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Mail Shark Representative
Every successful home service business needs effective marketing. The kind that drives new leads and keeps your current customers coming back. That's where mailshark comes in. They strategically analyze your market and help target the right homes using postcards, magnets, plastic mailers, and even letters. Powerful formats that truly make your marketing different from your competitors. Their ROI dashboard brings complete transparency to your marketing, showing exactly how your direct mail is performing so you can make smarter, data driven decisions. Whether you want to send all of your marketing at once or spread it out widely, mailshark has a plan that fits your schedule and your budget. Best of all, they handle everything for you and there are never any subscription fees just done for you. Direct mail that works. If you're ready to grow, mailshark is the direct mail partner that delivers.
Jacob Moneymaker
This is H Vac Masters of the Hustle with your host, Jacob Moneymaker.
Josh Davis
Yeah.
Jacob Moneymaker
What is up? You are listening to H Vac Masters of the Hustle podcast and here's your host, Jada Moneymaker. And welcome to episode 312. And this podcast is brought to you by Nuva Thermostat. The thermostat made by the contractor. The for the contractor. You talk about private labeling at the finest. You talk about customer retention at the finest, not losing your client to your competition. This is the thermostat that's going to help retain that. Also, branding up front right there. Beautiful on the thermostat, plus all the cool functions that it has as well. Also, the podcast is brought to you by Mail Shark. This Mail Shark, you know, is something that I'm excited for. We have them at Royalty and it's something that we've been using the last month and a half and y' all been asking, how do you get your phones to ring as a new company? I'm super excited because we are actually going to be talking about how we do that at Royalty. And the secrets out there, y' all, it's Mel Shark, one of them. Let's go ahead and give Mr. Josh Davis a big old. Well, morum, Mr. Josh is part of the Mil Shark team. Let's welcome Mr. Josh. How you doing, Rockstar?
Josh Davis
I'm fantastic, man. Great to be here. It's great to see you again as well.
Jacob Moneymaker
Yeah, well, I'm super excited. The last time you and I were able to talk face to face was out there in Orlando, Florida at Epic egia this last 2024 that just happened. And I'm super excited that we were able to meet because, I mean, y' all stood out. There was multiple Multiple different contractors that were promoting marketing, mailing, marketing for the trades, trying to get their foot in the door. Right. But one thing that y' all did special was the way that you represented yourself, which we'll talk about in a sec.
Josh Davis
But.
Jacob Moneymaker
But Josh, kind of talk about what mailshark is real quick.
Josh Davis
Yeah, absolutely. So we're a full service print and direct mail marketing company. We work with a lot of verticals, but I would say the trades is the most important to us. And we design, print and mail all different sorts of pieces to help the trades businesses acquire and retain more customers. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that, but that's what we do in a nutshell.
Jacob Moneymaker
And how long have you been doing this and what got you into working with Mel Shark?
Josh Davis
Wow. How long I've been doing it too is easy. What got me working at a Mail Shark is a little bit of a longer one. But I've been with Mail Shark this year will be 16 years in December. So I was actually the first full time employee of the company starting out as a sales rep. And I got into it through knowing someone that knew Brian Johnson, who's our president and CEO and also phenomenal human and savvy businessman who started Mail Shark out of his basement. And he was also running another business. And they knew he knew he had something but didn't have the manpower at the time to really kick things off. And that's when I got introduced to him and so he hired me and you know, the rest has been history from there. So.
Jacob Moneymaker
So I want to talk about to my listeners, everyone that's following and listening right now. If y' all don't do Mellors, this is the company for you. And if you do Mellors, this is the company for you. Okay, now let me inform and educate you. I've met Mr. Josh at EGIA this year or last year, 2024, when I had the opportunity to speak on stage and I was walking around the vendors room and they stood out because the way that they presented themselves. I'm always talking about the way you go in and you present yourself as a technician, the way that you go present yourself as an installer, as a comfort advisor, the way that you represent yourself when you answer the phone. Right. You know, Josh did a great job representing Mail Shark as well as all the tools that they had. I mean, everything at the booth was laid out. You had a great month to month plan as well. Can you talk about that? And also just real quick, you all EGIA What I really like about them is they really vouch for their sponsors and who they have at those type of events.
