I
am an avid information "glutton." I have read most of the marketing
courses out there, and have gotten ideas from almost every one
of them.
Too
many Internet marketers are limited in their viewpoint. They
only want to read and see information which has been produced
especially for the Internet. Well, I have news for you. I have
learned more about Internet marketing through mail order and
direct mail courses than I have through 90% of the Internet
marketing products out there.
Mail
Order has prospered for decades and it still continues to prosper
even during the Internet revolution. You still receive sales
letters in the mail. You still see ads through magazines you
are reading. If you will open your eyes you will see that the
"Death" of mail order has been greatly exaggerated. It is
still alive and well on planet earth.
Mail
order has withstood the test of time and can teach you how to
create a profitable Internet business...if you let it.
Mail
Order Lesson #1: Everything isn't profitable to sell by mail.
You
will see many people online who are trying to sell products
that could have never made it through a mail order approach.
The sales letter is too poor and the concept behind the product
just won't fly. Plus, many of them are trying to sell products
which can be picked up at any local store such as Wal-Mart.
These
types of web sites would never have stood a chance if they tried
mail order. The expenses that went along with it would absolutely
destroy their business - the postage, the ad costs, the fulfillment,
the order lines, etc. They have chosen a hard road to travel.
The
reason they have never realized that they have picked such a
hard product to sell is the fact that they have never compared
it to a mail order approach. Through the Internet and the free
advertising available online, they are able to make money from
even the most difficult products and the worst sales letters.
Even
though they are making some sales through free advertising online,
what they don't realize is that their time could be used much
more productively by selling the "right" product to the "right"
market. They could be making 10 to 100 times as much money by
putting forth the exact same amount of effort if they had applied
a few mail order ideas to their Internet business.
How
does a mail order business choose the right product? The first
test they put it through is that it must not be available reliably
locally. It shouldn't be something people can run down to the
store and pick up. It should be something unique or something
that can presented in a unique way (if it is available locally).
The
second test they put it through is that it must be easy to target
the best potential prospects and buyers. People do not start
mail order businesses and try to sell to everyone. They would
go broke. The product needs to be something that appeals to
a specific niche market (such as gardeners, model train owners,
mothers, etc.).
Mail
Order Lesson #2: Target Your Specific Market.
Successful
mail order and direct mail businesses target their market like
a laser. They don't just go through the phone book and try to
send a letter to everyone listed. They seek mailing list managers
who can help them find specific lists of people who:
- Have
Money.
- Bought
a Similar Product by mail.
- Spent
The Same Amount or More.
- Did
all of the above recently.
They
go after buyers of similar products. In other words, most successful
mail order companies don't create a product and try to find
people to buy it. They find people who WANT to buy something.
Then, they create something to sell them.
Most
Internet marketers have the process backwards. Creating a product
and then trying to find people to buy it is the HARD way. Finding
people who are ready to buy and then selling them what they
want is the EASY way. You may be able to make money the HARD
way, but why should you when you could be making so much more
money the EASY way.
Mail
Order Lesson #3: Use a Proven Sales Process.
Too
many people have jumped on the Internet bandwagon and have led
us to believe that anything goes online. "You never know what
will work," they will tell you. The way some "experts" talk
you would never be able to figure out what creates successful
Internet businesses.
Well,
I have news for you. People have been selling products and services
by mail for decades now, and every single one of them has something
to teach you about creating a successful sales process. Some
will teach you what to do. Some will teach you what not to do.
The
same rules which have applied to mail order advertising still
apply to Internet advertising. For example:
- Mail
Order advertisers have told us for years, "The more you
tell, the more you sell." Yet, Internet advertisers have
tried to tell us differently. They have said people won't
read long copy online. They have said people are too educated
to be convinced by a sales letter. They have said that you
don't even want to use a sales letter on your site. Guess
what? THEY are wrong.
The mail order advertisers had it right...after decades
of testing their hypothesis again and again. People will
read long copy. People just won't read boring copy. If your
sales letter educates the customer and tells them more than
the competition, then you will make sales online. Good effective
ad copy still works today just as it always has.
- Mail
order advertisers have told us to use a headline on every
sales letter. Yet, Internet "experts" have forgotten to
tell us to use headlines on all of our web pages. No mail
order marketer would even consider sending out a letter
without a headline. So, why would you even consider having
a single web page without a headline
Mail order advertisers have also taught us an easy method
of increasing our response rates by an immediate 27%. All
you have to do is put quotation marks around your headline
and your response rate will immediately go up, because people
believe the quotation marks show that you are saying something
extremely important.
- Mail
order advertisers have told us to write our sales letters
like we are writing them to our best friends. Internet "experts"
have told us to present a more professional appearance.
Sales Letters which have been proven to work time and time
again are those which are written in a friendly tone. They
use underlining to emphasize key points, shorts words, short
sentences, and a personal signature in blue coloring at
the bottom.
This
same process of writing winning sales letters still works online.
You don't want your visitors to think of you as a big corporation.
You want them to get to know you personally and to bond with
you. Then, once they know you, they will buy from you.
Mail
Order Lesson #4: Keep Detailed Records Of Everything.
A
successful mail order business is always testing everything
that they do. Nothing is set in stone until it has been proven
in the marketplace. They track how much they spend for ads,
how many people respond, and how many of the responders actually
purchase their products or services.
Every
new ad will be tracked in the exact same way. If they don't
keep the records and haven't done their math, they won't be
in business for long. Just because much of Internet advertising
is currently free does not give you any excuse for not tracking
even more specifically.
Mail
Order Lesson #5: Develop a Control and Keep Testing It.
When
you hear mail order advertisers talk, they always speak of a
control piece. This is a scientific word which refers to the
sales piece which has already been proven to sell. The goal
of every mail order business is to continually test this control
document and try to outsell it with another piece. Then, once
they find a piece which has been proven to outsell the first
one, they will replace it as the new control. Then, the process
of competition between the pieces begins again.
Do
you have a control web site for your product? Have you tested
a web site again and again to prove whether it is effective
at selling your products or services? If not, then as soon as
you are finished reading this manual the first time, start testing
your piece.
Once
you have a site that is making sales, then it is time to create
a mirror page where you make some minor changes such as a new
headline, a different picture, a different price, etc. Then,
test that new page in the same type of medium as the first page.
Compare the results. Then, test some other sites.
You
should never be completely finished in testing your selling
process. There is almost always a way to make it sell a little
bit better. Think about the difference in profits if you find
out that a certain product sells better with a $10 higher price.
What if you sell twice as many by dropping the price 10%?
The
marketers who are usually talked about as "Geniuses" are not
any such thing. They are just people who have tested every possible
method until they eliminated everything that didn't work. All
they are left with is the BEST way to sell their products or
services.
Terry
Dean is the publisher, author, and webmaster of the FREE Web
Gold ezine and http://www.ezinfo2000.com.
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