Coin Slot

Coin Slot Magazine - #V8N7 - 1983 - March [International Arcade Museum]
Editor's Note:
Ms Carol Kantor has written several
articles on the subject of promoting
a business enterprise. Although these
A postca
mailing
for
promotion
articles have been primarily directed
to the owner or operator of an arcade
I her suggestions are valuable for
the promotion of any business. Many
of Ms. Kantor's ideas can be adapted
to the promotion of businesses in
volved in the repair and restoration
by Carol Kantor
ics person to design your postcard.
If you've never used direct mail
to advertise your location, try
this. Mail out 5,000 postcards
to residents in the immediate neigh
borhood. See how many responses
you get. If the return is high, use it to
start a campaign.
To begin, go to the yellow pages.
Look under Mail List Mailing Service
or Advertising Direct Mail. Find one
that sells resident address lists.
The price should range from $10 to
$25 per thousand households. These
are sold by zip code and mail delivery
routes, so you can get real close to
your location and specify where
you want the mailing to go. These
prices should include the service of
applying labels to your postcard
mailer, sorting the bulk mail, and
delivering to the post office.
Plan what you want to put on the
postcard. You must offer something
that will give people incentive to
come to your location. Free plays or
games are most common. Typically,
the more you offer, the better the
response. FREE is the most powerful
word in advertising.
Free Plays
Free Hat
Free T-Shirt
Free School Supplies
Free Free Free
"Bring this card to:
(your location)
for a Free
"
is the basic copy needed on your
postcard for the mailing. It is good
to use some fun border design or
decorative illustration along with
A standard postcard, 31/2" x 51/2",
is best for this type of mailing. The
design can be relatively simple. The
use of stock or clip art borders can
be effective for this type card promo
tion. There are books of artwork
or in supplying the various parts
available at most graphics services.
Using this stock art keeps the art
modate the business you may be
production costs down. The graphics
person will help you plan the design
of the card, and produce it for print
ing.
At the same time, you should
contact the local post office to ar
range for a bulk mail permit. This
permit will cost around $40.00 per
year, but will pay for itself in saved
postage costs. Your permit number
must be put in a bulk mail indetia to
be printed on the address side of
your postcard The post office should
provide all the needed details for
preparing your postcards for bulk
mailing.
Check the camera ready (ready
to be printed) art carefully, and then
arrange to have printing done. A
bright colored card stock often is
good to attract more attention. Use
an index weight or a 10 to 12 point
card stock for best results (this is
above minimum requirements and
will hold up betterthrough the mail).
The cost for graphic production
and printing of 5,000 cards (two
sides plus one color), plus the mailing
and postage costs should be under
$1,200.00. If you compare this to
the costs for an ad in the local
newspaper you will see that it is
m the same. But remem
probably
.co about
m
:
u
the words to give the card
yourpostcard goes onlytoyour
use ber,
from more
m
d
impact.
neighborhood and has a better
-
e
e
d printer.
Next, call your
loa local
rcad An chance of being seen in the mail
n
a
.
w
"instant"
Do or "quick"
ww type printer than next to hundreds of other ads
/w
/
:
should be okay
for a simple one or
in the paper.
p
t
t
h postcard
two color
mailer Ask if the
printer has a typesetting or graphics
service, or if they can recommend
one. Arrange to meet with the graph-
© The
50 International Arcade Museum
of the collectible coin controlled
machines, businesses involved in
the buying and selling of machines
needed to rebuild these machines.
It takes a little imagination to convert
Ms. Kantor's proposals to accom
involved in,
but the point is the
same. All business needs promotion,
and advertising, to make the public
aware that it exists.
Let's take this article as an example
and adapt it to a slot machine dealer's
business Although a mailing to every
home in the neighborhood is not
feasible,
the basic idea can still
make sense. If records are kept of
buyers of machines,
and people
who have inquired of repair and
restoration services, these can be
substituted for the mailing list and
provide names and addresses of
those specifically interested in your
product.
Direct your postcard mailing to
these names and offer something
that will give these people an incentive
to visit your store. Perhaps a free
service check on the slot machines
they already own, or a 10% or 20%
discount on the purchase of a new
machine would be a good idea. The
point is, bring prospective customers
into the shop where you can talk to
them individually.
The steps involved in printing and
mailing the promotion would be the
same as Ms. Kantor has outlined.
Once the cards have been sent,
keep track of the cards that are
brought back to the store and the
types and amount of sales the mailing
generated.
Ms. Kantor has offered many other
suggestions in her articles, all of
which
could be adapted
to any
So, take the printed cards to the
mailing service. And after they are
mailed start counting the cards that
business with some thought. In a
are redeemed.
promotion and advertising.
depressed economy there is no better
way to generate more business than
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THE COIN SLOT