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FreedomFire
Administrator
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Posted: Fri Sep 23rd, 2005 05:14 pm |
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Hi Ya'll,
I wrote this article awhile back & thought some of you may find it useful. Please feel free to share it if you wish.
BTW, no subtle forum advertising intended by including the sigbox. If you share the article the sig needs to be included.
God Bless,
Michael
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Direct Mail Marketing Now As Easy As Email
By Michael Lemm FreedomFire Communications
Is the United States Postal Service (USPS) a marketing innovator? As it turns out, the kind folks in the blue shorts are in fact making it easy for even the smallest business to duke it out with their biggest competitors by using the USPS new “mailing online (MOL)” direct mail service - check it out at http://www.usps.com/mailingonline
With MOL, you can escape the dreary part of direct mail marketing - the printing, the stuffing, the stamps, etc. MOL users simply create a document, upload it to the MOL website with their mailing list and credit card information, and press “go”. Within 48 hours, the members of your mailing list are receiving the marketing message in their postal mailboxes.
Speed & Price
The best two parts of the MOL service are the speed and the price. Jobs uploaded early in the business day can be printed and postmarked the following day. The per piece cost is not much more than the price of a single stamp since even MOL jobs sent First Class get a “presorted” USPS discount.
A 4.24 by 6 inch postcard can be printed and mailed First Class for just 24 cents. A one and two-thirds page business letter or brochure can be sent “envelope free” (the last third is needed for the address) for just 56 cents per piece. And the minimum number of pieces you can send per job? One. That’s right, while other direct mail houses turn away customers with minimums under several thousand, the USPS takes all customers and gives them all equally great service.
Before MOL you had to create your master document, drop it off at the printer, wait until it was done to figure postage, apply postage and addresses, and drop it off at the post office. This whole process could take you a whole month to finish. And if you’re say mailing from the West Coast… it would be another week before East Coast recipients received their copy. With MOL your document is printed and dropped in the mail from several dozen USPS distribution points across the country…so everyone gets their document at the same time no matter where they live in the US.
As Easy As Typing An Email
MOL users don’t need to know anything more about document creation than how to type and save a document on their hard drive. Novice computer users can use their PC “Notepad” utility and save the document as a text (TXT) file. Most users will probably use Microsoft Word and create a slightly more appealing document. You may already have access to documents through your company that have a more professional appearance. You could also invest in a copy of Microsoft Publisher as it provides many templates to choose from and makes professional document creation a snap.
Content Creation - Keep It Simple
The biggest challenge will be in generation of content you believe is worth the price of postage. The following types of content pieces will get your creative juices flowing…. pretty much write themselves….and are worth reading:
1. Price & Product Postcards - Many of you may dream of being able to instantly contact your customers and tell them whenever you come out with a new product or price point. MOL makes that a snap. Simply write a 5-7 word headline followed by a three- sentence description ending with a phone number or web address for more information.
2. Personal Postcards - Remember your customers birthday, anniversary, graduation or other significant occasion. Be sure and include a brief description of some product you want to highlight…even just a web address.
3. Monthly or Quarterly Newsletter - Most of you would look forward to writing a monthly newsletter with the same excitement as having a monthly root canal…..but the customer retention benefits and referral business make it a smart business decision. The easy way to do a one or two page newsletter would be to simply include one or more of the following:
- Summarize price and product news…simply repeat what you sent out (or should have sent out) on the postcards.
- Summarize industry headlines related to your business…give your views, or if you don’t have a view simply reprint the views of others (with proper attribution of course).
- Case Study…write up three paragraphs on a new or existing customer you helped solve a problem…or their experience with one of your products.
- Top 10 List….any of you with any experience at all can write a years worth of top 10 lists in a day. How about the top 10 benefits of a particular product? How about the top 10 reasons to (insert topic)? Or how about the top 10 mistakes made by (insert topic)?
Just Ask For Referrals!
If you do nothing else, just send out a monthly postcard asking for referrals. The commitment to a monthly postcard does two separately important things for you. It keeps your contact information in front of your customer and it reminds them on a monthly basis that they have immediate access to a friend in the “ABC” business. And of course the number one reason you don’t get referrals is you don’t ask for referrals. Well, if you’re too shy to ask in person or on the phone, let the postcard do the talking!
If you haven’t attempted direct mail marketing before because you thought it too costly, too time consuming, or too much work….think again. Things have changed in your favor. The time is right for you to give it a try.
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Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications….providing voice, data, and internet solutions for homes and businesses. http://ld.net/mscprez You can learn more about Michael at the Ryze Business Networking Community: http://www.ryze.com/go/FreedomFire
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BJ Wright
Member
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Posted: Fri Sep 23rd, 2005 08:04 pm |
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Hey thanks alot freedomfire,
I am actually just considering mailing out some flyers to my satellite customers. This has been a very helpful article thanks. I am sure that this will save me some money.
