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THE BEGINNER'S OPPORTUNITY GUIDEMail order is not a business in itself but is another way of doing business. Mail order is simply selling a product or service via direct advertising sent through the mail. Thus, in order to start and succeed in a mail order operation of your own, you must exercise a certain amount of business acumen just as you would in any other type of business. Just as in any other business, there are "good guys" and "bad guys" in the mail order industry. While the vast majority of mail order entrepreneurs are decent, honest, hard-working individuals like yourself, you will from time to time come across some who would grab any unfair advantage possible. These "bad apples" can ruin your chances at business success if you are not careful. Your best bet for a successful start is only after a thorough investigation of the products you plan to offer through the mail. Carefully consider who you will use as a primary source for the product or materials you are going to market via mail order. Place your advertising only with established, reputable publishers. Perform a thorough analysis of all the potential costs involved to get your fledgling mail order operation off the ground, and use a healthy dose of common sense in deciding what products your potential customers will buy. You'll also need to exercise a great deal of patience and persistence. Mail order is saturated with plans, directories, sales materials, and products that have been around for ten, fifteen, twenty years, or longer. Many of these materials were not very good in the beginning, and yet they're still being sold as "secrets" to wealth and fame. Such misrepresentations are the primary cause for the "shady" impression that many people have of mail order. A little investigation on your part will show that the most successful people doing business by mail are always on the alert for new products, and they are quick to add the most promising products to their own assortment. Whether you produce the material you sell or not, always be looking for ways to improve your offers. You must keep abreast of the ever-changing materials available and provide your customers the offers best suited to meet their needs, thereby increasing your profits. It's almost impossible to gain much success with a single product, manual, or book. Many mail order dealers choose to sell books because of their broad appeal across the entire spectrum of prospective customers. The most successful method is to gather a number of related books and arrange dropshipping services with the primary suppliers. Include these items in a catalog or advertising circular along with any of your own self-produced products. We recommend that you develop a mini-catalog to use in the beginning. Prepare a single 8x11 sheet of paper, printed on both sides in two columns, listing the titles of the reports and books you have available, and with a tear off order coupon at the bottom of the back page. Several of the largest mail order book companies offer you deep discount dealerships free of charge. Because they purchase huge quantities of single titles directly from the publishers, these distributors can give you discounts of fifty percent or more on their entire line of books, reports, and audio cassettes. They also provide a wide variety of advertising circulars, each with an order coupon at the bottom of the circular. You simply have the camera-ready copy of each circular you choose to promote copied at your local print shop with your name and address listed on the order blank. These are then mailed out to your prospective customers. When you receive an order, simply forward your cost for the book plus shipping and handling charges (which your customer has paid to you) on to the distributor. The balance of the money is your gross profit. Include with your dropship order a shipping label showing your customer's name and address and with your name as the return address. The distributor will dropship for you, keeping your customers' names confidential, and in no way encroaching upon them. In addition, along with the order many dropshippers will send your customer a complete catalog listing the many book titles they offer. This catalog features your name and address on the cover. Thus, your customer is invited to place additional orders through you while you have saved any cost of mailing out the promotional material! Discounts up to 80% off the retail price are available to you from many large distributors when you are ready to carry your own stock and buy reports or books in quantity. To get a money-making start in the mail order book business, follow these simple steps. We advise you to send two full page circulars: one advertising your own product and a second flyer or mini-catalog advertising a list of related products or titles available to your customer. Develop a full-page circular advertising your own product, if you have one. If you don't have a primary product of your own, major distributors can furnish you with single book circular to feature. Next, prepare a second full page circular listing products or titles related to your primary offering. This can be printed on two sides in two columns and folded in half to serve as your mini-catalog. These flyers are then stuffed into envelopes, addressed, and mailed to your prospects. You will probably want to rent a list of Opportunity Seekers or Book Buyers from a reputable mailing list company. The names on the list are your prospective buyers. Check your local yellow page telephone listings under the heading "Mailing Lists." Once you start receiving orders from this mailing, you must immediately acknowledge receipt of the orders and follow up with other offers. The follow-up offer is where most beginners fail. Either they don't have any follow-up materials to send or they simply fail to send out these offers. As mentioned above, a major distributor can also provide you with the materials for the follow-up. Whether it's another simple circular listing a series of books or a complete catalog that you may rubber stamp with your name and address before mailing, make sure you get additional offers into the hands of your customers. Continued sales to established customers will be your real profit makers. As your business builds, you can either develop a full-size catalog of your own or have your book distributor professionally imprint a large quantity of their dropship catalogs with your names, address, logo, telephone or fax number, and slogan. As orders continue to increase, you may decide to expand your operation and ship all materials from your location. Or, you may wish to continue having the distributor dropship orders for you. Whatever the case, always keep your customer informed as to the status of his order. If it will not be shipped right away (within the week), write a short note thanking your customer for his patronage and advising him when to expect receipt of his order. With the note include a follow-up offer such as another copy of your book catalog or a new single-book circular. Meeting your customers' needs, anticipating their questions, and providing them the type of information they desire is how you will build your business and attain success in mail order. What does it really take to succeed in mail order? Don't believe those ads that tell you it doesn't take any money. While your investment will be minimal, it will take a certain amount to begin advertising your products in front of prospective buyers. You will need a supply of #10 envelopes with your name and return address imprinted in the upper left corner. You'll also want to consider providing your customers with a return reply envelope that has your return address on the face. These can be either #6 or #9 size envelopes. Ask your printer or office supply store to let you inspect several samples. You will also need to have a large quantity of your advertising materials printed. The advent of inexpensive, high quality, copy machines has brought printing costs down considerably. Check with your printer. Whether printed by photo-offset or on a high-quality copier, the cost of preparing several thousand double-sided 8x11 pages should be about 4 cents each. Check with several printing suppliers before you place an order. To realize profits of any consequence, you'll need to send out at least a thousand, preferably five thousand, letters per mailing. To cut your postage cost, you will want to secure a third class, bulk mail permit from the Postal Service. By mailing your advertising materials via third class bulk rate you can save over 30% on postage costs. Since postage will be your largest single expense, we definitely recommend bulk rate mailing. Check with your local Postmaster for further details. Finally, you'll need to consider advertising your various offerings in the nationwide mail order and success and opportunity publications. We suggest that you start small with a few experimental ads in some of the regional mail order newsletters and publications. Then you can move on to the bigger publications that feature a larger total circulation, but that will cost you significantly more. If you can turn your profits back into your business, steadily increasing your advertising coverage, you will realize a greater return on your dollar and will build your total sales and operation faster. Mail order selling can provide the beginner with a myriad of opportunities for success.
Even the smallest of operations can be developed into a successful business by following a
few simple guidelines. You must provide a product that a large segment of the buying
public desires; let as many prospective buyers as possible know of your products
availability; and you must follow up each sale with the offer of additional merchandise.
If you will adhere to these simple rules, you will begin to see your dreams of success
come true. Best wishes in all your business endeavors! |
