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Dr.Joe
Member
| Joined: | Sun Sep 23rd, 2007 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 3 |
| Mana: |  |
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Posted: Mon Oct 1st, 2007 01:07 am |
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I was wondering if anyone was using mini CDs or DVDs in the shape of a business card as their business card.
If you are 1) How is it working out 2) Who are you using to make them and what do they charge 3)Are you making the CDs or the labels yourself 4) Are you using them all the time, or just in certain situations (like certain events, or after you qualify them as a good lead, etc.).
Since most of us are trying to get people to look at some company video or presentation, it would seem like a good idea to increase the rate of people getting to that level of the prospecting process (especially if you tell them you are going to give them a call in a day or so).
Also, it might be something that people might be more likely to give to a friend to watch. Anyone noticing that at all?
Thanks for any help you can lend...if I decide to go ahead and use this tactic I will be sure to post my results.
Dr. Joe
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Joe The Coach
Member
| Joined: | Mon Jul 2nd, 2007 |
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| Posts: | 103 |
| Mana: |   |
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Posted: Sun Oct 21st, 2007 06:25 pm |
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Hi there,
I had a partner who tried the same thing a while back. It didn't really work out for him. Personally, I think it makes you stand out but all in all, I don't think it would make huge difference. They're kinda big and aren't they kinda expensive?
I still believe in the power of words and an individual's personality. But to each his own. I'm sure if it's something that you want to pursue, I'm sure you'll find a way to make it worth your while.
Joe The Coach
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JeffZalewski
Member
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Posted: Sun Dec 16th, 2007 08:32 am |
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Dr.Joe wrote: I was wondering if anyone was using mini CDs or DVDs in the shape of a business card as their business card.
If you are 1) How is it working out 2) Who are you using to make them and what do they charge 3)Are you making the CDs or the labels yourself 4) Are you using them all the time, or just in certain situations (like certain events, or after you qualify them as a good lead, etc.).
Dr. Joe, years ago I was reluctant to offer a physical collateral marketing piece because of my own perceived cost of doing so. I felt I could not use such a tool because I did not have the money to do so. But I ended up starting out small and expanded from there.
Compared statistically to non-physical collateral (i.e. free report, .mp3 download, etc), the physical collateral out performed and brought in more overall sales and even new recruits. The lesson I learned early on was to track my progress and this helped me understand not only how my marketing worked but what I needed to do to improve the results.
A big mistake most marketers make when it comes to offering a collateral piece is they view it as an expense, rather than an investment. When they make this mistake, they usually make another mistake in their decision by being cheap and stingy. This is understandable because we all start out with low budgets for marketing.
One little known secret to collateral marketing is it is actually cheaper to do it right (professional design, packaging, etc) than to do it in-house. While the costs can be slightly higher, the overall image impact you leave with the customer creates more value.
In my business we sell CDs as part of our "self-help" performance improvement product line. I considered a business card size CD for introducing our company but decided to do a full size CD in a standard jewel case. While it is about 50 cents more per unit, I believe a jewel case has far greater value. The most important factor for me was the fact a Jewel Case can go on their shelf with their other CDs, which adds shelf life.
TIP - You must invest in your prospect before they will invest in you. Do not get cheap and stingy when making your investment.
I have had great success with using a free CD offer as a way to introduce myself. A key ingredient in what I offer is the content. Your content can't be a lame promotion or selling presentation. Instead, your content must educate to motivate to action.
I would suggest before getting a CD made that you plan out the content with a specific objective in mind. Know who your target market is (No, it is NOT everyone) and what message you will send them (this must address their primary wants and needs). This is something we consult our clients on and can often help develop the customer material as well. It is very important to think "professional", which helps you with image and credibility in presenting to your prospect.
Offering a FREE CD has worked so well for me in the past that when I created my new company Direct Selling Academy, Inc., we chose to do something unique. Rather than make a CD about our company and offer that as a free CD, we offer a choice of 3 different titles from our product line. This gives the prospect a choice and an actual sample of our product.
I am not suggesting you do it this way. My point is collateral marketing works and to offer a CD business card (or CD brochure, product sample, etc.) is a sound business marketing method... if done right.
As far as costs, one could produce in-house through duplication on their own computer. You can even have discs pre-printed so you can then burn the content to the disc on demand. This is NOT the lowest cost per unit option though. It may be the lower cost outlay but per unit it is the higher cost option. (You see, you have costs in labor time, CD packaging, the CDs, ink, etc.)
What most people do not know is by having the professionals create a replicated CD, you end up with higher quality in packaging. The per unit cost can run about $1.60 a CD initially and reorders at about $1.29. The cost can become even lower and dip below $1 a CD if you order in bulk of 2500 to 5000 units at a time.
