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Water treatment marketing that starts with the new-homeowner list
Water treatment marketing from MBI is the planning, printing and mailing of water-quality campaigns — customized, full-color glossy postcards to new-homeowner lists, and a personalized postcard whose QR code promotes a water-quality test — with the Facebook and Instagram campaigns that promote a free water test running beside the mail, and service-line and project-notification outreach for a water utility printed and mailed the same way.
Not sure where to start? Talk with our teamDirect mail
Which households receive water treatment direct mail?
The short answer
The drop goes to a new-homeowner list — the households that have just moved into a house. Customized, full-color glossy postcards carry the water-quality offer to them, and a personalized postcard carries a QR code that promotes a water-quality test. MBI selects the addresses, prints the piece and mails it.
The three campaigns. Three campaign concepts are documented for this vertical: a new-homeowner water-quality postcard offer; a free water-test Facebook/Instagram lead campaign; and a QR-code postcard driving to a free water-test landing page/form.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5 provides that each address, except for mail bearing an alternative address format, in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices or USPS Marketing Mail prices is subject to the Move Update standard, and that each address and associated addressee used on the mailpieces in a mailing must be updated within 95 days before the mailing date with one of the USPS-approved methods, which include Address Change Service and the National Change of Address Linkage System (NCOALink).
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5
direct mail marketing services direct mail mailing lists personalized direct mail
Postcard · Direct Mail
The new-homeowner list
Printing
What is printed on water treatment postcards, and where does the QR code lead?
The short answer
Two printed forms: a full-color glossy postcard, and a QR-code postcard driving to a free water-test landing page or form, so the printed piece and the online request are one path rather than two campaigns. Both are printed by MBI: commercial and variable-data printing in house, with data, print and delivery in-house since 1989.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.1.2.1 sets card-price physical standards at not less than 3-1/2 inches high, 5 inches long and 0.007 inch thick, with a card more than 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long, or both, required to be a minimum of 0.009 inch thick; at not more than 4-1/4 inches high, 6 inches long or 0.016 inch thick for each stamped card or each half of a double postcard; and at not more than 6 inches high, 9 inches long or 0.016 inch thick for each postcard. 201.3.7 requires an aspect ratio (length divided by height) of 1.3 to 2.5, inclusive.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.1.2.1 and 201.3.7
printing services postcard mailing services direct mail and digital marketing
One path
Postcard · Direct Mail
Landing page · Web
Explainer · Printing
Facebook and Instagram
What do water treatment Facebook ads promote?
The short answer
Water-treatment campaigns on Facebook and Instagram commonly promote a free water test, problem/solution creative for water quality concerns, explainer video, and test or quote-form retargeting. MBI builds and runs them beside the mail, so the postcard and the feed carry one offer rather than two.
What the ad may say. FTC advertising guidance for small business states the basic standards: advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive; advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and advertisements cannot be unfair. An ad is deceptive if it contains a statement or omits information that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances and is material — important to a consumer's decision to buy or use the product.
Meta's advertising standards state that advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, and that ads must not promote products, services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices, including those meant to scam people out of money or personal information.
Meta Advertising Standards
Meta ad · Facebook
Meta card · Facebook
Utility outreach
How does water utility customer outreach inform a customer about a service line?
The short answer
Build the service-line inventory and replacement engagement campaign with clear customer actions. EPA has developed four example template outreach materials for systems to inform and engage customers in lead service line replacement projects, among them a customer guide that can walk customers through identifying what service line material they have. MBI prints and mails outreach like it.
The four campaigns. The second research pass names four campaigns for a water or wastewater utility: build service-line inventory and replacement engagement campaigns with clear customer actions; turn consumer confidence report, conservation, and affordability information into easy-to-use digital and print outreach; run infrastructure-project notification campaigns that reduce confusion and increase response; and create localized water-quality education and assistance programs for community partners, property managers, and residents.
EPA states that it has developed four example template outreach materials for systems to inform and engage customers in Lead Service Line Replacement Projects in their community. Among them, the Customer Guide for Identifying Service Lines is a template that can walk customers through identifying what kind of service line material they have in their home (i.e., self-inventory), and 'Identifying Lead Service Lines: Help Us Get the Lead Out' is a template for water systems to explain to their customers why and how they are active in the community identifying lead service lines, how the customer can help, and what the customer can expect in regard to lead service line inventory in the future.
EPA, Lead Service Line Replacement outreach materials
The self-inventory
Mailer · Direct Mail
Postcard · Direct Mail
Guide · Printing
Two buyers
Which water-quality and water-utility operations does MBI run campaigns for?
The short answer
Two buyers. The water-quality business mailing new-homeowner lists, with the free-water-test campaigns running beside the postcards. And the regional water or wastewater utility or service provider with customer communication needs, infrastructure programs, conservation goals, or customer-assistance outreach. Both get one team for the data, the press and the mail date.
MBI plans, produces and delivers direct mail, print and digital campaigns from a single team in DeLand, Florida, and data, print and delivery have been in-house since 1989.
EPA's Consumer Confidence Report information page for consumers states that reports must be sent by your water supplier each year by July 1.
EPA, Consumer Confidence Reports
Two buyers, one team
What each buyer runs
Magnet · Printing
Questions
Questions a water business asks before it mails
Searched for water treatment marketing agency, water treatment company marketing or marketing for water treatment companies? Same work, same answers.
What are the three water-quality campaigns MBI runs?
A new-homeowner water-quality postcard offer; a free water-test Facebook and Instagram lead campaign; and a QR-code postcard driving to a free water-test landing page or form. MBI plans them, prints the postcards, mails them and runs the ads.
Can a postcard send a homeowner to a free water test online?
Yes. One of the three campaigns is a QR-code postcard driving to a free water-test landing page or form, and the personalized postcard carries a QR code that promotes a water-quality test. The printed piece and the online request are one path rather than two campaigns.
Does the size of a water treatment postcard change how it mails?
It decides whether it mails at commercial card prices. A water treatment postcard must be no more than 6 inches high, no more than 9 inches long and no thicker than 0.016 inch. A card more than 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long must be at least 0.009 inch thick.
How is a water treatment mailing quoted?
A water-quality postcard has no list price: every quote resolves to two costs, producing the piece and mailing it, and seven decisions move those two numbers, among them quantity, format and finished size, paper, data and personalization, and postage and sortation. /capabilities/direct-mail/direct-mail-cost walks a water treatment company through all seven.
What does a water utility send households before work starts on a project?
An infrastructure-project notification campaign — the kind run to reduce confusion and increase response. Consumer confidence report, conservation and affordability information is turned into easy-to-use digital and print outreach the same way, and MBI prints and mails the print side of it.
What can water-quality copy never overstate?
Safety, testing results and project timelines. The limits the copy is written to are current EPA, state and local requirements, verified water-quality language, accessible formats, multilingual review, and crisis-communications approval.
What is a water treatment advertiser responsible for on Facebook?
Its own claims. Meta's advertising standards say advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, and that ads must not promote products, services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices. MBI builds and runs the water treatment campaign inside those standards.
How does a water treatment drop reach a house someone only just moved into?
The address file is updated before the postcard prints. USPS requires each address in a water-quality mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices, or USPS Marketing Mail prices, to be updated within 95 days before the mailing date by an approved method such as NCOALink or Address Change Service; mail bearing an alternative address format is excepted.
Get started
Start a water-quality campaign.
Say whether it is the new-homeowner drop, the free-test campaign beside it, or a utility mailing, and the area it covers. It goes to a real member of the MBI team, not a queue.