HOW TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS WITH
YOUR OWN MONEY - MAKING NEWSLETTER
Writing and publishing a
successful newsletter is perhaps the most
competitive of all the different areas of mail
order and direct marketing.
Five years ago, there were
1500 different newsletters in this country.
Today there are well over 10,000, with new ones
being started every day. It's also interesting
to note that for every new one that's started,
some disappear just as quickly as they are
started - lack of operating capital and
marketing know-how being the principal causes of
failure.
To be successful with a
newsletter, you have to specialize. Your best
bet will be with new information on a subject
not already covered by an established
newsletter.
Regardless of the
frustrations involved in launching your own
newsletter, never forget this truth: There are
people from all walks of life, in all parts of
this country, many of them with no writing
ability whatsoever, who are making incredible
profits with simple two-, four-, and six-page
newsletters!
Your first step should be to
subscribe to as many different newsletters and
mail order publications as you can afford.
Analyze and study how the others are doing it.
Attend as many workshops and seminars on your
subject as possible. Learn from the pros. Learn
how the successful newsletter publishers are
doing it, and why they are making money. Adapt
their success methods to your own newsletter,
but determine to recognize where they are weak,
and to make yours better in every way.
Plan your newsletter before
launching it. Know the basic premise for its
being, your editorial position, the layout, art
work, type styles, subscription price,
distribution methods, and every other detail
necessary to make it look, sound and feel like
the end result you have envisioned.
Lay out your start-up needs;
detail the length of time it's going to take to
become established, and what will be involved in
becoming established. Set a date as a mile stone
of accomplishment for each phase of your
development: A date for breaking even, a date
for attaining a certain paid subscription
figure, and a monetary goal for each of your
first five years in business. And all this must
be done before publishing your first issue.
Most newsletter publishers do
all the work themselves, and are impatient to
get that first issue into print. As a result,
they neglect to devote the proper amount of time
to market research and distribution. Don't start
your newsletter with out first having
accomplished this task!
Market research is simply
determining who the people are who will be
interested in buying and reading your
newsletter, and the kind of information these
people want to see in your newsletter as a
reason for continuing to buy it. You have to
determine what it is they want from your
newsletter.
Your market research must
give you unbiased answers about your
newsletter's capabilities of fulfilling your
prospective buyer's need for information; how
much he's willing to pay for it, and an overall
profile of his status in life. The questions of
why he
needs your information, and
how he'll use it should be answered. Make sure
you have the answers to these questions, publish
your newsletter as a vehicle of fulfillment to
these needs, and you're on your way!
You're going to be in trouble
unless your newsletter has a real point of
difference that can be easily perceived by your
prospective buyer. The design and graphics of
your newsletter, plus what you say and how you
say it, will help in giving your newsletter this
vital difference.
Be sure your newsletter works
with the personality you're trying to build for
it. Make sure it reflects the wants of your
subscribers. Include your advertising promise
within the heading, on the title page, and in
the same words your advertising uses. And above
all else, don't skim on design or graphics!
The name of your newsletter
should also help to set it apart from similar
news letters, and spell out its advertising
promise. A good name reinforces your
advertising. Choose a name that defines the
direction and scope of your newsletter.
Opportunity Knocking, Money
Making Magic, Extra Income Tip Sheet, and Mail
Order Up-Date are primate examples of this type
of philosophy - as opposed to the Johnson
Report, The Association Newsletter, or
Club-house Confidential.
Try to make your newsletter's
name memorable - one that flows automatically.
Don't pick a name that's so vague it could apply
to almost anything. The name should identify
your newsletter and its subject quickly and
positively.
Pricing your newsletter
should be consistent with the image you're
trying to build. If you're starting a "Me-too"
newsletter, never price it above the
competition. In most instances, the consumer
associates higher prices with quality, so if you
give your readers better quality information in
an expensive looking package, don't hesitate to
ask for a premium price. However, if your
information is gathered from most of the other
newsletters on the subject, you will do well to
keep your prices in line with theirs.
One of the best selling
points of a newsletter is in the degree of
audience involvement - for instance, how much it
talks about, and uses the names of its readers.
People like to see things
written about themselves. They resort to all
kinds of things to get their names in print, and
they pay big money to read what's been written
about them. You should understand this facet of
human nature, and decide if and how you want to
capitalize upon it - then plan your newsletter
accordingly.
