Making Commission Circulars Pay

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One of the biggest mistakes that people new to mail order make is thinking that getting commission circulars and mailing them to people on mailing lists will pay. It doesn't. At the VERY best, you will get 4% responses but usually you will get 1% or less.

So how do we make commission circulars pay?

The only way that you can make them pay by mailing them to mailing lists is to have your OWN mailing list of people who have bought from you before. That basically means that you have got to take a risk and lose money before you can make any. Once you have found your own pattern of doing this, you can repeat it as many times as you like and make as much money from it as you have time to carry out your own plan.

I consider that advertising in mail order magazines is the easiest, most certain and cheapest way of building up your own list. To get results from advertising, you need to almost GIVE something away. You could offer a Report for just two stamps. This would cover your costs but not your time. When you send the Report out, you include with it your commission brochures and, if they are good, you will get a number of sales.

Another thing worth advertising is 'Big Mails'. Make up your own Big Mail by getting involved in as many commission circulars as you can as well as 'Co-Publishing@ a couple of magazines which will also cut down the cost of your advertising.

Yet another way of building up your mailing list is to mail to mailing lists or through other mailers who can possibly do it cheaper than you can but make YOUR offer almost a 'give-away'. You can use your brochure to get enquiries for just a stamp or sell something very low cost that will bring in a quantity of replies rather than large money. I don't recommend giving 'free' as in my experiments, I have found that giving 'freebies' rarely brings follow-up sales whereas those who give a stamp also give better follow-up results.

You may well have realised that building-up your own mailing list is going to take time. Most advertising in mail order magazines will only bring one, two or three replies per issue. That is a large number of issues to get one hundred names for your mailing list. If you have the money to invest, your best bet is to advertise by mailing to mailing lists or through other mailers.

Once you have compiled even a small list, you should mail to these people once a month. It doesn't matter if you include the same items in your mailing although do try to include at LEAST one thing that is new and different.

To improve response, include a personal letter. I have found that a written letter is best but you can type it. However, NEVER send a printed letter. You will notice yourself that when YOU receive mail, YOU will read a written or typed letter but NOT a printed one. Others are much the same as you. Your letter should be short and point out a few advantages to be had from your products.