A Circular Mailer

Success As A Circular Mailer

Don't be taken in by those headline advertisements promising you instant riches as a Circular Mailer! It just doesn't work that way.

Full page, 8 1/2 x 11 circulars are meant to call attention to a special offer, and are best used as a "follow-up ride along" when you acknowledge or send out an order. When used in this manner, and with just a "smattering of marketing imagination", circulars will really bring in the profits for you. However, don't expect to make any real money by sending out circulars per say, either one to an envelope or half dozen or more at a time.

If you've got a number of good circulars and you're into direct mail, arrange them into a "catalog of offers" and go full bore as a catalog mailer. I must caution you, however, to be sure that everyone else in mail order isn't doing the same thing with the same circulars.

Here again, are the basic rules of success: Offer something that came out of YOUR brain. Make it something that's just a little bit different and more appealing than what everybody else is offering. Draw up your own advertising circulars and send them out to a list of people proven to be" buyers" of your kind of offer.

We should perhaps go over that last line in different words because it has to do with the most common mistake of all. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME AND POTENTIAL PROFITS TRYING TO SELL TO SELLERS. Concentrate instead on the BUYERS! This is where the "chain letter schemers" dupe the novices. They advise you to send for a "mail order" mailing list, or to compile your own from incoming mail. This ridiculous. If you do as they suggest you'll be trying to sell to sellers, and these people either want absolutely no part of your "big deal," or else they're into it and have their own thing going. (For the "absolutely last word" on chain letters, send for report #3618, "Success of Success with Chain Letters" and book #1788 THE TRUTH ABOUT CHAIN LETTERS).

When you get an order, how do you follow-up on the sale? How do you keep that "buyer" buying from you? Do you acknowledge your orders with a simple postcard noting that his order has been received and is being shipped under separate cover, or do you use a letter that also lists some of the other products or services and includes an 8 1/2 x 11 circular as an "extra buy of the month?"

Stated in the preceding paragraph is enough money-making information to make you rich, but are you listening? This is one of the most successful, intelligent, and real money-making methods of using circulars to build wealth. Expensive? Compared to what? It would seem to me that if you aren't including a circular with your acknowledgements, you're trying to save pennies when you could be putting real profits in your bank account!

It works with all of us. We send for something that has aroused our interest. A couple of days later, we get a letter telling us the order has been received and is on the way. And in that same letter is an advertising circular telling us about something else-- something akin to our original order, and very definitely something else we'd like to have. We're in a good mood because the seller has accrued us our first order is on its way, and he's telling us about something else we want and can have as one of his "preferred" customers. So, we reach for our checkbooks and send in another order.

What better time is there for selling? When is the buyer going to be in a more receptive mood? And finally, do you honestly know of an easier way to sell? remember the old Sears and Roebuck maxim: "When you sell a suit to a man, don't let him out the door until you've sold him the shirt, tie and shoes to go with it." And then there's the new car salesman who meticulously goes over each dial, switch, and knob with his new customer, explaining what each is for and how each one works. He even opens the truck, points out the spare tire, and then pulls out the jack and explains exactly how it works. Indeed, he's the leading money-maker in that agency!

Another way to use circulars properly is as a "ride alongs" with the order itself. You place the "ordered merchandise" in a shipping envelope or container, and then, on top of the order, a simple thank you note plus an advertising circular describing something else you're offering> Even better than a simple circular with the order is a special "preferred customer" catalog, but that's another topic in and of itself. Circulars are most effectively used to pull in follow-up sales. And with these methods they'll provide you with the least expensive method of advertising and produce the most profits of any of your selling efforts.

Your continued success in any business endeavor depends on your follow-up to the initial sale. Everyone knows how hard it is to find and land new customers. Most people do a pretty good job beating the bushes to find new customers, but after they've got them, the sellers tend to drop the ball and let the customers pass into obscurity. The reason is simply that they don't follow through after the initial sale!

The new car dealer follows up his sale with a routine servicing reminders. An advertising circular is made up and included with each of those "reminders" the dealership sends out. Thus, the dealership not only positions itself to maintain closer relationships with it's buyers, it develops outstanding community good will, and best of all, brings in new customers.

There are many effective and profitable ways to use advertising circulars. In this report we are discussing some of the proven methods others have used to increase their profits with advertising, selling, plus imagination. Develop and use your own creative talents.

Take the example of the neighborhood finance company faced with a rising number of defaults. They decide to sponsor an on going series of money and debt management seminars or workshops. An advertising circular is made up and inserted as a ride along with each monthly payment notification. The end result is a new reputation of community awareness and willingness on the part of the finance company to go "that extra mile" to help the citizens in the community in which they're located. And the bottom line is closer relationships with their customers, fewer loan defaults, and lots of new customers because they have the reputation of outstanding the needs of the citizens and a willingness to help!

Sales are down at your town's leading clothing store. A warehouse or vacant store is rented for a recycled clothing outlet, and an ad is run in the local paper asking for recycled clothing to sell on consignment. When everything is ready an advertising circular is made up and included in everyone's monthly statement or sent out through the postal service via carrier route delivery. The store in question ends up with closer customer relations, new profits, and a lot of new customers.

Probably the best, easiest and most effective way to make money with circulars is through a co-op mailing program. You make arrangements with a leading department store in your area. You supply the circulars imprinted with the store's name and on te order coupons and you arrange for the store to process te orders through its credit card system. A certain percentage is allowed the store on each sale. The store includes one of your circulars with each monthly statement it sends out, and your profits quickly surpass your wildest dreams.

You can also make the same kind of "ride-along" arrangements for your circulars with many of the big national mail order houses, book clubs, and credit card companies. Remember: when you go for "super results" you have to spend te money necessary to make them happen.

