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Casual Articles - Empty Mailbox: The Truth About Mail Order and Direct Mail Businesses
The After Sales market represents today one of the most promising and attracting sector, mainly due to the shift from a product-centric strategy - based on standard, low cost and high volume production - to a customer-centric strategy - based on complex mix of products and services devoted to enhance the experience of the customer in terms of satisfaction.Critical success factors previously oriented on internal efficiency in using the production factors are nowadays focused on "external" aspects, such as differentiation, service level and customers loyalty.The After Sales sector emerges today as a great business opportunity and companies start understand the criticality on having their fingers in the pie (or, at least, to try to).A McKinsey report (2005) stands that "aftermarket is a $400 billion business....many of those in the Fortune 100 rely on the aftermarket for up to 40 percent of their profits", while the ASAP Research (2004) highlight that "in the EU automotive industry, After Sales spare parts generate a turnover of ?44 billions with an operating profit of 20 to 25% in the U.S. Afte
Don't think that federal, state, and local officials are not watching your business practices. They get complaint every day. You must deliver according to the rules (see the references). The product must be as advertised. Deceptive advertising is not allowed. Years a go, a mail order operator advertised a professionally engraved portrate of George Washington. He send a postage stamp with George Washington engraved portrate as the product! Don't try that in this day of age. You could go to jail!
REFERENCES FOR MAIL ORDER
When ever I want to purchase a book, I try to buy it at a discount. To do this, I go to one of the online book sellers and try to find a used one in good condition. Just put Mail Order in the search box and read the discriptions carefully. Also, search the Internet using the same technique. Contact the United States Printing Office for more information. Also, contact your local and state governments and your chamber of commerce.
I don't like to push my sites in the content of a newsletter but I do have materials at www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS Sources) and www.dumbincome.com (ClickBank sources). Here are two pretty good books:
THE COMPLETE DIRECT MARKETING SOURCEBOOK By John Kremer ISBN 0471553875. If you don't buy any other book,especially if you are in the mail-order business, buy this one! However, it does not replace the following b
Me, outsourced? Impossible. How could they replace a business-humor columnist? But my brother-in-law, the radiologist, told me his hospital was threatening to cut his position because they had found a medical group out of India that would read MRIs at half the cost.He warned me, “Hesh, don’t be so smug. No one is indispensable in today’s world economy.”He was right. I had become blas?. I needed to diversify and find readers outside the USA, especially in the booming call-centers of India.Do Indians find our business customs humorous? I decided to do some research. I called the IBM help desk. I asked the technician where he was located. He said “Birmingham, Alabama,” and he said it with pride.I asked for his boss. I told her that I wanted to be helped by someone in Bombay. “What? I usually get the opposite requests,” she blurted out.I told her that I found their staff people in India to be more helpful and courteous. And I found their English easier to comprehend compared to the southern accents from Birmingham.Within seconds, I was talking to Bombay. After spending a few minutes on a fictitious problem, I asked my help-support person what he found humorous about worki
Our purpose is to describe the above businesses, but more importantly to give you sources to help you find the information you need to succeed.
MAIL ORDER
MAIL ORDER is the process of selecting a product, advertising it in print magazines or newspapers, (and also consider radio and television) and fulfilling the orders that come in to your mail box.
Many have made millions in mail order. Others have and continue to earn a good living. Over the years, they have learned the business by testing their ads in local or regional publications before going national or purchasing display ads.
This is what happens to many: THEY PICK A PRODUCT THAT NOBODY WANTS TO PURCHASE BY MAIL
Perhaps its easier for the customer to buy the same product locally. It's an original product never sold by mail order but nobody wants to purchase it by mail. The problem here is that the seller never studied the market enough to see if such a product would sell by mail order. There may be too much competition locally, in the media being used, or on the Internet.
They Price the Product Incorrectly
Experienced mail order operators test classified ads by changing the price of the product. For example, a booklet with a cost of $1.00 to print might be offered at $2.95, $3.94, and $5.95. when the orders come in, the seller counts the number received at each price offered, records the cost of the ad, records the amount of money that came in, subtracts the printing cost and the ad cost and determines the profit. The seller then knows the best price to sell the product.
