Aside
from advertising, the biggest expense involved in a mail
order
business is postage.
This
means that virtually everyone involved in mail order is on
the
look out for ways to save money getting their sales offers out
to
prospects.
The
answer is on co-op mailings.
Here's
how a typical co-op mailing service works:
A person with
something
to sell via mail order sees an advertisement inviting
him
or her to send their circulars or brochures to a co-op mailing
service.
The
co-op mailing service receives these circulars or brochures
and
hires people to fold and stuff them into envelopes and then
mails
them.
For
this service, they charge anywhere from œ10 to œ100 per
thousand
- and it's a good deal for the mailer.
The
mailer doesn't have the bother of folding and stuffing
envelopes,
nor the expense of renting a mailing list to send his
offers
to, and he doesn't have to worry about the costs of
postage.
All
of this is included in the fee he pays the co-op mailing
service.
Now,
quite naturally, the co-op mailer cannot do this and make any
money
unless he's got a number of circulars or brochures from
several
customers in each envelope he sends out.
And
that's precisely how he makes his money - by including 10 to
16
such circulars in each envelope.
Look
at it from a mathematical point of view:
Say
he's charging 12 people œ50 per thousand to fold and stuff
their
envelopes in with his own outgoing mail.
Twelve
times œ50 comes out to œ600 - he's using his own mailing
lists,
so there's no big expense involved here - but he does have
to
pay people to fold and stuff envelopes unless he's got it
organised
where he and his family do it. The going
rate of pay to
fold
and stuff circulars is about œ20 per thousand ... and to post
1,000
envelopes is going to be œ180 second class.
Then the cost
of
the envelopes, which could be around œ30.
Subtract
those figures from the œ600 he took in, and you have a
profit
of œ370. Not bad for one mailing!
The
best thing of all about starting and operating a co-op mailing
service
is that you can include your own circulars or brochures
with
each envelope you send out.
You
stuff circulars or brochures from 12 different paying
customers,
and at the same time, include at least two of your own.
So how
do you get started in such an easy and highly profitable
business?
The
simplest way is to have some advertising copy made up, and
include
one with everything you mail out.
Another
sure-fire method of pulling in orders is to run a simple
classified
ad in as many of the national coverage mail order
publications
as you can afford.
Such
an ad might look like this:
Co-Op
Mailing! Best customers in the
country. Just œ50 per
thousand
- you supply the circulars - we mail!
A
couple of things you should do in order to handle the orders
you'll
be getting.
Be
sure to have a number of people lined up/available to do the
folding
and stuffing of envelopes for you - and also, be sure to
get
yourself a friendly post office!
With
those details out of the way, all you really have to do when
the
orders come in is drop off the circulars to be folded and
stuffed
into envelopes, with the envelopes, your return address
can
be rubber-stamped on the envelopes as they are applying the
mailing
address labels, and you're on your way.
By
including a co-op mailing advertising coupon with each piece of
mail
that you send out, plus regular advertising in most of the
mail
order publications, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how
fast
your profits will grow.
..page
Once
you get organised and have all the bugs worked out of your
system,
you might also expand your business to include your local
area.
To
do this, you either call on your local area businesses and
professional
people, or else hire commission sales people to do
the
selling for you.
Most
small businesses are interested in sending out regular sale
flyers
or catalogues, so you or your sales people simply call
these
people and offer to do the job for them.
Contact
with a good printer in your area will also be to your
benefit.
You
can offer to have the circulars printed - you collect a
commission
from the printer - and make a bundle of profit with
your
mailing!
If
you sign just 5 different shopping centres, you could really be
rolling
in money within a very short period of time.
At
œ50 per thousand - times 5 stores - you would have œ250.
And
when you multiply that times 5 different shopping centres,
you're
talking about œ1,250 ...
Then,
if you get all of these people to go with your services on a
regular
basis - say once a month, you've got yourself a very
respectable
monthly income that will certainly keep you from the
Poor
House.
Whenever
you send out mail, you should always include your co-op
mail
advertising coupon, plus at least two advertising circulars
of
your own.
By
doing this, you'll continue to pull in even more business for
your
mailing services, and at the same time make money from
whatever
you're selling on your advertising circulars.
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