The Illusion of Print Mail Services
January 27, 2008
If ever there was a lazy way to easy profits in mail order it hasto be the concept of letting someone else do all the work foryou.
In theory, it works like this: You send a camera-ready circular or ad to someone who advertisesa print/mail service and they will print and mail it (along withmany others) to 1,000 to 25,000 names on their own list. Yousimply pay a one-time charge while they do all the work. Now,multiply this by 5, 10 or more such services and you could (stilltheoretically speaking, of course) have several thousand of youroffers in the hands of prospective buyers within a few weeks.
The problem, is that it doesn’t work that easily, at least not tothe point of making it profitable for the dealer who expects tobecome delunged with orders. Even the very best mailers in thebusiness can produce only a small percentage of return for theirclients, so you would have to have a very high markup on youroffer and reach millions of people if you hope to make itprofitable. If you already have a test-proven offer that producesabout 3% return when you mail the offer by itself, you will belucky to get one-half of 1% when mailed by a mailer along withhundreds of others.
Yes, some offers can produce a profit, even with such a smallpercentage of return, but they are extremely few and far between.First of all, you would most likely have to be the high markupthat is required. If the offer calls for $10 and you can produceit for $1 reality is: That’s 5 orders per thousand…50 orders per10,000. Some offers might be able to survive on this, otherscannot. You will have to do some figuring to determine whetherit’s worth trying.
On the down side of this practice, there has been quite a bit ofspeculation about such print/mail services as to their honestyand quality of their services. Many of them offer poor printing, often smudgy or in various shades of gray instead ofcrisp black and white; some of the lists they use are sooverworked, they have become virtually worthless. Even the bestmailers use primarily “Opportunity” lists, so merchandise offerswould hardly be appropriate. Another flaw in this idea that somecrooked mailers are out there who simply don’t mail the quantitythey claim. It seems they print and mail only hundred or so, butclaim to mail in the thousands. This is very difficult for anyoneto prove or disapprove, so the entire idea of using a print/mailservice is precarious at best.
Copyright 2004 by DeAnna SpencerThis article may be freely reproduced on the Internet as long as theresource box remains intact.
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