Let's say that the classified ad cost $150.00.
He sells 300 books at $2.98. At the 2.95 price, the seller sells 300 booklets. The cost of the booklets is $300.00. Adding the ad cost, he has $450.00 cost. Let's say it cost him $0.60 to ship each book because the booklet weighs 2 oz. So 300 booklets would take $180.00 to mail. Now our cost is at $630.00. The total received from the buyers is $885.00, leaving a profit of $255.00.
He sells 280.00 at $3.95. That brings in $1106.00. The cost of books and the ad is $430.00. It cost him $168.00 to ship the books. The profit is $562.00
He sells 60 books at $4.95. This brings in $297.00. It cost him $36.00 to mail them and he has the book cost plus the ad cost of $210. His profit is $51.00.
So what price does he sell his books at? The profit at the $2.95 price was $255.00
The profit at the $3.95 price was $562.00
The profit at the $4.95 price was $51.00
The seller places his national ads at a price of $3.95.
They Sell at the Wrong Time of the Year
Selling during the month of December and the summer months can yield low sells. Experienced operators can estimate what their sales will be during July, for example, and decide if they want to advertise. The information is available.
Competition Lowers or Eliminates Profits
As soon as your competition sees your ad, they will try to copy your product and sell it in the same publications your ads are in. They call this EMULATION which means they not only copy your idea but they improve upon it, making their product better or less expensive than yours. Let's say that you got very excited about your product. You sold 1000 booklets in a few months. Your printer told you that if you printed 10,000 copies, he could drop your printing cost in half. Wow! You could see big profits. Instead, your competition came in and put you out of business. You are left with a bunch of booklets you can't sell. OUCH!
The key is to quickly define your market, jump in, and be ready to jump out. If your ads are pulling less than three times the cost of the ad, you are getting into that Never Never Land that can break you. Don't overstock your products.
Remember that it is best to find a product that is not easily reproduced or copied. May the old lady up the road has the best honey in the United States. You get a guarantee from her that she will only sell her honey from her stand, but you have the rights to sell the product by mail. You've got it! You make a deal. If you're old enough, you will remember the German Coo Coo Clocks sold by mail order after World War II. The gentlemen that sold them tied up all the manufacturers in Europe before he sold. He made one heck of a lot of dough! You can still buy them by mail. He cut the competition out!
The Seller Has Only One Product
You must pay a price for a customer. Most mail-order companies know this. For that reason, they often take a loss on the first order and hope to gain from future orders from the same customer. Many operators have catalogs that they send to their customers to gain repeat orders. That is what mail order is all about. You want to get customers, make them loyal to you, and sell, sell, sell.
Don't forget that most products have a life cycle. It may not be too long before you can't give a product away. You must find or develop new products. See the references to see how to do this. Let me tell you a secret: It is a great advantage to operate mail order out of an existing business that has walk-in customers. That way, you are always in contact with your customers one-on-one and you can assess their needs and wants. Your products tested locally will also sell by mail order.
The Seller is Shutdown for False Advertising
Don't think that federal, state, and local officials are not watching your business practices. They get complaint every day. You must deliver according to the rules (see the references). The product must be as advertised. Deceptive advertising is not allowed. Years a go, a mail order operator advertised a professionally engraved portrate of George Washington. He send a postage stamp with George Washington engraved portrate as the product! Don't try that in this day of age. You could go to jail!
REFERENCES FOR MAIL ORDER
When ever I want to purchase a book, I try to buy it at a discount. To do this, I go to one of the online book sellers and try to find a used one in good condition. Just put Mail Order in the search box and read the discriptions carefully. Also, search the Internet using the same technique. Contact the United States Printing Office for more information. Also, contact your local and state governments and your chamber of commerce.
