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HOW TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS WITH YOUR OWN MONEY-MAKING NEWSLETTERWriting and publishing a successful newsletter is perhaps the most competitive of all the different areas of mail order and direct marketing. Regardless of the frustrations involved in launching your own newsletter, never forget this truth: There are people from all walks of life, in all parts of this country, many with no writing ability whatsoever, who are making incredible profits with simple two-, four-, and six-page newsletters! Twenty years ago there were 1500 different direct mail newsletters in this country. Today there are well over 10,000, and new ones are being started every day. It is also interesting to note that among all the new ones being started some will disappear just as quickly as they appeared due to either lack of operating capital or marketing know-how. To be successful with a newsletter you have to specialize. Your best bet will be with new information on a subject not already covered by an established newsletter. Your first step is to subscribe to as many different newsletters and mail order publications as you can afford. Analyze and study what and how others are doing. Attend as many workshops and seminars on your subject as possible. Take a lesson from the pros. Learn why the successful newsletter publishers are making their enterprises succeed and why they are making money. Adapt their success methods to your own newsletter, but determine to recognize where they are weak and to make yours better in every way. Plan your newsletter before launching it. Know the basic premise for its being, your editorial position, the layout, art work, type style, subscription price, distribution methods, and every other detail necessary to make it look, sound, and feel like the end result you have envisioned. Lay out your start-up needs. Determine the length of time its going to take to become established. Know what will be involved in becoming a success. Set a date as a milestone of accomplishment for each phase of your development. A date for breaking even, a date for attaining a certain paid subscription figure, and a monetary goal for each of your first five years in business. All this must be done before publishing your first issue. Most newsletter publishers do all the work themselves and are impatient to get that first issue into print. As a result, they neglect to devote the proper amount of time to market research and distribution. Don't start your newsletter without first having accomplished this important task! Market research is simply determining who the people are who will be interested in buying and reading your newsletter; what kind of information these people want to see in your newsletter that will compel them to continue buying it. Your market research must give you unbiased answers about your newsletter's capabilities of fulfilling your prospective buyer's need for information. How much is he willing to pay for this information? What is the overall profile of the readership -- income, sparetime activities and hobbies, business needs, etc. The questions of why he needs your information and how he'll use it should be answered. Make sure you have the answers to these questions, publish your newsletter as a vehicle of fulfillment to these needs, and you're on your way! You're going to be in trouble unless your newsletter has a real and easily perceived point of difference with other publications. The design and graphics of your newsletter, plus what you say and how you say it, will help give your newsletter this vital difference. Be sure the look of your newsletter projects the image you're trying to build for it. Make sure the content reflects the personality of your subscribers. Include your advertising promise within the heading, on the title page, and in the same words your advertising uses. The name of your newsletter should also help to set it apart from similar newsletters and spell out its advertising promise. A good name reinforces your advertising. Choose a name that defines the direction and scope of your newsletter. Opportunity Knocking, Money Making Magic, Extra Income Tip Sheet, and Mail Order Up-Date are prime examples of this type of philosophy. Weak names such as The Johnson Report or The Association Newsletter should be avoided. Try to make your newsletter's name memorable; one that flows automatically. Don't pick a name that's so vague it could apply to almost anything. The name should identify your newsletter and its subject quickly and positively. Pricing your newsletter should be consistent with the image you're trying to build. If you're starting a copy-cat newsletter, never price it above the competition. In most instances the consumer associates higher prices with higher quality. Thus, if you give your readers better quality information in an expensive looking package, don't hesitate to ask for a premium price. However, if your information is gathered from most of the other newsletters on the subject you will do well to keep your prices in line with theirs. One of the best selling points of a newsletter is in the degree of audience involvement; how much it talks about and uses the names of its readers. People like to see things written about themselves. They resort to all kinds of things to get their names in print, and they pay big money to read what's been written about them. You should understand this facet of human nature, decide if and how you want to capitalize upon it, then plan your newsletter accordingly. Almost as important as names in your newsletter are pictures. Above all else, don't skimp on design or graphics! The readers will generally accept a newsletter faster if the publisher's photograph is presented or included as a part of the