Archives for June 2012

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DIRECT MAIL:
AN EASY BEGINNING TO A MASSIVE MAIL ORDER FUTURE
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Most entrepreneurs have, at some point, considered mail order and, indeed, it can be very lucrative.

But there is a way of making it even more lucrative by restricting your operations to one of the most lucrative parts
ever.

Mailing out mail shots can be big business.

A big business that can be yours if you decide to sell through the post in this fascinating way!

A mailing business couldn’t be simpler.

All you do is select a suitable product – you can start with just one.

Then produce an effective, high impact mailing to sell it.

Post off the mailings and just wait for the orders to flood it!

All the best of mail order without the frustration and difficulty of preparing press ads that general mail order
dealers have.

The sheer success of mailing is based on a simple unwritten law.

Basically, you can find a minimum response rate for your product in other words, a guarantee that so many mailings will produce so many orders.

This way you can be virtually sure that if you mail so many circulars, you will make a set and firm amount of sheer profit!

Mail order at its best!

The attraction of this branch of mail order is that you can often set your own income.

Make so many mailings – get so much back!

Mail order traders usually rate their response on a per thousand basis for comparison. Some good products sold by mailing have been known to sell 200 out of 1,000 – i.e. out of 1,000 circulars sent, 200 orders resulted. A huge profit! By
comparison, a poor mailing might only make 10 sales per 1,000 probably a loss.

So, you are probably safe to bet on 50 orders per 1,000 mailings.

It may well be higher, but work on a mere 5% return, and you’re sure to profit.

Knowing what sort of response to expect can enable you to plan for profit.

The amount you sell must cover all your costs – and profit – so set price levels accordingly.

Usually higher priced products are best.

Just imagine you have prepared a 1,000 mailing at an inclusive cost of about £325.

From that you obtained 50 orders for a product at £30.

That’s a take of £1,500 – ample to cover your costs and with plenty of profit left over!

Next, assume you could repeat your example over hundreds of thousands of mailings.

The sheer profit potential, almost guaranteed, is easy to assess.

For success with mailings, it is vital to choose the right product.

It is usual in the trade to “test” several before homing in on the most successful.

Products should be those that are frequently sold by mail order.

Don’t try to be too different.

They should be attractive, and exciting, and just “begging” to be bought.

You should also be able to obtain stocks, handle them – and pack and post easily.

The most important criteria in product selection is the eventual selling price.

This should usually be high, though this does not mean sales will be low.

If you are only making 3%, 4% or 5% sales, it should probably sell at no less than £20 per item. Larger amount, perhaps up to £100, would be ideal.

Also make sure your product offers a good profit margin.

Anything less than 60% would be unsuitable – up to 99% is not unknown!

If you can’t meet these standards with a single item, try “lumping together” several in one mailing.

Do remember there are no “right” or “wrong” things to sell.

There are thousands of possibilities – and people do buy by mail order running into hundreds of pounds each order.

Just do be sure to inexpensively test products until you find one that really works.

Your mailshot is, of course, vital, and you may want to experiment with different approaches.

A mailing expert or writer could be used for this, but you can prepare it yourself.

All the best mailshots centre around a brochure.

This should be on coloured paper, and, ideally, illustrated and worded attractively.

Support this with a sales letter (always on white paper).

This should introduce and explain your product as well as convincing the reader to buy it.

Use high impact wording to make them want – and make them order immediately.

Each mailing should include a return order form to make buying really easy and a return envelope which is prepaid through the Post Office Business Reply Service.

The cost is usually repaid several times over. It is best to put the printing of your mailing in the hands of a high quality
printer. Obtain several quotes first.

Poor quality literature is definitely a false economy.

Some printers will print all your requirements and also pack and seal it into envelopes to save you a lot of time and trouble.

For best results use good envelopes.

These should be printed with an eye catching slogan to really grab attention.

Your next job is to post your mailshots – and this can be quite a technical operation.

For a start, you can’t just mail anywhere.

You must mail to recognised mail order buyers.

The names and addresses of such people can be rented from list brokers.

There are many firms, but try several to find those with the best lists.

Rented buyers names can usually only be used once for one mailing and most brokers will supply their names printed onto address labels.

This makes your job really easy.

Before mailing circulars contact your local post office.

Sometimes there are special introductory postage discounts and bulk mailing of several thousand envelopes qualifies for some free postage.

It’s probably best to release your mailings in batches to produce a steady flow of orders.

Experiment with the actual day of posting, which hence effects the day of receipt.

Mailings received on a Monday are often less successful – but those received on other days can either do well or extremely well.