Almost as important as names
in your newsletter are pictures. The readers
will generally accept a newsletter faster if the
publisher's picture is presented or included as
a part of the newsletter. Whether you use
pictures of the people, events, locations or
products you write about is a policy decision;
but the use of pictures will set your
publication apart from the others and give it an
individual image, which is precisely what
you want.
The decision as to whether to
carry paid advertising, and if so, how much, is
another policy decision that should be made
while your newsletter is still in the planning
stages. Some purists feel that advertising
corrupts the image of the newsletter and may
influence editorial policy.
Most people accept advertising as a part of
everyday life, and don't care one way or the
other.
Many newsletter publishers,
faced with rising production costs and viewing
advertising as a means of offsetting those
costs, welcome paid advertising. Generally the
advertisers see the newsletter as a vehicle to a
captive audience, and well worth the cost.
The only problem with
accepting advertising in your newsletter would
appear to be that as your circulation grows, so
will your number of advertisers, until you'll
have to increase the size of your newsletter to
accommodate the advertisers. At this point, the
basic premise or philosophy of the newsletter
often changes from news and practical
information to one of an advertiser's showcase.
Promoting your newsletter,
finding prospective buyers and converting these
prospects into loyal subscribers, will be the
most difficult task of your entire undertaking.
It takes detailed planning, persistence and
patience.
You'll need a sales letter.
Check the sales letter you receive in the mail;
analyze how these are written and pattern yours
along the same lines. You'll find all of them -
all those worthy of being called sales letters -
following the same formula: Attention, Interest,
Desire, and Action on the part of the reader -
AIDA.
Jump right in at the
beginning and tell the reader how he's going to
benefit from your newsletter, and then keep
emphasizing right on through your "PS", the many
and different benefits he'll gain from
subscribing to your newsletter. Elaborate on
your listing of benefits with examples of what
you have, or you intend to include, in your
newsletter.
Follow these examples with
endorsements or testimonials from reviewers and
satisfied subscribers. Make the recipient of
your sales letter feel that you're offering him
the answer to all his problems on the subject of
your newsletter.
You have to make your
prospect feel that "this is the insider's
secret" to the success he wants. Present it to
him as his own personal key to success, and then
tell him how far behind his contemporaries he is
going to be if he doesn't act upon your offer
immediately.
Always include a "PS" in your
sales letter. This should quickly restate to the
reader that he can start enjoying the benefits
of your newsletter by acting immediately, and
very subtly suggesting that he may not get
another chance to get the kind of "success help"
you're offering him with this sales letter.
Don't worry about the length
of your sales letter - most are four pages or
more; however, it must flow logically and
smoothly. Use short sentences, short paragraphs,
indented paragraphs, and lost of sub-heads for
the people who will be "scanning through"
your sales letter.
In addition to the sales
letter, your promotion package should include a
return reply order card or coupon. This can be
either a self-addressed business reply post
card, or a separate coupon, in which case you'll
have to include a self-addressed return reply
envelope. In every mailing piece you send out,
always include one or the other: either a
self-addressed business reply postcard or a
self-addressed return reply envelope for the
recipient to use to send your order form and his
remittance back to you.
Your best response will come
from a business reply postcard on which you
allow your prospect to charge the subscription
to his credit card, request that you bill him,
or send his payment with the subscription start
order.
For make up of this
subscription order card or coupon, simply start
saving all the order cards and coupons you
receive during the next month or so. Choose the
one you like best, modify according to your
needs, and have it typeset, pasted up and border
fit.
Next, you'll need a
Subscription Order Acknowledgment card or
letter. This is simply a short note thanking
your new subscriber for his order, and promising
to keep him up-to-date with everything relating
to the subject of your newsletter.
An acknowledgment letter, in
an envelope, will cost more postage to mail than
a simple postcard; however, when you send the
letter you have to opportunity to enclose
additional material. A circular listing other
items available through you will produce
additional orders.
Thus far, you've prepared the
layout and copy for your newsletter. Go ahead
and have a hundred copies printed, undated.
You've written a sales letter and prepared a
return reply subscription order card or coupon;
go ahead and have a hundred of these printed,
also undated, of course. You'll need letterhead
mailing envelopes, and don't forget the return
reply envelopes if you choose to use the coupons
instead of the business reply postcard. Go ahead
and have a thousand mailing envelopes printed.
