08-25-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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EDA Item 7A August 25, 2008 Page 3 of 4 Staff Request The $1,500 request is based on the following estimates provided by the MN Home Ownership Center: $446 2,500 postcards (based on 2,500 Mounds View single-family households) $25 shipping postcards to City Hall $275 sorting required for usage of City’s bulk mail permit $675 standard postcard postage rates (.27 x 2,500=$675) $1,421 Total The purpose of the postcard would be to reach the following Mounds View single- family property owners: • Those who don’t have access to the Web (can’t view the City’s “Foreclosure Prevention” page) • Those who may have missed the attached foreclosure prevention information included in the summer edition of Mounds View Matters • Those who don’t have Cable Channel 16 (can’t view the “Foreclosure Prevention” billboard) • Those that have seen similar information in the past but need a reminder of the available resources A direct mail piece such as a postcard tends to gain more attention than a newsletter article or an insert to a utility bill. Furthermore, I talked to Debbie Jasper about inserting a piece into a utility bill and she said there are size requirements (8.5x11 in size) and it would be delivered to both businesses and residents (there is no sorting mechanism for utility bills), plus if there other inserts going into the utility bill, the postcard may get “lost in the shuffle”. Regardless of the subject matter, marketing experts say that direct mailing has a low rate of return. However, the attached article entitled “Measuring Direct Mail Results: Cost Per Qualified Lead” quantifies the rate of return by explaining “qualified leads”. For Mounds View’s direct mail postcard, Jeremiah believes that it would be reasonable to expect a 2 percent or less response rate. Optimistically speaking, a 2% response rate would motivate 50 people to take action (2,500 x 2%). The cost to deliver the message to those 50 people would therefore be approximately $30.00 per person ($1,500 / 50).