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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.
The last five years have seen a fivefold increase in the number
of newsletters in the UK, 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 specialise. 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 the country, many of them with no
writing ability whatsoever, who are making incredible profits
with simple two, four or six page newsletters.
Your first step should be to subscribe to as many different
newsletters and mail order publications as you can afford.
Analyse 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 recognise 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 milestone 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 without 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 fulfilment 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 easily be 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 skimp on design or
graphics.
The name of your newsletter should also help to set it apart from
similar newsletters, 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 prime 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 capitalise on it - then plan your newsletter accordingly.
Almost as important as names in your newsletters are pictures.
The readers will generally accept a newsletter faster if the
publisher's picture is presented or included as 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 letters you receive
in the mail: analyse 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 emphasising 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 might 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 lots
of sub headings 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 either be
a self addressed business reply envelope, or a separate coupon.
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 request your prospect to charge the subscription to his
credit card, request that you bill him, or send his payment with
the subscription order form.
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 Acknowledgement 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.
So 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
card or coupon, go ahead and have a hundred of these printed
also, undated of course. You'll need envelopes, and don't forget
business reply envelopes if you are using coupons instead of
postcards. Have a thousand mailing envelopes printed. You also
need subscription order acknowledgement 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 will 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.
However, do not skimp on your advertising budget. To be
successful - to make as much money as is possible with your idea-
you'll have 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 multiplying your customer list.
Move slowly. Start with a local, far-reaching and widely read
paper, and with the profits or returns from that ad, go to the
regional magazines, or one of the smaller national magazines, and
continue ploughing 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 favour of direct mail. We would not recommend
direct mail until you are well established, and your national
classified advertising programme 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 on 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. Show the list broker your product, and your
mailing piece, and explain what type of 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 favourable, go for
10,000 names, and then 15,000 and so on through the entire list.
Never rent the entire list based upon the results 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, dealing with the good and the
bad as we have researched them.
One method is that of contracting with what is known as telesales
agencies. These are soliciting agencies, who hire people to sell
via the phone, or sometimes door to door, almost always using a
high pressure sales approach. The publisher usually makes about
5% from each subscription sold by one of these agencies. That
speaks for itself.
Then, there are several major catalogue sales companies that sell
subscriptions to school libraries, government agencies and large
corporations. These people usually buy through these catalogue
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 the post, to a
mailing list that could number 100,000 or more. You pay a premium
price for this type of mailing, but the returns are very good
usually, and you keep all the incoming money.
Another form of co-op mailing is that where you supply a charge
card company or department store with your subscription offer as
a "statement mailing stuffer". 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.
Most newspapers will carry small, lightweight brochures or reply
cards as inserts in their Sunday papers. The publisher supplies
the total number of inserts, pays the newspaper about £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.
Attempting to sell subscriptions via radio or TV is very
expensive and works better in generating sales at the newsagents
than new subscriptions.
Newsletter publishers often run exchange publicity endorsements
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 doing that
might be of special 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
hundreds of them), is that your ad in several of them will let
other people know what you are doing.
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 become subscribers.
By studying and understanding the information in this report, you
should encounter fewer serious problems in launching your own
specialised 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 of doing business, and then on
learning, changing, observing and adapting to stay on top.
The best way of learning about and keeping up with this field of
endeavour 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 associations
for a free exchange of ideas, advice and help.
rather than direct from the publisher.