newsletter. Whether you use photos of the people, events, locations, or products you write about is a policy decision. However, the use of pictures will set your publication apart from the others and give it an individual image. This is precisely what you want. The decision whether or not to carry paid advertising, and if so how much, is another policy decision best made while your newsletter is still in the planning stages. Some purists feel that advertising corrupts the image of the newsletter and may influence editorial policy. Most people, however, accept advertising as a part of everyday life and don't care one way or the other. Many newsletter publishers faced with rising production costs view advertising as a means of offsetting those costs, and welcome paid advertising. Generally, advertisers see the newsletter as a vehicle to a captive audience and well worth the cost. The only problem with accepting advertising in your newsletter will appear as your circulation grows and your number of advertisers grows accordingly. You will have to decide whether to increase the size of your newsletter to accommodate the advertisers or to remain a standard size and raise your advertising rates. At this point, the basic premise or philosophy of the newsletter often changes from news and practical information to one of an advertiser's showcase. Promoting your newsletter, finding prospective buyers and converting these prospects into loyal subscribers, will be the most difficult task of your entire undertaking. It takes detailed planning, persistence, and patience. You'll need a sales letter. Check the sales letters you receive in the mail. Analyze how these are written and pattern yours along the same lines. You'll find that all of those worthy of being called sales letters follow the same formula: AIDA -- Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action on the part of the reader. Jump right in at the beginning and tell the reader how he+ s going to benefit from your newsletter and keep emphasizing right on through your "PS" the many and different benefits he'll gain from subscribing. Elaborate on your list of benefits with examples of what you have or you intend to include in upcoming issues. Follow these examples with endorsements or testimonials from reviewers and satisfied subscribers. Make the recipient of your sales letter feel that you're offering him the answer to all his problems on the subject your newsletter addresses. You have to make your prospect feel that "this is the insider's secret" to the success he wants. Present it to him as his own personal key to success, and tell him how far behind his contemporaries he is going to be if he doesn't act upon your offer immediately. Always include a "PS" in your sales letter. This should quickly restate to the reader that he can start enjoying the benefits of your newsletter by acting immediately, and very subtly suggest that he may not get another chance to get the kind of success help you're offering him through your publication. Don't worry about the length of your sales letter. Most are four pages or more. However, the letter must flow logically and smoothly. Use short sentences and short, indented paragraphs with lots of subheads for the people who will be scanning through your sales letter. In addition, your promotion package should include a return reply order card or coupon. This can be either a self-addressed business reply postcard or a separate coupon, in which case you'll have to include a self-addressed return reply envelope. In every mailing piece you send out always include either a self-addressed business reply postcard or a self-addressed return reply envelope for the recipient to use in mailing the order form and remittance back to you. Your best response will come from a business reply postcard on which you allow your prospect to charge the subscription to his credit card, request that you bill him, or send his payment after receipt of the first issue. Many publications offer a "No Risk Trial Subscription" that places a first issue in the reader's hands, enters his one year subscription, and bills him for the yearly cost. Should the reader decide to cancel, he may do so without charge. The benefits of such an offer are varied. The reader feels no pressure in subscribing to a publication with a complete guarantee. You as publisher benefit because once he reads through an issue he will no doubt find it to his liking. Also, because his subscription is automatically entered he needs no extra push to elicit a subscription. The cost of free issues to those few readers who do decide to cancel their subscription will easily be offset by the larger number who pay the invoice for the subscription as soon as it is received. To determine the makeup of your subscription order card or coupon simply start saving all the order cards and coupons you receive during the next month or so. Choose the one you like best, modify according to your needs, and have it typeset, pasted up, and border fit. Copy-cat design of the cards and ads used by the large, well-established publications will assure your mailing piece of success. Next, you'll need a Subscription Order Acknowledgment card or letter. This is simply a short note thanking your new subscriber for his order and promising to keep him up-to-date with everything relating to the subject of your newsletter. If this letter is sent in response to a Trial Subscription offer include the subscription invoice and a pre-addressed envelope with the letter. An acknowledgment letter in an envelope will cost more postage to mail than a simple postcard. However when you send the letter you have the opportunity to enclose additional material. A circular listing other items available through you will produce additional orders. An ample supply of mailing materials will be