21 People Sent Me $250 Bucks Cash By Overnight Courier… in 14 Days! First Timers Are Doing $2k Their First Week! See Proof At My Website…
No Selling, No Cold Calling, People Call You! You’ll learn about postcard layout in the printing section. You can either have a printer do your layout, or you can do it yourself at your own computer. But for now let me show you how to lay out a postcard for free by using an online printer’s website. This is only if you’re going to have our recommended printer print your cards (see the Reference Guide).
You go to www.vistaprint.com and open a free account with them. Then you look on the index on the left-hand side for postcards. Click the link and you’ll see pages of postcard designs. Look for one that consists of black and white boxes.
You’ll notice in the left hand sidebar that you can fool around with typing in your ad copy. This is very easy for most people, but if you have a hard time, get a friend, neighbor, family member to help you. If you have a teenager or grandchild, they’ll be able to do this in a few minutes or less.
Just type the text into the boxes in the left sidebar and you’ll see the text appear in the postcard. Use the copy or text from one of the postcard design examples. If you decide to use the online printer, you can send them this design with your text and your order will be expedited faster.
I use to use VistaPrint for my postcard printing, but now I use a printer that gives 5,000 postcards for the same price that VistaPrint will do a 1,000 for.If you’re going to do everything on your computer and print your postcards doing it all yourself (see the printing section below), you don’t need to do anything with VistaPrint. I still from time to time print my own postcards at home, particularly when I’m testing new copy and just want to do a mailing of only 500. If the test goes well (2% response and above) then I’ll have 5,000 or more printed up.
As is the case with VistaPrint and the online printer I recommend, you may be tempted to use some of the other designs they offer because there’s some nice-looking designs in there. Resist all temptation!
Resist the idea in your mind that one of the fancy-looking postcards looks better. The reason I say this is because it DOES look better but it doesn’t pull a better response. Remember… response is what you want… not people enjoying a few moments looking at your card before trashing it!
The last page in this course is a print-out of the best design to use in VistaPrint. Just go into VistaPrint, find the design under “postcards” and go at it.You always want to create ad copy that elicits a direct response. Postcard marketing is all about getting a direct response as opposed to what is called generic or brand awareness advertising. So your ad copy needs to be compelling.
There are some good ways to review good ad copy to get ideas and to understand the psychology of getting a good response.If you’re in the home-base business arena, you want to inspire people to make money, the ease of making money with your program, and tie in the idea that they can make money sending out postcards in the mail.
You need to have a website which is attractive, even exciting and a website that tells a complete story. If your program has a price point in the neighborhood of $50 to $150, for example, you may get people who will buy right off your site.
The closer to $100, the more will buy right off the site. As the price point inches it way up the pricing ladder, people will want to speak to you first, so make sure your website has a place to put your phone number and your name. Make sure the phone number on your site goes to a friendly voice message in case a call comes in when you’re away from the phone.
You may consider using a voice message system so you can leave a “sizzle” message of 1-2 minutes long. You can get a cheap toll-free number from www.kall8.com and record your message. You can also have your voicemails conveniently sent to your email so you can listen to them on your computer.
Again if you want a chance for prospects to purchase your offer of your site then it needs to be a complete site with things like a movie (video), recorded conference call (s), product information, the actual price and a way for people to buy through an online payment processor... or by sending you the money via the mail or private carrier.
If your opportunity has a much higher price point, don’t worry, postcards work fine for those too. You just have to realize that for an opportunity with a buy-in level of $400, $1000 and on up for example, people will more than likely want to speak to you on the phone first before they buy, especially in these recessionary times.
When I’m marketing a business opportunity at a price point of $400 dollars and above, I prefer my prospects to be directed to a sizzle message, leave their name and number, then I’ll follow up with them with a quick 2 to 3 minute conversation, and then invite them to my website, listen to a conference call, or both. I’m not one to hind behind an email or website, I like my prospects to know that I’m available.
If you’ll do the same, your sign up rate will quadruple and you’ll be one of the top earners in your company - just a success tip!
Sometimes when I’m really busy with multiple business projects, I’ll just send my prospects directly from my sizzle call to my website, or directly to my website. So your ad copy needs to tell a complete story such as the ad copy ideas in the previous section.
