SUCCESS AS A CIRCULAR MAILER

Don't be taken in by those 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. However, don't expect

to make any real money by sending out circulars per say, either

one to an envelope or half 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. Make it something that's just a little

bit different and more appealing than what everybody else is

offering. Draw up your own advertising circulars and send them

out to a list of people proven to be" buyers" of your kind of

offer.

We should perhaps go over that last line in different words

because it has to do with the most common mistake of all. DON'T

WASTE YOUR TIME AND POTENTIAL PROFITS TRYING TO SELL TO SELLERS.

Concentrate instead on the 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 ridiculous. 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 into it

and have their own thing going. (For the "absolutely last word"

on chain letters, send for report #3618, "Success of Success with

Chain Letters" and book #1788 THE TRUTH ABOUT CHAIN LETTERS).

When you get an order, how do you follow-up on the 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 the other products or services

and includes an 8 1/2 x 11 circular as an "extra buy of the

month?"

Stated in the preceding paragraph is enough money-making

information to make you rich, but are you listening? This is one

of the most successful, 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 acknowledgements, 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 accrued 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 checkbooks and

send in 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 and 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 truck,

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 a "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 that's another topic in and of itself. Circulars are

most effectively used to pull in follow-up sales. And with these

methods they'll provide you with the least expensive method of

advertising and produce the 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. Most people do a pretty good job

beating the bushes to find new customers, but after they've got

them, the sellers tend to drop the ball and let the customers

pass into obscurity. The reason is simply that they don't follow

through after the initial sale!

The new car dealer follows up his sale with a routine servicing

reminders. An advertising circular is made up and included with

each of those "reminders" the dealership sends out. Thus, the

dealership not only positions itself to maintain closer

relationships with it's buyers, it develops outstanding community

good will, and best of all, brings in new customers.

There are many effective and profitable ways to use advertising

circulars. In this report we are discussing some of the proven

methods others have used to increase their profits with

advertising, selling, plus imagination. Develop and use your own

creative talents.

Take the example of the neighborhood finance company 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 inserted as a ride along with

each monthly payment notification. 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

outstanding 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, and an

ad is run in the local paper asking for recycled clothing to sell

on consignment. When everything is ready an advertising circular

is made up and included in everyone's monthly statement or sent

out through the postal service 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 and on te

order coupons and you arrange for the store to process te orders

through its credit card system. A certain percentage is allowed

the store 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. Remember: when you go for

"super results" you have to spend te 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 deigned, typeset, and printed. Many

require that they be printed on coated paper and in multi-colors.

These requirements have 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 250,000 prospects will give you $62,5000.

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-pulling 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: Always to make sure you have something the people "want to

buy." Do some testing by running "prospect-seeking" ads in a

worldwide publication. 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 can judge from you

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; whether 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 and methods you can use

in order to invite at the destination of your dreams. The

important thing is to move only one step at a time, using only

your profits form the current step to progress into the next.

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 and the demand for your product.

If the interest doesn't pan out as you had hoped, re-design your

offer from a different angle. If it still doesn't spur a promise

of profits for you then discard this 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.

The most important "insider's secrets" to selling a product or

service is " an honest appraisal" of you prospective customers.

Discover who they are, where they are located, how large, how

badly do they want what you have to give to 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 in your overall

business plan. Used properly, circulars can make you fabulously

rich. But by themselves or as your total selling effort, circular

mailing cost you much more than you'll ever make. Advertising

circulars should be used to generate prospects for other related

items of interest you offer, and should not generally be used as

a stand alone promotion.

Circulars can also be used to picture your product or service, to

list testimonials and endorsements form satisfied customers, and

carry your order coupon. With this method, however, your circular

becomes 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 specific mailing lists.

So, we more or less are 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. And,

sending out only one circular to an envelope will put you in the

"poor house" from postage expenditures before you get started.

Don't even give a second thought to that idea.

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 a certain amount of money for 500, 1,000, or

5,000 circulars are in reality offering you printing services.

True, you can get the circulars form them for less than it would

cost you to have them produced locally, but you still have to

stuff them into envelopes, address them to prospects, put stamps

on them, and get them in the mail. At the bottom line, after all

of this work and 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 profits

form the sale because the printer fills the order and adds your

customer's name to his mailing list. There's

no real profit in any of these kinds of deals, and some of them

are downright rip-offs bordering on the illegal.

Attaining success takes common sense as much as anything else.

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. Determine how great the demand actually is for the offered

product. Compare the printing costs and your time/work

involvement with the probable results. And, never, ever believe

those wild claims of this or that circular pulling even a 5%

responses. It just doesn't happen that way, especially for a

newcomer to mail order.

Whenever you receive an opportunity to get on a new money-making

opportunity, particularly involving the sending out of circulars,

look over. Do some basic market research, and then test it as a

"ride-along" with your current offers. Be certain that the seller

isn't attempting to "use you" to promote his own ambitions.

Unless all your marketing questions can be answered in your

favor--unless you can really and truly believe in the product

you're offering and you can see the opportunity for a real profit

margin--and unless you really feel good and proud of the

opportunity being offered you--then DO NOT invest your money or

time!

Exercise your options of free choice. Check out the "profits

secrets" to selling anything and with everything you decide to

sell. And the, once you decide on the product or service you want

to sell, go "all out" with a step-by-step effort to achieve the

full potential of that particular opportunity. Advertising

circulars can and will help you, but they'll only do for you in

proportion on 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 clients. Use common sense and proven

methods of reaching those customers with your advertising

circulars. And 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. Hang in

there and keep alert to what's really turning people's heads. Our

best wishes for your continued success.