Josh Davis
And.
Jacob Moneymaker
And so being a part of Mellers, right, you really don't know if, or trust. Right. If the company's actually doing what they're doing. But you also keep the logistics and the data information as well. So we'll talk about that. But talk about real quick your setup at the booth and what really you had laid out there compared to everybody else.
Josh Davis
Yeah, for sure. And just real quick, egi, I totally agree. What a great group and event to attend. I've been, I think there three years in a row now and it's been a slam dunk for us. So. And also thank you for recognizing, you know, what we're doing because our company and all of our employees are obsessed with kind of bringing that experience to our customers. So it's nice to be recognized from time to time on that. But yeah, you know, there's a lot of things that we do at Mail Shark. I think to your point, how we laid things out there is, you know, we're really focused on showing our products, right. Because you can say, you know, you do direct mail, but what is that? And it's really the product that's being sent out. So we try to showcase that and showcase the different mediums and something that's, you know, a little different about Mail Shark is we have over 18 direct mail products. So not only are we mailing just standard postcards, we have postcards with magnets, scratch off postcards, envelopes, plastic postcards that are highly effective. Just a really wide selection of product offerings to help our clients stick out in the mailbox. But beyond actual products, it's more about our strategy and how we kind of do things. And it's really based on the foundation of, let's say royalty, for example, wants to send out 10,000 postcards, but they don't want to send them out all at once because they might not have the budget or they might not have enough text to really handle a major influx, but they want to drip marketing out. So something that we offer at Mail Shark is a weekly mailing strategy where we allow our clients to choose, instead of mailing an auto once, to drip them out weekly so what that look and pay for them weekly so what that would look like in that case of 10,000 postcards that could go out over a 10 week period, mailing a thousand different homes each week for 10 straight weeks. So after 10 weeks, your 10,000 prospects receive your mailer and you're only paying each week for the mailers that are sent out. That's just a 10 week example. I mean, you can split them out over four weeks, six weeks, however many weeks you're going to split them out over, we'll split the payments over. And our clients really love that flexibility because it's really. It gives them the ability to create the exact strategy that fits their budget and you know how quickly they want those mailers going out.
Jacob Moneymaker
Absolutely. I think that makes you guys different as well, is because a lot of people, right, you guys strategize with the companies and the owners. What's the best case scenario for you, right? And you could, instead of just blasting out, like you said, 10,000 in just a couple weeks or a week period or whatever it is, right? You could strategically go in with mail shark, look at different demographics, different mappings, different areas, and you could change it. So, for instance, Royalty, we did our first month, we had a bigger postcard, and it was very attractive. First off, y' all crushed it with the artwork. Okay. Hands down, crushed it. A story real quick about the artwork. I was just in a house two days ago, so today's Wednesday. It was Monday. And the reason why they called us was because the graphics from the Millers, they said it really stood out. And not only that, there was another mailer that was another H Vac contractor, and they put them side by side. And the reason why they chose us was because the way that it was really cartoony, it was funny, it looked really inviting. So you guys absolutely crushed it. And we're already seeing a really good response from the mailers that have already gone out in the last month.
Josh Davis
That's amazing, man. I can't tell you. Actually happy that makes me to hear that because, you know, it's competitive, right? You know, there's tons of H Vac companies. So how do you differentiate yourself with your marketing? And to be able to do that and win is really the goal. But to dovetail back on something that you, you mentioned, you know, previous. I just went right into this weekly mailing strategy. It's really all about the data, right. You know, the most important thing is who are you mailing these pieces to? Is it going to the right homes? Are those homes owned and not rented? Right? Are the demographics right? Are we going after the right neighborhoods? And then really crafting a plan to really dominate that market that you want? And that's critical as the first step of the process because, you know, what's your budget, Right? How do you know how many pieces to mail? Let's analyze your market and you know, look at, you know, how many homes you want to target and then kind of work it out from there. So that's a very important piece of the puzzle.
