Home  Business Direct Mail
 How to Get Big Dollars in Your Mailbox Every Day: Start Your Own Direct Mail Business |
| No other business venture seems so inviting, or attracts so manypeople than that of selling via mail order. On the surface, itappears to be an easier and faster way to become rich than almostany other method of doing business. All the people in the worldare your potential customers; you work from the privacy andcomfort of your own home; you set your own working hours; and youanswer to no one but yourself.
Ideally, you should have a product of your own--something you canproduce at very low cost, and sell at top price. If you arebuying something, advertising and reselling it, in order torealize a profit, you have to mark it up at least 500%. This isnot an unreasonable mark-up for mail order sales.
Your product has to have mass appeal, and it has to be somethingnot readily available to your prospective customers exceptthrough you. The product should be such that you "carry aninventory" without worry of spoilage, aging or other damage. Itshould be something you can send through the mail--deliver toyour customer--for next to nothing in relation to your sellingprice.
The best money-making product of all is a "How-TO" report such asthis one. You don't have to be a literary genius, or even anexperienced writer to write one of these reports. In fact, theeasiest way is to buy a set of these reports--read them eachover, set it aside and write a similar one with more elaborationor from a different point of view. Give your report acommercially appealing title, set a price for it, advertise itwidely in a number of nationally circulated mail orderpublications, and you could have something that will continue tobring in money for you for many years to come.
The absolute best money-maker of them all is a report you'vefound a great need for, researched thoroughly, and written fromscratch. Discovering these needs is not that difficult a task.
If you don't have the time to write and market one of thesereports, or just cannot produce one for whatever reason, the nextthing is to purchase a set of these reports with reproductionrights. Here, you can have a number, reprinted for as little asone or two cents each, and sell them for one to five dollarseach. The only problem with that 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.
Now, if you have bought the reproduction rights to the reports,you simply rewrite them, put new titles on them, make up a newadvertising circular, and send them out as new reports each year.There are a number of mail order self-help reports that have beenmaking the rounds for the past 25 years in just this manner.
Just because you haven't got the time or the tools to write oneof these reports is no reason for not producing one. If you havean idea or the background material, and the confidence that sucha report will sell--get in touch with someone who specializes inthis kind of writing.., and have them put the finished producttogether for you. Generally, the fees will run to $100 per page.But this is an "incidental fee" indeed, if you come up withsomething that has the potential of bringing in several thousanddollars per year for the next ten years or so. Remember, once youhave it together and written, you just continue making copies ofyour original and filling prepaid cash orders for as long as youwish to stay in business.
You should also have advertising circulars, a catalog or a"follow-up" offer for every order you get. Many people make themistake of "sending their whole store" in response to everyinquiry. When you receive an inquiry to your advertising, youshould have a prepared sales letter describing the item you'readvertising, and perhaps a circular listing in catalog style someof the other products that tie in with the product of your salesletter. This is known as the "Featured Selection Plus Alternates"approach.
When you receive an order for the product you've been advertisingor featuring in your direct mail efforts, include one of yourproduct catalogs in the package with the customer's order. Themost effective practice is to include an advertising circular orbrochure of a leader item or special-of-the-month, and yourcatalog. The main thing NOT to do is include more than a coupleof separate "featured selection" circulars. Keep your eyes on howthe big mail order houses do it, and duplicate their operatingplan within your own means.
The important point to remember here is to be sure to includesomething different--something new--something your customer hasnot seen or been offered a chance to buy--with each contact youmake with him. Once you've broken the ice and got him spendingmoney with you, continue showing him products of a related naturethat should stimulate his appetite for greater success. For sure,he'll never be more in mood to buy from you than when he receivessomething he has ordered. So every time you fill and send out anorder to a buyer, include an opportunity for him to buy even morefrom you.
You can make a very comfortable income, but you'll never get richso long as you're having your orders dropshipped for you. Havinga connection with a prime source that will dropship orders foryou is one of the surest and best ways to "learn" the business ofselling by mail--but if you really want to make it big, you'lluse dropshipping sources for learning, and to back up yourprimary product with follow-up offers.
If you don't have a primary product of your own, the next bestthing is to buy in quantity lots at wholesale prices. A word ofcaution here, though: do not buy a quantity supply of anythinguntil you've seen a sample of the product and thoroughly testedthe saleability of that product.
Too often, the beginner is sold a quantity of a certain productat so-called wholesale prices, only to find that after he hadspent his capital he either doesn't want to put forth the effortand time to sell that particular product, or that he can't "giveit away," let alone sell it. Suppliers who operate for youorders, generally derive most of their income from the sale ofthese initial "required" inventories. Always investigate andcheck out the saleability before you buy anything more than justa single sample.
Selling your reports depends on your advertising. You have to getthe word out that you have "money-making information" availablefor sale. Start out small by using short classified type ads.Look at how the established mail order report sellers are doingit, and copy their methods. Do not copy their ads--instead, usethem as idea stimulators for your own original copy. Place an adin one of the largest circulation publications you can find, thenuse the money that comes in from the first ad to place similarads in three or four other publications.
One of the insider secrets of the mail order business is inmultiplying your advertising exposure. This means simply that youstart with an ad in one publication, and from there, expand yourexposure by advertising in more publications. Be patient, andwait for the returns from your current ads, then use that moneyto increase the number of people who will have a chance to seeyour ad. It's as simple as that, and it works every time. Try itand see for yourself.
All of this means as you are getting started with a new mailorder business, you have to reinvest all your business incomeback into the business. To do otherwise is a straight line tobusiness failure.Are you content with your advertising budget?
Schedule a coaching session with Frugal Solutions Expert, DeAnna Spencer.
She will design an affordable online advertising plan for you.
Contact her by sending an email to deanna.spencer(at)gmail.com
Visit this small business resource for more information.
|
|
 |
Ads |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