You also need subscription order acknowledgment
cards or notes; have a hundred of these printed,
and of course, don't forget the imprinted reply
envelopes if you're going along with the idea of
using a note instead of a
postcard. This w ill be a basic supply for
"testing" your materials so far.
Now you're ready for the big
move - the Advertising Campaign.
Start by placing a small
classified ad in one of your local newspapers.
You should place your ad in a weekend or Sunday
paper that will reach as many people as
possible, and of course, do everything you can
to keep your costs as low as possible. How ever,
do not skimp on your advertising budget. To be
successful - to make as much money as possible
with your idea - you'll need to reach as many
people as you can afford, and as often as you
can.
Over the years, we have
launched several hundred advertising campaigns.
We always ran new ads for a minimum of three
issues and kept close tabs on the returns. So
long as the returns kept coming in, we continued
running that ad in that publication, while
adding a new publication to
test for results. To our way of thinking, this
is the best way to go, regardless of the
product, to successfully multiply your customer
list.
Move slowly, start with a
local, far-reaching and widely read paper, and
with the prof its or returns from that ad, go to
the regional magazines, or one of the smaller
national magazines, and continue plowing your
returns into more advertising in different
publications. By taking your
time, and building your acceptance in this
manner, you won't lose too much if one of your
ads should prove to be a dud. Stay with the
advertising. Do not abandon it in favor of
direct mail. We would not recommend direct mail
until you are well established and your national
classified advertising pro gram is bringing in a
healthy profit for you.
Do not become overly
ambitious and go out on a limb with expensive
full-page advertising until you're very well
established. When you do buy full page
advertising, start with the smaller
publications, and build from those results. Have
patience; keep close tabs on your costs per
subscriber, and build from the profits of your
advertising. Always test the advertising medium
you want to use with a classified ad, and if it
pulls well for you, go on to a larger display
type ad.
Classified advertising is the
least expensive way to go, so long as you use
the "inquiry method." You can easily and quickly
build your subscriber list with this type of
advertisement.
We would not recommend any
attempts to sell subscriptions, or any product
from classified ads, or even from small display
ads. There just isn't enough space to describe
the product adequately, and seeing the cost of
your item, many possible subscribers will
not bother to inquire for the
full story.
When you do expand your
efforts into direct mail, go straight to a
national list broker. You can find their names
and addresses in the yellow pages section of
your local telephone directory. Show the list
broker your product and your mailing piece, and
explain what type people you
want to reach, and allow them to help you.
Once you've decided on a list
to use, go slowly. Start with a sampling of
5,000 names. If the returns are favorable, go
for 10,000 names, and then 15,000 and so on
through the entire list.
Never rent the entire list
based upon the returns from your first couple of
samplings. The variables are just too many, and
too complicated, and too conducive to your
losing your shirt when you "roll out an entire
list" based upon returns from a controlled
sampling.
There are a number of other
methods for finding new subscribers, which we'll
explore for you here, detailing the good and the
bad as we have researched them.
One method is that of
contracting with what is known as a "cash-field"
agency. These are soliciting agencies who hire
people to sell door-to-door and via the phone,
almost always using a high pressure sales
approach. The publisher usually makes only about
5% from each subscription sold by one of these
agencies. That speaks for itself.
Then, there are several major
catalog sales companies that sell subscriptions
to school libraries, government agencies and
large corporations. These people usually buy
through these catalog sales companies rather
than direct from the publisher. The publisher
makes about 10% on each subscription sold for
him by one of these agencies.
Co-op Mailings are generally
piggy-back mailings of your subscription offer
along with numerous other business offers in the
same envelope. Smaller mail order entrepreneurs
do this under the name of Big Mail Offers.
Coming into vogue now are the Postcard Mailers.
You submit your offer on a business reply
postcard; the packager then prints and mails
your postcard in a package with 40 or 50 similar
postcards via third class mail to a mailing list
that could number 100,000 or more. You pay a
premium price for this type of mailing - usually
$1000 to $1500 per mailing, but the returns are
very good and you keep all the incoming money.
