WHEN, WHY AND HOW TO USE MAILING LISTS

Mailing lists may be the cause of more heartbreaks than any

other single factor in mail order. A poorly chosen list, a weak

mailing and the high cost of mailing to a list can tax the

optimism of a new dealer very, very quickly. Arm yourself with

knowledge before embarking on a course like this!

Whether you should use a mailing list to sell your product

depends on several things:

Is it too complex an offering to be explained in a 30 word ad?

Can you afford to mail 200 to 1,000 pieces on the chance that

you won't get a single order?

Can you make a profit selling your product to only two to twenty

people in a 1,000 piece mailing?

Will a re-order of your product be required, and can you make

your re-orders pay for the losses you will likely get from

mailing to a list?

Do you know enough to choose the right list for your offering?

It takes either great faith in your offering or great stupidity

to mail with a list. Most list companies today, specialize in

"opportunity seekers" - people generally quite new to mail order

who are either looking for a product to sell or an offer that

will get them rich in a hurry.

Most of these "opportunity seekers" are engaged in chain letter

type schemes at some point, and they use mailing lists to make

gains in their plans. Most of them lose money, but enough

people will try it once to make money, and these pie-in-the-sky

dreamers are the bread and butter for a lot of mailing list

companies. Unless you have a truly superior offering for these

opportunity seekers, and you probably don't, they are not worth

your time and money. Most of them are unsophisticated dabblers.

Multi-level lists, offered by many companies, are truly an

interesting way to test response to an MLM offer. Many MLM

people like to write back - in their own handwriting - about

their successes and failures, and they will always respond to a

superior product.

Specialized product-buyers' lists can pull beautifully if the

offering is unique enough, and worth a try for merchandise

marketing.

Regardless of what kind of mailing list you use, be very careful

in choosing a good list. Many are sold and resold to people

making the very same offering, which is a waste of everyone's

money. "Free" mailing lists are usually as good as their price

indicates. Check the guarantees. Common sense will tell you

which are good for you and which are good for the company

selling the lists. And check to see how the lists are compiled.

Are they people who have already bought something by mail, or

are they merely people who indicated they might want to buy

something by mail?

In conclusion, we recommend that you never start any campaign

with a mailing list when advertising is so much cheaper. While

it may prove to be more profitable than advertising, keep this

rule in mind:

When you're ready to try a mailing list, be fully prepared to

lose every penny you spend in buying and mailing that list,

because it could happen.