MONEY-MAKER'S SECRETS TO
RENTING PROFITABLE MAILING LISTS
As an entrepreneur involved in the selling and/or promotion
of something by Direct Mail, you should already know that the most
important aspects of your mailing have to do with the sales letter
or circular you send out, and the mailing list you use. With these
thoughts in mind, and assuming you've got what should be an order-
pulling sales letter or circular, let's focus our attention
specifically on the problem of finding mailing lists that produce
profitable orders. Common sense should tell you that without a good mailing list,
the time and money you spend for market research, advertising
layout and knowledge relating to the "rules of direct mail," will
just be wasted effort. In other words, unless you get your offer
to the buyers, you might as well save your time and money. In order to reach your most likely buyer, you must first
determine who your most-likely buyers are. This is not so hard as
it might appear. Actually, it's just a matter of recognizing
that automotive items will appeal to car owners, while household
gadgets will sell best to the homemakers. Regardless of how easy it is, this is the most often
overlooked part of the beginning entrepreneur's planning. Suffice
it to say that if you don't know who you're going to sell a
product or service to, your product or service is going to be
pretty hard for you to sell. The next thing to really look into, is the competition your
product or service faces. If it has a limited market - not too
many people would stand in line to buy it - and you are
competing with virtually the same product as supplied by other
companies - then you're going to have to either come up with a
strong "hidden angle" or else face defeat before you even begin... These are the "keys" to success in selling anything via direct
mail - pin-pointing exactly who your buyers are, presenting your
offer to them with an angle not being used by your competition,
and concentrating all your sales efforts only on your most-likely
prospects. Assuming you "know" who your most likely buyers are; that
you've got a "winning" sales letter or circular - and, a product
or service these people "will stand in line to buy," then your
only problem is to get the message to these people. Do not think you'll "save some money" by renting or buying
inexpensive mailing lists from the advertisers in all those ad
sheets and "mail order" type publications that seem to flood your
mailbox. You'll waste a lot of time, and spend money chasing the
wind with these lists. These lists offered by "mail order" dealers are compiled from
ad sheets, mail order publications, and/or incoming offers
received by the list-seller... These people also compile "rental
mailing lists" from the no-response/no-sale lists they use... A
lot of them compile their rental lists directly from the
telephone/city, directories... And not a few of them work the
"envelope stuffing" scheme to compile their rental lists - They
offer commissions to people who pay to join their envelope
stuffing program, and then sell or rent the names of the people
who join their program... The people who join the program are
advised to compile lists from any number of sources, send out a
commission circular, and receive a commission or each incoming
order. The names of the buyers are then compiled onto another
list, and sold by the promoters of this scheme to some of the
larger list-brokers as bona fide mail order buyers... Anytime you
rent a list of 5,000 or more names from a mail order type
operator, you can almost certainly count on a list that's l) Five
or more years old... 2) Filled with names of people who have
moved... 3) Going to be dominated with the names of other mail
order sellers... Before renting or buying a mailing list from someone, use
the same kind of common sense you use in deciding upon a
doctor, lawyer or auto mechanic. Something else to keep in
mind - whenever you rent or buy mailing lists from someone who
has or is advertising for dealers or mailing list brokers, you
are going to end up with a list of names used by many mail order
dealers, generally with the majority of them offering the same
products or services. The best thing to do is to take a note pad and pencil to your
public library... Ask the librarian to let you look at the
Standard Rate & Data Service Directory pertaining to mailing
lists. Within this voluminous directory, you'll find the names,
addresses, and telephone numbers of virtually all the reputable
mailing list brokers in the country. These brokers explain within
this directory the different lists they have available for rent,
what kind of buyers the lists are made up of, and the date the
list was last cleaned - that is, the last time all the names on
the list were verified relative to the correctness of addresses. Select a half dozen or so of the list brokers handling the
kinds of lists that are made up of buyers of products or services
similar to yours... Jot those names and addresses down on your
note pad... then go home & call them on the phone... Tell the
list broker about yourself, what you're trying to sell, how much
you're asking for it, and your long-range plans. Almost all of
them will want to see a sample of your mailing piece, and more
often than not, a sample of your product as well. Don't be afraid
to talk with these people - they're in business to help you, and
if they "steer you onto" a list that doesn't make money for you,
they figure you'll not buy from them again, so it's to their
benefit to see that you get the "right" list for your mailing
piece and offer. Most of them will even critique your mailing
piece and offer, making suggestions for improvements when
appropriate, and in general, act as a consultant to see that you
realize a profit through their services. Once you and the list broker have decided upon the mailing
list best suited to your offer, he'll generally require you to
rent a minimum of 5,000 names. The going prices will range from
$35 to $95 per thousand names. Expensive, maybe... But if you
pay $475 for 5,000 prospective buyers, and end up with 1,500
buyers of a $20 "how-to" manual that you've written and had
printed at a cost of 50 cents per manual - that would mean a gross
of $30,000... minus $750 for 1,500 manuals, plus another 69 cents
each to send each manual out via 4th class mail which would amount
to $1,035. Add these figures together for a total of $1,785 and
subtract this total from $30,000 and you stand a very good chance
of netting $28,000 or more... So you see, the important thing is to get your offer to your
most likely buyers. The only way to do this - the fastest, and
least expensive way - is to work with a reputable mailing list
broker and forget about all that "wheel-spinning" within the
circle of mail-order-type people. Really, so long as you deal
with "mail-order-type" people - small-time dealers and advertisers
- you'll never achieve anything beyond a busy-busy, hand-to-mouth
existence in this business. The bottom-line reason for most of the entrepreneurial
failures in the mail order business is simply that the beginner
tries to cut corners by using less than the most productive
mailing lists available. Indeed, the years are littered with
people from all walks of life who have had good product and/or
service ideas, but failed to "get their ideas off the ground."
Generally, these people were trying to "save money" by compiling
their own mailing lists, advertising in "all-seller" type mail
order publications, and/or sending their offers out to "mail-
order-type" people found in the ad sheets or to lists purchased
from advertisers in these publications. In almost every case, the
entrepreneurs efforts along these lines, and based upon a "saving
money" philosophy, have always ended in heartbreak and great
financial loss for the entrepreneur... YOU CAN SUCCEED, STARTING FROM SCRATCH! But, before you
attempt it - before you "jump in and reach for your own mail order
fortune," be sure you arrange all the odds in your own favor...
Anything less than the "rules" stated within this report will
surely be a waste of time, and result in failure... Remember: Your product has to be something you can buy or
produce in finished form for pennies, and sell for dollars. There
has to be an "eager" market for your product or service. You must
project the most professional of all images of yourself as the
"company" or supplier in all your sales letters, circulars,
advertising and/or dealings with your prospective buyers. And you
must "know" who your buyers are, and then concentrate your efforts
to reach only those people with your offers...