I guess you’d say that LeadStash.com is Web 2.0 Direct Mail For Small Business. Unveiled a week ago, it has already drawn criticism from a major publisher’s blog - Fast Company. In fact, I found it because Google picked it up and I saw the headline in my email! I guess press releases CAN work pretty well… at least in this instance.
I found it interesting so wanted to let you read it too.
Here’s information from their press release:
LeadStash.com opens its virtual doors today to unveil a service not seen before in the small business community – a method of affordable direct mail marketing in which the business owner maintains complete control. This service is expected to shake up the direct mail community by its unique offering.
The service, which is now available nationwide, is designed for the small business owner interested in expanding his presence in the community by providing the tools necessary for a full blown direct mail marketing campaign. This is accomplished by granting access to a list of names and mailing addresses of all those surrounding potential customers. Through a simple 3-step process, the business owner can run a search on any zip code within his region to locate those potential buyers followed by immediately printing mailing labels or marketing letters to mail to as many, or as few, neighboring residents as he wishes. The printing can be completed onsite at the business owner’s location or offsite at a local printing center.
The service puts the ownership and control back into the hands of the business owners allowing them to say goodbye to monthly minimum orders, annual contracts and skyrocketing marketing costs by providing access to the most critical component of direct mail campaigns – the mailing addresses themselves. LeadStash (http://www.leadstash.com) has established a subscription based model at a monthly subscription fee lower than most monthly phone bills with a no contract, cancel at any time philosophy.
Here’s more about it at Fast Company’s blog:
A new service called Leadstash is boasting that it can make professional-quality direct mail campaigns that are financially feasible for even the smallest of small businesses. The company claims a database of over 50 million American addresses, with a localized search engine that allows entrepreneurs access to see how many addresses are available in their zip code. The catch: the site looks a little shady.
The service sounds well-conceived in theory; users can use online wizards to create letters, postcards and mailing labels, which are then mailed directly to customers in a designated zip code. For this privilege, small business owners pay a small monthly subscription fee of $50, with no cancellation penalty. Oddly, this fee is collected by PayPal, which (while obviously trustworthy in and of itself) seems amateurish, and doesn’t inspire much confidence. To make matters worse, the site (which is rendered in drab Web 1.0) has a generic, clip-art logo of two hands exchanging cash. Does that signify me stupidly forking over my ad budget to some sketchy, faceless entity?
Still, $50 a month is pretty cheap for an entire direct mail campaign. However, they’d be smarter to charge a small fee per address, to make the service more practical for businesses operating in less populated areas, who might see a smaller return than say, a Boston or New York-based business. As the model works now, it would have the best value for city businesses, who can presumably access more addresses — but who are also likely to have the lowest response rates due to competition and brand confusion, among other factors. In sum, the idea seems a little half-baked.
Apparently, business owners never see the addresses of the folks they’re direct-mailing; wise enough on the part of Leadstash, who would be stupid to give away their biggest asset. That said, there’s no guarantee that the information Leadstash is using is accurate, or even obtained legally. I plead ignorance on the latter issue — do any readers have expertise on the legality of collecting and using this information? Better yet, has anyone used this service for their small business?
My response is mixed:
1. My immediate impression of the site? - Gee spend some money on a template!
2. Obviously businesses will have to decide if the $50 per month subscription verses “per name” is worth it. That’s all a function of how much people mail. It only “works” if Leadstash has unlimited database access anyway and the $50 they charge customers is, in essence, “pure gravy”.
3. They seem to provide simply geographical targeting. Most businesses do best mailing to past customers (if they’ve captured the addresses). For that, the service available through USPS should do just fine. And, direct mail to past customers can do significantly better than just “cold” direct mail.
4. Despite being the Web 2.o era, some professions still “farm” geographical areas and neighborboods so I found the Fast Company post a bit simplistic. But people marketing to apartment dwellers can buy a reusable list of “occupants” for $119 per complex at Apartment Toolkit. People marketing to upscale neighborhoods may want a customized list with photos of each home as discussed in this post on Geographical postcard marketing.
5. The more prospect customization offered by LeadStash, the more likely it will be a good deal for a small business.
6. Now that you’ve gotten free hits from Fast Company, make sure you overdeliver. Your press release got you more exposure than you may have expected!
Anyway, now you’ve heard both sides. Check it out for yourself…
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