Jacob Moneymaker
Josh, let me ask you real quick, sorry to jump in, but what have you seen to be effective as, you know, maybe we'll say a startup company, you know, they don't have all the capital in the world to spend, you know, thousands and thousands of dollars on mailers. But what are you seeing like the average company use with a pretty decent roi?
Josh Davis
I'll tell you what, we have clients that span from, you know, new startups to the big PD firms and it's kind of all over the place. Yeah, I would say the entry level starting point for, for, you know, anyone is 5,000 homes. And again, you know, that over an eight or 10 week period really will be affordable for any, any business. You know, that that's kind of the entry point. I think the biggest thing or one of there's so many pieces that go into this, but I think one of the biggest things is if you're going to do direct mail or any marketing strategy is you got to have a plan and you can't just do it once. And I think, you know, you have to hit people more than once, you know, to get your message.
Jacob Moneymaker
Reputation repetition.
Josh Davis
Yeah, it's, it's the frequency. How many times are these people going to see your message before they react? And you know, there's all kinds of numbers. Seven times, they need to see you, 10 times, six times, whatever the case may be. But what I know is it's not one time. And I think that's where people, you know, business owners kind of get, get hung up on it is let's just try it once, right? Let's just mail one out and that's, you can do that and you know, get some like, like you've gotten so far, but that's not really how you're going to dominate the market. Correct. I think that's so what we offer. And you know, in addition to just being able to mail a piece one time is our annual mailing program where we lay out your marketing for the entire year. So we take that weekly mailing strategy, however many weeks you want to mail a piece over and we duplicate that throughout the year. So let's say every eight or ten weeks you have a new piece hitting the market and your marketing's laid out for the entire year. So it's probably one of the most critical Pieces. Because without a plan or without a strategy, there's no way you can execute it and be successful. And I remember you stepping up at the booth, opening up our brochure and looking at this calendar and being like, yeah, I saw it. I saw. I saw you.
Jacob Moneymaker
I'm a visual guy, right? And to me, it was like to see that and it broken down. It was the light bulb.
Josh Davis
Yeah, exactly. And, you know, and then. And then once you look at it and you're like, all right, what. How does this work? And then you start understanding how it works with the flexibility of spreading out the payments, mailing multiple different pieces, and every however many weeks, you want doing a new campaign to change the creative, change the offers. It really becomes this dynamic, growing program that you're able to execute and track and win. So, you know, I think that's one of the most critical pieces is, you know, you can start anywhere, right. You know, you can always start at the minimum and then track it, tweak it, you know, repeat it, and scale it up as you go. But the key is having a plan and giving it a fair shot. Like any other marketing strategy, you got to give it a fair shot. That's why we suggest our annual program. Quite frankly, the trades love it because they love seeing it on a calendar. They love playing it, planning it out, and not having to worry about it. You know, obviously, it's not the total setup. Forget it. You still need to determine, you know, where you want your mailers to go, analyze the ROI as you go, the creative and so forth. But the fact that we do it all for you is just a major benefit so you can focus on growing the business.
Jacob Moneymaker
Yeah.
Josh Davis
Do all the heavy lifting on the.
Jacob Moneymaker
Marketing side, you know, and being able to change the campaigns. You know, us rolling into June. I know Royalty. We're going from the bigger postcards that we were offering, and we're going to magnets. And so one thing that we were talking, right, Is as a company, as an owner, you got to think, how do I make this magnet attractive? Where they are going to keep it on their refrigerator or wherever they're putting it. Right. And from my understanding, I believe it comes with the calendar. So some things that we're thinking about is sports teams or maybe high school, different teams in the area that people are attractive to. Right. They want that schedule. They're going to keep it there. And one thing we were talking about is, you know, we're at royalty, thinking about putting the. A schedule on there. But one thing that you were talking about Potentially is when those mellers end. Right. It might be potential the end of the season. So they might be throwing those away. So you might want to think more of abroad and might think about football season, you know, and put in a football schedule. So thinking about those little things and being helped and coached goes a long ways.
