Direct Marketing
Direct
marketing sometimes know as direct mail or mail order is about
a $600 billion a year industry, and some even estimate it to
be almost twice that volume.
You
don't need to capture a great percentage of that market to be
a landslide success !
Mail
order can be a very lucrative business. Ads that capture a response
or as they say in the business "killer copy" are not
only needed, they are an absolute necessity.
Obtaining
a qualified list of prospects is one of the most important things
required. Sometimes it is worthwhile to pay a bit more to your
list broker in order to obtain a list of those people who not
only have purchased through mail order, but have purchased within
the last 60 days or so.
Then
you know they are qualified buyers.
Another
major point is the need for testing. You must TEST... TEST...
TEST... One interesting story proves a point about the need for
testing. In the early days of the 'Lands End" catalog the
owners focused the Company on a ' water sports equipment' catalog
filled with all sorts of boats, rafts, life jackets, etc.
When
the orders started coming in... the orders were for the few clothing
items that they had included as an afterthought... Not the sports
equipment !
The
customers told them what they didn't want to hear... but they
had sense enough to listen... which sometimes is the most important
thing we can do.
Well,
you can bet the clothes immediately became the primary items
of success and the water craft equipment disappeared in a big
hurry. Today Lands End is one of the most successful clothing
catalog companies in the nation.
There
is room for everybody in this industry.
There
don't even seem to be competitors. There are almost 300 million
people in the U.S. alone and no one company or individual could
possibly cover all that . So come on in and join in the fun.