As an entrepreneur involved in selling and/or promoting something via direct mail, you should already know that the most important aspect of your mailing has to do with the sales letter or circular you send and the mailing list you use. With these thoughts in mind, and assuming you have what a sales letter or circular should look like to generate orders, let’s turn our attention specifically to the problem of finding mailing lists that generate profitable orders.
Common sense should tell you that without a good mailing list, the time and money you spend on market research, ad design, and knowledge related to “direct mail rules” will be for nothing. In other words, unless you get your offer to buyers, you might as well save time and money.
To reach your most likely buyer, you must first determine who your most likely buyers are. This is not as difficult as it might seem. It’s really just a matter of recognizing that automotive items will appeal to car owners, while home appliances will sell better to homemakers. Regardless of how easy it is, this is the most overlooked part of planning for the beginning entrepreneur. 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 to sell.
The next thing to really look at is the competition your product or service is facing. If you have a limited market (not many people would line up to buy) and you’re competing with pretty much the same product other companies supply, then you’re going to have to find a strong “hidden angle” product or face defeat before you even get started…
Here are the “keys” to success in selling anything through direct mail: Identify exactly who your buyers are, present your offer from an angle your competition doesn’t use, and focus all your sales efforts on just the majority of your buyers. . -Probable clues.
Assuming you “know” who your most likely buyers are; If you have a “winning” sales letter or circular and a product or service that these people will “line up to buy,” then your problem is getting the message across to these people.
Don’t think you’ll “save some money” by renting or buying cheap mailing lists from advertisers on all those bulletin boards and “mail-order” posts that seem to flood your mailbox. You will waste a lot of time and money chasing the wind with these lists.
These lists offered by “mail order” distributors are compiled from bulletin sheets, mail order postings, and/or incoming offers received by the list seller… These individuals also compile lists using… Many of them compile their rental ads. listings directly from phone directories/cities…
And some of them even work on 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 people who join. join your program. People who join the program are encouraged to compile listings from any number of sources, submit a commission circular, and receive a commission on every incoming order. The buyers’ names are then compiled into another list and are sold by the promoters of this scheme to some of the largest list brokers as bona fide mail order buyers… Every time you rent a list of 5,000 or more names of the carrier mail order type, you can be sure that the lists are 1) five years old or older… 2) full of names of people who have moved on… 3) they are going to be dominated by names from other mail order sellers…
Before you rent or buy someone’s mailing list, use the same kind of common sense you use when deciding on a doctor, lawyer, or auto mechanic. One other thing to keep in mind: Any time you rent or buy mailing lists from someone who has or is advertising for mailing list distributors or brokers, you will end up with a list of names used by many mail order distributors, usually with the most of them offering the same products or services.
The best thing you can do is take a notepad and pencil to your public library and ask the librarian to let you look at the Directory of Data Service and Standard Rates related to mailing lists. Inside this voluminous directory, you’ll find the names, addresses, and phone numbers of virtually every reputable mailing list broker in the country. These brokers explain within the directory the different listings that are available for rent, what type of buyers the listings are made up of, and the date the listing was last cleared, i.e. the last time all listing names were checked. the list. relative to the accuracy of the addresses.
Select a half dozen or so of the list brokers that handle the kinds of lists that are made up of buyers of products or services similar to yours… Jot those names and addresses down in your notebook… then go to home and call them. on the phone…
Tell the listing broker about yourself, what you’re trying to sell, how much you’re asking, and your long-term plans. Almost everyone will want to see a sample of your mail piece and, in most cases, 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 “point you to” a listing that doesn’t make money for you, they think you won’t buy from them again. , so it’s to their benefit to see that you get the “right” list for your mailing and offer piece. Most of them will critique your piece and mail offer, make suggestions for improvements where appropriate, and generally act as consultants to ensure you make a profit through their services.
Once you and the list broker have decided on the mailing list that best suits your offering, they will typically ask you to rent a minimum of 5,000 names. The current 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 instruction manual you’ve written and printed at a cost of 50 cents per manual, that would gross $30,000 minus $ 750 for 1,5000 manuals, plus another 60 cents each to mail each of these manuals by fourth-class mail, which would come to $1,035. Add these figures together for a total of $1,785 and subtract this total from $30,000 and you have a very good chance of winning $28,000 or more…
So, you see, the important thing is to get your offer in front of 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. In reality, as long as you deal with mail-order types, small-time merchants, and advertisers, you’ll never achieve anything more than a very busy, up-to-date existence in this business.
The fundamental reason for most business failures in the mail order business is simply that the beginner tries to cut corners by using fewer than the most productive mailing lists available. In fact, the years are read with people from all walks of life who have had good ideas about products and/or services, but failed to “get their ideas off the ground.” Typically, these folks were trying to “save money” by building their own mailing lists, advertising in “all seller” type mail order publications, and/or sending their offers to “mail order type” people who found in the ad. sheets or lists purchased from advertisers in these publications. In almost all cases, the entrepreneur’s efforts in this direction, and based on a “save money” philosophy, have always ended in distress and a great financial loss for the entrepreneur…
YOU CAN SUCCEED, STARTING FROM SCRATCH! But before you try it, before you “jump in and strike your own mail-order fortune,” make sure you stack all the odds in his favor. Anything less than the “rules” laid out in this report is sure to be a waste of time and result in failure…
Remember: your product must 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 a “company” or supplier in all of your sales letters, circulars, advertisements, and/or dealings with prospective buyers. And you need to “know” who your buyers are, and then focus your efforts to reach only those people with your offer. Take your pencil and go to your public library. Ask the librarian to let you see the standard rate and data services. Start your research there and have fun with your new business.