Success as a Circular Mailer

Don't be taken in by those "big 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 - but don't expect to make any real money by sending out circulars per se, either one to an envelope or half a 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 - something that's just a little bit different and more appealing than what everybody else is offering. Make up your own advertising circular, and send them out to a list of people proven to be "buyers" of your kind of offer.

Perhaps we should go over that last line in different words because it has to do with the most common mistake of them all - Don't waste your time and potential profits trying to sell to sellers. Concentrate instead on the most likely 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 is ridiculous because 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 already into it and got their own thing going.

When you get an order, how do you follow- up on that 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 your other products or services, and includes an 8 1/2 x 11 circular as an "extra buy of the month?"

Stated there, in that last paragraph, is enough money-making information to make you rich - but are you listening? This is one of the proper, 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 order acknowledgments, 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 assured 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 check-books, and send him 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, 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 trunk, 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 "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 then, that's getting into the subject of catalogs.

Circulars are most effectively used to pull in follow-up sales. And with methods of these kinds, they'll bring you the cheapest and 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 - and most people do a pretty good job beating the bushes to find new customers - but after they've got them, they - the sellers - tend to drop the ball and let these new customers pass into obscurity. The how and why is simply that they don't follow through after that initial sale!

The new car dealer follows up his sales with routine servicing reminders. Suddenly, one of his salesmen writes a booklet on how to get better gas mileage - an advertising circular is made up, and included with each of those "reminders" the dealership sends out - Thus, this dealership not only positions itself to maintain closer relationships with its buyers, it develops out-standing community good will, and best of all - brings in new customers.

There are many very effective and profitable ways to use advertising circulars - We're discussing in this report, some of the proven methods others have used to increase their profits with the use of advertising circulars. Success in business demands knowledge - in marketing, advertising and selling, plus imagination - develop and use your own creative talents!

The neighborhood finance company is 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 sent as "ride- alongs" with each payment notification... (Incidentally, this company has a standing order for a quantity supply of each issue of MONEY MAKING MAGIC - they hand them out free of charge to their customers or to anyone coming into their offices - they're displayed right there at the receptionist's counter, along with a stack of extra- income idea reports and business start-up manual circulars); 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 understanding 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 - an ad is run in the local paper asking for recycled clothing to sell on consignment, and then, when everything is ready, an advertising circular is made up and included in everyone's monthly statement or sent out 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 on the order coupons - you arrange for the store to process the orders through its credit card system, and to allow the store a certain commission 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. The thing is, when you go for "super results," you have to spent the 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 de signed, typeset, and printed. Many require that they be printed on coated paper, and in multi-colors. All of which, has 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 to 250,000 prospects will give you $62,500...

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-pullers - 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 is always to make sure you have something the people "want to buy." Do some testing by running "prospect-seeking" ads in a worldwide publication such as BUSINESS MART. 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 then judge from the 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 - only 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 - methods you use -in order to arrive at the destination of your dreams. The important thing is to move only one step at a time, using only your profits from the current step to progress into the next step. 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 - the demand for - your product. If the interest doesn't pan out as you had hoped, redo your offer from a different angle. If it still doesn't spur a promise of profits for you, then discard the 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...

Still the most important "insider's secrets" to selling a product or service is "an honest appraisal" of your prospective customers - who are they, where are they located, how many of them is there, how badly do they want what you have to give 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 to make money for you. Used properly, circulars can make you fabulously rich. But by themselves, and as your total selling effort, circular mailing will cost you much more than you'll ever make. Advertising circulars should be used to "spotlight" other, related items of interest you're offering - not as the offer itself... Circulars can also be used to picture your product or service - to list testimonials and/or endorsements from satisfied customers -and to carry your order coupon. With this method though, your circular be comes 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 a specific mailing list.

Remember though, circulars by themselves won't make the sale. Such "selling efforts" can best be associated with the girl in the booth at the theater asking how many you want...

So, we're more or less 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.

Sending out only one circular to an envelope will put you in the "poor house" from postage expenditures before you get started - so don't even give a second thought to that idea...

And 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 so much for 500, 1,000 or 5,000 circulars - in reality, are offering you printing services... True, you can probably get the circulars from them for less than it would cost you to have them produced locally, but you still]l have to stuff them into the envelopes, address them to prospects, put stamps on them, and get them in the mail - and at the bottom line, after all of this work & 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 proceeds from the sale because the printer fills the order and adds your customer's name to his mailing list. There's no real profits in any of these kinds of deals, and some of them are downright rip- offs, bordering on illegal schemes... Attaining success takes common sense as much as anything else! Check the offer out. Determine how great the demand really is for the product the people offering it are claiming for it. Compare the printing costs, and your time/work involvement, compared with the probable results. And, never ever believe those wild claims of this or that circular pulling even a 3% response - it just doesn't happen that way, especially for a newcomer to mail order.

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

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

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. Exercise your options of free choice. Check out the "profit secrets" to selling anything, and with everything you decide to sell. And then, once you decide on the product or service you want to sell, go "all out" with a step-by-step effort to achieve the fun potential of that particular opportunity. Advertising circulars can, and will help you, but they'll only do for you in proportion to 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 customers... Use common sense and proven methods of reaching those customers with your advertising circulars... And then 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 - just hang in there and keep alert to what's really turning the people on... Our best wishes for your continued success.