Okay, you don't want to deal with the labeling and stamping and sorting and the rest of the hassles that come with post card mailers as discussed in Mailers Rule #1. For those of you with the larger budgets and no time to waste attitudes, we have some points you can go by when considering you mailer service.

Before we get into service evaluation, let's think about how we go about finding a mailing service. A good place to start is Google. Google has the most advanced searching platform on the Internet today so this will be your best place to start just about any search.

Now there can be a variety of key word combinations you can use, but for this article, we will focus on "postcard mailing". When you do your searches keep in mind that the search results will vary from day to day, therefore, if you find a web site you like, remember to book mark it or write down the domain name so you can revisit again at a later time. On Google, you will notice once you do your search that there is a "Sponsored Links" column on the right of your monitor. This is a good place to start when you conduct your searches.

Here's what my search turned up in the sponsored links results ...

• Expert Postcard Marketing
  One-Stop Direct Mail Services
  We'll Design, Print, Address & Mail.
  www.postcardmania.com

• Premium Postcards 4/4
  Design, Print or Mail, Full Service
  Affordable Quality 2,500/$299 (4/4)
  www.premiumpostcards.com

• Print & Mail Postcards
  5,000 Full Color Postcards $298
  Design, Printing & Mailing
  liquiddreamsdesign.com

• Direct Mail Solutions
  Postcard, Bifold, Trifold. Design
  print, mail. 38¢ full color PC.
  www.ashelleydesign.com

• Postcards - Print & Mail
  Full Color - 48 Hour Turnaround.
  Design, Print, and Mail Experts.
  www.imiprint.com

• Design, Print, & Mail
  Quality Full Color 4/4 Postcards
  Low Prices and Discounted Postage!
  www.PostcardMailings.com

• Custom Postcard Printing
  Discount, Full Color Postcard
  Printing. Info, Articles, & FAQs
  www.ThePrintGuide.com

• Turn $47 into $300 a day
  mailing out 100 of our postcards.
  Receive a Free digital camera!
  www.picturestock.com/usa

• See your message here...

Notice at the bottom of the sponsored links list it reads, "See your message here...". This is irrelevant to this article but this is a marketing column and we are discussing Google Sponsored Links here so I will briefly explain what this means. When you click on "See your message here...", you will be directed to Google's AdWords page. AdWords is Google's Sponsored Links as well as America Online, AskJeeves and Earthlink. To open an account, it just takes $5 to setup, anything else you deposit goes straight to your advertisements. There's really nothing to loose therefore I suggest everyone reading this to open an AdWords account and start placing your ads on Google immediately. I will get into more detail on the next issue. For now, let's get back to the subject at hand.

Starting with the first result, "Expert Postcard Marketing", we can tell right off the bat the they offer everything you need to successfully send out a mailer. One thing is not clear however, please take some time now to look at their link and see if you can figure out what is missing ....

If you did not figure it out, it's the leads! Sure they mention Address & Mail, but do they offer solid leads to the market you service? This is Point 1 - Your Leads. Will this company provide the leads or do I need to provide the leads to them. Naturally, I am curious to find out therefore I click on the link and find myself at PostCardMania.com.

So far so good. The layout of the web site is professional, they have an 800# and address clearly posted on the home page. They have both "About Us" and "Contact Us" pages filled with plenty of content. If you want to go even further, you can check their corporation records at SunBiz.org - Division of Corporations - Florida Department of State. Why do I mention all this? Because before you mail your payment or provide your credit card information to any company on the Internet, you better check them out thoroughly first. And make sure the phone number works!

On their home page it reads, "Mailing Services". Since I am looking to find out if they provide the leads, I naturally click there first. I make sure to read the page thoroughly, keeping in mind my leads. At the end of the page I find, "Submitting your own list?" Perfect, here's the information I was looking for and it only took one click from the home page. In a nutshell, they claim they can provide the leads as well as take leads I already own. What you will want to do now is call them and make sure they can provide you with the leads you are looking for, Renters in the Miami, Florida area for example. Another good list would be 3 to 5 year home owners, this is the average "buy-n-sell" period for home owners.

Now I think about Point 2, design and printing of the postcards. They offer 5,000 postcards printed in full color (also known as 4/4, or 4 over 4) for just $389 and design for $150. This is a decent price, but there are other services out there where you can print your cards for about $100 to $200 less. Now you have to consider the entire service. Ideally, if you don't want to deal with mailing postcards, you are better off just dealing with one company to handle everything for you.

Moving on the Point 3, Price. Here's where you calculate your totals. Sure you can get the printing less somewhere else, but can they offer you the mailing service and if they do, can they provide it for less than the standard post card mailing rate of .23 cents. PostcardMania.com claims they will mail your postcards from 17.6 cents to 19.4 cents even at 19.4 cents, you save $180 from the standard .23 cent rate to mail all 5,000 of your postcards.

From my position, PostcardMania seems like a good company to go with. What you can do at this point is try this procedure with the other search results and go with the lower price. My suggestion is to go with the better service instead the lowest price. Call each provider, make sure they answer first of all, then ask as many questions as possible. The objective here is see who provides the better answers and less sighs. Don't forget to request samples, this a good way for you to get ideas for your own mailer as well as see first hand the work they do.

Give it a shot, email me at editor@qrealestatepro.com and tell me about your experience. I look forward to hearing from you.