Joy,

I am a retired, great grandmother.  Have been for several years and found building websites for non profits a good vocation.  I went back to school and am Microsoft Certified.  I disagree with the Insurance company about youth and experience!  Give me the youthful marketer any time. 

Now down to business, it is my intention to create web sites for small (mom & pop) businesses at a very reasonable rate...  $799.00 all inclusive.  These would be state-of-the-art and cared for by the owners.  I will do web ex- remote training included.

My thought is to send a postcard to all the members of local, or not so local, Chamber of Commerce groups (have your company do that!).   I would like to do several websites a month, but not be overwhelmed by requests.  But, hey...bring it on!   What are your suggestions?

My company is called ' XUR'  my website is with sitecube  Xurcom.com.  FYI: Xur was the last Starfighter from the Gamma Quandrant, fought in the battle of the Omarion Nebula.

'By the way, age rarely relates to experience, it is wisdom and learning from one's actions that cause the knowledge base.'

Terry Martin
www.Xurcom.com 

Hi Terry,

My first suggestion is not to worry about overwhelming yourself at this point.  Don't worry about getting too many requests -- I mean, you’re putting the cart before the horse (and I’ve heard that before!)  Your price point is really great and I think if you send out 1000 cards every other week and then hit the same list again (over and over) after a few times you’ll be able to gage how many cards out it takes to create the number of customers you want to handle at a time. 

You may need to have a few different price points as well.  What if you have a client that has over 100 products to sell on their site and they send you a bunch of jpgs all different sizes?  What if they say they want the products cut out and put on a white background?  That is a ton of work as you know and you’ll go broke charging $799 all inclusive.  But I digress!  I think the chamber list is perfect.  You can also get your local business journal and pull out all the new businesses and mail to them as well.  You probably want to have a universe of about 5000 or 6000 records to hit over and over.  You can start with less than that but build it up.  I’m going to cc a very capable marketing rep here and let them help you more specifically.  She’ll get with you on budget,etc. and help you work out the perfect campaign.

Thank you for the compliment on the site!  You can check out my DVD's for more marketing data at www.powermarketingmania.com

Sincerely,
Joy Gendusa
www.PostcardMania.com

I found a new place where I'll be publishing some of my marketing articles and business advice -- it's a place where real voices rule, where people can write and publish stories about anything that matters to them like business, relationships, travel and even body & soul.  It’s called DivineCaroline.com and it’s full of words and wisdom just the way we like them – dripping with honesty. 

Everyone’s welcome to browse around and read.  When you’re ready to participate, it’ll just take a few seconds to register.  Yes, it’s free!  So if you’ve got a story to tell – and what person doesn’t? – you’re about to find a valuable, new place online.  Hope to see you soon at DivineCaroline.com

Love,
Joy
www.postcardmania.com

Dear Joy,

I am a chiropractor who has been in practice for almost 20 years.  I just moved my office -- in the same complex, but a different building.  The world of medicine has changed and I need to jumpstart my business and am very interested in postcards -- I definitely need one to tell people I've moved, but would like to start a regular postcard campaign.  As far as the first card, any advice?  I have approximately 3000 patients in my data base, but it is not Excel so I dont know if I can mail them through you.

Sincerely,
Dr. Larry Wilner

Hi Larry,

We would love to help you get started.  I’m sure someone in my IT dept can help you or walk you through exporting your list to Excel.  We’ve done this for loads of clients!  I’m going to hook you up with one of our very competent marketing consultants here to help you.  I also recommend you go to my website and read as much of the marketing stuff you can handle!  The more educated you are the better your results will be, obviously!

You will probably want to do a postcard to stay in touch with your 3000 patients monthly and then perhaps a new patient campaign.  We already have so many cards that have worked for other Chiropractors and your marketing consultant can share those with you.  I’m assigning you to Sabrina Glasstetter.  She is fabulous and really knows this business inside and out!

Let me know if you need anything else from me!

Sincerely,
Joy Gendusa
www.PostcardMania.com

Dear Joy,

How about a special marketing report pertaining to Legal aspects?  This would not only apply to lawyers, but to people in my company that market low-cost lawyer providers and Identity Theft. 

Here's what I do.  Right now I'm working full-time for a university as a scanner.  I scan documents the students send in and it's my job to see that the documents look good in our computer system.

On a part-time basis, I am a sales associate with Pre-Paid Legal.  Since we don't advertise, it's my job to get customers and other sales associates.  The trouble is that I've had so much chaos in my life, I haven't had time to focus on my business.  But now that is all about to change.

I'm afraid your company will be very limited to what it can do for me. Our company is watched by the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Therefore, we already have many pre-approved vendors manufacturing certain products for us. For example, I couldn't get postcards or flyers from your company because you haven't been approved.  Also, PPL is satisfied with whom they already have as vendors. So there is no chance whatsoever to have a new vendor to come onboard. 

What I need for myself is ideas to reach my target audience. Everyone in the country needs what Pre-Paid Legal has to offer, which is a low-cost solution for getting legal representation and identity theft. If I had to narrow it down, it would probably be families with children, parents from ages 25 to 55, income from 25K to 80K, all over the United States.  With the cost of mail going up again, I know I couldn't afford sending out 5,000 postcards with the hope that only 1 to 5 percent will actually respond.

If you have any other ideas on how I could reach my audience, I would more than welcome your suggestions.

Thank you so much for your time.

Sincerely,
Dave DeMunn
Pre-Paid Legal Associate
Pompano Beach, FL

Hi David,

Well my goodness!  Seems like I can give you some ideas out of the goodness of my heart, but with no hope of any exchange in the form of business for my company!  That's okay... I don't mind!  Well, I hope you have an approved vendor that can produce door hangers for you.  As someone starting out with a product that is perfect for so many you can take a Saturday morning and put the doorhangers on homes.  If you do a few hundred a weekend, you'll spend very little money but in no time have all of the distributed without the cost of postage!

Sincerely,
Joy Gendusa
www.PostcardMania.com