Josh Davis
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You definitely want to get the schedule out as early as possible. Right? You know, right. When the schedules come out and they're kind of being finalize, you want to get those, those sports schedules out. There's really no point in doing it mid season. You know, you're better off doing something else or like, you know, sports schedule is huge. You know, whether it's, you know, football, whether it's NFL college calendars towards the end of the year are a big hit. Some people put kitchen measurements, some people put local events. So it's nice because, you know, you know your market better than anyone. And when we kind of strategize with you, it's like, you know, what do you think will resonate most with your, your local market? Some people say, oh, it's high school football, we got to get that on there, or it's the aids or it's whatever, but we're able to take that and then really make it meaningful to the people who are sending this, this postcard magnet.
Jacob Moneymaker
Let me ask you a question, Josh. Typically on we'll say just make it easy. Number 10,000 mailers go out typically, what's a ROI return on 10,000 mailers that go out in a, we'll say, 10 week period?
Josh Davis
That's a good question. You know, that's a challenge to answer for a number of reasons and I'll get to that. But you know, there's so many variables that impact so that of course, every person that every business that calls us wants to know how well it's going to work and we want to tell them how well it's going to work. But the reality of it is we can't because, you know, the amount of variables that go into the response rate that someone's going to potentially receive is just too fast. For example, you know, somebody starts their business today, mails out a postcard, is going to see a different response rate than someone that's been in business 30 years, established their trucks have been in the neighborhoods, you know, yard signs have been out there, billboards, radio, all these other marketing. Right. You know, on top of that, the offer, you know, if someone doesn't want to put a strong offer on their mailer because they don't believe in couponing, they're going to see a different response rate than someone that puts a really strong or very smart offer on the mailer, you know, and then it goes down to how much local competition is in the market. You know, if you don't have as many competitors, you're probably going to see a different response rate than someone whose market's very saturated, you know, depending upon your strategy. So that's a, it's a difficult one to really answer, you know, depending upon how mature the business is. Also, online reviews, you know, if you have less than desirable online Google reviews, you're definitely going to see a different sponsor than someone like you that has high Google reviews. I mean, that's just what it is, right?
Jacob Moneymaker
So absolutely.
Josh Davis
All those variables really impact that. But what's nice about direct mail is, you know, we can't tell you what roi, nobody can. Right. That's just a standard thing with any marketing platform, no matter what it is. But the beautiful thing about direct mail is that showing return on investment and return on ad spend is very transparent, probably I would say the most transparent out of any marketing channel. And the reason being is when we mail out a postcard, of course we have the physical address of where it's going to. Well, when they become a customer of yours, you're gonna of course acquire their address because they have to, you have to go to their house. So what happens is in our, in our ROI dashboard, you know, if you're using Service Titan, which we love, Service Titan, or something like a House call Pro, we're able to actually API your current customers. The new customers, I said, excuse me, the new customers you acquired from, from the timely mailers were sent out to the actual mailing file and compare the two and say, hey, these people that got your mailer at this time also became a customer of yours, right? So it brings a lot of transparency to the process. Now, what we cannot tell you is the direct mail piece is the only thing that got them to call, right? I mean, they might have seen a yard sign and then got the direct mail piece. They might have saw your van at the neighbor's house and then got a direct mail piece. But we can, what we can tell, you know, in certain terms is this was a touch point and they became a customer. You acquired them as a customer after this duration of when they received the mailer. So it really brings transparency for you and for us. Right, because we want to know too, right. Not every area reacts to your marketing scheme. It's important as marketers, we identify that and if that's happening and you're not getting the best results from an area, that we identify that and look to other areas. But with that matchback reporting with direct mail, it brings the most transparency, I think, out of any marketing channel that you're going to see. And through our ROI dashboard, it's updated every day so you can see real time results on your marketing campaigns.