If you’re in a more traditional business such as carpet cleaning, auto warranties or you’re a dentist, obviously you’re not selling the idea of making money… rather you’re selling the idea of saving money or a free service.
For example, a carpet cleaner would advertise a 2-room special for $99, regularly $159, and to call to make an appointment. Again, make sure your phone number is directed to either a person answering the phone live or to a friendly voice mail message.
A dentist might offer a free exam. A transmission shop might offer a free transmission check and an auto lube shop might offer a $19.95 or $17.95 oil change special. Always, in advertising a special for a traditional business, put an expiration date for the offer.
You can also offer something for free with a purchase. This has validity for the “make money from home” crowd as well. You could offer a free marketing tool or a free postcard course (you can give them this course, it’s fine with me - I offer it as a Free Bonus for joining me).
You may not want to put this information on the postcard itself, but you can mention it in your “sizzle” message voice mail message attached to the phone number on your website.
Back to the “home-based business” front, if the program you’re in doesn’t have a powerful website, you might consider going online and searching for a low price point program with a dynamite website. I would suggest you don’t do postcard marketing for one of those very, very low priced programs such as $10 because it’s not very cost effective for postcards.
For the money metrics to stay in your favor when marketing with postcards I try to stay with a program where the entry fee is $400 dollars and above, with 75% being paid back to me as a commission.
Example - if the program I’m marketing costs $400 to get involved, then I’d need to see about a $300 profit… If the program I’m marketing costs $1000 to join, then I’d need to see about a $750 profit. Using these metrics keeps your cost to find an enrollment always in the profit category.
Currently in this economic climate a program costing about $500 to join paying a 75% plus commission is ideal.
A great example of a program that has perfect positioning in this market with good postcard metrics would be a program like www.SecretInsiderFormula.info, it’s a $497 to $3497 price point program that pays out 100%.
Use the previous metrics I mentioned and you’ll never have a postcard campaign that doesn’t produce a profit, assuming all the other elements presented in this manual are followed - honestly what I’ve mentioned here in this last paragraph is worth the price of this course!
Look around, you’ll find something that matches the price point criteria for postcards and every week new programs are coming out. Always be on the lookout for new launches and zero in on the ones that meet the criteria for postcard marketing.
A word of caution here: There’s a fine line here, please, please don’t become a business opportunity junkie, when you find a good program then run with it, run with it and make it profitable… once your monthly income has reached $10,000 plus per month for a couple of months in a row, then consider plugging in another income stream using your same criteria for involvement.
I’ve been doing this for over 13 years, have been in less than 10 primary Business Opportunities and have earned multiple six-figures for the past several years. Bottom line is your success in not hidden in the program, it’s hidden in your consistent effective marketing.
I see so many become deal chasers, jumping in the program of the week, and with the speed of the internet there truly is a new deal coming out each week. If that’s you, stop being some list owners Biz Opp ATM Machine and jumping in everything they offer up.
Find a good program, draw a line-in-the-sand and market it! One of the biggest reasons the Business Opportunity Industry suffers a 90%+ failure rate is lack of focus. I truly believe that… anyhow, sorry I got off on that tangent, I’ll get off my soapbox now... back to postcards.
The online printer charges about $100 (plus shipping by UPS) for 5000 postcards. You can send them a file from the card you design on VistaPrint. They have templates you can use but they’re all graphics-intensive so don’t go there.
The printer’s website and customer service reps are pretty self-explanatory, so there’s no need to get into that here… except that you should learn about the kind of paper to print on. So let’s get into the paper first, then doing everything on your computer next… The paper: you should print on card stock or cover stock… these have a minimum 60 pound weight as it’s called as opposed to 20 pound stock. Cover stock is a little less in price than card stock; a little bit lighter, but certainly good enough for postcards.
You can buy cover stock in any large office supply store such as OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, Staples, etc. You can also buy what you need in a store called XpedX. There are many XpedX stores all over the country and you can find one close to you if you live in a metro area by going to www.XpedXstores.com. You can order online if there are no stores in your immediate area.
You can get similar card or cover stock at the office supply stores I mentioned… they’re a little bit more expensive, but not a whole lot… so if you don’t have an XpedX store within driving distance, don’t fret. There may be other paper stores in your area… I use XpedX, so I’ve never looked for another source… just do a google search for paper stores or suppliers in your city and state.
