Experimenting with Direct Mail

July 8, 2010 MarketingLover Direct Mail, 0

I have been interested in offline advertising for quite some time..  I know it can be a good way to get people to your website or offer…  I was speaking to someone at the warrior forum who has had some success with it after buying a WSO (that was not recieved as antcipated)… We discussed the fact that so many people want to make money with zero investment but their time… Although this is possible,  a true business person will realize that a certain amount of money is necessary to make any money.  If you think not,  then maybe a job is more appropriate for your situation.  With that being said,  I have no problem with investing money to get a project off the ground.  I have done it before,  some were flops (not successfull) and some were very successfull… But they all had one thing in common,  I had money invested in each one.  So to start off,  my experiment with direct mail WILL cost money… it will cost a substantial amount of money…. in the scheme of things I would not actually call it substantial… but it is in the $500 range.  Lucky for my readers though,  they get to watch over my shoulder to see if this really does work,  how I did it,  and if they want to replicate it or not.

Am I worried about competition?   No,  not at all… There are over 208 Million records in the databases I have been look into… so I am not worried about someone mailing all of them…  In addition,  many people suffer from analysis paralysis and few will actually follow through even if I reported back how successful my campaign is.   I am going to break this down into stages…

1. Find out what I am going to sell (clickbank product, CPA?)

2. Find a list broker….. I am looking at several…. I believe I have one in mind…..  I like the idea of long term relationships…  and mutually beneficial ones at that…  I applied to their affiliate program..  if they accept me as an affiliate I will go with their company….  If they do not (and I have been an affiliate marketer for years) then I will most likely go somewhere else….  I plan on doing several projects such as these promoting different products…  Many people will choose to follow (and many will not)  the list broker I choose to work with can share with me a lot of added business.

3.  Find somewhere to print postcards….. again,  I am looking for one that will allow me to be their affiliate…

4.  Contact or research the  post office website to see the best rate I can get on a  mailing and what the limit is before I need to get “permission” or a license.  I just don’t want to go to the post office with 500 post cards.  I want to be certain of their requirements.

I am keeping the following things in mind as I pursue this project:

1.  How targeted I can get the list.. I don’t want to promote a website selling obama hats and tshirts to republicans…

2.  The price of the list.. keeping in mind whether they will print the addresses for me or not… basically the TOTAL cost comparing apples to apples.

3.  My resources to devote to this project.  I am going to break this down into steps…. much like a person with limited resources would do… I am going to research and ultimately buy the list,  purchase the postcards, then mail them out in batches…. I don’t want to spend all the money at once… Even though I could if I needed to…  it just makes me feel more at ease that I am not spending such a huge amount of money all at the same time…

4. Whether to send a postcard or letter or other promotional material.

5. Determining to do a one time mailing or sending to the SAME list multiple times.  Since we are renting the list,  you have to have permission to mail to the list more than once… which equates to more money.  They seed the list so you WILL get caught if you plan on going that route.  It is my understanding that once they become your customer, then of course you can contact them as much as you want….

Be sure to sign up for my email list… I plan on having a members section where you can see the details of all my projects and the expected/actual outcome….   I reserve the right not to post the results on my blog but in a private members area.  So be sure to sign up.

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