Dr. Cole’s Herbal Remedies

The Situation

Linda Langenbacher used to work as an illustrator and make Barbies. During that time, she started to consider selling products herself. First, she put one skincare product on Amazon in 2015. Then, Dr. Janell Cole, who makes the product, contacted her and asked if she could help sell more of her creams on Amazon. In 2017, Dr. Cole made Linda a business partner, and Linda eventually bought the business, Dr. Cole’s Herbal Remedies, in 2021.

When Linda took over the business, it was very unorganized and she wanted more customers to purchase from the website directly instead of Amazon. Originally, Linda tried email marketing, but she only received 4 customers from it during the entire year. So she started looking into other marketing solutions and found PostcardMania.

The Solution

In 2017, Linda started a direct mail campaign with PostcardMania.

The postcard included the following features:

• An offer code for buy one get one free product
• A clear and concise message on the front of the postcard
• Bright and colorful photos of the products

She mailed out 5,000 postcards to her own list of prospects.

Then in 2021, Linda decided to try an Everywhere Small Business campaign that combines both direct mail and digital ads to boost engagement. She mailed out a total of 20,000 postcards this time around and each mailing had 5,000 cards. They were mailed out for four consecutive months between June and September.

After prospects received the postcards, they were directed to the website to redeem the offer code or find more information about products. Those that visited the website established first-party cookies and saw digital ads on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Gmail, and YouTube in the following weeks. The digital ads helped remind interested buyers to return to the website to make a purchase.

The Results

She has doubled her company's revenue and expanded her team from 2 to 12!

As a result of Linda’s first campaign from 2017 – 2020, 98 people used the discount code from the postcard and they made $5,292.

In addition, her Everywhere Small Business campaign generated 585,868 impressions and 4,935 clicks on Google, 95,899 impressions and 1,589 clicks on Facebook and Instagram, 95 impressions and 3 clicks on Gmail, and 53,545 impressions and 112 clicks on YouTube. Currently, the digital ads are still active and continue to bring in interest from prospects.

Linda said, “Everywhere Small Business has been the greatest asset to our marketing. This has helped us create repeat buyers of 42% on our website. I have a Shopify website, so every time I send out a postcard, I have a discount code on it that customers can enter when they checkout. The second round of postcards generated about 155 sales on our website. I am also noticing that people are still using these coupon codes years down the line! Our average sale on Amazon is $24, but our website average sale is higher now at $54!”

Linda added that typically each week after the postcards hit, her company generates about 5 additional customers. Since she started marketing with PostcardMania, she has doubled her company’s revenue and expanded her team to 12 staff members.

When asked why she felt her campaign was so successful, Linda said, “I think postcards are so successful for us because people need to pick up the postcard and look at it before they throw it away. The same is not true for email where you can delete it before ever looking at it. But when you receive a postcard, you physically hold it in your hand. Everywhere Small Business has also added to our success because it helps keep our business relevant.”

Today, Linda is still mailing out postcards with PostcardMania. Most recently, she sent out 2,500 postcards in the spring of 2022.

Interested in doing a similar campaign for your business? Call us and we will get you connected with a marketing consultant who has experience creating campaigns for other companies selling retail products.