Jacob Moneymaker
Love that. A question that someone just wrote in, I want to ask real quick. They said, hey, Josh, real quick, what does the onboarding process look like and turnaround with us being in summer season right now, how quick would we be able to get something out?
Josh Davis
Sure. I would say the onboarding process from the time that you, you know, decide to move forward, you know, we gather all the information that we need from you, your logos, your content, all this stuff about your brand to designing the actual piece is about a week, you know, and then I would say about three and a half weeks from the time you approve your artwork until the time the mailers are sent out. And I would say that seems like a long time on the front end. But it's just the nature of the process for us to actually print your postcards or, you know, whatever the case may print your mailers, whatever mail you're going to do, we have to print it, we have to address it, we have to cut it, we have to do all these things. We have a post office on site, so we actually have a United States postal facility.
Jacob Moneymaker
That's also what is different as well.
Josh Davis
Yeah. Because of our volume, it's actually more cost effective for the post office to actually staff people on site than it is to actually have us truck the mail to them. So we have a post office on site, verifies your mail. That takes a little while. And one thing that's very important about what we do is when the mail, your mail is verified before it leaves our facility by the post office, I mean, that's the gold standard. But then what we do is we don't drop the mail in Reading, Pennsylvania and just send it to California. We, we actually take the mail on a truck, truck it to California to the bulk mail center reception facility it's going to in your region. So just the nature of that whole process takes a little while. But the great thing is with that weekly mailing strategy, right, if it's 10,000 or 5,000, it takes that three and a half weeks to get that first mailer homes. But then every week thereafter, they drop like clockwork. Right. Every week because then we just, we just pull them off our warehouse shelf, mail them out every single week. So they're dropping like clockwork. So the onboarding process, you know, I'd say a week for the creative and another three and a half weeks to get that first drop in homes. And, you know, one cool thing about working with mail Shark, is we don't take any money from our clients up front. You can attest that there's no money down. We'll design your piece, we'll print it, we'll address it, we'll get it all ready for mailing. And you don't actually have to pay us anything until the mailers are sent out for the first time. So, you know, I always recommend if you want to get something rolling, doesn't cost anything, get rolling, get ahead of the game, right? Because there is that little bit of a, you know, time frame that it takes to get those mailers.
Jacob Moneymaker
What, what I'm trying to say to the listeners right now is you can't wait right now. If you guys start today, you're going to be getting it by fourth of July, which what a great marketing piece to go out for 4th of July right now. If you guys reach out to Mel Shark and have Josh on his team start the process right, I'm telling you all, this is the way everyone's reaching out. Hey, how are you do getting these system replacements? How are you getting your foot in the doors? How are you getting these opportunities? Y' all are seeing it on social media. What we are doing at royalty, and this is one of the steps, this is one of the ways, this is one of the opportunities for us to get our foot in the door. And I'm telling you, it's allowing our phones to ring, it's allowing our office Royalty staff to be able to book appointments to make sure that our technicians have a full board. And again, Royalty's only been around for a year. We hit a year this month. And what we're being able to do by using the resources, right, you got to spend money to make money. You got to use the resources. You got to be able to. To be able to work on your company. Mr. Josh was talking about that, and he really hit that platform when he was talking about, hey, we allow the stress to be put on us on the marketing side so you guys could worry about your company and your growth. Because as a business owner, why should we be thinking about anything else, right? Allow the professionals to do what they're good at, hire them to do what they're good at and hold them accountable. That's a big thing. And what Josh does with our team is we have monthly meetings of what's working, what's not working, and then what's the next one strategy for what's going out. And I'm telling you all, this platform right here is absolutely amazing across the board. Which goes to my next question, Josh, is what's next for Mil Shark? Is there anything that's big, you know, being watered underneath the surface?
