A Marketing Success Story —Sherburne
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Ron Weber founded Zip Mail Marketing in 2003. The company is located in Rancho Cordova, CA, a suburb of Sacramento. Prior to starting up Zip Mail, Weber had retired as a real estate developer, and prior to that was an internal theft investigator for 15 years. As he points out, neither of these professions had anything to do with the printing industry. And one could certainly argue that 2003 wasn’t the best possible year to start up a new printing business, considering the struggles we have been undergoing as an industry.
Picking Strong Partners
Weber has two partners in the business; one has exceptional sales skills, according to Weber, and the other runs a business that remanufactures mailing equipment. He and his partners took a measured approach to establishing the business that reflected good business practices and included a solid—albeit simple—marketing plan. They:
• Studied the market to determine the category of products and services they could best deliver;
• Identified target customers who needed those products and services;
• Crafted a message that would resonate with those clients;
• Started small to keep overhead low; and
• Expanded as the business grew, operating from a cash position.
During 2002, working out of a 12x12-foot room, the trio studied the market to decide how best to structure their new business. Once they knew they would be offering a combination of printing and mailing, and as part of their market research, they collected all of the “junk mail” that arrived in their personal mailboxes. Weber says, “If you are looking for customers who are going to do a lot of production mailing, where better to start than your own mailbox?”
When they had educated themselves on the market and determined that they had a good idea for a solid business, they began operations in a 5,000-square-foot space. For the first six months, they ran the business themselves to keep costs in line.
Zip Mail began building its production portfolio, which today includes laser digital printing, both color and black-and-white, Didde presses, a Halm Jet Press, and some ABDick duplicators, as well as remanufactured mailing equipment. After six months, when their model began proving out, they hired their first employee.
Once Zip Mail had moderate production capabilities in place, the partners began digging through all of the junk mail they had collected in the previous year, literally turning junk into gold. They began calling mailers, talking to them about their mailing needs, and offering their printing and mailing services.
Because they were able to secure very cost-effective facilities and had access to inexpensive remanufactured mailing equipment, their only major expense was the printing equipment itself. That enabled them to create bundled print/mail solutions for customers at very competitive prices while still garnering a good margin. And the work began to roll in.
By the end of 2005, Zip Mail Marketing had annual revenues of $3 million. With only seven employees at that time, this delivered a startling $429,000 in sales per employee (the norm in the small commercial and quick print market is closer to $100,000). By that time, the company had become one of the largest lettershop and printing houses in the Sacramento region, pumping out 1.7 million pieces of mail per month.
With cash in the bank and a proven business model, Zip Mail Marketing began looking for more spacious quarters and now occupies 20,000 square feet. In January of 2006, the firm hired 14 new employees, bringing the total to 21. Within the last 90 days, Zip Mail Marketing has opened two new facilities, in Chicago and Florida, distributing work among the three shops based on recipient geography and postal optimization.
Weber projects 2006 revenues at $8.5 million and the company is currently producing more than four million pieces of mail per month. Weber also hired a graphic designer to bring design work in-house that had previously been outsourced.
Any good marketing plan will identify an appropriate sales strategy. Zip Mail Marketing chose to use inside sales reps out of its Rancho Cordova headquarters and now employs four. These sales reps are still using junk mail as their primary prospecting source. One enterprising rep is even buying junk mail off of Internet site Craigslist.com to access a wider variety of mailers.
Once the company secures a customer, Weber reports that 90 percent of the business comes in via the Internet, making the workflow clean and simple, and optimizing the cost of sales for ongoing business. The firm is now gaining a national reputation, and drawing work from all over the country.
Weber attributes the company’s success to the fact that they had a different business model from an equipment standpoint and to its unique market approach. “When someone wants to print and mail, many printers don’t do both,” he notes. “They will produce the pieces, and the mailer must find a mail services house to finish the project. Once you send that client down the street to a mailer, you lose control and they don’t return because the mailing house will send them to their preferred affiliated printers for future work. We knew we needed to change the image of this business and offer a one-stop shopping model.”
A Solid Strategy
The Zip Mail Marketing story proves beyond a doubt that establishing and executing upon a solid marketing strategy delivers results. As this story demonstrates, the plan need not be complex. While others are complaining about a tough market, Weber is tripling his business this year.
He has identified a clear customer need, assembled the portfolio of products and services to meet that need, combined with competitive prices and exceptional service. And he has provided his sales team with a sure-fire process for finding prospects and closing the business.
Zip Mail Marketing is a business that will bear watching over the next several months. Although it has been growing at a fast clip, should the company decide to add search engine optimization to the mix, it could likely see even greater growth. Perhaps they will even add electronic direct marketing campaigns for even more of a one-stop-shopping approach in a blended print/electronic business communications model.
Weber and his team should be applauded for their innovative approach and their dedicated follow-through. There are lessons all of us can learn from this story. PI
—Cary Sherburne
About the Author
Cary Sherburne is a well-known journalist, author and strategic marketing consultant working primarily with the printing and publishing industry. She is a frequent speaker at industry events, a regular contributor to industry publications and has written three books, available through the National Association for Printing Leadership (www.napl.org). Sherburne can be reached at Cary@SherburneAssociates.com.
