The mail order business is a rapidly growing industry that requires little income to start and can produce amazing profits if done right. To start out in this business all that you need is a mailbox, a small amount of money for classified ads, and a product that sells.

After you start gaining profits you'll have to start thinking about some office supplies which all depends upon how much you want to spend. This could range from a computer to pen and paper etc.

Thier are all types of products to sell but from the information I have read so far, they say you don't make money until you get full resale rights. Then you can do your own advertising whether its via Internet, classified adds, full page adds, or direct mail. You will see products for sale all over the place that sell you the resale rights. This is part of the business. People are buying information (with resale rights) compiling thier own information along with other poeple's information then selling this (with resale rights). This could be called HowTo reports. A perpetual business so to speak.

Now of course you could go for the straight forward approach and just sell items that you have made youself like these folks. If the product sells then sell it simple as that. OK not that simple you need some business skills to go with that also.

OK, I have been scanning the web trying to come up with some information on mail order buisiness. So far, most of the stuff I have seen are pages on how to start your own mail order business for only 10$. This would be another form of HowTos on mail order business.
Now once you get a product to sell then you should start to take notice on every move you make. This is email I got that talks about improving you chances and knowlegde base for greater profits.

" <<< Article - Six Ways To Monitor And Test All Your >>>

<<< Marketing Efforts ...>>>


"Nothing in marketing is guaranteed to work for you exactly as I have said."

It may bring you more results or it may give you less. But no matter what,

"You must test everything you do."

To be able to test you must know what results you are getting from each one of your present marketing efforts. You do this by monitoring the results of every ad you run, every marketing approach you do and every letter you send.

Please do not rush out all excited with new concepts and ideas and spend $10,000 sending out letters or giving away free samples, only to find it didn't work.

Test everything on a small scale first, monitor the results and if it shows a good result, then, and only then, should you commit to using the idea, letter or ad on a large scale.

Ask yourself in all your promotions:
o What did it cost?
o How many people came in?
o How many people bought?
o What was the value of the average sale?
o How many people will come back after the first sale?
o What is my cost of enquiry - my cost per sale?

When you have the answers, you'll be able to approach all your marketing efforts in a scientific and predictable way.

Here are 6 ideas on how to test and monitor all your marketing efforts.

1. Ask every customer who buys from you, or even customers enquiring to buy, how they heard of you. You can say something like this: "We get a lot of referrals. Is that how you got to hear about us?" This will get a response of "Yes it was a referral" or "No, we actually saw your ad in the ......." You'll get the answer you need.

2. Have a coupon on your ads. Ask the people to bring in the ad or the letter to receive the special offer you are making. Never commit yourself to any form of promotion or advertising where you cannot measure the results.

3. For every promotion you do, use a Promotion Analysis form. Buy a folder with clear display pages. Place a copy of every promotion you do in it. On the other side of each promotion insert an analysis sheet and record the results.

Whenever a promotion shows a profit, keep on doing it. It becomes your benchmark. At the same time, keep testing on a small scale. Try to beat your benchmark with different offers, headlines, people targeted or strategies.

After awhile you'll have a number of promotions that are showing a profit in your folder. You can then decide in advance which one you want to use. And you'll know - in advance - what results you should get from it.

4. Write on every sales docket what marketing effort that person came from. You can attach the relevant ad or coupon to the docket if the customer had to present it to get his special offer. Have a large envelope and keep all the vouchers and dockets there for your analysis after the promotion is over.

5. What should you test in your ads and letters? You should test Headlines, Prices, Offer you make, People you are targeting, Different actions when you tell the reader how to take advantage of your offer. Test positioning on the page and in the publication. Test different publications and time of year when your ads appear.

6. What to test with sales people and telephone enquiries? Test different approaches that they use. Test different follow up offers, and different packages that they can offer.

If your customers and prospects phone your business, you can test prices and offers. You can test different ways of answering the phone and different approaches for getting appointments. If you are getting 10 calls a day and making 2 sales, doesn't it make sense to find the approach that will make one, two or more extra sales. You'll double your sales and your profits will skyrocket for no extra outlay.

A clothes hoist company gets 15 calls per week from their T.V. ads. They sell 10 to 12 hoists from these calls. Now they put their prices up by 10%. Their sales do not change. However, that 10% increase in price is a 50% increase in profit with no extra work or expense.

Can you think of three things you could test right now in your business? Great, write them down.

You'll never have to wait for "word of mouth" to bring you your business. Now you have a scientific approach to your marketing. Plus you have your folder of proven promotions and analysis of results - you have extra profits on tap.


Regards,
Rohan Exton

<<< Exton Enterprises Contact Details >>>


Contact: Rohan Exton
E-Mail: admin@exton.com
URL: http://www.exton.com/
Phone: +61 7 3279 0766
Fax: +61 7 3376 5629
Address: 36 Arrabri Avenue, Jindalee, Qld 4074,Australia
or: P.O. Box 394, Mt Ommaney, Qld 4074, Australia

Exton Enterprises is the home of:
o Business Information Centre o Australian T-Shirt Gallery
o I-Watch Newsletter o Internet Promotion Tips
o Marketing Update Newsletter o Perl Script Archive

o To SUBSCRIBE to the Marketing Update please send an e-mail to lists@exton.com with "subscribe update" in the subject line.

o Information on ADVERTISING in the Marketing Update Newsletter is at: http://exton.com/iwn/sponsor.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright - Exton Enterprises - 1996
This newsletter may be redistributed if the entire newsletter, including contact, subscription and copyright notices, are included. (3960/71) "




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