By Jonathan Street
Most entrepreneurs have, at some point, considered mail orderand, indeed, it can be very lucrative.
But there is a way of making it even more lucrative byrestricting your operations to one of the most lucrative partsever.
Mailing out mail shots can be big business.
A big business that can be yours if you decide to sell throughthe post in this fascinating way!
A mailing business couldn't be simpler.
All you do is select a suitable product - you can start withjust one.
Then produce an effective, high impact mailing to sell it.
Post off the mailings and just wait for the orders to flood it!
All the best of mail order without the frustration anddifficulty of preparing press ads that general mail orderdealers have.
The sheer success of mailing is based on a simple unwritten law.
Basically, you can find a minimum response rate for your product- in other words, a guarantee that so many mailings will produceso many orders.
This way you can be virtually sure that if you mail so manycirculars, you will make a set and firm amount of sheer profit!
Mail order at it's best!
The attraction of this branch of mail order is that you canoften set your own income.
Make so many mailings - get so much back!
Mail order traders usually rate their response on a per thousandbasis for comparison. Some good products sold by mailing havebeen known to sell 200 out of 1,000 - i.e. out of 1,000circulars sent, 200 orders resulted. A huge profit! Bycomparison, a poor mailing might only make 10 sales per 1,000 -probably a loss.
So, you are probably safe to best on 50 orders per 1,000mailings.
It may well be higher, but work on a mere 5% return, and you'resure to profit.
Knowing what sort of response to expect can enable you to planfor profit.
The amount you sell must cover all your costs - and profit - soset price levels accordingly.
Usually higher priced products are best.
Just imagine you have prepared a 1,000 mailing at an inclusivecost of about 3250.
From that you obtained 50 orders for a product at 30.
That's a take of 1,500 - ample to cover your costs and withplenty of profit left over!
Next, assume you could repeat your example over hundreds ofthousands of mailings.
The sheer profit potential, almost guaranteed, is easy toassess.
For success with mailings, it is vital to choose the rightproduct.
It is usual in the trade to "test" several before homing in onthe most successful.
Products should be those that are frequently sold by mail order.
Don't try to be too different.
They should be attractive, and exciting, and just "begging" tobe bought.
You should also be able to obtain stocks, handle them - and packand post easily.
The most important criteria in product selection is theeventual selling price.
This should usually be high, though this does not mean saleswill be low.
If you are only making 3%, 4% or 5% sales, it should probablysell at no less than 20 per item. Larger amount, perhaps up to100, would be ideal.
Also make sure your product offers a good profit margin.
Anything less than 60% would be unsuitable - up to 99% is notunknown!
If you can't meet these standards with a single item, try"lumping together" several in one mailing.
Do remember there are no "right" or "wrong" things to sell.
There are thousands of possibilities - and people do buy by mailorder running into hundreds of pounds each order.
Just do be sure to inexpensively test products until you findone that really works.
Your mail shot is, of course, vital, and you may want toexperiment with different approaches.
A mailing expert or writer could be used for this, but you canprepare it yourself.
All the best mail shots centre around a brochure.
This should be on coloured paper, and, ideally, illustrated andworded attractively.
Support this with a sales letter (always on white paper).
This should introduce and explain your product as well asconvincing the reader to buy it.
Use high impact wording to make them want - and make them order- immediately.
Each mailing should include a return order form to make buyingreally easy and a return envelope which is prepaid through thePost Office Business Reply Service.
The cost is usually repaid several times over. It is best toput the printing of your mailing in the hands of a high qualityprinter. Obtain several quotes first.
Poor quality literature is definitely a false economy.
Some printers will print all your requirements and also pack andseal it into envelopes to save you a lot of time and trouble.
For best results use good envelopes.
These should be printed with an eye catching slogan to reallygrab attention.
Your next job is to post your mail shots - and this can be quitea technical operation.
For a start, you can't just mail anywhere.
You must mail to recognised mail order buyers.
The names and addresses of such people can be bought from listbrokers.
There are many firms, but try several to find those with thebest lists.
Purchased buyers names can usually only be used once for onepayment, but most brokers will supply their names printed ontoaddress labels.
This makes your job really easy.
Before mailing circulars contact your local post office.
Sometimes there are special introductory postage discounts andbulk mailing of several thousand envelopes qualifies for somefree postage.
It's probably best to release your mailings in batches toproduce a steady flow of orders.
Experiment with the actual day of posting, which hence effectsthe day of receipt.
Mailings received on a Monday are often less successful - butthose received on other days can either do well or extremelywell.
Test and see!
People who do best in mailing give little regard to orderhandling. Yes - it should be prompt and careful, but you shouldgive most time to preparing and mailing circulars.
If you can, take payments on trust and post orders by return -within 7/14 days at least.
Always enclose details of additional products when fulfillingorders.
Past customers are highly likely to buy again.
Also keep addresses of past customers - mail new offers to themas they are launched.
Again, they are likely buyers.
Nothing is better for business than a delighted customer, but ifyou do receive complaints, it's best to make a full refund.
That customer may well remain loyal!
The whole future success of circular mailing sits behind givinggood service and getting repeat orders.
If you can attain this you won't need to spend much onadvertising in future.
Studying your market and results obtained as crucial to thesuccess of mailing.
Basically, the idea is to maximise successes for a huge overallgain.
If you send enough mailings, you are sure to be able to tellwhich are most successful.
The business is really a continual testing process.
Try with different approaches and different methods. Trydifferent products - different prices - different wording.
All these things can combine to make either a disappointingresult - or an outstanding success. This is just the sameprocedure used by the "millionaire" type mail order venture.Some mailings you make are bound to be less than satisfactory,but the trick is to monitor and record results carefully so thatyou can spot such mailings.
Then - cut your losses.
Happy Banking
Jonathan Stree
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com
