Greetings! This is going to be fun, get ready to take some notes.
Warning: Using mail to grow your business is an advanced technique, and it's not cheap. Like any other marketing tool, there's a learning curve here, so be ready to pay before seeing a return.
Alright, now that we got that out of the way, let's get down to business. Using the mail to grow your business, whether you are doing an MLM or networking program, a retail business, or whatever, the process is exactly the same. First, here are the pro's and con's of using mail:
PRO's - You'll have ZERO competition. Ask your upline, downline, or crossline if they know how to use mail, and they'll look at you like you have two heads. Nobody uses mail, and that's what makes it such a sweet market. On top of that, the mail market is so deep, you'll never get to the bottom of it. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people that simply won't respond to a phone call or an email who will respond to a mail piece.
CON's - Like I said earlier, it isn't cheap. Also, when you are starting out, it's slow, because you have to wait to take out your ads, then wait for response, then wait for the mail to hit the street, etc etc.
How To Use Mail - If you live in a semi-urban area that has a decent sized library, you will find a very special book there called the SRDS (Standard Rates And Data Services). This book contains every consumer list on the planet, anything you can think up, it will be here. The bulk of lists you find here will be list rentals. Your first step is to get a hot list.
What do you look for in a list? Here are the keys you should be looking for when evaluating a list:
1. Similarity Of Product Purchase - Look, people are creatures of habit. Yes, we all like to think that we are totally original "one of a kinds", but the fact is that 90% of all people find a rut and stay there. For example, go look inside your fridge. Go on. Now, go back two weeks later, and you will probably see the same types of food. We are creatures of habit, and we are consumers of habit.
For example, if you were marketing a health beverage, the best type of list you can be looking for is someone who has used some sort of health supplement. Because if you are marketing a health beverage, it would be a pretty easy sell if you are targeting people that have already demonstrated the propensity to purchase your types of products. We are creatures of habit, so instead of trying to beg someone to try your supplement, why not make it easy on yourself and target people that are already demonstrating (by their buying habits) that they recognize the importance of supplementation.
2. Recency Of Purchase - This is really important. As in the explanation above, we want to make this as easy as possible, so if we are targeting people that used a supplement 10 years ago, we're in trouble. We want to target a prospect that sees the value of what we are marketing right now. Example: If I were marketing a legal services package (you all know what company I'm talking about) I would want to target people that had their identity stolen recently, and had to pay for their identity restoration costs recently, not 25 years ago. I want to talk with someone that currently sees the need, so look for a recent purchase.
3. Resources - Of course, you want to be putting your message in front of an audience that has the financial ability to take advantage of what you are marketing. So when you are going through the SRDS, look for the average cost of unit purchased, so that you can see how much these people are spending. If you are marketing a product that costs $3,612.00, then don't target a list that has paid an average unit cost of $4.23. You want to target a list that has a similar price structure, so that you know they're able to afford it. It would also make a lot of sense to specify a certain minimum credit rating with your list, so that you don't end up putting a lot of mail in front of people that can't afford it.
Alright, so you have a list, now what? Go get a lead-capture system. There are a lot of places out there, but you want you to be able to do the following:
1. Record a 24/7 message about your products and services.
2. Have multiple extensions to test on.
3. The ability to take messages left by prospects.
4. The ability to monitor how long your prospects are staying on the line.
5. The ability to capture your leads mailing information.
Like I said, there are a lot of places out there where you can do this. I personally use the ART system, it stands for Automatic Response Technology. I think it's $100.00 to set up, and like $49.00 a month for the service. Now, I'm not affiliated with these folks, I just use their service and it works well for this application, so again, I encourage you to do some research, because they're definitely not the only game in town.
So you have a list, you have a lead-capture system, now you need to test your list. You want to call about 30 - 50 numbers on this list, to make sure that this list is the real deal. The last thing you want to do is spend a few hundred bucks on a test, when you could have saved that money by taking half an hour to verify the data first.
Now you need to design your system. One of the most simple ways to do it is to do a postcard drop on your list to generate your leads, and drive them to your Free Recorded Message on your lead-capture system. Then, take the leads that responded to your postcard, and you can call them up and put them on a presentation, or you can mail them a sales letter. If you mail them a sales letter, you have to have some decent copy skills. If you don't have those skills, no big deal, just don't drop a sales letter, give 'em a call and put them on your teleconference presentation.
There are 2 key factors you should focus on when you are designing your system:
1. Mathematics - You need to go through and do some math. If you have a decent postcard drop, you will generate 3% - 5% response rate. Then if you call them, you will only physically speak with 60% of them, and if you put them on your presentation call, if you have a decent skill set, you will close 25% - 33% of them into your business.
If you mail your prospects a sales letter (and it's a good sales letter, you can't mail them trash), you will have between 1% - 3% that call you, credit card in hand, wanting to do business with you.
So at this point, you should work some math. How much does your list cost, and the cost to put your system together? Given these response rates, how much is your cost per acquisition, meaning how much do you have to spend to bring in a new associate using a good sales letter, or using a teleconference presentation? Then, look at your commission structure from your company. How much will you be paid for each new associate? How long does each new associate have to stay on the books using your product before you starting turning profit? To do this math, just use the response rates listed above. For example:
I am paid $150 instant commission for each new associate, and $40 per month in residual income. Therefore, if I pay $500 for my list, then $100 for a lead-capture service, and then $800 to drop 2000 post cards, that adds up to $1,400.00. So let's say I get a 3% response, so out of that 2000, I will have 60 that call my 24/7 recorded message. Then, I will only get a hold of 60%, so that's 36 people I actually get to my presentation. Then, lets assume that I have a decent skill set, and I close 25% into your business, which equals 9 new associates. 9 associates X $150 quick commission is $1,350.00, which is $50 less than what I paid.
But now, I have 9 new associates, and if I am getting $40 per month residual off each of those, then that turns out to be $360 per month in residual income, so by the end of my first month, I'm in profit and making money.
There is a caveat...this whole thing rests on the 2nd key factor you should look at when designing your system:
2. Your Skill Set - The example we just looked at made sense because of the numbers of a marketer with a decent skill set.
Looking at that example again, if the marketer only has a skill set that can close 1 in 10, then that is a 10% closing rate, which means the marketer will only enroll 3.6 associates into their business, which if you round up to 4, you only get $600.
At $40 per month residual, with 4 associates, that's $160 a month residual, which means that at a cost of $1,400, the marketer has to wait 5 months before they see a bit of profit (1400 - 600 = 800, then 800 / 150 = 5 months). So obviously, someone with a weaker skill set doesn't want to start off with the mail, they should start using much cheaper leads, so that they can use the right cost strategy in the growth of their business.
Hopefully this information has been helpful. I put a tremendous amount of time, effort, and energy sharing my knowledge to help others to grow their businesses.
The best advice I can give you is to STOP LISTENING to leaders and START LOOKING at what the leaders are actually doing to grow their businesses. The system I just outlined is one of the exact same systems I use to grow my business. Again, it is not a beginner technique, but it is an extremely powerful way to dramatically increase the growth of your business. If you want some additional guidance, send an email to fusonenterprises@gmail.com, I'd be happy to chat about your situation.
Have a happy Easter everyone, be safe out there.
