Tuesday, [9:42] AM
Dear Friend,
I spoke with two really smart online marketers last week.
These guys are exceptionally good at what they do. I consider them my “go to” guys for anything internet marketing related… the few guys I trust to give me the most successful stuff that is working best right NOW online.
And both are completely clueless about direct mail.
They both tried it for themselves or clients and claimed it didn’t work for them.
Interesting… because I know several people in the exact same niches who have made (and are making) MILLIONS with direct mail.
So why can’t two highly intelligent and successful online marketers make direct work?
That’s simple…
They did EVERYTHING wrong!
You may THINK you can simply apply what you’re doing online to direct mail and make it work… but you’re going to learn a very expensive lesson.
How do I know?
Well, first of all, direct mail is how I started way back in the pre-Internet days.
And believe you me… I’ve made ALL the mistakes.
By the way… it still amuses me all the people who claim they want an “Internet business” because of the lifestyle it can offer them.
I had that kind of lifestyle while most of the current IM gurus were still in diapers… all done with direct mail and space ads! Nobody had even heard of the Internet back then.
The Internet is not a business… it’s just another form of media we direct marketers use. We are actually “direct response marketers”… NOT Internet Marketers. The Internet is just the media used.
Geez, that’s a pet peeve of mine!
Don’t get me wrong… it’s a great media… but it’s just brain-dead STUPID to ignore other media that could be equally successful.
Did the introduction of radio kill off newspapers and magazines?
Did the introduction of TV kill off radio?
Has the Internet killed off radio and TV like many “experts” predicted?
No! They’re going as strong as ever!
And all those people who predicted the death of direct mail with the advent of e-mail look like mouth-breathing morons right now.
A new media almost never kills off an old one.
But here’s what DOES happen with the advent of a new media…
- A few forward thinking people jump on it and make a fortune while it is still new.
- When word of that success gets out, thousands of other marketers jump on the band wagon… and that starts slowly killing off the golden goose.
- Then the looters get involved… the government and worthless bureaucrats who couldn’t make it in the real world if their lives depended on it… and they start regulating it out of existence. (Can you say broadcast fax?)
The Internet has been in stage 2 for quite a while now.
Stage 3 has already started… and it’s only going to get worse. We’ve got over 100 years of history to back me up on that.
(We’ve also got 100+ years of history showing that “God-fearing, freedom-loving” Americans are going to react to Stage 3 just like they have reacted to the abrogation of all their other civil rights… sitting on their collective asses, cowering in fear and doing NOTHING. But that’s a story for another time.)
Wanna know the only existing media that has NOT been squeezed to death by Stage 3?
Good old fashioned snail mail!
Actually, thanks to all the clueless marketers only focusing on the Internet, it’s better than ever.
For all those underprivileged young’uns who have have grown up in the Internet age, direct mail is like an email… but it’s printed on a piece of paper, folded, inserted in an envelope, addressed with an actual postal address, a stamp stuck on it and relegated to the United States Postal Service for delivery to the recipient at an actual home or business.
Frickin’ brilliant, isn’t it?
Why is that better than e-mail?
Well, for a lot of reasons…
Just look at the declining open rates of e-mail over the past 3 years… and consequently declining sales.
In one of my businesses we are down to getting 10% of the sales from e-mail than we used to get just three years ago… and our e-mail list is FOUR times bigger now!
I’ve asked around and this is a pretty typical problem.
There are a lot of reasons for the declining response to e-mail but the biggest problem is that we’re in Stage 2.
Here’s something esle you may find interesting:
A key finding from an International Communications Research study is that despite today’s digital world and plethora of electronic media, consumers clearly prefer mail to all other communication vehicles, notably including e-mail… especially for receiving product and service offers.
- 73% prefer mail for receiving new product and service announcements, promotions, offers and other information from companies they do business with versus only 18% who prefer receiving the same content by e-mail.
- For confidential information such as invoices, statements, bank statements, financial reports, the preference is 86% mail, only 10% e-mail.
- 70% prefer mail for receiving information from companies they are NOT currently doing business with. This makes new customer acquisition by all other means tough… and getting tougher.
- Below 10% prefer e-mail for receiving information from companies they are NOT currently doing business with.
- Only 31% of consumers say they frequently discard mail unopened identified as commercial in nature, but 53.2% say they frequently delete such e-mail unopened.
Now keep in mind this is a general population survey. My own informal survey of busy entrepreneurs suggests 80%+ routinely delete unopened e-mail versus under 40% for mail.
Pretty interesting, huh?
Would you like to know WHY consumers prefer snail mail?
Well, they asked them. And they said:
- 45.3% – less intrusive, doesn’t interrupt other activities.
- 40.2% – more convenient, can easily be saved and considered at choice of times.
- 30.2% – less high-pressured, lets me arrive at a decision intelligently.
- 22.7% – more descriptive, provides better information.
The bottom line is pretty obvious…
Your customers prefer receiving
your info via direct mail!
And with the MOUNTAINS of evidence proving it, here are the BIGGEST reasons only a drooling moron would rely exclusively on e-mail and online marketing for customer acquisition and back end sales…
First of all, USPS’s deliverability issues are pretty much a thing of the past. (In fact, if you know the secrets, you can get damn near close to 100% deliverability with direct mail.)
But let’s look at a WORST case direct mail scenario:
If 900 out of 1,000 pieces of direct mail arrive, less 31% discarded unopened, that’s 621 little salesmen with a chance at making a sale.
But if only 200 out of 1,000 e-mails get delivered (which is a pretty good delivery rate nowadays)… less 53% deleted (typical)… that’s only 94 with a shot at making a sale.
Which do you think has a better chance at bringing in more sales?
Look, I could literally speak for DAYS about the intelligent use of direct mail and the various ways you can harness its power to make a LOT of money.
Today I’m just trying to show you that NOT using it is hurting your bottom line… BIG time!
Speaking of me speaking for days about direct mail, I recently mailed (yes, with direct mail) an offer to an exclusive group of direct response marketers for a small coaching program I’m doing on direct mail.
Not only am I revealing many of my best secrets for making money with direct mail, I’m offering a lot of one-on-one attention. And because of that, the program is NOT cheap.
It’s in the $2,400 to $3,000 range.
And honestly, I think it’s under-priced. You could easily make back your investment (and more) within a just a few short weeks… unless you’re suffering from a recent head injury.
A lot of people expressed interest in the program but the price tag was a little too high for them.
So I’m thinking about offering the exact same coaching program… without the personal attention and without also giving away the DVDs of the webinars (I’ll post them on a password-protected site instead), CDs of the audio… and without the written transcripts… but at a MUCH lower price.
See, the personal attention is the most time-consuming part, hence the high price.
But without that component, I think I can get the price down to about $700.
If there’s enough interest, I’m planning on doing this coaching program for six straight days in October some time.
If you would be sincerely interested in my direct mail coaching program, please let me know by entering your first name and e-mail in the box below.
That will opt you into a special list and you’ll get all the info about this as soon as it’s ready… probably in another week or so.
Thanks!
Here’s the box to opt in:
