I was really anxious for a moment with my mail order campaign :)

by 40 replies
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Never done an old fashion postal mail order campaign so I figured I would give it a try.

So I sent out a good old fashion postal mailing campaign last week (Sunday the second of January). It cost me about $600 dollars for 10,000 addresses. Then about $300 to print them out. And finally another $800 to fulfill the mailing. So I was in roughly about $1,800.

So I waited for a few days and nothing. I waited some more and nothing. I was depressed and had already decided to move on to something else. I was getting ready to strike it up as a lesson learned.

But then today I went to the mailbox and WOW!! I got about 150 envelopes of $30 each (it was an ebook), YES!! Some were cash which I did not expect. The majority were checks and money orders and about two or three cashiers checks.

I knew that the list was targeted and I also knew that it depended on the copy and the product I was selling so I am looking at this as good results. Of course I would like this to continue and I hope I get some more in the coming days. Mail Order works indeed.

But honestly if I do not get more (I am aiming for 500 sales) I will probably have to figure out a way to lower cost. I was not to keen on the $2,000 investment.
#offline marketing #anxious #boy #campaign #mail #moment #order #scared
  • Woohoo!!!! Congratulations for sticking it out. Just scale it up from here. I've always been a fan of old-fashioned mail order myself. I haven't had this kind of success yet though.
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  • Awesome! If you need to do it cheaper, I offer 5,000 4x6 flyers for 146 designed printed and shipped. Now if you distribute them by hand its cheap!!!

    But but but check first if in your area you can legally do that.
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    • Talking about mail.

      what's this all about?

      Is it envelope stuffing or make money on envelopes?

      Thanks!
      • [1] reply
  • Your response rate is just about the industry standard for that kind of a mailing. The list you have now is golden, and would be receptive to other related ebook mailing campaign(s) at substantially less cost. In my opinion, that was successful for your first attempt.
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    • Please keep us update how many more envelopes you receive in the coming days

      Thanks,
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    • You dont know if its industry standard (1.5%) until you know about the mailing, the offer, the list, the type of envelope etc etc.

      Ive done mailings with 8% response.

      Next time flowbee send out a smaller amount as a test. if it doesn't work, you wouldn't have dropped $1800, maybe a couple hundred.

      This allows you to split test and if it successful, keep building on it until it isn't. Any net profit is a successful campaign. Thats all that really matters, not the response rate.

  • If you are US based, I may be able lower your cost on the envelope mailing

    Shoot me a PM and we'll talk. I'd love the opportunity to bid on your next go round.

    ...and a huge congratulations....More IM warriors should engage in direct mail!

    Now...quick ...send your next product to those 150. -Best time to sell is when they just purchased.


    DP
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    • Well I went to the post office today and got 80 more orders. YES! so i got about 230 orders so far which brings me up to about $7,000 off of my $2,000 campaign.

      Like I said, I was targeting 500 orders so I am little away from reaching half of that. So far my profit is 5,000 dollars. The great thing about this is the fact that I look forward to going to the mail now.

      Will post an update tomorrow.
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  • So wait, you spent $2,000 but made $7,000 and you are complaining about spending that $2,000 to get it?? Incredible! :confused:

    But, am I missing something...

    Fulfill the mailing meaning??

    What about postage? 44 cents (assuming you are in the US and it was first class, but even postcard stamps would be $2,800) times 10,000 is $4,400.

    So if I'm reading this right, you never did direct mail before and on your first try you get about a 2.3% response rate AND you only spent about $2,000 but yet you made about $7,500.

    I'd love to eat my words and I hope it's true, but either I'm blind as a bat right now or something isn't right. Please fill me, and everyone else, in. I've done a ton of direct mail so I know what it's like. Done right it can make you lots of money. But done wrong and you can lose a lot of money.

    So I'm assuming you are either selling the greatest e-book ever and are a pretty good copywriter?
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    • Banned
      Now that's how it's done buddy!

      I love direct mail. But I do know about that gap period where you don't know if you have a success or not. It can be painful!