I don't like to push my sites in the content of a newsletter but I do have materials at www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS Sources) and www.dumbincome.com (ClickBank sources). Here are two pretty good books:
THE COMPLETE DIRECT MARKETING SOURCEBOOK By John Kremer ISBN 0471553875. If you don't buy any other book,especially if you are in the mail-order business, buy this one! However, it does not replace the following bo
It’s very difficult to get there if we don’t know where we want to go.Do you know of anyone who disagrees with the common sense wisdom of setting a final destination and having a plan for the journey before beginning a trip? Dreaming about it won't make it a reality.Then why do many of us act as if we can drift along day to day, thinking somehow we can achieve our dreams of career success without defined personal goals, as well as plans to reach them?Five Excuses For Not Setting GoalsIf you are stymied in setting personal goals, a look at five of the excuses people use when they fail to make plans for their futures should help.1. Goals are not necessary. Research conducted by Yale University of one of its graduating classes found that only 3 percent of graudates had taken all the steps necessary to set career goals and plans; 10 percent had done some of the necessary things; 87 percent very little or nothing. A study 20 years later, revealed the 3 percent had accomplished more than the remainder of the group combined in terms of career positions and financial rewards.2. Fear. We are afraid that if we set goals and don’t reach them, we will be seen as failures. We ar
Let's say that the classified ad cost $150.00.
He sells 300 books at $2.98. At the 2.95 price, the seller sells 300 booklets. The cost of the booklets is $300.00. Adding the ad cost, he has $450.00 cost. Let's say it cost him $0.60 to ship each book because the booklet weighs 2 oz. So 300 booklets would take $180.00 to mail. Now our cost is at $630.00. The total received from the buyers is $885.00, leaving a profit of $255.00.
He sells 280.00 at $3.95. That brings in $1106.00. The cost of books and the ad is $430.00. It cost him $168.00 to ship the books. The profit is $562.00
He sells 60 books at $4.95. This brings in $297.00. It cost him $36.00 to mail them and he has the book cost plus the ad cost of $210. His profit is $51.00.
So what price does he sell his books at? The profit at the $2.95 price was $255.00
The profit at the $3.95 price was $562.00
The profit at the $4.95 price was $51.00
The seller places his national ads at a price of $3.95.
They Sell at the Wrong Time of the Year
Selling during the month of December and the summer months can yield low sells. Experienced operators can estimate what their sales will be during July, for example, and decide if they want to advertise. The information is available.
Competition Lowers or Eliminates Profits
As soon as your competition sees your ad, they will try to copy your product and sell it in the same publications your ads are in. They call this EMULATION which means they not only copy your idea but they improve upon it, making their product better or less expensive than yours. Let's say that you got very excited about your product. You sold 1000 booklets in a few months. Your printer told you that if you printed 10,000 copies, he could drop your printing cost in half. Wow! You could see big profits. Instead, your competition came in and put you out of business. You are left with a bunch of booklets you can't sell. OUCH!
The key is to quickly define your market, jump in, and be ready to jump out. If your ads are pulling less than three times the cost of the ad, you are getting into that Never Never Land that can break you. Don't overstock your products.
Remember that it is best to find a product that is not easily reproduced or copied. May the old lady up the road has the best honey in the United States. You get a guarantee from her that she will only sell her honey from her stand, but you have the rights to sell the product by mail. You've got it! You make a deal. If you're old enough, you will remember the German Coo Coo Clocks sold by mail order after World War II. The gentlemen that sold them tied up all the manufacturers in Europe before he sold. He made one heck of a lot of dough! You can still buy them by mail. He cut the competition out!
The Seller Has Only One Product
You must pay a price for a customer. Most mail-order companies know this. For that reason, they often take a loss on the first order and hope to gain from future orders from the same customer. Many operators have catalogs that they send to their customers to gain repeat orders. That is what mail order is all about. You want to get customers, make them loyal to you, and sell, sell, sell.
Don't forget that most products have a life cycle. It may not be too long before you can't give a product away. You must find or develop new products. See the references to see how to do this. Let me tell you a secret: It is a great advantage to operate mail order out of an existing business that has walk-in customers. That way, you are always in contact with your customers one-on-one and you can assess their needs and wants. Your products tested locally will also sell by mail order.
