Things You Should Know Before You Mail Anything?

1. Know Your Target Market. Who are you selling to?
Are they going to be interested in your product? What benefits does your offer provide? A targeted list will probably do better then a non-targeted list. All things being equal, it makes sense that people, who have purchased items like yours before, will be your best marketing bet. Knowing your market can help determine what kind of promotion you will be offering whether it is couponing or just letting someone know you are there.

2. Know Your Lists
There are list sellers and then there are List Brokers. At the least, your broker should be a professional listed in Standard Rates and Data. Your list broker should be willing to take the time to match your offer; as best as is possible, to a specific list he believes will do the best for you. Anyone can call themselves a list broker and rent you names from the phone book. A professional broker, such as Loft 9 Marketing, cares about your business. We know that if you do well working with us, you will keep coming back. Get a Free Count

3. Know Your Break Even Point on Your Mail Piece.
How many sales must you make to cover your costs of mailing? Figure the cost of the list, the stock used for the mail piece and the postage. You should also figure in your cost of labor, though many marketers discount this cost when first starting out. Quite often, a more expensive product sold to fewer customers, will work out much better for you than an inexpensive product that must be sold to many customers in order to reach that same break even point. There are exacting formulas available to figure this out. Get a Free Quote

4. While in the early stages of a Direct Mail campaign...
You may make a profit mailing to a list of prospects who are not already your customers. Ultimately though, even a well run mail order company can lose money on "The Front End". What you want is to generate a maximum number of new customers. Once you have these new customers, you supply "back end offers" to them. Again and again. You may also, eventually, rent or sell your mail list. Your current customers are always your best customers. Continue to sell to them. If you only have a front end offer, programs like "The Money Doctor" or "People Helping People", etc, you will have a much more difficult time getting anywhere, especially for high end offers. You have one shot and if that does not work, kiss your money goodbye. There are no guarantees and this type of program is more like gambling.

5. You will always get a higher response to a mailing...
From those who have responded before... Always re-mail new offers or add-ons to your responders. Once you have a customer or potential customer, hold on to them. Provide them with the product and service necessary to keep them doing business with you instead of someone else. Keep those "back end offers" flowing. Collect a lot of buyer's names, and we will put your list up for rent.

6. Most of what you have heard as being mail order gospel is wrong.
How to do it and what your return will be? No one knows, and that's a fact. No one can tell you what you will do on any mailing. Even if the printed mailer has the exact same information as a mailer that returned a 5% response, that piece will more likely not yield the same result in a different city. All they may be able to tell you is simply what they have done, and they may be stretching the truth. TEST! TEST! TEST! You have to test it yourself by doing the mailings and trying the lists and keeping track of what works and what doesn't. Once you find a list that works, make sure any additional names you rent from the same list are really from the same list and just as fresh, then run with it.

7. Believe it or not, what you are doing, what this is, is a business.
Treat it like a business. So many mail order marketers treat what they are doing as if it were a hobby or that "if you MAIL IT, they will come". These folks are in for a big surprise and disappointment. Doing mail order right requires just as much effort as doing any other kind of business. Research it. The library, local bookstores, the web and a competent list broker, are your best friends.

8. Carefully consider if you really want to send bulk mail as opposed to first class.
While bulk mail is less expensive, there are some things to consider:
A. If you send bulk mail, your letters will not be forwarded.
B. Bulk mail may be less likely to be opened.
C. From what we've been told, bulk mail often languishes out of the way in some dark corner of your post office. We have also heard, though we don't know for sure, that bulk mail is often given the old heave-ho, instead of being delivered.
If you really want to do bulk mail, YOU WILL NEED TO TEST. Be sure to Only mail from a central postal station that handles bulk mail, not your local post office.

9. Your mail piece can be a letter, or a postcard or a booklet. Or can it?
The chances of someone actually looking at your mail piece can be better if it has a personal look, or has an appearance that says, "Open Me". Of course, that mail piece has to be good copy in order to get a response. Post cards can work for generating leads or inquiries, but they don't have the space needed for the length of copy usually used to sell a product. If you print "Please Forward" on the envelope, the mail piece will be forwarded if there is a forward address. Otherwise, if it is not deliverable to the address on the envelope, it will probably be returned to you. We have found that a two page or longer letter, if well written, provides superior response. There is no such thing as too long a mail piece. There are only mail pieces that your prospects open and read, or do not open and do not read. View Some of our Samples