When selecting a cover or card stock (this kind of paper is called stock by the way), always and I mean ALWAYS follow these guidelines. The preferred stock is pastel, the second preferred is astrobright. Of the two, pastel is THE preferred shade… you might get lucky and find an astrobright discounted real low in which case it’s OK, but pastel is your primary shade.
And in the two shades I mentioned, there are only 3 possibilities you should consider with one alternate. In order of preference these are: pastel yellow (canary), pastel green, pastel blue and pastel red as the alternate. I say alternate because you might get a special-discounted price on the pastel red that would be hard to pass up.
Pastel shading is a muted color as opposed to astrobright which is very bright. Pastel in fact is NOT bright… it even appears somewhat faded like brushed denim jeans with the washed out look. DO NOT think this is bum advice, I’ve test many colors over the years, pastel shades will always pull best.
You’re of course free to print on whatever color and color shade you want, but I’ll tell you, pastel is THE PREFERRED SHADE for postcards and the 3 colors I mentioned are your absolute best bet.
Why? They look like “cheap ugly postcards” which of course is the theme of this training on postcard marketing. There are people making substantial amounts of money with postcards and their rule of thumb is the 3 pastel colors I mentioned plus the alternate.
In terms of the online printer, you can go with the black, white, red and green coloring scheme which you’ll see in VistaPrint. That card works fine, but in terms of doing it yourself, pastel only.
In terms of doing the layout of your card on your computer, it’s not rocket science. Everybody has different versions of Windows from Microsoft and others have Macs. If you have windows, go to “start” in the lower left corner of your bottom taskbar. Click “search” and type “Works” into the search bar. If you have Microsoft “Works” installed on your computer, it will show up in the results box… just left click it, hold it down and drag it to your desktop. You can then size your card… 4 up to an 8.5 X 11 sheet.
If you don’t have “Works” you can either buy it from Microsoft for $39.95 or just do the old fashioned way. Take a sheet of paper and make 4 postcard sized boxes on the sheet. Measure the boxes and then 1 create box per sheet. Then either type or copy and ad message you want to use, size the text and fiddle with it until it looks good. Make sure you have “white space” all around the inside of the postcard with the text attractively laid out.
Print 4 of them in total. Then paste all 4 to one sheet and you’re ready to go. If you don’t understand how to do this, no big deal… just get someone to help you. This is VERY EASY to do. Anybody with any degree of dexterity and basic, fundamental computer skills can do this in about 20 minutes.
So you have 1 sheet of 8.5 X 11 paper with 4 postcards affixed to it, right? OK, now just take it to a local copy shop along with your cover stock. You can either have someone “Offset Print” it or you can do it yourself at a copy machine.
You then make 2 cuts… and you’ve got 4 postcards per sheet. It’s a lot easier and faster to have the offset printer or copy shop do the cutting for peanuts… but if money is tight, you can do it yourself… you’ll get the hang of it pretty fast.
Now it’s your call, you can print only on one side and leave the other side blank which is where you’ll affix your mailing label and stamp… or, and I prefer this method… you can repeat your message on the address side, but in smaller fonts, see example on the cover of this course.
I like this layout best because it gives your prospects two chances to see your message. I also like to include my return mailing address to make sure I don’t get a bunch of returns because of bad addresses… this allows you to keep your list broker honest.
The size card we’re constructing here requires postage of 28 cents for First Class Postage (as of Jan 2010), which is the only postage I use. I won’t use bulk rate… I want to make sure my marketing piece arrives in my prospects’ mail-box. That hasn’t always been the case when I’ve used bulk rate.
Tip #1: If you’re marketing a home-base business type program (mlm, direct sales, network marketing, direct pay, cash gifting), mailing your postcards on Fridays is very good.
Why is that? Because the majority of your cards will start hitting mailboxes on Monday. And for people that have jobs, what’s the most dreaded day of the week? Yup, Monday. If your cards hit on Friday, they’re seeking fun, relaxation, the outdoors, whatever! Your response rate will do better on Mondays.
Tip #2: 4 x 6 postcard size is the best… 5 X 8 cards require 44 cent stamps and the 3 X 5 cards are the same price as the 4 X 8 cards (28 cents).Tip #3: If you have a good list of people and would like to squeeze just a little more response out of your mailing, then hand addressing them will do that… just realize it’s time consuming and a bunch more work.
