KristinesShower Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 I got a business card from a cleaning company right here in my town. It came with a little piece of paper showing their services - nothing huge, but it really made me look at it because it was actually in my mail (like they put it there?)Now, my question is this...has anyone actually done this in their area? Have you ever went out in the middle of the day/night and put these in mailboxes? Is this legal? I am wondering because I am in a really small community and thinking of doing this myself, but don't want to get in trouble for it. I am just thinking of putting together a small sheet of paper and a coupon for locals - nothing huge really, but wanted to get some feedback to see if any of you have done this.I was looking into direct marketing (which is almost the same thing, but you don't go out and deliver it yourself), but the minimum is 10,000 and I'm not in the position right now to sink $600.00 into something that I "hope" will work.The shop over here is so dead and with all the recent snowfall, everyone is staying away - except for the die hards that HAVE to have their soap lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sudsnwicks Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 It isn't legal to do that. That is why the pizza coupons and such are normally hung on your doorknob. Of course we know people (such as this cleaning co.) are doing it and getting away with it. So it's really up to you if you want to take the risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasBrat Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 I believe it is very illegal for anyone to put anything in your mailbox except the mailman. I don't think it would be a good idea to do that. One thing you could do is put a pamphlette of your stuff and a business card in a door bag and leave them on peoples doors. Or, you could make magnetic business cards and either put them on their front doors or on their garages. Most of the doors around here are metal and I get some things on mine on occasion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Fields Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Actually, letters and adverts CAN be put in your mailbox, BUT only with the proper postage affixed. It is illegal to put anything in or on your mailbox without proper postage (that's the illegality). Carriers are told to pull a sample and estimate the coverage (number of boxes). The local Postmaster sends the offender a bill for the postage. If it is not paid, the Postmaster is supposed to notify the Postal Inspection Service of the fraud. Many carriers don't bother and simply pull out the non-paid items and drop them in the street. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 There is an idea..buy those magnetic business card things at officemax..and put your business card/coupon on it and stick it to their door! Hmmm..send out the kids lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charmiesonline Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 I have never put anything in a mailbox b/c it is illegal, but I have done a similar thing. I made up some door tags and hired some people to put them on door knobs. Then, my brother and his friends offered to help for free, if I bought them lunch every day. On each of the tags, I had their names as the special code, so I could track it. I gave them commission on each product sold. This was fairly cheap and was successful b/c the people bring the paper inside their house. They have no choice but to look at it. I def. think it is something to consider. I made them on my computer in color b/c the black and white didn't look too nice. Another thing I did was...Put flyers on the Catholic high school girls' cars. You can't do it on private property, but where I live, they park on the street, which is public. I sell jewelry and that seemed to do really well. They did buy some a few candles though. Just a few thoughts. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoonShadow Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Today must be the day! I got a lawn maintenance flyer with no postage in my mailbox today too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dillypooh Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Actually what happens is.....if there is anything in your box without postage we are told to pick them up, take them back to the po and the postmaster will get in touch with the person if it has a return address and if not it is sent to dead letter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockmonkey Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Although it's illegal, I think that most postal workers leave them alone because it amounts to extra work for them if they have to mess with them. But, why take a chance? If people have newspaper boxes you can probably stuff things in there without penalty. I've also had people hang bags on the flag to my mailbox. I don't know if that's legal either, but it happens all of the time.Now if you decide to break the law and put things in mailboxes, you should scope out the territory to determine when the mail gets delivered everyday. If you can deliver your stuff AFTER the mail has been delivered people would be able to scoop it out of their mailboxes when they get home from work. But then again, you could get that one disgruntled person who hates junk mail and would narc on you for it.Have you considered joining forces with other merchants in your area for co-operative advertising? They're probably in the same plight you're in. I can always find people to join with me in my advertising--that way it's cheaper for everyone.Advertising in highschool newspapers is usually pretty cheap, and I would think they might be part of your target market.Other businesses might be willing to distribute coupons for you. A sandwich delivery shop offered to place coupons from me with every order at no charge at all. They viewed it as a bonus to their customers. You might check with beauty shops in the area to see if they might let you put coupons in their shop. You can offer reciprocal terms if they like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarsBars Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Have you tried getting advertisement via a dry cleaner? I know it sounds corny, but my local dry cleaner (a chain of them across the city) charges a flat fee, you provide the flier/brochure and when you pick up your dry cleaning it's attached to your ticket that hangs from the dry cleaning bag. I notice the advertisements everytime I take my ticket off my bag. I know this chain has a ton of business, b/c it's the well respected dry cleaner that does a quality job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenT Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Yup...sure enough it is illegal to put things inside of a mail box.....but not to place something on the outside. I was told you can roll a flyer up and place it behind the flag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybersix Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Strange thing! Is it really illegal to put flyers in mailboxes??Here we find a lot of flyers in our mailboxes, on cars, and it's considered normal. Sometimes is annoying because they are a lot.Ads about pizza place, cars, houses, shops. We find them on a day basis.I will do a search for what laws says here in italy.Anyway it could be a nice way to advertise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindsaycb Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Oh, drycleaners! That's an incredible idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinInOR Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 I was curious what the penalty is for doing this - from the USPS website. I don't think any advertising is work 10 grand :In 1934, Congress enacted a law known as the “mailbox restriction” that prohibits anyone from placing mailable matter without postage into any mailbox. This law, 18 U.S.C. 1725, gives the Postal Service a virtual monopoly over mailboxes and currently reads as follows: “Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits any mailable matter such as statements of accounts, circulars, sale bills, or other like matter, on which no postage has been paid, in any letter box established, approved, or accepted by the Postal Service for the receipt or delivery of mail matter on any mail route with intent to avoid payment of lawful postage thereon, shall for each such offense be fined under this title.” Under current law, a violation of the mailbox restriction law is an infraction that can be punished by a fine but not by imprisonment. The maximum fine for each offense is $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for organizations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJo Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Do you have the tubes that newspapers are placed in? My BF and I have placed flyers in those for his business with no problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sudsnwicks Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Strange thing! Is it really illegal to put flyers in mailboxes??Here we find a lot of flyers in our mailboxes, on cars, and it's considered normal. Sometimes is annoying because they are a lot.Sabrina, our mailboxes here (except for apartment complexes) are the type where the whole lid opens and you can have full access to the contents. They are not locked as that would prevent the postman from putting your mail inside. (In apartments the setup is different, they are locked and only the postman and the tenant can access.) So in a way I am glad it's illegal, because if anyone other than the postman and homeowner were allowed to open your mailbox, it could be filled with a lot of things you don't want, not just junk mail but what if someone put some sort of bomb in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybersix Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Sabrina, our mailboxes here (except for apartment complexes) are the type where the whole lid opens and you can have full access to the contents. They are not locked as that would prevent the postman from putting your mail inside. (In apartments the setup is different, they are locked and only the postman and the tenant can access.) So in a way I am glad it's illegal, because if anyone other than the postman and homeowner were allowed to open your mailbox, it could be filled with a lot of things you don't want, not just junk mail but what if someone put some sort of bomb in there.Oh this makes sense! We have many differnt shapes of mailboxes, and some uses the same you are describing. But usually the opening is so small that a bomb could not be put in!anyway here "flyering" is very common, but in the past year some big building (the ones with a lot of apartments) started to put on the outside an ads dedicated big mailbox. But in this way people don't pick up any flyer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
girlyracer Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Here in the UK it's not illegal so we get inundated with free advertising. We don't have mailboxes here unless the owners have dogs that chew everything in sight:grin2:We have letter flaps in our front doors so all our post lands inside our hallways. I put leaflets out for my husband's PC repair business. I spend a couple of hours each morning posting them through people's front doors. Sometimes people will have little notes on their doors saying no free papers, leaflets and other such things. I always oblige and won't drop one.It is a good way of advertising as it is cheap and you can target demographics. It certainly works for hubby's business and I know that it works for many other local trades people too.Ruby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristinesShower Posted February 17, 2007 Author Share Posted February 17, 2007 I am so glad I came to the board to ask this question! It looks like a lot of us didn't know the rules Well, I guess I will have to start saving my pennies for the direct mailers, until then, I will definitely be going to the dry cleaners to ask them if they would help me out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Late Night Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 I'm going to be the grouchy old woman of the board and say I hate flyers. Everyone around here knows they are illegal in the mailbox so they put them on our door. I hate that too. I feel like someone has been sneaking around my house and nosing around on my front porch to leave their junk mail on my property. I finally had to tell the local pizza shop to stop leaving their junk mail behind my mailbox flag. Why? Because when I'm out of town and their junk mail is sitting out there for a week, everyone knows I'm gone for awhile. I'm probably the exception to the rule but I live alone and don't like for everyone to know my coming and goings. Whew, I feel better now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wickedwanda Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 my postmaster says its illegal to open and put anything in anyones mailbox. and really illegal if it doesnt have postage.i had a neighbor(kid) that for some unknown reason liked to look at my mail, then it turned to taking my mail, opening and then putting it back. so the sheriffs dept and then the postal inspectors got invovled..and i live in a rural area where everybody knows everybody...sometimes with friends if we need to drop something off to one another and the receiving party wasnt going to be home, we would say..oh just put it in the mail box...but we dont do that anymore.. sometimes the flyers get bulked mailed out too..you can always go to a shopping center and put flyers on windshields..the pizza places do that here, along with the tax prep..ers, lawn service, and more, i suppose they get read, i read mine, and usually keep the paper in case i ever need something to write on in the car;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrealh1975 Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Why don't you try advertising in the Valpak if you have it in your area. www.valpak.com, http://www.valpak.com/vpcol/advertise.doIn my area I think it costs about $499 for black and white and $599 for color. I'm not sure how many households that covers. I've found tons of good stuff in mine, coupons, good deals, etc. I know someone who recently opened a hair salon and put an ad/coupon in the ValPak and has tons of customers now. Might be worth a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeavenScentU Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 I hate any junk mail on my door knob. I don't even look at it I just throw it away, but I am sure there are lots of people out their that do look at that stuff. It's worth a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slyfoxy46628 Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 I look at junk mail and flyers. Sometimes you don't know you want something until it comes to you! I say put your fliers in the paper box-they'll get them and it's not illegal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrightcandles Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 I know you can't see this well but i had these cute little postcards made up by vista prints sometimes you can catch a good sale and get them 100 for free and just pay shipping which to me was like $5.25. Normally not on sale they are 100 for $24.99 plus shipping. But you can legally just mail these out and they are VERY professional looking. and you would just pay postcard postage which is around .24 i think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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