"5 Lessons
Every Internet Marketer Needs to Learn From Direct Mail Experts
"
By Terry Dean
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:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
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