Yesterday, we covered two companies that make it possible for consumers to send snail mail by email. More from the old school mail front: Dutch Gratis-Post lets people order envelopes with free postage for mailing within The Netherlands. Like most of the free love concepts we've covered in the past (from free photocopies to free phone calls), the concept is supported by advertising, in two parts. Ads are printed on the back of the envelope, and in exchange for 5 free ready-to-mail envelopes, users also agree to receive advertising messages by email for a period of four weeks.
If you think consumers can't possibly be interested in being ad-bombed for four weeks in exchange for EUR 2.20 (one stamp is EUR 0.44) worth of postage on ad-covered envelopes, you're wrong ;-) Gratis-Post ran out of its first print-run of 52,500 envelopes a few hours after they launched last Monday. Registered users can order a maximum of 5 envelopes per week. To give you a bit of insight into the format's revenue structure: for EUR 12,500, advertisers can have their ads printed on 10,000 envelopes, an email shot sent to registered users and banners placed on gratis-post.nl.
Although the Dutch may have a reputation for pinching pennies, they're not the only nation to love a no-cost bargain. If you're in advertising or looking for a relatively easy company to start up, go to your local printer and national postal service, and start bargaining.
Website: www.gratis-post.nl
Contact: info@gratis-post.nl
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Just a correction on Theresa's comment, the article states "advertising messages by email for a period of four weeks" so it looks like a reasonably green enterprise.
They wouldn't be receiving snail mail ads for 4 weeks. The ads are published ON the envelopes. So anybody who's signed up will receive pre-paid envelopes with adds printed on them. In addition, they'll also receive an email shot from advertisers (plus the banner on the main site). So it's not increasing waste...just using the space on envelopes that otherwise would've been left empty.
Does anyone know about e-mail addresses? My Dutch is little bit bad;).. Do those companies get those customer e-mail addresses or does Gratis-post only knows these?
Sorry about triple messages.. My computer seems to be working well.. However, can anybody help?
I stand corrected. I was confused.
I generally think the idea is solid. Any idea from the community as to what advertisers would be willing to pay for let's say a 10,000 envelope run?
At roughly $25,000 per 10,000 envelope run this doesn't seem profitable. Atleast in canada at .50 cents a stamp times 5 plus the additional to send the envelopes to the client. That's $3.00 in postage. when 25k divided by 10k is 2.5 you are paying money. Am I missing something.
I realize it says negotiating the price witht he post office but really how mush can you? Then the added cost of puttign the ads on the envelopes and printing envelopes.
Found out the error in my logic my appologies
What was your error Jason?
Aparently FreePost UK (www.freepost.uk.com) are soon to be introducing a similar concept in the UK. Might be one to keep an eye on?
Let's redo the calculation:
5 times 44 cent plus once 44 cent for sending the envelopes.
paper/printing cost of envelope, let's say 2 cent
is 2.76 Euro per client, so the loss before emails is 26 cent.
so the adverstisers in the emails should pay 26 cent per client. On top of that, guerilla marketing of people visiting the website (and seeing banners or names of advertisers) but not ordering.
So its slightly profitable, but counting all development,wrapping sending, and sales cost to find advertisers, maybe not. But, of course, if gratis post is part of the main post, the stamps are just internal calculations and one might discount their real cash value.
How does this product get sold in the market ? How do advertisers ensure that their investment doesn't go down the drain & reaches their target audience ?
It seems a little 'spam for the real world'. There is no targeting of the message the advertiser provides, as they cannot control the destination... What advertisers would want this? Even customized, targeted DM has a terrible ROI--
Amit/Andrew... It can't be that bad otherwise 50,000+ wouldn't have been produced and sent out in the first day! How do advertisers ensure their investment of 10,000 flyers doesn't go down the drain?! They don't, they risk it. It's just flyers in a different format, and well, every advertiser uses flyers.
Of course the envelopes were sent during the first day because those are completely free. No miracle in it. The key issue is are advertisers willing to pay for this kind of service the amount requested and does that company manage to get new advertisers weekly from now on. It's interesting to see. Hope so.
Torsten, you are missing that income is 5 times 1.25 € = 6,25 € /5 envelopes so there is not any 26 cent loss at that stage. I made some calculations and based on those it seems to be slightly profitable business. However, there is not a very good possibility to lower the prices if needed.
So the only if is advertisers' demand for this kind of service. I hope there is because I think this is funny and innovative idea. I guess this concept is suitable for e.g. retailers with large customer variation, fast food companies and so on.
I like this idea a lot. But I have one BIG question. How can I get the postal address of a friend? I could ask, but now a days we are so much more familiar with emails, how many of us really know the physical address of a friend or relative?
How did they solve this issue?
Congratulations Paul! You just invented a business idea:).
Your European registration:
'geregisteerd plan van Gratis-Post
was safely registered.
Please note: Time of registration is based on GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), International recognized time base.
This may be different to your local time but does not effect the time and date of registration.
This registration is now proof of possession and/or ownership and if stolen or manipulated can be used in a
court of law to justify this proof.
apparently , now there is one in Canada called www.free-envelope.com.
i guess it all started from gratis-post :)
Any news if anything like this is headed for the US?
The previous calculations were wrong. Minus the postage, 81 cents is left for ever envelope sent out. If you then subtract cost of making, printing and sending out the envelope, you are left with about 25 - 40 cents per envelope sent out which adds up if you sent out 10,000 envelopes.
Also finally there is now one in the US: www.freeMailPost.com
i'm actually thinking of starting a snail business. what are the requirements to start the business? what are the needed steps to be taken?
We've just gone live with a new site that follows this business idea. Try us out!
In an age where we are trying to rid ourselves of waste, I feel as if this is adding to the waste. Mail advertisements are just extra un-needed paper, especially if the person will be receiving snail mail ads for 4 weeks. The idea is great, but if the ads were printed on the envelopes only, I think it would be a better idea.
Theresa | April 27, 2007 3:31 PM