direct mail?

[jcpoolgod]

Is this a dead form of advertising? Do any of you still use it?

 

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[DeletedUser2]

it is still good. and very profitable

Z

 

[jcpoolgod]

I like all this stuff! I cant believe how fun this is getting. I like learning about marketing. I don't have a product yet but I am starting to realize how quickly you can make money on the net. I owe my new found enthusiasm to two people. Mj (his book) and Steve Jobs. Who I watched a documentary on the other day. In an interview he said something along the lines of " everything around you was made by people who were no smarter than you" what are the best ways to do direct mailing . I think I read something once about it takes 7 times for people to buy. I'm just so excited

 

[brycer9]

I like all this stuff! I cant believe how fun this is getting. I like learning about marketing. I don't have a product yet but I am starting to realize how quickly you can make money on the net. I owe my new found enthusiasm to two people. Mj (his book) and Steve Jobs. Who I watched a documentary on the other day. In an interview he said something along the lines of " everything around you was made by people who were no smarter than you" what are the best ways to do direct mailing . I think I read something once about it takes 7 times for people to buy. I'm just so excited

You've been here since february and you don't have a product yet? Come on man, step it up and start taking some action

 

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[MooreMillions]

Yes!

As long as there are mailboxes, direct mail marketing will always be profitable.

You "make" your money in how you buy/procure your very first list and then you just mail right into it, and the post office will work with you on pricing, depending on how large your volume is and how fast you want it to get there.

 

[royalasg]

Email marketing is never dead....but the way of email marketing has changed. Most of the Affiliated marketers still make huge bucks with direct email send. What you have to careful about is the format of your email, mean how you approach to your client. Most of big still use email services to promote their business.

 

[digitalmarketer]

Got my first client on a very small direct mail campaign, which lead to 5 referral clients and a solid foundation to build my business.

 

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[lilyhollies]

Agreed, however, be careful you don't end up alienating potential clients from your spamming.

 

[oldscool]

it is still good. and very profitable

Z

Are you using direct mail as a lead generator for local business consulting, selling information reports national, or, for selling actual physical goods(i.e. health supplements/electronics)?

 

[healthstatus]

Direct mail is great, but expensive. Unless you are mailing out several thousand letters to a pretty concise set of zip codes you will be at least 40 cents just to pay the postage for each letter. Buying a list in smaller quantities will run you 5 cents to 5 dollars (or more) a name, depending on the list. Add your paper, printing and envelope, and you are in for another 20 cents to 4 dollars per name. You could do a post card but postage will still run you 30 cents a card, and you only get the space on the card to get your message out. If you take any of this to a mail shop to do the folding, inserting, mailing presort you will have their fee as well. A direct mail piece is judged as excellent if it pulls better than a 6% response rate.

 

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[Ryllban]

Its intresting how most companies just send out cheap, bad looking mail offers to the customers. I work as a mailman and I see alot of direct mail to customers.

The number 1 thing they all have in common is that it just looks like some piece as commercial and nothing personal at all. Looks like there is no effort putting in to it. And still, they send out thousands of this.

One thing I learned from one of Gary Halberts books is to make it personal. Attach something (He would use a dollar bill sometimes) to get the customers attention. And also, make the letters more personal and handwrite the adress.

I think alot of companies would benefit so much if they just changed a thing or two in their approach.

 

[oldscool]

Thats why I asked my question to z because I am currently reading halberts newsletters, and, since it has been seven years since his death I was curious what the state of direct mail is at this time. Funny when I googled, "is direct mail dead?"

The responses in the search engine were no. I thought I might get more feedback from an existing thread and see what the responses might be. Gary says if you test 1000 pieces and the test proves well he could find someone to test your other 4000 and invest pretty much in your campaign. I was also curious if I pulled this off would I be able to find investors interested, (since gary is dead and his connections arent mine).

I assumed internet marketing commerce would be a better route, so, I don't know. Just keeping my business model options open when I am ready to strike

 

[Jimmyy]

Thats why I asked my question to z because I am currently reading halberts newsletters, and, since it has been seven years since his death I was curious what the state of direct mail is at this time. Funny when I googled, "is direct mail dead?"

The responses in the search engine were no. I thought I might get more feedback from an existing thread and see what the responses might be. Gary says if you test 1000 pieces and the test proves well he could find someone to test your other 4000 and invest pretty much in your campaign. I was also curious if I pulled this off would I be able to find investors interested, (since gary is dead and his connections arent mine).

I assumed internet marketing commerce would be a better route, so, I don't know. Just keeping my business model options open when I am ready to strike

Haha doing the challenge is making me think about it as well. I never get letters through the post like those in his recommended literature, any sales stuff is so obvious it gets binned straight away. There must be a reason for it, have postage costs climbed or something in the last decade? Maybe everyone's so obsessed with the cheapness of email it's left an opportunity open.

 

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[FrankSmith]

Direct mail is not dead, you don't hear much as its "underground". You can search lists on lists.nextmark.com or get access to the SRDS. Get a sample of the mail piece and track every direct mail letter coming from the company to build your swipe file.

e.g. http://lists.nextmark.com/market?page=order/online/datacard&id=308995

Buyers have paid $59.00 minimum for some sort of front end product, 8140 new leads in the last quarter of 2013. So these guys made on the front end around $160k in December 2013. Remember the money is not made on the front end but the back end of continuous products/services. Yes direct mail kicks a$$ if you know what your doing.

My 2 cents is get on all the lists you can in your market and track the shit of everything and success will follow It's not about response rates its all about ROI.

 

[oldscool]

Isn't srds online now? if so, does it gives full access same as the book,or, would I need to buy the book and or go to the library?

 

[DeletedUser2]

we sell our lists to DM buyers.
we also have some friends who STILL do DM with Jewelry of all things.

Look up conferences for the direct response, or direct mail. they are still out there. and its still just math.
Direct mail. spend 1 dollar make 2

Z

 

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[FrankSmith]

Isn't srds online now? if so, does it gives full access same as the book,or, would I need to buy the book and or go to the library?

Srds is all online now as far I'm aware off. Nextmark have most lists covered, get your mail piece ready, call up a list broker and ask for the mail piece what generated the list and take it from there. Nothing really complicated and as zen mentioned it's all numbers.

 

[Albert Liao]

Ah, glad I found this thread before starting a new one. From a quick analysis of CENTS, it seems like starting a direct mail business would be viable, though I'm a bit skeptical about the time associated with it. Any further thoughts on how this relates with MJ's teachings?

 

[Griffith]

Srds is all online now as far I'm aware off. Nextmark have most lists covered, get your mail piece ready, call up a list broker and ask for the mail piece what generated the list and take it from there. Nothing really complicated and as zen mentioned it's all numbers.

I subscribed last year. Back then they allowed you to purchase a hardcopy of all the lists if you did the full year subscription. They wouldn't allow me to purchase a hardcopy when I did a shorter subscription however.

To OP: Direct mail isn't dead. Marketing channels don't really die they just get expensive.

Btw there's a service called "Who's Mailing What" where you can see what's working in direct mail. Never used so can't vouch for its quality.

 

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[snowbank]

Is this a dead form of advertising?

Anything that people refer to as dead, is often more alive than things that are "hot", because the people making money in the "dead" space never have any new competition because everyone assumes it's dead.