____________________
http://www.TheVoipChamps.com
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FreedomFire
Administrator
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Posted: Sat Sep 24th, 2005 06:17 am |
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You're very welcome BJ....happy to help.
God Bless,
Michael
____________________
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Commission River = MORE $$
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foracause
Member
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Posted: Sun Sep 25th, 2005 04:36 pm |
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This really is a well-written article on the many benefits of direct mail marketing. However, I'm a little bit disappointed to see that USPS is the entity being promoted - especially on a MLM forum. Please visit the many distribotors on the sister forum - send out cards.
Any one of us distributors will gladly provide you with a gift account so you will have the opportunity to compare the quality, lower cost and ease of our services to those of USPS. In addition, utilization of SOC benefits us - home based business owners - MLM network marketers - and keeps small business alive and well.
What has the USPS done for us lately?
Respectfully,
Mary Mullen
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http://www.ForACause.biz
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Admin
Administrator
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Posted: Sun Sep 25th, 2005 04:39 pm |
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| greta article Michael!
____________________
Best Home Based Business / Best Ideas / Forever Green / Best MLM Business
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FreedomFire
Administrator
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Posted: Mon Sep 26th, 2005 03:03 am |
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Mary,
Please take the post in the spirit in which it was intended. It was offered as an option for consideration. Rather than downplay the contribution...you could have simply added a contributory reply. "Great idea...here's another option too".
Plus...the article was written before SOC.
This Forum is about helping all HBB folks with tips, ideas, insights, experiences, resources, etc. Offering choices and options for everyone to pick from. THEIR decision without biased filtering. NOT simply promoting MLM or MLMers. Besides....blatant promoting of bizops is not allowed in this Forum.
God Bless,
Michael
____________________
*..Best MLM Resources..*
Commission River = MORE $$
"How To Have A Custom MLM Website"
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FreedomFire
Administrator
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Posted: Tue Sep 27th, 2005 04:28 am |
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BTW, SOC is an excellent option also. The idea behind this thread really is that direct mailing can be done with much less time, effort, and cost than the old "lick a stamp" method. Online tools abound. USPS and SOC are 2 of them.
If anyone would like to know more about SOC feel free to peruse the SOC company discussion board for information...and contact any of the SOC reps there. I can wholeheartedly endorse Di and George as 2 good choices for honest advice.
God Bless,
Michael
Last edited on Sat Oct 8th, 2005 05:42 am by FreedomFire
____________________
*..Best MLM Resources..*
Commission River = MORE $$
"How To Have A Custom MLM Website"
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msmelanie
Member
| Joined: | Mon Sep 26th, 2005 |
| Location: | Florida USA |
| Posts: | 72 |
| Mana: |    |
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Posted: Wed Sep 28th, 2005 11:54 am |
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Mike,
You just saved me about .75 a mailing! The 'fullfillment center' I looked into would have charged me .75 a piece!
I'm going to take a look at soc- but my mailing is a sales letter...not a card.
Thanks for the info.
____________________
http://www.SponsoringSuccess.com The MARKETING end of Network Marketing
**Traverus Travel National Executive**
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tonyham
Member
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Posted: Sun Dec 4th, 2005 12:09 pm |
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Hi Everyone
I am a member of a couple of other mlm forums incuding mlm.com and this forum is by far the best. At mlm.com it seems people their spend their time criticizing other peoples products or opportunity. Keep up the good spirit everyone and we will see everyone at the top.
Tony - Uk
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redmist
Member
| Joined: | Thu Dec 8th, 2005 |
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| Posts: | 1 |
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Posted: Thu Dec 8th, 2005 01:10 pm |
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Looks like good advice to me. If you're based in the UK, there's a whole guide to direct marketing to download here which seems pretty useful, though bear in mind it seems to be produced by Experian / Microsoft, so they may have their own agenda here.
How do people feel about using direct mail rather than email or pay-per-click? I guess it depends on your business, but personally I'm a real fan of doing stuff online more and more these days. Plus it's better for the environment of course!
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tonyham
Member
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Posted: Thu Dec 8th, 2005 05:30 pm |
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Hi redmist
Thanks for that. I do all my activity online and normally get 2-3 requests a day for further info. Very easy and very duplicatable.
Tony
PS You in the UK
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The Juice is Loose
http://www.fvidabizopp.com
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mroark
Member
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Posted: Mon Jan 22nd, 2007 02:23 am |
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I know this is going to sound like I am pitching my own product _but_ I owned an ebay drop off store. My store has been closed for about a year, however, when it was open I used both directmail and videomail to market to my customers.