Another form of co-op mailing
is where you supply a charge card company or
department store with your subscription offer as
a "statement mailing suffer." Your offer goes
out with the monthly statements; new
subscriptions are returned to the mailer and
billed to the customer's
charge card. The publisher usually makes about
50% on each subscription. This is one of the
most lucrative, but expensive methods of
bringing in new customers.
Direct mail agencies such as
Publishers Clearing House can be a very
lucrative source of new subscriptions, in that
they mail out more than 60 million pieces of
mail each year, all of which are built around an
opportunity for the recipient to win a gigantic
cash sweepstakes. The only problem with this
type of subscription agency is the very low
percentage of the total subscription price the
publisher receives from these subscriptions,
plus the fact that the publishers are required
to charge a lower subscription rate than they
normally charge.
There are also several
agencies that offer Introductory, Sample Copy
and Trial Subscription offers, such as Select
Information Exchange and Publisher Exchange.
With this kind of agency, details about your
publication are listed along with similar
publications, in full page ads inviting the
readers to send $10 or $20 for trial
subscription to those of his choice. The
publishers received no money from these
inquiries - only a list of names of people
interested in receiving trial s ubscriptions.
How the publisher follows up and is able to
convert these into full term, and paying
subscribers is entirely dependent
upon his own efforts.
Most major newspapers will
carry small, lightweight brochures or oversized
reply cards as inserts in their Sunday papers.
The publisher supplies the total number of
inserts, pays the newspaper $20 per thousand for
the number of newspapers he wants his order form
carried in, and then retains all the money
generated. But the high costs of printing the
inserts, plus the $20 per thousand for
distribution, make this an extremely costly
method of obtaining new subscribers.
Schools, civic groups and
other fund raising organizations work in about
the same manner as the cash-field agencies. They
supply the solicitor and the publisher gets 25%
or less for each new subscription sold.
Attempting to sell
subscriptions via radio or TV is very expensive
and works better in generating sales at the
newsstands than new subscriptions. PI (Per
Inquiry) sales is a very popular way of getting
radio or TV exposure and advertising for your
newsletter or other publication, but again, the
number of sales brought in by the broad cast
media is very small when compared with the
number of times the "invitation commercial" has
to be "aired" to elicit a response.
A new idea beginning to
surface on the cable TV scene is "Products
Shows". This is the kind of show where the
originator of the product or his representative
appears on TV and gives a complete sales
presentation lasting from five minutes to 15
minutes. Overall, these programs generally run
between midnight and 2 AM, with the whole
program a series of sales presentations for
different products. They operate on the basis of
the product owner paying a fee to appear and
show his product, and also from an arrangement
where the product owner pays a certain
percentage from each sale generated from this
exposure.
Newsletter publishers often
run exchange publicity endorsement with
non-competing publishers. Generally, these
endorsements invite the reader of newsletter "A"
to send for a sample copy of newsletter "B" for
a look at what somebody else is going that
might be of especial help,
etc. This can be a very good source of new
subscriptions, and certainly the least
expensive.
Running ads in the Mail Order
Ad Sheets is not very productive, either in
terms of inquiries or sales. About the best
thing that can be said of most of these ad
sheets (and there seems to be a million of them
with new ones cropping up faster than you can
count them) is that your ad in several of them
will let other people in on what you're doing.
You will be able to keep track of a lot of the
people trying to make a place for themselves in
the mail order field.
Last, but not least, is the
enlistment of your own subscribers to send you
names of people they think might be interested
in receiving a sample copy of your publication.
Some publishers ask their readers to pass along
these names out of loyalty, while others offer a
monetary incentive or a special bonus for names
of people sent in who be come subscribers.
By studying and understanding
the information in this report, you should
encounter fewer serious problems in launching
your own successful specialized newsletter that
will be the source of ongoing monetary rewards
for you. However, there is an important point to
remember about doing business by mail -
particularly within the confines of selling
information by mail - that is, Mail Order is
ONLY another way of doing business. You have to
learn all there is to know about this way o f
doing business, and then keep on learning,
changing, observing and adapting to stay on top.
The best way of learning
about and keeping up with this field of endeavor
is by buying and reading books by the people who
have succeeded in making money via the mails; by
subscribing to several of the better periodic
journals and aids to people in mail order, and
by joining some of the mail order trade
associations for a free exchange of ideas,
advice and help. |
RoDI
ISOC
IWA
ARTT
RTS
WQC 2003
ISAQ 2005