The Seller is Shutdown for False Advertising
Don't think that federal, state, and local officials are not watching your business practices. They get complaint every day. You must deliver according to the rules (see the references). The product must be as advertised. Deceptive advertising is not allowed. Years a go, a mail order operator advertised a professionally engraved portrate of George Washington. He send a postage stamp with George Washington engraved portrate as the product! Don't try that in this day of age. You could go to jail!
REFERENCES FOR MAIL ORDER
When ever I want to purchase a book, I try to buy it at a discount. To do this, I go to one of the online book sellers and try to find a used one in good condition. Just put Mail Order in the search box and read the discriptions carefully. Also, search the Internet using the same technique. Contact the United States Printing Office for more information. Also, contact your local and state governments and your chamber of commerce.
I don't like to push my sites in the content of a newsletter but I do have materials at www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS Sources) and www.dumbincome.com (ClickBank sources). Here are two pretty good books:
THE COMPLETE DIRECT MARKETING SOURCEBOOK By John Kremer ISBN 0471553875. If you don't buy any other book,especially if you are in the mail-order business, buy this one! However, it does not replace the following b
With all things considered, there is really not much choice but to accept credit cards online. This makes it much more convenient for not only the customer, but yourself as well. Because of the necessity of accepting credit cards online, it is important that you know the options available to you to accept credit cards. On top of that, you need to know which the better fit for your business is.There are two methods of accepting credit cards online, using your own merchant account or going through a third party merchant. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, making it all the more important that you know what they have to offer.In order to set up your own merchant account, you need a bank to approve the opening of the account. When you go through a third party account, it is simply a company that is accepting your credit card payment in exchange for various fees and percentages.So which is the better method? The initial cost of opening up your own merchant account is going to be higher than going through a third party account. You will often find that many third party accounts have no initial fees whatsoever. The part that evens the two methods out is the transaction fe
They Sell at the Wrong Time of the Year
Selling during the month of December and the summer months can yield low sells. Experienced operators can estimate what their sales will be during July, for example, and decide if they want to advertise. The information is available.
Competition Lowers or Eliminates Profits
As soon as your competition sees your ad, they will try to copy your product and sell it in the same publications your ads are in. They call this EMULATION which means they not only copy your idea but they improve upon it, making their product better or less expensive than yours. Let's say that you got very excited about your product. You sold 1000 booklets in a few months. Your printer told you that if you printed 10,000 copies, he could drop your printing cost in half. Wow! You could see big profits. Instead, your competition came in and put you out of business. You are left with a bunch of booklets you can't sell. OUCH!
The key is to quickly define your market, jump in, and be ready to jump out. If your ads are pulling less than three times the cost of the ad, you are getting into that Never Never Land that can break you. Don't overstock your products.
Remember that it is best to find a product that is not easily reproduced or copied. May the old lady up the road has the best honey in the United States. You get a guarantee from her that she will only sell her honey from her stand, but you have the rights to sell the product by mail. You've got it! You make a deal. If you're old enough, you will remember the German Coo Coo Clocks sold by mail order after World War II. The gentlemen that sold them tied up all the manufacturers in Europe before he sold. He made one heck of a lot of dough! You can still buy them by mail. He cut the competition out!
The Seller Has Only One Product
You must pay a price for a customer. Most mail-order companies know this. For that reason, they often take a loss on the first order and hope to gain from future orders from the same customer. Many operators have catalogs that they send to their customers to gain repeat orders. That is what mail order is all about. You want to get customers, make them loyal to you, and sell, sell, sell.
Don't forget that most products have a life cycle. It may not be too long before you can't give a product away. You must find or develop new products. See the references to see how to do this. Let me tell you a secret: It is a great advantage to operate mail order out of an existing business that has walk-in customers. That way, you are always in contact with your customers one-on-one and you can assess their needs and wants. Your products tested locally will also sell by mail order.