      But it looks like you have a winner on your hands. Now, time for you to go get as many names as you possibly can and really cash in!

      Great job!

      Bill
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    • Since the OP doesn't want to answer the question I'll do it for him since there really aren't any "secrets" to mailing cost.

      It cost the OP $1700 (mailing list, printing, letter shop) plus $2330 to mail the letters via standard (used to be called "bulk") mail. I'm assuming it was sent bulk because there was a long lag between the drop and his first orders coming in. (If the mailing was sent 1st class then use your $4400 figure.)

      His total upfront cost was $4030.

      He received 230 orders (times $30 each) which was worth $6900.

      He cleared, after all his effort, $2870.

      That's a little over 70% ROI.

      Now, who wouldn't want to send out another 10,000 piece mailing ASAP?

      If he sent the mailing 1st class, he would have cleared $800 for his effort and his ROI would have been a little over 4%.
  • Dropping a few grand into a post office box makes you pucker up real quick.

    But I am not sure how you are mailing these for .08 cents a piece. Can you explain that?
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    • Got a great contact from one of the members here and I used them (I did not include postage). Also, I'm actually not mailing off letters; it's something else much cheaper. I figured that in the times we live in I needed something that had more immediate impact. I got really creative with the copy; it's almost cinematic/episodic; it's really quite unusual; I figured if I was going to take the plunge I would do it my creative way, but at the same time keep costs very low.

      Oh and yes it does (about the puckering); I find that it gives me a great feeling of accomplishment unlike any other kind of endeavor. I really like it.

      Eduardo
  • Hi ya flowbee77,

    Just wondering if you follow up with any other offers like continuity programs?
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    • What is a continuity program?

      Thanks in advance.
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  • USPS will let you mail something cheaper if you have bulk type mailing license (I'm not sure they call it that) as long as the sender separate the mail themselves.
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  • You should be mailing that every week. What else can you sell? Do you have a follow up funnel in place to sell additional products to the 150 that purchased?
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    • Does that work with offline mail campaigns? (follow up funnel)

      Eduardo
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  • This is a great success story. Look for ways to trim costs and rinse and repeat. Good for you!
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  • Thanks Flowbee for the follow up. The numbers make more sense if postage was not included.
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    • Yes, but mailing bulk CAN lower response rate. The bulk vs first class debate could go back and forth all day. Some say it will lower response others say it doesn't matter. Only way to know is to test.

      You can't just say "it makes sense if postage wasn't included". It doesn't work like that. The fact is it costs money to mail things. Period. Postage could mean the difference between losing money and making a few grand.

      The only thing cheaper is postcards. And as dv8 pointed out, that would still cost $2,800 to mail.

      I'm with dv8, I hope it's true but something doesn't add up. And you didn't answer dv8's post. :confused:

      :rolleyes: Mail it out a second time and see how it goes. It's actually VERY easy to catch you. You should know this.

      No offense, but I find it hard to believe that with your lack of knowledge with direct mail that you had this kind of success. I'd love to be proved wrong. If I am wrong and you are right, then how about helping the forum out and offering advice on how you did it, what you mailed, where did you buy the list, etc. Because right now nothing makes sense.

      I don't want to sound rude, but I also don't want people posting information that misleads members.
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    • No problem. My original post was not meant to be a detailed guide; I was just trying to share my initial exuberance. I was excited And hopefully others will not be afraid to take the plunge.
  • wow nice ..congratulations..just wait for another envelopes coming into your mailbox..
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    • Flowbee77, would you mind sharing that post/thread once you find it.

      Appreciate it!
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  • Can you please answer Vagabonds & dv8's questions?

    I love to here success stories but like said above the numbers just don't add up, and untill you can clarify this, I just can't see how you could possible mail so cheap. I'm no expert but over the last few months I've done alot of direct mail with my offline business so I no how expensive it is for stamps, buying/renting lists, envelopes and fulfilment etc.
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    • Kind of weird how he hasn't answered them, huh?