Test and see!

People who do best in mailing give little regard to order handling. Yes – it should be prompt and careful, but you should
give most time to preparing and mailing circulars.

If you can, take payments on trust and post orders by return within 7/14 days at least.

Always enclose details of additional products when fulfilling orders.

Past customers are highly likely to buy again.

Also keep addresses of past customers – mail new offers to them as they are launched.

Again, they are likely buyers.

Nothing is better for business than a delighted customer, but if you do receive complaints, it’s best to make a full refund.

That customer may well remain loyal!

The whole future success of direct mailing sits behind giving good service and getting repeat orders.

If you can attain this you won’t need to spend much on advertising in future.

Studying your market and results obtained are crucial to the success of mailing.

Basically, the idea is to maximise successes for a huge overall gain.

If you send enough mailings, you are sure to be able to tell which are most successful.

The business is really a continual testing process.

Try with different approaches and different methods. Try different products – different prices – different wording.

All these things can combine to make either a disappointing result – or an outstanding success.

This is just the same procedure used by the “millionaire” type mail order venture. Some mailings you make are bound to be less than satisfactory, but the trick is to monitor and record results carefully so that you can spot such mailings – then cut your losses.

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HOW TO GET BIG MONEY IN YOUR MAIL BOX – EACH DAY
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No other business venture seems so inviting, or attracts so many people than that of selling via mail order.

On the surface, it appears to be an easier and faster way to become rich than almost any other method of doing business.

All the people in the world are your potential customers; you work from the privacy and comfort of your own home; you set your own working hours; and you answer to no one but yourself.

Ideally, you should have a product of your own – something you can produce at very low cost, and sell at top price.

If you are buying in something, advertising and re-selling it, in order to realise a profit, you have to mark it up by at least
500 per cent.

This is not an unreasonable mark up for mail order sales.

Your product has to have mass appeal, and it has to be something not readily available to your prospective customers except through you.

The product should be such that you can “carry an inventory” without worry of spoilage, aging or other damage.

It should be something you can send through the mail – deliver to your customer – for next to nothing in relation to your
selling price.

The best money making product of all is a “How To” report such as this one.

You don’t have to be a literary genius, or even an experienced writer to write one of these reports.

In fact, the easiest way is to buy a set of these reports, read each one other, set it aside and write a similar one with more
elaboration or from a different point of view.

Give your report a commercially appealing title, set a price for it, and advertise it widely in a number of nationally circulated mail order publications, and you could have something that will continue to bring in money for you for many years to come.

The absolute best money maker of them all is a report you’ve found a great need for, researched thoroughly, and written from scratch.

Discovering these needs is not that difficult a task.

If you don’t have the time to write and market one of these reports, or just cannot produce one for whatever reason, the
next best thing is to purchase one with reproduction rights! Here, you can have a number reprinted for as little as 20 pence each, and sell them for two to five pounds each.

The only problem with this approach is that after a year, nearly everyone in mail order will have a copy of these reports, and will be trying just as hard as you are to sell them.

Just because you haven’t got the time or the tools to write one of these reports is no reason for not producing one.

If you get an idea or the background material, and the confidence that such a report will sell – get in touch with
someone who specialises in this kind of writing, and have them put the finished product together for you.

Generally, the fees will be £20 – £50 per thousand words.

But this is an “incidental fee”, indeed, if you come up with something that has the potential of bringing in several thousand pounds a year for the next ten years or so.

Remember, once you have it together and written, you just continue making copies of your original and filling prepaid cash orders for as long as you wish to stay in business.

You should also have advertising circulars, a catalogue or a “follow up” offer for every order you get.

Many people make the mistake of “sending their whole store” in response to every inquiry.

When you receive an inquiry to your advertising, you should have a prepared sales letter describing the item you’re advertising, and perhaps a circular listing in catalogue style of some of your other products that tie in with the product of your sales letter.

This is known as the “Featured Selection Plus Alternatives” approach.

When you receive an order for the product you’ve been advertising or featuring in your direct mail efforts, include
one of your product catalogues in the package with the customer’s order.

The most effective practice is to include an advertising circular or brochure of a leader item or special of the month,
and your catalogue.

The main thing NOT to do is include more than a couple of separate “featured selection” circulars.

Keep your eyes on how the big mail order houses do it, and duplicate their operating plan within your own means. The
important thing to remember here is to be sure to include something different, something new, something your customer has not seen or been offered a chance to buy – as with each successive contact you make with him.

Once you’ve broken the ice and got him spending money with you, continue showing him products of a related nature that should stimulate his appetite for greater success.

