nov dec issue FINAL.indd - Custom Home Furnishings Academy

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Mitered Flange Pillow Sham Donna Ayesh Illustration 13 Illustration 14 Illustration 15 Illustration 16 Illustration 17 Illustration 18 Illustration 19 Illustration 20 Illustration 21 Illustration 22 Illustration 23 Illustration 24 Donna P. Ayesh is the owner of Creative Elegance, a one-person custom drapery workroom with strong attention to detail located in Hendersonville, NC. In addition to collaborating with designers, her work has been routinely featured in Calico Corners catalogs and regional store displays. She has been a CHF Academy instructor since 2002 and teaches “All About Pillows” and “Fabricating Bed Treatments”. 44 The Custom Home Furnishings Magazine November/December 2006
Mass Mailings Patty Indrunas Mass Mailings To Prospective Customers Sending postcards in the mail is a great way to advertise and generate new clients. It is easy to send from 300 to over a 1,000 postcards in just a few hours. All without spending arduous hours thinking of people to send the postcards to and looking up addresses. The following method allows you to target the market you believe is most profitable for your business. The secret is at your fingertips on the internet and on your computer, assuming you have word processor and spreadsheet software. I use Microsoft ® Word ® and Excel ® so my instructions describe how to use these programs. Recently, I had 1,000 postcards printed (color, front and back, glossy card stock) for only $121.00, including shipping. They were delivered to me within a few days of the order. The cost of postage for postcards is 24¢, labels for 1,000 postcards is approximately $30, resulting in a total cost of $391. Steve Winslow, from Exciting Windows, reported in a seminar I attended at the Window Fashions EXPO in Tampa, FL, that you can expect to receive 2 to 5 responses from 1,000 mailings. This may seem disappointing at first. But consider this. At the very least, if you only close one sale from the mailing and make a profit of $1,000, then your profit of $1,000 divided by $391 is a 255% return on your investment. In other words, you made more than twice what you spent to advertise. And it’s likely that your profit will be even higher if you close more than one sale. If making 255% return on investment and increasing your business with very little effort intrigues you, then follow these steps to create your own mass mailing. 255% return on investment . . . increasing your business with very little effort. address from your property appraiser website into Excel ® , mail merge this data into label files in Word ® , and print the labels. Then simply peel the self adhesive labels, stick them on the postcards, stick on a stamp, and mail. The property appraiser information is public information and is available in print at your county archival office. However, the internet makes it easier to retrieve and easier to use. In addition, newspapers print new home purchase information. This information is also easier to retrieve and use from the internet. Search the internet for your County’s Property Appraiser website. For example, www.scpafl.org/scpaweb05/index. jsp, for Seminole County, Florida. Once on the County Property Appraiser website select Record Search. Enter the appropriate selection criteria. I’ve noticed that some website and record searches are slightly different. I like the searches that include a subdivision name. You might be able to determine by the home values of a particular subdivision if it would likely be a good market for custom window treatments. Some sites allow you to enter a street name. In this case your search may take more time if you have to enter many different street names. Other sites select by Neighborhood Codes. You may be able to call the county Property Appraiser’s office and get the neighborhood codes for the selected market. In my case, I selected a subdivision name and then made a selection for what “section” of the subdivision. Some subdivisions have thousands of homes. I decided to market the most recently built homes in the subdivision, not because they were newer homes, but because they were the most expensive. Property Appraiser Website Find the County Property Appraiser website on the internet and look for record search capability. Hopefully, the county you are wanting to mail has this capability. I researched several in the state of Florida and all did have record search capability. I also researched a few counties in Georgia and Tennessee. Some had record search capability and some did not. The idea is to export the homeowner’s name and Excel ® File Once the selected list of homeowners is displayed, right click on a blank spot on the screen and choose “Export to Microsoft ® Excel ® ”. It may take several seconds for an Excel ® window to open and load all the data from the website. This Excel® file will be your Recipient Source document for Word ® (discussed later). Save the file. It is very important www.CHFmagazine.com November/December 2006 45
Page 1 and 2: Cover Story O Christmas Tree, O Chr
Page 3 and 4: Contents November/December 2006 Ins
Page 5 and 6: Instructors’ Corner November/Dece
Page 7 and 8: Tablecloth Magic Lorie Leslie Table
Page 9 and 10: Cover Story Mary Zellers He really
Page 11 and 12: A Sneak Peak Into A Workroom is mor
Page 13 and 14: Upholstery Craig Wienand and floori
Page 15 and 16: One Year Later Cheryl Strickland Ch
Page 17 and 18: WCAA Central Florida Chapter Patty
Page 19 and 20: www.CHFmagazine.com November/Decemb
Page 21 and 22: CHF Tips & Tricks Deb's Drapery Des
Page 23 and 24: What would you do A designer sends
Page 25 and 26: CHF Tips & Tricks Susan Kindel SK F
Page 27 and 28: Design Ideas November/December 2006
Page 29 and 30: Design Ideas November/December 2006
Page 31 and 32: www.CHFmagazine.com November/Decemb
Page 33 and 34: CHF Classifieds For Sale: Singer 20
Page 35 and 36: Time Management Wilmoed Sisson writ
Page 37 and 38: CHF Academy Success Story Lorie Alb
Page 39 and 40: CHF Academy Success Story Lorie Alb
Page 41 and 42: Book Review Zona Tiller A “B” t
Page 43: Mitered Flange Pillow Sham Donna Ay
Page 47 and 48: Mass Mailings Patty Indrunas Select
Page 49 and 50: Step-by-Step Chris Watt bottom row
Page 51 and 52: Step-by-Step Chris Watt necessary t
Page 53 and 54: Form of the Month Terri Booser www.
Page 55 and 56: 2007 Custom Home Furnishings Academ

nov dec issue FINAL.indd - Custom Home Furnishings Academy

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