The Seller is Shutdown for False Advertising
Don't think that federal, state, and local officials are not watching your business practices. They get complaint every day. You must deliver according to the rules (see the references). The product must be as advertised. Deceptive advertising is not allowed. Years a go, a mail order operator advertised a professionally engraved portrate of George Washington. He send a postage stamp with George Washington engraved portrate as the product! Don't try that in this day of age. You could go to jail!
REFERENCES FOR MAIL ORDER
When ever I want to purchase a book, I try to buy it at a discount. To do this, I go to one of the online book sellers and try to find a used one in good condition. Just put Mail Order in the search box and read the discriptions carefully. Also, search the Internet using the same technique. Contact the United States Printing Office for more information. Also, contact your local and state governments and your chamber of commerce.
I don't like to push my sites in the content of a newsletter but I do have materials at www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS Sources) and www.dumbincome.com (ClickBank sources). Here are two pretty good books:
THE COMPLETE DIRECT MARKETING SOURCEBOOK By John Kremer ISBN 0471553875. If you don't buy any other book,especially if you are in the mail-order business, buy this one! However, it does not replace the following b
One of the disadvantages of business-to-business direct mail lead generation letters is that you are selling on paper, not in person. That means you are unable to read your prospect’s body language. Unable to hear and overcome his objections.And yet one of the advantages of sales letters is that you are selling on paper, not in person. Face to face, a prospect can interrupt you and change the subject. But on paper, you remain in control. As long as your prospective customer keeps reading, you control the sales process.Another advantage of sales letters is that you can anticipate objections and answer them in the body of the letter. You can even start your letter with a common objection, and answer it square on.Here are three common objections, and ways that you can overcome them in your B2B direct mail lead generation letters."WE DON’T WANT IT" Overcome this objection by presenting benefits that your reader may have overlooked, or may never have considered. Assume that your prospect understands the benefits of your product or service only in a general way."We reduce your downtime because we ship your replacement t
The Seller Has Only One Product
You must pay a price for a customer. Most mail-order companies know this. For that reason, they often take a loss on the first order and hope to gain from future orders from the same customer. Many operators have catalogs that they send to their customers to gain repeat orders. That is what mail order is all about. You want to get customers, make them loyal to you, and sell, sell, sell.
Don't forget that most products have a life cycle. It may not be too long before you can't give a product away. You must find or develop new products. See the references to see how to do this. Let me tell you a secret: It is a great advantage to operate mail order out of an existing business that has walk-in customers. That way, you are always in contact with your customers one-on-one and you can assess their needs and wants. Your products tested locally will also sell by mail order.
The Seller is Shutdown for False Advertising
Don't think that federal, state, and local officials are not watching your business practices. They get complaint every day. You must deliver according to the rules (see the references). The product must be as advertised. Deceptive advertising is not allowed. Years a go, a mail order operator advertised a professionally engraved portrate of George Washington. He send a postage stamp with George Washington engraved portrate as the product! Don't try that in this day of age. You could go to jail!
REFERENCES FOR MAIL ORDER
When ever I want to purchase a book, I try to buy it at a discount. To do this, I go to one of the online book sellers and try to find a used one in good condition. Just put Mail Order in the search box and read the discriptions carefully. Also, search the Internet using the same technique. Contact the United States Printing Office for more information. Also, contact your local and state governments and your chamber of commerce.
