Has anyone here tried using Valpak?

I'm just curious. I get the blue envelope in the mail about twice per month and I always look through the coupons/flyers.

Has anyone here tried Valpak, and was it worth the investment?

They won't talk to you unless you have a minimum of $700 to start with them.

David

I'm just curious. I get the blue envelope in the mail about twice per month and I always look through the coupons/flyers.

Has anyone here tried Valpak, and was it worth the investment?

They won't talk to you unless you have a minimum of $700 to start with them.

David


David, I have not yet done any print advertising, but I know my dog groomer well. He told me that it took several Valpac mailings for his business before he noticed a difference. He also uses Clipper Magazine, and I am looking into that. He also advertises there, but I haven't asked him about results.

I tried it about 20 years ago. At the time I was doing free-lance typesetting for one of their sales offices, so I got a discounted rate.

I got absolutely nothing out of it.

Think about this the next time you look thru the envelope: What percentage of the recipients would be in the market for any of the items in there? All, or at least most, of the ads in there are very generic. They appeal to just about everyone.

Our industry appeals to a very tiny segment of the general public. What percentage of people looking thru the envelope would happen to also be in the market for a DJ?

And then there's the money thing. People looking thru those coupons are looking for a deal.

You're better off taking that money and throwing it at a Yellow Pages ad.

Mind you I do NOT recommend a YP ad. With YP you'll still get the price shoppers. But at least with YP, your ad will be in the DJ and/or entertainer section, so it's a targeted ad.


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Papa has a perfect example.

What percentage of people own dogs?

How often do the dogs need to be groomed?

What percentage of dog owners would be willing to risk having the dog get a bad haircut when they give a discount groomer a shot?



It's a much higher percentage than that of people looking for a coupon for a DJ.

My brother owns a pet store. He tried a similar type coupon a fwe times. He said that he saw hardly any of the coupons come into the store. Not worth it.

we've done it in Feb, May and June to target brides. now you may say why may and june, because when a girl goes to a wedding and she's been with her man for a while the first thing on her mind is getting married. I dont do December though because coupons get thrown away then...


We've probably broke even + 3 jobs every time we've done it
It takes 3 impressions though to reach a customer.

I just use it for bathroom reading material. Never used anything from it.

WASTE OF MONEY = like flushing $$$ down the toilet

before internet, when it was only $300 for 15,000 homes, it was a pretty good deal. you could target the zip codes!

Now, people don't even read the val pak any more. I see them all thrown away in the garbage at our P.O. Box station (our town's mail comes to PO boxes).

At $700, you might as well just burn your money with a torch!

It is interesting that folks balk at using Entertainment Agencies who call you with real gigs, yet don't have a problem using conventional print ads that cost lots of money with no guarantee.

I use both..

Thank you for all of your replies. I'm always looking for new ways to get my name out there. Perhaps I will look elsewhere.

Fuzz
Do you have all over media in your parts? Those ads work great for us. All Over does gas pump toppers and bathroom advertising

Fuzz
Do you have all over media in your parts? Those ads work great for us. All Over does gas pump toppers and bathroom advertising

I haven't heard about them. I'll have to check and report back. Thank you for the suggestion.

Consider this: $700 is more than I spend on an entire year of Internet advertising, including the money I've spent on Travis hosting my site, AND the cost of the SEO improvements (HTML editing, meta tags, and blog script coming soon!).

My entire year's budget for 2009 is expected to be $600 (SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS) as follows:

Hosting $100
We DJ $110
WedExperts $110
Gigmasters -0- (cancelling in January 2009)
Respond -0- (cancelled in Feb 2008)
City Search $150 (still producing)

Total - $470

Leaving $130 for occasional Travis projects.

Comes out to $50 (average) per month -- LESS than what I spend on CD music subscription!

Consider this: $700 is more than I spend on an entire year of Internet advertising, including the money I've spent on Travis hosting my site, AND the cost of the SEO improvements (HTML editing, meta tags, and blog script coming soon!).

My entire year's budget for 2009 is expected to be $600 (SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS) as follows:

Hosting $100
We DJ $110
WedExperts $110
Gigmasters -0- (cancelling in January 2009)
Respond -0- (cancelled in Feb 2008)
City Search $150 (still producing)

Total - $470

Leaving $130 for occasional Travis projects.

Comes out to $50 (average) per month -- LESS than what I spend on CD music subscription!


Which is why I'm willing to stroke your......ego to get me to where I need to be.

But DJMC...
how much is the less than $700 yielding. I know you do a good business but i wanted to see how much its yielding I mean are you as a single op turning someone down every single weekend?

DJMC seems to have a good mix though and as a single he doesnt need the elaborate over the top stuff i do

But DJMC...
how much is the less than $700 yielding. I know you do a good business but i wanted to see how much its yielding I mean are you as a single op turning someone down every single weekend?

DJMC seems to have a good mix though and as a single he doesnt need the elaborate over the top stuff i do

I'm on track to do 50 events (myself) per year, not including the "extras" (gigs I book for other DJs).

In a typical year, I can wind up with 20 (or more) of those duplicate dates, which (at $200 a pop) means $4000 gross. This *happens* to be my entire overhead for 12 months.

Meaning, the 50 events I do myself are overhead free.

Um...

I'd say that's pretty good ROI.

Howdy,

I spend next to nothing on external advertising. Of course, being on a radio morning show helps quite a bit, but my business is really funded by WOM. I'm constantly working the contacts I have.

Dave

Val pak is ok if you sell to the consumer. You get to reach mass people cheaply, however they have too many ads in one envelope, so good chance your coupon is discarded

I sell wholesale beauty products to spas & hair salons, so I have to reach those "specific" markets
It would do me no good to go door to door even if its business door to door. I have to reach the beauty outlets only to sell my stuff.

There is a company that does industry specific B2B (Business to Business) co-op target mailings.

I gave it a try because they only let about 20 non competetive suppliers of beauty products ride in their 9X12 beauty supply envelope. They wont over crowd the envelope.

The big thing and the big difference is that they create a list of 5,000 Beauty Salons, Spas, Estheticians, Beauty Schools, etc..., and they label the envelopes to reach the 5,000 beauty outlets. 'WOW", what a difference.

If you sell plumbing tools, they send you and 19 other ads to plumbing outlets, dental products to dentists, gift products to 5,000 gift stores etc..... Its more of industry specific Co-Op Mailings. Not door to door

I had a full colour 5X7 Card Stock Gloss ad printed and mailed to 5,000 beauty salons and spas for less than the $700.00.

The lists are labeled with both the company name and the person in charge of purchasing.

They do these mailings by various states and provinces through out the year 5,000 at a time.

If your selling pizzas or carpet cleaning services, sure go to Val pak. If your selling to specific businesses though you should check out their web site.

Unbelievable difference when you have a "tarteted list" that is specific to what you sell.


Hope this helps others