necessary before you begin your advertising campaign. Go ahead and have several hundred undated copies of your sales letter, subscription order card or coupon, subscription invoice, and order acknowledgement letter printed. You'll also need letterhead, mailing envelopes, and return reply envelopes for coupons and invoices. Go ahead and have a thousand mailing envelopes printed. This will be a basic supply for "testing" your materials so far. Now you're ready for the big move: The Advertising Campaign. Start by placing a small classified ad in one of your local newspapers. You should place your ad in a weekend or Sunday paper that will reach as many people as possible. Do everything you can to keep your costs as low as possible. However, do not skimp on your advertising budget. To be successful -- to make as much money as is possible with your idea -- you'll have to reach as many people as you can afford and as often as you can. Over the years we have launched several hundred advertising campaigns. We always run new ads for a minimum of three issues and keep close tabs on the returns. So long as the returns keep coming in we continue running the ad in that publication while adding a new publication to test for results. It is our opinion that this is the best way to go, regardless of the product, in order to multiply successfully your customer list. Move slowly. Start with a local, far-reaching and widely read paper. With the profits or returns from this ad move up to the regional magazines or one of the smaller national magazines. Continue plowing your returns into more publications reaching your prospective readership. By taking your time and building your acceptance in this manner you won't lose too much if one of your ads should prove to be a failure. Advertising is crucial: stay with it. Do not abandon it in favor of direct mail. We would not recommend direct mail until you are well established, and your national classified advertising program is bringing in a healthy profit . Do not become overly ambitious and go out on a limb with expensive full-page advertisements until you're successful. When you do buy full page advertising, start with the smaller publications and build from those results. Have patience. Keep close tabs on your costs per subscriber and reinvest the profits of your advertising. Always test the advertising medium you want to use with a classified ad, and if it pulls well for you go on to a larger display advertisement. Classified advertising is the least expensive method to use as long as you utilize the inquiry method. You can easily and quickly build your subscriber list with this type of advertisement. We would not recommend any attempts to sell subscriptions or any product from classified or even small display ads. There simply is not enough space to describe the product adequately, and upon seeing the cost of your item many possible subscribers will not bother to inquire for the full story. When you do expand your efforts into direct mail go straight to a national list broker. Your can find their names and addresses in the yellow pages section of your local telephone directory. Show the list broker your product and mailing piece. Explain what type people you want to reach. Allow the list broker to help you. His success is also built upon matching your target audience with the lists he brokers. To maintain your trust and business he will do everything possible to assure the successful match between his list and your advertising piece. Once you've decided on a list to use, go slowly. Start with a sampling of 5,000 names. If the returns are favorable go for 10,000 names, and as your success continues move upward through the entire list. Never rent the entire list based upon the returns from your first couple of samplings. The variables are just too many, too complicated, and too conducive to your losing your shirt when you impulsively mail to an entire list based upon returns from a relatively small sampling. There are a number of other methods with both positive and negative features for finding new subscribers. One method is that of contracting with what is known as a "cash-field" agency. These are soliciting agencies who hire people to sell door-to-door and via the phone, almost always using a high pressure approach. The publisher usually makes only about 5% from each subscription sold by one of these agencies. That speaks for itself. Schools, civic groups, and other fund raising organizations work in about the same manner as the cash-field agencies. They supply the solicitor and the publisher gets 25% or less for each new subscription sold. Secondly, there exist several major catalog sales companies and clearing houses that sell subscriptions to school and public libraries, government agencies, and large corporations. These people usually buy through the catalog sales companies rather than direct from the publisher. The publisher makes about 10% on each subscription sold for him by one of these agencies. A third medium for enlisting new subscribers is Co-Op Mailing. These are generally piggy-back mailings of your subscription offer along with numerous other business offers in the same envelope. Smaller mail order entrepreneurs do this under the name of Big Mail Offers. Coming into vogue over the past several years are the Postcard Mailers. You submit your offer on a business reply postcard that the packager then prints and mails in a package with 30 to 100 or more similar postcards via third class mail to a mailing list that could number 1,000,000 or more. You pay a premium price for this type of mailing, usually $1000 to $1500 per mailing, but the returns are very good and you keep all the incoming money. Another form of co-op mailing involves your supplying a major credit card company or department store credit service with