Josh Davis
Yeah, there is some things we're working on. Some very specific type of very targeted, highly variable mailers with variable content, hyper targeted messaging to very specific homes that are triggered by certain events. And that seems kind of a bunch of gobbledygook that just came out of my mouth because we didn't launch it yet. But we're very excited about it. It's going to be a new offering that layers. It's going to be able to layer on, on top of what we're already offering. And we have some other things in the works. So we have some other. You know, I would say the biggest thing is data. You know, you asked about return on investment. And so what we love is with our ROI dashboard is we're collecting all this data from every one of our H vac clients. Right. And customers. And so we know we can show you. Hey, Jason, we're all eating. Here's, here's your return on ad spend. Right? But we're doing that for a thousand home service companies. We're going to be able to aggregate that data together, start noticing trends and becoming much more savvy about what's happening in certain parts of the country. When someone says, hey, what's the return I can expect? We're going to say, well, we can't tell you exactly, but let's. Let me tell you what the average is. Over a thousand different home services companies just like yours. So a lot of data stuff, a lot of new types of mailers we're coming out with, I would say that I think is going to be a game changer for our customers.
Jacob Moneymaker
Absolutely love it. Josh, how many total trade contractors are signed up with Mail Shark?
Josh Davis
Over a thousand, for sure. I don't know the exact number. That's a good question.
Jacob Moneymaker
I mean, that's just amazing. That's a thousand contractors across the nation. More than a thousand contractors that trust you with their marketing to get opportunity to get their foot in the door. So my question to everyone else is, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Yeah, I mean, great opportunity Yeah, I.
Josh Davis
Would say give us a call. At the very least, let us give you a demo, right? Let us present to you what we have to offer. And one thing I know about trades, you know, business owners is they're smart as hell, right? They're super smart, super savvy operators because of the amount of, you know, content that's out there and the amount of, you know, people like you that are out there educating, right? There's all these resources and training groups that are out there that, you know, have a plethora of information, but they're smart and they know what's what. And when you present something to them that makes sense, that you can, you know, actually show them how it works and why it works, you know, it's a pretty easy decision, I think, to give it a shot, you know, but just, I would say just give us a call, hear us out. Of course, you know, call us, call four other companies and then make a, you know, decision on what you think is best for your business. But I would definitely recommend, you know, at least giving us a call and hearing what we have to offer.
Jacob Moneymaker
Let me ask you, going to those networking events and the conferences, what do you like about networking and, you know, the positivity that comes out of those events? Because I'm sure you go to so many a year being able to represent Mel Shark.
Josh Davis
The events are amazing for a lot of reasons. You know, you get, number one, you get to meet your customers face to face, which is, you know, amazing because, you know, having a phone relationship or zoom call is one thing, but actually meeting your customers and talking to them face to face is just awesome. Listening to the keynote speakers and the people there, I mean, the amount of information, the wealth of knowledge that's shared at these events and the. The ability to learn from the best and brightest in the industry is amazing, you know, and it's also great to see what, what else is out there, you know, what's being offered by some of these other vendors, you know, and learning about how Mail Sharp can maybe piggyback or partner with some of these other companies to and synergies to see if there's value we can continue to bring to our customers. So they're just. The events are awesome. I love them and I go to as many that I possibly can.
Jacob Moneymaker
Josh, as we're ending a close to the podcast, you know, I got listeners all across the nation. Well, all across the world, let me ask you a question. There's installers, technicians, CSR sales professionals, business owners. What would you like for them to get out of this episode of H Vac Masters of the Hustle.
Josh Davis
Yeah, I would say the biggest thing is, you know, I think with direct mail, and I've been doing this, like I said, for 15 years. I just feel like for some reason there continues to be this negative connotation about direct mail doesn't work. Or I tried it in the past and it didn't work, which I hear a ton of. And I hear this. I've tried it in the past and it didn't work. But there's always a reason why, right? You know, there's always a reason on why it didn't work. Whether it was the creative didn't look good, whether it was the piece going to apartments instead of, you know, single family homes that were owned or, you know, the wrong offer. I would say give it a shot. Doing it the right way and, and doing it the right way is, you know, calling a bunch of different companies, hearing what they have to say, and then determining what you think makes the most sense. And that's not bullshit. Sorry.
