As an entrepreneur involved in selling and/or promotion of
something by Direct Mail, you should already know that most
important aspect of your mailing have to do with the sales letter
or circular you send out, and the mailing list you use. With
these thoughts in mind, and assuming you’ve got what should be an
order-pulling sales letter or circular, let’s focus our attention
specifically on the problem of finding mailing lists that produce
profitable orders.
Common sense should tell you that without a good mailing lists,
the time and money you spend for market research, advertising
layout and knowledge relating to the « rules of direct mail, » will
just be wasted effort. In other words, unless you get you offer
to the buyers, you might as well save your time and money.
In order to reach your most-likely buyer, you must first
determine who your most-likely buyers are. This is not so hard as
it might appear. Actually, it’s just a matter of recognizing that
automotive items will appeal to car-owners, while household
gadgets will sell best to the homemakers.
Regardless of how easy its is, this is the most-often over-looked
part of the beginning entrepreneur’s planning. suffice it to say
that if you don’t know who you’re going to sell a product or
service to, your product or service is going to be pretty hard
for you to sell.
The next thing to really look into, is the competition your
product or service faces. If it has a limited market–not too
many people would stand in line to buy–and you are competing
with virtually the same product as supplies by other
companies–then you’re going to have to either come up with a
strong « hidden angle » or else face defeat before you even
begin…
These are the « keys » to success in selling anything via direct
mail–pin-pointing exactly who your buyers are, presenting your
offer to them with an angle not being used by your competition,
and concentrating all your sales efforts only on the most-likely
prospects.
Assuming you « know » who your most-likely buyers are; that you’ve
got a « winning » sales letter or circular–and, a product or
service these people « will stand in line to buy, » then your
problem is to get the message to these people.
Do not think you’ll « save some money » by renting or buying
inexpensive mailing lists from advertisers in all those ad sheets
and « mail order » type publications that seem to flood your
mailbox. You’ll waste a lot of time, and spend money chasing the
wind with these lists.
These list offered by « mail order » dealers are compiled from ad
sheets, mail order publications, and/or incoming offers received
by the list -seller…These people also compile lists they
use…A lot of them compile their rental lists directly from the
telephone/city directories…And even a few of them work the
« envelope stuffing » scheme to compile their rental lists–They
offer commissions to people who pay to join their envelope
stuffing programs, and then sell or rent the names of the people
who join their program…The people who join the program are
advised to compile lists from any number of sources, send out a
commission circular, and receive a commission for each incoming
order. The names of the buyers are then compiled onto another
list, and sold by promoters of this scheme to some of the larger
list-brokers as bonafide mail order buyers…Any time you rent a
list of 5,000 or more names from mail order type operator, you
can almost certainly count on the lists that’s 1) Five or more
years old…2) Filled with names of people who have moved…3)
Going to be dominated with names of other mail order sellers…
Before renting or buying a mailing list from someone, use the
same kind of common sense you use in deciding upon a doctor,
lawyer or auto mechanic. something else to keep in mind–whenever
you rent or buy mailing lists from someone who has or is
advertising for dealers or mailing list brokers, you are going to
end up with a list of names used by many mail order dealers,
generally with the majority of them offering the same products or
services.
The best thing to do is to take a note pad and pencil to your
public library..Ask the librarian to let you look at the Standard
Rate & Data Service Directory pertaining to mailing lists. Within
this voluminous directory, you’ll find the names, addresses and
telephone numbers of virtually all the reputable mailing lists
brokers in the country. These brokers explain within the
directory the different lists that are available for rent, what
kind of buyers the lists are made up of, and the date the list
was last cleaned–that is, the last time all the names on the
list were verified relative to the correctness of addresses.
Select a half dozen or so of the list brokers handling the kinds
of lists that are made up of buyers of products or services
similar to yours…Jot those names and addresses down on your
note pad..then go home and call them on the phone…
Tell the list broker about yourself, what you’re trying to sell,
how much you’re asking for it, and your-long range plans. Almost
all of them will want to see a sample of your mailing piece, and
more often than not, a sample of your product as well. Don’t be
afraid to talk to these people–they’re in business to help you,
and if they « steer you onto » a list that doesn’t make money for
you, they figure you’ll not buy from them again, so it’s to their
benefit to see that you get the « right » list for your mailing
piece and offer. Most of them are will critique your mailing
piece and offer, making suggestions for improvements when
appropriate, and in general, act as a consultant to see that you
realize a profit thru their services.
Once you and the list broker have decided upon the mailing list
best suited to your offer, he’ll generally require you to rent a
minimum of 5,000 names. The going price will range from $35 to
$95 per thousand names. Expensive, maybe…But if you pay $475
for 5,000 prospective buyers, and end up with 1,500 buyers of a
$20 « how-to » manual that you’ve written and printed at a cost of
50 cents per manual–that would mean a gross of $30,000..minus
$750 for 1,5000 manuals, plus another 60 cents each to send each
of these manuals out via 4th class mail witch would amount to
$1,035. Add these figures together for a total of $1,785 and
subtract this total from $30,000 and you stand a very good chance
of netting $28,000 or more…
So, you see, the important thing is to get your offer to your
most-likely buyers. The only way to do this–the fastest, and
least expensive way–is to work with a reputable mailing list
broker and forget about all that « wheel-spinning » within the
circle of mail-order-type people. Really, so long as you deal
with » mail-order-type » people, small-time dealers and
advertisers–you’ll never achieve anything beyond a busy-busy,
hand-to-mouth existence in this business.
The bottom-line reason for most of the entrepreneurial failures
in the mail order business is simply that the beginner tries to
cut corners by using less that the most productive mailing lists
available. Indeed, the years are littered with people from all
walks of life who have had a good product and/or service ideas,
but failed to « get their ideas off the ground. » Generally, these
people were trying to « save money » by compiling their own mailing
lists, advertising in « all-seller » type mail order publications,
and/or sending their offers out to « mail-order-type » people found
in the ad sheets or to lists purchased from advertisers in these
publications. In almost every case, the entrepreneur’s efforts
along these lines, and based upon a « saving money » philosophy,
has always ended in heartbreak and great financial loss for the
entrepreneur…
YOU CAN SUCCEED, STARTING FROM SCRATCH! But, before you attempt
it–before you « jump in and reach your own mail order fortune, »
be sure you arrange all the odds in your favor..Anything less
than the « rules » stated within this report will surely be a waste
of time, and result in failure…
Remember: Your product has to be something you can buy or produce
in finished form for pennies, and sell for dollars. There has to
be an « eager » market for your product or service. You must
project the most professional of all images of yourself as the
« company » or supplier in all your sales letters, circulars,
advertising and/or dealings with your prospective buyers. And you
must « know » who your buyers are, and then concentrate your
efforts to reach only those people with your offer…