1) What's the most profitable way to use classifieds?
Classifieds
are best used to build your mailing list of qualified
prospects. Use classifieds to offer a free catalogue,
booklet or
report
relative to your product line.
2) What can you
sell "directly" from classifieds?
Generally,
anything and everything, so long as it doesn't cost
more
than about œ12.00, which is about the most people will pay in
response
to an offer in the classifieds. These
types of ads are
great
for pulling inquiries such as: Write for further
information;
send œ3, get two for the price of one; Dealers
wanted,
send for product info and a real money maker's title.
3) What are the best months of the year to
advertise?
All
twelve months of the year!
Responses
to your ads during some months will be slower in
accumulating,
but by keying your ads according to the month they
appear,
and a careful tabulation of your returns from each keyed
ad,
you'll see that steady year round advertising will continue to
pull
orders for you, regardless of the month it's published.
I've
personally received inquiries and orders from ads placed as
long
as 2 years previous to the date of the response!
4) Are mail order publications good advertising
buys?
The
least effective are the ad sheets.
Most
of the ads in these publications are "exchange ads", meaning
that
the publisher of ad sheet "A" runs the ads of publisher "B"
without
charge, because publisher "B" is running the ads of
publisher
"A" without charge.
The
"claimed" circulation figures of these publications are almost
always
based on "wishes, hopes and wants" while the "true"
circulation
goes out to similar, small, part time mail order
dealers.
Very
poor medium for investing advertising money because everyone
receiving
a copy of a seller, and nobody is buying.
When
an ad sheet is received by someone not involved in mail
order,
its usually given a cursory glance and then discarded as
"junk
mail".
Tabloid
newspapers are slightly better than the ad sheets, but not
by
much!
The
important difference with the tabloids is in the "helpful
information"
articles they try to carry for the mail order
beginner.
A
"fair media" for recruiting dealers or independent sales reps
for
mail order products, and for renting mailing lists, but still
circulated
amongst "sellers" with very few buyers.
Besides
that, the life of a mail order tab sheet is about the same
as
that of your daily newspaper.
With
mail order magazines, it depends on the quality of the
publication
and its business concepts.
Some
mail order magazines are nothing more than expanded ad
sheets,
while others strive to help the opportunity seekers with
on-going
advice and tips he can use in the development and growth
of
his own wealth-building projects.
5) How can I decide where to advertise my
product?
First
of all, you have to determine who your prospective buyers
are.
Then
you do a little bit of market research.
Talk
to your friends, neighbours, and people at random who might
fit
this profile. Ask them if they would be
interested in a
product
such as yours, and then ask them which publications they
read.
Next,
go to your public library for a listing of the publications
of
this type from the Standard Rate and Data Service catalogues.
Make
a list of the addresses, circulation figures, reader
demographs
and advertising rates.
To
determine the true costs of your advertising and decide which
is
the better buy, divide the total audited circulation figure for
a
one inch ad: œ10 per inch with a publication showing 10,000
circulation
would be 10,000 into œ10 or 10p per thousand.
Write
and ask for sample copies of the magazines you've
tentatively
chosen to place your advertising in.
Look
over their advertising - be sure that they don't or won't put
your
ad in the "gutter" which is the inside column next to the
binding.
How
many other mail order type ads are they carrying - you want to
go
with a publication that's busy, not one that has only a few
ads.
The
more ads in the publication, the better the response the
advertisers
are getting, or else they wouldn't be investing their
money
in that publication.
To
"properly" test your ad, you should let it run through at least
three
consecutive issues of any publication.
If
your responses are small, try a different publication. Then,
if
your responses are still small, look at your ad and think about
re-writing
it for greater appeal, and pulling power.
In
a great many instances, it'd the ad and not the publication's
pulling
power that's at fault!
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