can reach every household. Everyone gets mail. The potential for success is increased twenty fold by an effective Admail campaign. Most business owners know this, but the costs are so high, that they are unable to take advantage. Shop Easy Advertising has the solution. Through co-operative coupon books, your business can take advantage of the power of Admail.

For more information, contact Shop Easy Advertising at 948-5529