      Again, I hope it is true and I eat my words. But something doesn't add up and the last thing we need here is people misleading others.
    • The original post was not meant to be a guide or a "How To". I made that post because I was happy. It was something I had never done before and I was happy; nothing else nothing more. It was not a WSO where I give a guide on how to sell by mail. I was just happy.

      What those people wanted to know is how I did it and what I sold. They wanted a breakdown of all my expenses and where I got my mailing lists and what product I sold. I am sorry if I am being selfish but I never intended to give that out (and will not); and frankly I do not know where they got that idea from my post; there is nothing "misleading" about my post; it was meant simply to convey my exuberance not to give a minutely defined spreadsheet of how I did it and what I sold. Like I said I was just happy and wanted to share my experience on a discussion thread.

      I also make it a point never to answer anyone with negative or aggressive attitudes. To those people who asked and thanked me I will send them the forum thread where I discovered the sources from here on the Warrior Forum; to the others I simply ignore no matter how they try to "bait" me to answer by calling me "misleading" or other harsh words.

      Thanks Mastermind...I will send you the thread where I got the info as well.

      Geesh The little happiness I had has just been taken away.
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  • lol... for what it's worth, I smell fish as well.

    My partner sends out 600,000,000 direct mail pieces annually. I know a little bit about it.
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    • How successful is your partner?
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  • I think what you have achieved is great Flowbee.
    I also agree that you should come up with some kind of continuity program for followup.
    And include something in your copy somewhere something like this:
    "By purchasing this Ebook you agree to continue to receive valuable offers from XYZ Corp." Then you have permission from these buyers to continue to sell to them.
    Keep the names of the people who bought. Buy another list, and include the permission line above. Continue mailing and getting paid!

    Oh, I would also be interested in that thread that led your to start this endeavor.
    I would appreciate it if you could PM me that info. Thanks !!
  • Flowbee I think is doing something a little "differently" than putting letters
    in envelopes and mailing them.

    Because, the costs for mailing letters is about 70-85 cents per piece, so
    if he/she mailed out 10k pieces doing it with letters, it would have been
    closer to $10k to fullfill. Which, is still really cheap if you look at the profit
    margins and you have a winning campaign before you do a big mailing.

    I think, he/she said they are doing something a little different - flyers
    maybe?

    Doesn't matter. He/She isn't obligated to share numbers, although it
    would be helpful to those who may want to consider going the Direct
    Mail route.

    So, to help some of you fill in the blanks...

    Direct Mail is the "real deal".

    There's nothing about flowbee's numbers that DON'T add up when it
    comes to direct mail. Gary Halbert has done it, and successfully for
    decades...for a reason -- because it works, it always HAS work, and
    it will ALWAYS work for as long as people continue getting mail.

    It might sound unrealistic, but I wasn't surprised when I saw the few
    numbers flowbee gave us in the first post...I've seen it and I've done
    it before myself...not to that extent, but it's definitely possible.

    If you are SERIOUS about direct mail, look into the Gary Halbert archives
    and take notes as I'm doing myself right now before my next campaign.

    The old fashioned, "sales letter through the mail still works", and I know
    people who do it postcards and letters. Personally, I prefer letters because
    the learning curve is shorter -- the trade off is that it's more expensive to
    start and more costly if you make a mistake or do something wrong.

    Anyways, you guys don't have to be skeptical about this person. I don't
    know him/her personally, but making 200-400% returns on your investment
    is NOT uncommon in direct mail...the key is to have the puzzle complete
    before those kinds of returns are possible...the rest are nothing but numbers.
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  • 49

    I was really anxious for a moment with my mail order campaign :)

    Never done an old fashion postal mail order campaign so I figured I would give it a try. So I sent out a good old fashion postal mailing campaign last week (Sunday the second of January). It cost me about $600 dollars for 10,000 addresses. Then about $300 to print them out. And finally another $800 to fulfill the mailing. So I was in roughly about $1,800.