I don't like to push my sites in the content of a newsletter but I do have materials at www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS Sources) and www.dumbincome.com (ClickBank sources). Here are two pretty good books:
THE COMPLETE DIRECT MARKETING SOURCEBOOK By John Kremer ISBN 0471553875. If you don't buy any other book,especially if you are in the mail-order business, buy this one! However, it does not replace the following b
I want to walk you through the different ways that you can find niche markets online. A niche is a small specialised section of an interest where you will find passionate devotees of that tiny niche. They are always hungry for more info on their particular subject.Think first of a subject (niche) that interests you, then look up the various resources I am about to give you. If you had an interest in dogs you'd type in "dogs". Then all you need to do is make a list of all of the sub niches within the general niche market of dogs. These are all potential niches for you to exploit.Another site amazon.com may surprise you but the bookselling giant amazon.com are an amazing resource for finding niche markets you’d never have thought about entering. Go the web site and in the search bar select “books”. Then type in a niche you’d like to create a product around. For example type in “gardening”. Go through the results and start jotting down all of the niche markets that jump out at you.When many people hear this technique they immediately think “wait a sec how can I compete with Amazon?”. You won’t be of course you’ll be catering for a different market. When people buy from Amazon they have to
Don't think that federal, state, and local officials are not watching your business practices. They get complaint every day. You must deliver according to the rules (see the references). The product must be as advertised. Deceptive advertising is not allowed. Years a go, a mail order operator advertised a professionally engraved portrate of George Washington. He send a postage stamp with George Washington engraved portrate as the product! Don't try that in this day of age. You could go to jail!
REFERENCES FOR MAIL ORDER
When ever I want to purchase a book, I try to buy it at a discount. To do this, I go to one of the online book sellers and try to find a used one in good condition. Just put Mail Order in the search box and read the discriptions carefully. Also, search the Internet using the same technique. Contact the United States Printing Office for more information. Also, contact your local and state governments and your chamber of commerce.
I don't like to push my sites in the content of a newsletter but I do have materials at www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS Sources) and www.dumbincome.com (ClickBank sources). Here are two pretty good books:
THE COMPLETE DIRECT MARKETING SOURCEBOOK By John Kremer ISBN 0471553875. If you don't buy any other book,especially if you are in the mail-order business, buy this one! However, it does not replace the following books. Get at least one of these.
HOW TO START AND OPERATE A MAIL-ORDER BUSINESS By Julian L. Simon ISBN 0070575312
BUILDING A MAIL-ORDER BUSINESS By William A. Cohen, Ph.D. ISBN 0471109460
DIRECT MAIL
DIRECT MAIL is when you send an offer directly to the customer in the mail. The offering includes a letter, a sales brochure, an order form, and a self-addressed envelope. When the customer orders, you send the product (or deliver the service) along with promotion materials on other products or services you offer.
As with Mail-Order, the object is to find a customer and then to keep the customer for as long as possible so that he or she will purchase other items that you want to sell. A catalog is often used, as in mail order.
WHAT HAPPENS TO MANY IN DIRECT MAIL
The Offer is Illegal
Just because some block told you that an offer was legal it may not be legal. All of a sudden you are in trouble with federal, state, or local regulators. You look out the bars of your jail cell and say to your self, "Gee, I told them the bloke told me it was legal." That means nothing to judges and prosecutors and is not a defense. I get lots of mail and receive illegal offers all of the time. They do not pay off when you pursue them and they can get you into big trouble.
Costs Exceed Income
Of course, this is the main reason for failure. As an example, Joe Sellmor has a fine product. The sales material is not professional in appearance, it is not describe properly, the potential buyer is not persuaded to buy, and to make things worse, the mailing list is old and to the wrong people.
Do you know that you can get zero response from a mailing to 1000 people? I have!
Do you know that you can get a high percentage of returns because the delivery address was no longer valid? I have!
To succeed, you MUST GET A LIST BROKER. DO NOT BUY MAILING LISTS FROM ANY ONE ELSE UNLESS YOU HAVE TESTED THE SOURSE AND KNOW IT TO BE GOOD. But even if the list was good, the product may not sell.
Let others ask you questions to see if the answers are in your materials. You must answer the customers questions before he or she asks in direct mail.
Another thing is to do what many direct mailer people do. They don't even use mailing lists. They use classified ads to obtain inquiries. When they get an inquiry, they mail them the direct mail offer. They sell to about 20-30% of the inquiries.
All of this must be factored into cost before the campaign begins. Direct Mail is a difficult business. You are competing against the big boys.
See the references under MAIL ORDER and order the last three publications. They relate to direct marketing.
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