- Whether you sell information reports or
build furniture in your workshop, this report will tell you WHAT
to sell and HOW to sell it.
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- CREATE YOUR OWN MAIL ORDER PRODUCTS
Copyright 1995 by Premier Publishers,
Inc, USA.All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be
reproduced by any means without the express prior and written
permission of the publisher.
Pick up almost any book
or folio on mail order selling and invariably you will find the
same advice. When you select a mail order product, select one
which:
• Appeals to a large segment of the population.
• Is not readily available in stores.
• Is easy to ship by mail. » Is worth the price.
• Is a product that lends itself to repeat orders.
Most mail order writers will also suggest that you try to acquire
the exclusive selling rights to your product. And, most will
also agree that a dealer has a better chance of succeeding in
the mail order business if he is the creator of the actual product
itself.
- All of this is certainly good
advice. However, it does not go far enough. It does not tell
you how to create a product that is exclusively your own. In
the few pages that follow, we would like to show you—step
by step—how to create your own mail order product.
- Let's begin by making a very revolutionary
statement. The first step on the road to mail order success is
not the selection of a product! That may sound like a very strange
statement. But, if you want to be successful there are three
things you must do before you ever select a product to sell by
mail.
- Analyze Yourself- You will only
succeed in selling an individual product or line of mail order
products if you really enjoy selling it. You must be honestly
enthusiastic about your offer. It must be a product you yourself
would want to purchase.
- Select Your Market • You
want to sell to people who have interests similar to your own.
People who desire the same things you do. People likely to purchase
your item. Only then will you be comfortable in your mail order
business.
- Analyze Your Prospects - Before
you ever select a product you should know what the consumers
in your market are buying, what they would like to buy, and what
they are willing to buy in the very near future.
- Once you have analyzed yourself,
selected your market, and then thoroughly analyzed your prospects,
you will have little trouble selecting or creating a product
to sell by mail. It will almost select you! Now, let's go back
and take a closer look at these steps.
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- To help you understand yourself,
sit down and, as honestly as possible, write out your answers
to the following questions:
1. When I go to a newsstand, what kind of magazines appeal to
me?
2. What kind of books do I really like to read?
3. When I daydream, about what do I daydream?
4. What do I do with my free time? How do I spend my evenings?
What do I do on weekends?
5. What do I do on my vacation?
6. Which one subject interests me more than any other in the
world?
7. If I didn't have to work for a living, how would I spend my
time?
8. If I could go back to college, what subjects would I take?
9. What kind of products do I like to purchase by mail?
- Once you have honestly answered
all these questions, you will see an amazing pattern emerging.
- SELECT YOUR MARKET
When you have finished, pay a visit to your local library. Go
to the reference desk and ask to see the latest edition of the
Writer's Market Sit down and study the book's Table of Contents.
Here you will find a list of all the main categories of magazines
currently available. Decide which category interests you beyond
all the others. It is in that mail order market that you will
be most at home. And it is there that you will be most successful.
- Now, go back to the reference
desk and ask to see two other publications. Either one can provide
you with the information you need. They are The Standard Periodical
Directory and Ulrich's International Periodical Directory.
- Let us, for the sake of illustration,
say that you have a compelling interest in astrology. With a
little search in the The Standard Periodical Directory you will
find the names and addresses of at least a dozen or so astrology
magazines. In Ulrich's you will find even more, since it lists
magazines published in foreign countries as well.
- Write down the names and address
of each and every publication in your selected field. Write to
each of them, on your business letterhead, if possible. Tell
them you are starting a mail order business specializing in astrological
products, and ask them for a sample copy of their publication
along with their advertising rates package. When you start receiving
your sample copies, save them and the advertising rate cards.
They will be invaluable to you in the future.
- While you are waiting for these
to arrive, go to the nearest second-hand magazine store and buy
a few dozen old astrology magazines. Get as many different magazine
titles as possible. Be sure to get copies that carry mail order
ads. Issues that are ten or fifteen years old will be of limited
value to you. Instead, try to obtain some of the more current
issues. You are now ready to begin in earnest.
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- Start a notebook. Pick up one
of the magazines which you have purchased at the second-hand
magazine store. Read the first ad—every line of it. Read
it slowly and carefully. When you have finished reading it, see
if you can describe what is being sold in five words or less.
If you can't, go back and read it again. If you can, record your
description under one of three headings in your notebook:
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- Merchandise
Information Service
All mail order offerings come under one of the three headings
listed above. If the ad were for an "Aquarian Necklace",
it should be listed under Merchandise. If it were for a booklet
on "Flying Saucers", it would be listed under Information.
If it is an offer to chart your horoscope, it would be listed
under Service.
After you have analyzed the first ad, go on and study the next
one. Continue this process until you have thoroughly analyzed
every single ad in the magazine, including the classifieds. When
you are through, you will have three lists:
• A list of astrological merchandise for sale.
• A list of astrological manuals or other information for
sale.
• A list of astrological services for sale.
As you read, watch for
Undeveloped Ideas — You will find, especially in
older issues, really good ideas that were for one reason or another
never developed. Perhaps the originator lost interest or didn't
have the capital to develop his idea. He may have died or lost
interest in mail order or been beset by other problems. If you
can develop the idea, you have a new, successful mail order product.
Wholesale Sources — Watch for ads in the more recent
issues that say "Dealers Wanted." You may discover
the perfect source of mail order products for you.
Study the Articles — The feature articles will show
you in what the readers are interested, and they will give you
clues as to what readers want to buy. Remember that the articles
do two things. First, they address topics of interests that will
entice the reader to keep looking through the magazine. However,
they also create new interests in the minds of the readers. Can
you create a product that the readers will desire as a result
of reading a typical article?
You will be amazed at what you will discover when you read magazines
from the viewpoint of a mail order dealer!
While researching this manuscript, we analyzed three totally
different magazines from the mail order point of view. We would
like to share some of our findings with you. Dont worry if the
fields are different from those which interest you. The basic
mail order principles will be the same no matter what your area
of interest.
The first magazine we analyzed was Astrology - Your Daily Horoscope.
We looked first at the
Merchandise offers.
The first ad was for personalized stationery. Any mail order
seller knows you can sell personalized
stationery to any market. But, this dealer took a commonplace
product and adapted it to the astrological market. Next to the
name and address that he prints on the stationery, he also prints
the astrological sun sign. He calls his product "Zodiac
Stationery."
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- CONTINUED
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