For sure, he’ll never be more in the mood to buy from you than when he receives something he has ordered.

So every time you fill and send out an order to a buyer, include an opportunity for him to buy even more from you.

You can make a very comfortable income, but you’ll never get rich so long as you’re having your orders dropshipped for you.

Having a connection with a prime source that will drop ship orders for you is one of the surest and best ways to “learn” the business of selling by mail – but if you really want to make it big, you’ll use drop shipping sources for learning, and to back up your primary product with follow up offers.

If you don’t have a primary product of your own, the next best thing is to buy in quantity lots at wholesale prices.

A word of caution here, though: do not buy a quantity supply of anything until you’ve seen a sample of the product and have thoroughly tested the saleability of that product. Too often, the beginner is sold a quantity of a certain product at
so-called wholesale prices, only to find that after he had spent his capital he either doesn’t want to put forth the effort and
time to sell that particular product, or that he can’t give it away, let alone sell it!

Suppliers who operate this way, almost forcing you to buy an inventory to have available for your orders, generally derive most of their income from the sale of these initial “required” inventories.

Always investigate and check out the saleability before you buy anything more than just a single sample.

Selling your reports depends on your advertising.

You have to get the word out that you have “money making information” available for sale.

Start out small by using short classified type advertisements.

Look at how some of the established mail order report sellers are doing it, and copy their methods.

Do not copy their ads – instead, use them as idea stimulators for your own original copy.

Place an ad in one of the largest circulation publications you can find, and then use the income from that ad to buy and place more advertising.

In other words, use the money that comes in from the first ad to place similar ads in three or four other publications.

One of the insider secrets of the mail order business is in multiplying your advertising exposure.

This means simply that you start with an ad in one publication, and from there, expand your exposure by advertising in more publications.

Be patient, and wait for the returns from your current ads, then use that money to increase the number of people who will have a chance to see your ad.

It’s as simple as that, and it works every time. Try it and see for yourself. All of this means that as you are getting started
in a new mail order business, you have to reinvest all your business income back into the business. To do otherwise is a
straight line to business failure.

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PROFITABLE NEW TECHNIQUES FOR SELLING BOOKS BY MAIL
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The total number of books sold by small, part time mail order entrepreneurs is growing each year.

Total sales each year for the past five years have increased by 50 per cent over the previous year’s sales.

Two “new angles” have greatly contributed to this phenomenal growth in total sales.

One is the practice of offering a wide selection of books via “mini catalogues”.

The other “angle” is the practice of sending these “mini catalogues” to prospective buyers as “inserts” in printed
materials the prospect has already ordered.

Mini catalogues are usually printed on A4 sheets of paper, then folded in half along the length and simply slipped inside the covers of a magazine or the folds of a newspaper.

Often a mini catalogue is folded and sent out as a self mailer.

Both of these methods of obtaining circulation are very profitable.

A book-selling “mini catalogue” is made up of a “full page Commercial” on the front page.

This is your main sales thrust, or primary attempt to sell a “featured” book with each of your mailings.

The second, third, and half of the last page of the mini catalogue should be two columns of listings of other books you
have to offer.

Each listing should consist of the title of the book offered, followed by a short description of either the book itself, or
how the book can benefit the buyer.

This is then followed by the catalogue number of the book, and the price.

The bottom half of the last page of your mini catalogue should be devoted to your customer order coupon.

The mini catalogue should be typeset, and printed on a different colour paper for each mailing.

Recent sales analysis indicate that the better quality paper your mini catalogue is printed on, the more sales it brings in
for you.

Once you’ve got a mini catalogue with which to advertise your books, you must bring all your efforts to bear on the problem of obtaining maximum circulation of your mini-catalogue among the prospective book buyers.

The easiest and least expensive method is as follows: Check at your area newspaper offices for a listing of all their
distributors.

Contact these people and ask them to give you a price they would charge to include one of your mini catalogues with each paper they sell or deliver.

Determine how many “mini catalogues” you’ll need for this kind of distribution, have that number printed, hand them out to your contracted distributors and newspaper carriers, then sit back and prepare to fill book orders.

It’s simple and easy, but best of all it really results in big profits for your book-selling business!

Another simple method would be to line up students from different schools in your area, and pay them £10 per thousand to deliver your mini catalogues door to door.

If you have school age children, this could be the easiest and least expensive method of distribution for you.

Most towns also have professional distributing services which deliver advertising material to the residents.

Check your local phone directories for their names and addresses.

The orders which you develop through the local distribution method can be filled by mail.