Jacob Moneymaker
You're good.
Josh Davis
You can tell what's bullshit in this day.
Jacob Moneymaker
Read between the lines.
Josh Davis
Right between the lines. You know, you know, and just one, one quick thing is, you know, you asked us how long it take, how long it takes. One other note to that is, takes a little while longer than I mentioned because we have to analyze your market, right? We need your current customer database to put them on a map to figure out where they're coming from, do an analysis. And so I think when you, we explain to you our process, right? On how we onboard you and help you determine your target market, and then you look at our different products and our strategy and our ROI dashboard, I think it'll be eye opening compared to maybe what people have tried in the past and had a negative experience with. So I think at the very least, if you've heard about direct mail and you think it can work for you, which I know it can, just hear us out, you know, it doesn't cost anything to do a demo. We're not the pressure guys. We're the guys that want to give you the information you need to make a smart choice for your business and then let you make the choice, there's no pressure 40,000 times after the call to try to close you on anything. You know, we really want to create win wins and partnerships with our customers because at the end of the day, it's really about a partnership. You have to trust us, we have to trust you. And it has to work for both of us. And we're very focused on winning for our customers because.
Jacob Moneymaker
Hyper focused. Absolutely.
Josh Davis
I have a business. You're the reason we're in business. And we. We understand that so deeply that we. We really, really try to make it happen.
Jacob Moneymaker
Absolutely, y' all. And I'm excited for the royalty partnership that we have as well as y' all. We're going to be doing this till the end of the year. And like I said, it's already brought in massive results for royalty. Heat in an air as well as it's going to continue to bring massive results and the results are just going to continue to be higher and higher and higher every single month. So I'm super excited. Mail Shark. Y' all gotta get with Josh. You gotta sign up. I'm letting you know. Josh, how can they reach out to you?
Josh Davis
I would say the best thing is hit our website. It's themaleshark.com T H E M A M A I L S H-A-R-K.com Check it out. There's a ton of information on there. Frequently asked questions, you know, products and all that jazz. And if it piques your interest or you think there's any. Any inkling that, you know, you want to learn more, do it. Hit us up and we'll. We'll give you a demo. We'll be transparent. And, you know, I think that's probably the best way to contact us. You could always give us a call, too. But I think hitting the website first, just educate yourself on what we have to offer is probably the best move.
Jacob Moneymaker
Awesome. Until next time. Y' all late.
Release Date: June 16, 2025
Host: Jacob Moneymaker
Guest: Josh Davis, Representative from Mail Shark
In Episode #312 of HVAC Masters of the Hustle, host Jacob Moneymaker delves into the world of direct mail marketing tailored for the HVAC industry. Joining him is Josh Davis from Mail Shark, a leading full-service print and direct mail marketing company specializing in serving trade businesses. The episode explores Mail Shark's strategies, success stories, and insights into effective marketing practices that can propel HVAC businesses into the top 1% of their field.
Mail Shark positions itself as a comprehensive solution for HVAC and other trade businesses seeking to enhance their marketing efforts. Josh Davis provides an in-depth look into the company's offerings and unique selling points.
Josh highlights the importance of strategy in direct mail campaigns, emphasizing flexibility and budget alignment: "Our clients really love that flexibility because it gives them the ability to create the exact strategy that fits their budget and how quickly they want those mailers going out." (08:30)
A key discussion revolves around the weekly mailing strategy offered by Mail Shark, which allows clients to distribute their mailers over extended periods rather than blasting a large quantity all at once.