Co-op mailers will generally not accept your circulars if they are in direct competition with something in the mailing package that's already being offered. They will also require that your circulars be professionally deigned, typeset, and printed. Many require that they be printed on coated paper and in multi-colors. These requirements have to do with the image the co-op mailer is trying to project and maintain, as well as the kind of response you can expect. To make a co-op mailing with one of the larger mailers profitable you should set 50,000 circulars as your minimum. Try to make it 100,000 and keep at it until you're able to go with 250,000 per mailing.

Expensive? You bet! But look at it this way: A one percent return on a $25 offer 250,000 prospects will give you $62,5000.

Keep in mind that to succeed in business you have to advertise in some form or fashion, and advertising circulars are one of the least expensive forms of advertising if done properly. So use your imagination! make your advertising circulars real order-pulling and get them out to the people who are buyers.

Doing things properly from the start is always the first step to real profits in any business endeavor. Getting involved in mail order and sending out advertising circulars is no different. Step one: Always to make sure you have something the people "want to buy." Do some testing by running "prospect-seeking" ads in a worldwide publication. Offer a free one or two page synopsis about your subject, and within this report invite your prospects to send for your primary product. You can judge from you responses to your ads and the number of prospects you convert to buyers whether or not the interest is great enough to go to the expense of having circulars made. With the results of this simple marketing research in hand you can then decide which is the more profitable way to proceed with your circulars; whether as "ride-along" offers with the orders you send out, or as a primary offer in a co-op mailing program.

There are many different avenues to take and methods you can use in order to invite at the destination of your dreams. The important thing is to move only one step at a time, using only your profits form the current step to progress into the next. Read, listen, and "shake the bushes" before going into production or signing up for anything that's going to cost you money!

Test and check the interest in and the demand for your product. If the interest doesn't pan out as you had hoped, re-design your offer from a different angle. If it still doesn't spur a promise of profits for you then discard this product idea and start working on a new one that has more promise of success. If you'll follow this stairway to success, you'll never get in over your head or lose more than you can afford.

The most important "insider's secrets" to selling a product or service is " an honest appraisal" of you prospective customers. Discover who they are, where they are located, how large, how badly do they want what you have to give to them, and how much are they willing to pay for it. With the answers to these questions in hand the risk factor to any venture you think about launching is practically eliminated.

Remember, circulars can and should be used in your overall business plan. Used properly, circulars can make you fabulously rich. But by themselves or as your total selling effort, circular mailing cost you much more than you'll ever make. Advertising circulars should be used to generate prospects for other related items of interest you offer, and should not generally be used as a stand alone promotion.

Circulars can also be used to picture your product or service, to list testimonials and endorsements form satisfied customers, and carry your order coupon. With this method, however, your circular becomes a "brochure" and is thought of as a basic part of your mailing package along with a sales letter. Sales letters complete with product brochures are special offerings in themselves; quite expensive and always directed to specific mailing lists.

So, we more or less are back to the beginning with this discussion. Sending out envelopes bulging with loose circulars will not result in profits you can use for a trip around the world or even for a night on the town! About the only thing efforts of this kind result in is to exasperate the recipient and cause him to throw the whole package in the trash as junk mail. Too much paper, too many things to read about, and too many decisions to make overwhelm and confuse the prospect. And, sending out only one circular to an envelope will put you in the "poor house" from postage expenditures before you get started. Don't even give a second thought to that idea.

Finally, those people proclaiming that they have the offer to end all offers, and inviting you to share the profits with them simply by sending a certain amount of money for 500, 1,000, or 5,000 circulars are in reality offering you printing services. True, you can get the circulars form them for less than it would cost you to have them produced locally, but you still have to stuff them into envelopes, address them to prospects, put stamps on them, and get them in the mail. At the bottom line, after all of this work and expense, who's making all the money? Why, the printer of course! You do all the work of finding the buyers, processing the orders, and then end up with only half the profits form the sale because the printer fills the order and adds your customer's name to his mailing list. There's no real profit in any of these kinds of deals, and some of them are downright rip-offs bordering on the illegal.

Attaining success takes common sense as much as anything else. Analyze and evaluate each offer that arouses your interest. Check it out on a small scale to see how well it actually works for you. Determine how great the demand actually is for the offered product. Compare the printing costs and your time/work involvement with the probable results. And, never, ever believe those wild claims of this or that circular pulling even a 5% responses. It just doesn't happen that way, especially for a newcomer to mail order.

Whenever you receive an opportunity to get on a new money-making opportunity, particularly involving the sending out of circulars, look over. Do some basic market research, and then test it as a "ride-along" with your current offers. Be certain that the seller isn't attempting to "use you" to promote his own ambitions.

Unless all your marketing questions can be answered in your favor--unless you can really and truly believe in the product you're offering and you can see the opportunity for a real profit margin--and unless you really feel good and proud of the opportunity being offered you--then DO NOT invest your money or time!

Exercise your options of free choice. Check out the "profits secrets" to selling anything and with everything you decide to sell. And the, once you decide on the product or service you want to sell, go "all out" with a step-by-step effort to achieve the full potential of that particular opportunity. Advertising circulars can and will help you, but they'll only do for you in proportion on the "basics" that you exercise in using them.

Be sure of your customer's desire for your product. Make up your advertising circulars with an appeal that answers the wants and needs of your prospective clients. Use common sense and proven methods of reaching those customers with your advertising circulars. And once you have a customer on the line, stroke him and make him your customer for life!

We know it works. It works for us and it'll work for you. Hang in there and keep alert to what's really turning people's heads. Our best wishes for your continued success.