Can Valpak advertising boost your sales?

Way back in 1887, Coca-Cola started distributing coupons that gave recipients a free glass of Coke at any dispensary. They were the first. Since then, numerous companies have used promotions, coupons, or other discounts to grow their businesses, create a favorable brand image, boost sales, and deliver good cheer to new and returning customers.

Send coupons with Valpak

People are always looking for ways to save money. And who would know better than Valpak, a full-service direct marketing company. They reach millions of demographically targeted, US homeowners with discounts and deals from local and national brands.

Valpak coupons reach customers either through customers’ mailboxes via their well-known Blue Envelope or through customers’ mobile devices. The full Valpak solution with print and digital options is superior to many local mailers. Valpak’s substantial offerings range from dental services to pizzas and everything in between.

As a small business owner, you may be thinking about advertising with Valpak but aren’t sure how it works, how much it costs, and — most importantly — if it’s worth it. We dug in to find the answers to these questions.

Why Valpak?

Advertising can be expensive. By filling their Blue Envelopes with offers from a wide range of businesses, Valpak can keep costs down for everyone. It’s called a shared-mail concept. Companies present their businesses to selected Neighborhood Trade Areas (NTAs) through promo codes, coupon codes, printable coupons, circulars, inserts, or envelope cover advertising.

If you prefer digital advertising, Valpak also offers marketing services like website development, display advertising, social media marketing, and search engine marketing and optimization. Like traditional or print advertising, digital helps your company reach a range of potential or long-time customers, and even a small budget can yield big marketing results.

Valpak advertising and your budget

Since most businesses are on a budget, one of your first questions might be, “how much does Valpak cost?” The short answer is, “it depends.” That’s because pricing for both print and digital advertising hinges on so many things, like whether you need graphic design services or can already provide camera-ready artwork.

Printing, production, and mail preparation all vary in cost, as does the type of direct mail you choose to send: Do you want standard postcards or oversized postcards, standard cardstock or heavy cardstock?

If you want to reach 10,000 households, the cost will be lower than if you want to reach 50,000 households. In the same way, costs will vary substantially if you mail every week for six months or every other week for three months.

Print quantity, target customer, and Valpak special promotions, which typically run in the spring and fall, will also alter the costs. There’s also a solo direct mail option that includes a stand-alone mail piece sent separately from the Blue Envelope.

The best advice is to identify your budget and stick to it. Valpak offers a wide variety of different ways to maximize your dollars spent. And, as direct mail or digital advertising isn’t a one-size-fits-all marketing method, costs will vary substantially from one company to the next.

The benefits of advertising with Valpak

Besides the fact that consumers recognize the familiar Blue Envelope, advertising in Valpak can drive foot traffic to your restaurant, business, or retail shop. It can generate increased visitors to your website, and target seniors and other individuals who may not be online. And as customers across the United States continue to pinch pennies, interest in Valpak is on the rise with more and more consumers turning to Valpak for savings.

Valpak mailings can help you increase brand awareness or showcase a service. Valpak can give you a way to introduce new products, highlight a product enhancement, spread the word about an upcoming sale, announce a grand opening, and more. Most significantly, several testimonials suggest that it can increase sales and return on investment (ROI).

What’s the return on investment (ROI) of Valpak?

Valpak presents a number of case studies on its website from companies ranging from McDonald’s to Goodyear to Terminix. They report results in areas like acquiring new customers, driving traffic, generating sales leads, increasing per-transaction value, and more.

Take a look at some of the notable case study highlights:

• Goodyear reported a “5.1% average net increase in tire sales per day for test stores vs. control stores.”
• PetFlow.com reported that over half of the customers who were introduced to their service through Valpak subscribed “for multiple auto-ship orders, more than double the subscription rate of other media channels.”
• Bealls claimed “the Valpak program had an estimated 993% ROI, factoring cost of goods and the discount.”
• McDonald’s saw “nearly $13 in gross sales and $6 in net sales for every $1 spent.”

What about digital advertising with Valpak?

Although the iconic Blue Envelope is the bread-and-butter of its business, Valpak is really amazing at reaching large numbers of online and on-the-go consumers too. To that end, Valpak offers digital coupon solutions to mobile users who don’t want to snip and clip.

If you already advertise with Valpak’s direct mail service, you get mobile app advertising for free.

How digital Valpak works

Valpak offers a location-based mobile app where Apple and Google Play users can punch in their zip code to receive local coupons. Then retailers and restaurateurs can simply look at a customer’s phone screen to grant them discounts at the register.

There’s little debate that digital marketing with Valpak can be a great addition to your direct mail campaign. Plus, Valpak digital offers receive millions of monthly views, which can increase the reach of your offer and drive more consumers to your social channels or website.

So is Valpak worth the expense?

Valpak may not work for every merchant every time, but most of the testimonials we’ve seen indicate that it’s an affordable way to get coupons distributed to a select number of interested people.

As with all types of advertising, each business will have a different level of success. Some companies may need a six-month plan, while others will only need one mailer to meet their goals.

Either way, lead generation through Valpak can create customer awareness and lend credibility to your company. If you want to be a company that has both client and market options, then you need to advertise. And Valpak is a great option.

Are you ready?

Response rates to direct mail are typically very good. With Valpak, your business can target a specific market and reach customers who are more likely to respond to your offers. Besides, people, in general, tend to trust direct mail and often remember an offer longer than other types of advertising.

Digital advertising with Valpak is also available to span a variety of platforms. It gets to market much faster than traditional or print advertising, and it’s easy to measure because metrics are built right in.

Many businesses have had great success with Valpak. Now it’s your turn. Valpak’s tried-and-true strategies could be the perfect marketing approach for your business.