your subscription offer as a statement mailing stuffer. Your offer goes out with the monthly statements. New subscriptions orders are returned to the mailer and billed to the customer+ s charge card. The publisher usually makes about 50% on each subscription. This is one of the most lucrative but expensive methods of bringing in new customers. Direct mail agencies such as Publishers Clearing House can be a very profitable source of new subscriptions in that they mail out more than 100 million pieces of mail each year all of which are built around an opportunity for the recipient to win a gigantic cash sweepstakes. The only problem with this type of subscription agency is the very low percentage of the total subscription price the publisher receives from these subscriptions and the fact that the publishers are required to charge a lower subscription rate than they normally charge. There are also several agencies that offer Introductory or Sample Copy offers. With this kind of agency the details about your publication are listed along with similar publications in full page ads inviting the readers to send $10 or $20 for trial subscriptions to those of his choice. The publishers receive no money from these inquiries, only the list of names of people interested in receiving trial subscriptions. How the publisher follows up and is able to convert these into full term and paying subscribers is entirely dependent upon his own efforts. Most major newspapers will carry small, lightweight brochures or oversized reply cards as inserts in their Sunday papers. The publisher supplies the total number of inserts, pays the newspaper by the thousand for the number of newspapers he wants his order form carried in , and then retains all the money generated. The cost of printing the inserts, coupled with the per thousand fee for distribution, make this an extremely costly method of obtaining new subscribers, especially if your newsletter appeals only to a very narrow market segment. Attempting to sell subscriptions via radio or TV is very expensive and works better in generating sales at the newsstands than new subscriptions. PI (Per Inquiry) sales is a very popular way of getting radio or TV exposure and advertising for your newsletter or other publication, but again, the number of sales brought in by the broadcast media is very small when compared with the number of times the invitation commercial has to be aired to elicit a response. A new idea surfacing on the late night television scene is Product Shows. These shows feature the originator of the product or his representative, either in a talk show format before a studio audience or set in an exotic location such as Hawaii, giving a complete sales presentation lasting from five minutes up to one hour. The entire sales presentation may be short, but is repeated in a slightly different format several times throughout the course of the half-hour in order to make a complete presentation to those viewers who may have just tuned in or missed a portion of the previous presentation. Overall, these programs generally run between midnight and 3 AM. Such programs are merely long, paid advertisements for which the product owner pays a discounted fee to the cable or open-air station for non-prime time play. Such presentations require a large investment of time and money to produce, and necessitate the availability of 24 hour operators, toll-free telephone numbers, and credit card processing abilities to field incoming orders and inquiries throughout the day and night as the programs air across the country. Newsletter publishers often run exchange publicity endorsements with non-competing publishers. Generally, these endorsements invite the reader of newsletter A to send for a sample copy of newsletter B to get a look at what somebody else is doing that might be of special help, interest, etc. This can be a very good source of new subscriptions and is certainly the least expensive. Running ads in the Mail Order Ad Sheets is not very productive in terms of either inquiries or sales. About the best thing that can be said of most of these ad sheets (and there seems to be a million of them with new ones cropping up faster than you can count them) is that your ad in several of them will let other people in on what you're doing. You will be able to keep track of a lot of the people trying to make a place for themselves in the mail order field. Last, but not least, is the enlistment of your own subscribers to send you names of people they think might be interested in receiving a sample copy of your publication. Some publishers ask their readers to pass along these names out of loyalty, while others offer a monetary incentive or a special bonus for names of people sent in who become subscribers. Some publishers will grant a free year's subscription to those readers who enlist ten or more new subscribers. By studying and utilizing the information in this report you should encounter few serious problems in launching your own successful specialized newsletter. However, there is an important point to remember about business by mail: Mail Order is only one way of doing business. You must, however, learn all you can about it, and keep on learning, changing, observing, and adapting to stay on top. The best way to learn about and keep up with mail order is to buy and read books by the people who have succeeded in making money via the mail. Subscribe to several of the better journals and aids designed for people in mail order. Join some of the mail order trade associations for a free exchange of ideas, advice, and help. Success lays before you like an open door. Only you can make the decision to move
through the door and enter the world of self-fulfillment and financial freedom. The choice
is yours alone: make the move of which you've always dreamed! |