I use two manufacturers: 1) Diskmakers, and 2) Acutrack. Both companies are great to work with on projects. I have used Discmakers primarily for replication of CDs on 1000+ unit orders. Acutrack provides an on-demand option (where they can manufacture one unit at a time), which is a duplication production process. They also do short run duplication projects.
I have used Acutrack for the short run 100 unit orders... in comparison, a 100 unit order cost per unit is about $3.60 a unit. This provides getting the units in stock but I feel replication (which requires a larger unit order) provides a higher quality products. For those who do not know, replication is retail grade quality and is what you find in the stores. Duplication is good but does provide a trade-off in quality.
I just placed an order with Acutrack for a 1000 unit order to test the quality of their replication manufacturing. I am pretty confident I will be happy with the end product.
While Discmakers does have a short-run duplication production as well, I originally started working with Acutrack for short-runs because I had a one-on-one contact for the project being submitted. Discmakers primarily has you place your order online for short-runs and seem to only have the one-on-one for larger projects that relate to replication in the manufacturing process. I personally like the live one-on-one interaction. By using both companies, I get the personal attention for either duplication or replication product runs.
As a final note, I use the FREE CD offer in a lot of my marketing. However, I do not just hand out the CD. The prospect must complete a form and request the CD. This is a trade for contact information that I normally would not have had. It goes beyond that but that is the starting point.
What you do in product design, content presentation, and/or packaging will be greatly dependent on your budget and marketing objective. I suggest a consultation to discuss this with either a rep from the manufacturers and/or a consultant who has worked with such a process (i.e. me). I can even put you in contact with my contacts at the manufacturing facilities. For a sample of the quality I am talking about, I can send you a sample of our CDs.
BTW, the business card size CD at Discmakers is about $.80 a CD. This includes the CD, full-color jacket that the CD slides into, and shrink-wrapped packaging. The CDs hold up to 175mb of space for audio. DVDs are about $.20 more a CD and hold 1.2GB of content. There are also other costs involved in manufacturing but once done, the reorders are slightly less in cost and have a quicker turn-around time.
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JFulker
Member
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Posted: Wed Jan 16th, 2008 01:04 pm |
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The question to ask yourself before trying anything new to grow your business is:
Is this duplicatible? As far as handing out mini CDs or DVDs to people in your business community or at a university, it's probably pretty duplicatible as long as the mini cd's don't cost an arm and a leg. In my very first MLM business, the company did provide CD's to hand out to customers about the program, and they charged so much for them, that most could only afford to buy around 5 of them, but you literally need to hand out 100 or more to really see any results, and if they charge $8 per CD, then it's not a worthwhile investment. The return on investment just isn't there.
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david01
Member
| Joined: | Sun Sep 16th, 2007 |
| Location: | Ipoh, Malaysia |
| Posts: | 13 |
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Posted: Mon Feb 25th, 2008 10:18 pm |
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If you have the budget I would strongly recommend it.
I have few friends who are using it and quite successful now.
I believe the investment do give you return!
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JeffZalewski
Member
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Posted: Tue Mar 18th, 2008 04:40 pm |
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JFulker wrote: In my very first MLM business, the company did provide CD's to hand out to customers about the program, and they charged so much for them, that most could only afford to buy around 5 of them, but you literally need to hand out 100 or more to really see any results, and if they charge $8 per CD, then it's not a worthwhile investment. The return on investment just isn't there.
$8 per CD can be a costly initial investment. However, just for something to think about, if the CD is a tool to attract a potential business builder, what is the average annual residual income earned from a business builder?
I use to market a business that had a minimum investement to get started of only $80 and a monthly auto-ship order of only $50. My cost to recruit one individual could sometimes be upward of $200 or more (when you consider the initial lead genration, CD mailing, follow-up cost, etc). But one solid business builder would produce a minimum of $50k a year to my residual earnings.
Don't think about the one by one cost per CD, but look at the overall picture of the main goal. In my business, 1 out of 20 recruited would be a true duplicating leader and this meant investing nearly $4000 to produce one solid leader.
Now would an investment of $4000 be worth an annual return of $50k+ in residual earnings?
NOTE: The above is for illustrative purposes. Your actual cost per distributor or leader is usally different from others. Tracking all aspects of your recruit and business expenses is critical to understand what your true cost of recruiting really is.
Something else to consider... What is the cost of not using a time leveraging tool to recruit others? What else could be done to leverage your time and still keep overall recruiting costs down? Is it more cost effective to invest in a tool like a CD or to recruit without it?
____________________
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