Example Strategy: Sending 10,000 postcards over 10 weeks, mailing 1,000 homes each week, thereby managing budget and maintaining consistent market presence. "This is our weekly mailing strategy where we allow our clients to choose, instead of mailing all at once, to drip them out weekly." (08:00)
Client Success: Jacob shares Royalty's experience with Mail Shark, noting the effectiveness of creative artwork in standing out: "The graphics from the Millers, they said it really stood out... it was funny, it looked really inviting." (10:10)
One of the standout features of Mail Shark is their ROI Dashboard, which provides transparent, real-time tracking of marketing performance.
Transparency: "Direct mail that works... It brings complete transparency to your marketing, showing exactly how your direct mail is performing so you can make smarter, data-driven decisions." (04:00)
Data Integration: By integrating with platforms like Service Titan and Housecall Pro, Mail Shark accurately measures the impact of mailers on customer acquisition. "We are able to compare the new customers who received your mailer to see the direct impact." (20:40)
Josh emphasizes that while exact ROI predictions are challenging due to various factors, the transparency of Mail Shark's system allows businesses to make informed adjustments: "You can track it, tweak it, repeat it, and scale it as you go." (13:30)
Understanding the urgency of marketing during peak seasons, the episode outlines Mail Shark's efficient onboarding and execution process.
Timeline: Approximately one week for gathering materials and another three and a half weeks from artwork approval to mailing. "The onboarding process from the time you decide to move forward is about a week, and then about three and a half weeks until the mailers are sent out." (21:10)
No Upfront Costs: Clients don't need to pay until the first mailer is sent, reducing financial risk. "You don't have to pay us anything until the mailers are sent out for the first time." (22:45)
Looking ahead, Josh unveils exciting developments aimed at enhancing Mail Shark's offerings.
Variable Content Mailers: Introducing highly targeted mailers with personalized content triggered by specific events to increase relevance and response rates. "We're working on targeted, highly variable mailers with variable content, hyper-targeted messaging to very specific homes." (25:54)
Aggregated Data Insights: By collecting data from over a thousand home service companies, Mail Shark plans to identify trends and provide average ROI benchmarks, aiding clients in setting realistic expectations. "We're going to be able to aggregate that data together, start noticing trends and becoming much more savvy about what's happening in certain parts of the country." (26:10)
The importance of industry events is underscored as Josh shares the benefits of face-to-face interactions and continuous learning.
Customer Engagement: "You get to meet your customers face to face... it's just awesome." (29:15)
Knowledge Sharing: Learning from keynote speakers and industry leaders helps Mail Shark stay ahead in innovative marketing strategies. "Listening to the keynote speakers and the people there... is amazing." (29:15)
As the episode concludes, both Jacob and Josh reinforce the value of direct mail when executed correctly and encourage listeners to consider Mail Shark for their marketing needs.
Persistence in Marketing: "Give it a shot. Doing it the right way... it doesn't cost anything to do a demo." (31:00)
Partnership Philosophy: "We're very focused on winning for our customers because they are the reason we're in business." (32:53)
Listeners are invited to visit Mail Shark's website at themailshark.com or contact them directly to learn more and schedule a demo.
Josh Davis: "Direct mail that works... It brings complete transparency to your marketing." (04:00)
Jacob Moneymaker: "This platform right here is absolutely amazing across the board." (15:07)
Josh Davis: "You have to have a plan and you can't just do it once." (12:43)
Josh Davis: "We really, really try to make it happen for our customers." (32:53)
Episode #312 provides HVAC professionals with valuable insights into leveraging direct mail marketing through Mail Shark. With a focus on strategic planning, data transparency, and innovative mailing solutions, Mail Shark offers tools and expertise to help HVAC businesses thrive in a competitive market. Whether you're a startup or an established company, the strategies discussed offer actionable steps to enhance your marketing efforts and drive business growth.
This summary captures the essence of Episode #312, highlighting the key discussions between Jacob Moneymaker and Josh Davis. For a deeper understanding and actionable strategies, listening to the full episode is recommended.