I used a company called money mailer for my directmail. 350.00 and hit about 10,000 homes. Money Mailer is a good company but I did not have much luck with my mailings. I think I mailed about 8 times and probably got 10 or so new customers per mailing. The revenue generated by the new customers was never more than the cost of the advertising.
Now, I sent out 2 videoemail mailings to a list of emails I had compiled from the Chamber of commerce directories in my area (about 1000 emails total) and I got 10 new customers from those videoemails. The cost of my video mail account was about 40.00 (they can be as low as 10.00) so my cost per customer was much lower with videomail and the return was much greater.
Just my .02 cents! 
P.S. To get the prices I was able to get for those direct mail mailings I had to commit to 4 mailings AND my postcards were in a bunch with other cards. I realize now that what the OP was talking about would be an individual card. So I am not doing an apples to apples comparison
Last edited on Mon Jan 22nd, 2007 02:30 am by mroark
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http://www.vmdirect.com/mroark
Why type what you can say?
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vern
Member
| Joined: | Tue Jul 4th, 2006 |
| Location: | Singapore |
| Posts: | 441 |
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Posted: Mon Jan 22nd, 2007 03:06 am |
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Hi Michael,
Thanks for the sharing.
Initially , I'd wanted to do some flyers too in order to have this
business spread out but then again after reading this article I'm
going to consider a little more on my strategies.
____________________
Vern How Is An Established Affiliate Marketer
Need Help Getting Traffic For Your Business?
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mroark
Member
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Posted: Mon Jan 22nd, 2007 03:21 am |
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| No problem. I'm hear to learn as well I've years of experience on how not to succeed Its time for that to change !!!!!
____________________
Michael R
http://www.vmdirect.com/mroark
Why type what you can say?
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namia
Member
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Posted: Mon Jan 22nd, 2007 03:58 pm |
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Postcard mailing can bring good results if you have a message to a highly targeted market that is crucial to their business or affects them strongly in some way.
Recently I wanted to reach all of the Internet Service Providers in a couple of states due to a new technology coming out that would affect their businesses. I felt the best way to reach them was by mailing a card and perhaps following up with one or more mailings of succeeding cards.
I went to http://www.infousa.com and purchased the mailing list and then printed the cards myself. I can do this because I have some left over equipment from a copy shop I use to own. I still have the expensive paper cutter and copier that can handle this kind of work.
Much time can be saved by going with one of the above mentioned services but I had an assistance that needed something to do so I wasn't worried about that. I saved $1000 by doing the mailing ourselves.
I have been pleased with the results so far and believe that postcards need to be part of the marketing package when planning a campaign of this type.
Jack Sample
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http://www.NamiaCorporation.com
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travelbiz
Member
| Joined: | Sat Jan 27th, 2007 |
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Posted: Sun Jan 28th, 2007 12:23 am |
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Thanks for the info. I just started here today and already I learned a lot of great ideas.
Now I need to find the time to go thru the threads and read.
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Terri
http://jet2cruise.etravelfortune.com/
http://thesecretpays.com?12845
http://www.travelbizcash.com
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Armada1
Member
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Posted: Tue Jan 30th, 2007 10:28 am |
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| I currently use a USPS direct mail campaign for my real estate business. It is one of, if not the most, productive marketing tools I use for that particular business. I have to admit, I have not tried the online service...yes, I print, stuff, & stamp. After years of doing it, I've developed a fairly quick system of getting it done in a reasonable & bearable amount of time. But after reading the above article, I am now tempted to giving the online service a try. Thanks for the info!
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Globalflow
Member
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Posted: Wed Mar 7th, 2007 04:54 am |
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I've used bulk mail services at the USPS for years in my real estate practice too and here in California we have a great source for free mailing lists...
Our title reps... A sales rep from a title company can create and send over lists of mailing labels, or lists via email that are ready to go... you just supply the post card and send the list and cards to a mailing house and they do it for pretty low rates out here... so if you're in the western part of US make a real estate agent your buddy and you can get some free lists to get you started...
Only thing is they're just neighborhood specific, not targeted as far as biz op seeker or buyer... but hey, they're home owners... and they need money! I have a printer that's done all my real estate cards and they design, and print so I've saved a ton there...
But I will check out the online source as well as hook up with SOC reps and compare...
Great info...
Franco
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zortslowski
Member
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Posted: Wed Sep 26th, 2007 02:21 am |
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sounds great!
I'm going to use this for my church as well.
____________________
Zortslowski
http://iabplans.net Hiring Independent Associates
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feilerl
Member
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Posted: Thu Sep 27th, 2007 03:07 am |
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This a great article thank you.
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