Tip #4: If money is tight and you can’t afford to send a lot of cards at one time… no problem. If you can send 20 or 30 or 50 per day, that’s fine… do that.Tip #5: Keep good records of the amount of cards you have out there and the income you generate, so you can evaluate your campaigns.
Tip #6: The national conversion rate is 1% to 2% of buyers. At 1% you’re making great money… at 2% you’re going to create some serious cash flow.
Tip #7: Have a really good follow-up conversation outline prepared so that when people call you, you’re not grasping for ideas on what to say (I’ll give you a sample outline you can use in a minute).
Tip #8: Put your prospects through an information system (marketing funnel) so they can gain all the knowledge they need. Do NOT spend a lot of time “selling” people – rather, give them a chance to put forth the effort to gather the information they need.
Use your company’s resources such as conference calls, webinars, etc. to do this with. Just think in terms that you’re a “Tour Guide,” just pointing them in the right direction. Remember it’s critical that you’re proving (while prospecting them) how easy your business is and proving that there’s No Selling… No Explaining… No Convincing… and No Closing, and that there’s a System that does all that… at least for your sake I hope there is.
Again if not, find an opportunity that does have a system. YOU MUST CREATE AN INFORMATIONAL FLOW. Remember, people buy when they can see themselves “in the picture” of doing what you do.
Tip #9: Postcard marketing is very powerful. In some cases people will buy right off your site. In other cases they need the human connection. It all depends on your website, price point, etc. The tip is this: Do everything you can to make money. If it means calling people or taking calls from them, so what… you’re NOT COLD CALLING and that’s all that really matters.
You’ll notice it’s much easier speaking to a prospect who’s responded to a postcard as opposed to some sort of online marketing technique. Postcards are more memorable, people will recall it every time and be more open to you because part of the allure they’ve responded to is making money sending out postcards (rather than learning how to do complicated internet marketing). In many respects, you’ll find that offline prospects to be of high quality and more receptive to your offer.
Follow Up Phone Script for Postcard Prospects That Left A Message On Your Voice Mail or Opted In At Your WebsiteYou: Hi (This is your name) I’m calling you because you got a postcard about how I make $417 dollars per day mailing cheap, ugly postcards… and how you can do the same (Say something that’ll jog their memory about your postcard… WFA – wait for answer)
You: So, ____ (name)… what’s your story? What do you do now to make money? (let them open up to you… the question ‘What’s your story’ is a FANTASTIC OPENER!You: Have you ever been in any kind of a home business?
You: The nice thing about my home-based business is you don’t have to do any cold calling because all you do is mail our cheap, ugly postcard and prospects eagerly call you.
You: If I could show you how to make an extra $417 plus dollars per day from home just mailing simple postcards, would you be willing to (listen to a conference call/watch an online webinar) done by my business partner?
You: It’ll give you a chance to hear and experience how easy our business is and how people of a walks of life that use our simple system to make hundreds daily.Them: Sure
At that point you give them the call information or website to register for the call or whatever your system uses...
Then set a time at that point to give a follow up call to answer questions that they might have...
It’s that easy, don’t complicate it. If you call every opt-in you get from a postcard and keep it this simple you’ll make money with every mailing. If they try to ask all kind of questions during this first call just say this: “I know you have all kinds of questions, however the call/webinar will answer 95% of your questions. I’ll be more than happy to answer any other questions you may have after the call… fair enough? Good here’s the call/webinar info again.” Follow up immediately after the call or webinar, don’t wait. You want to enroll them at the peak of their excitement
You can order your postcards from them which will take about 10 days to be delivered to you. In the meantime you can use the do-it-yourself system I gave you earlier to get some cards in the mail while you wait for your postcards to arrive. They may charge you a set-up fee.
If you do this, the company you buy your labels from (see below) will email the list to the printer electronically (no peel and sticking on their part). They will also affix the postage electronically. They’ll do everything in one fell swoop (printing, labeling and stamping) so it’s a total hands-off deal for you.
List/Label brokers:By far the best lists/labels will come from www.NextMark.com – This is a list affiliate company with hundreds of brokers offering over 60,000 lists spread out over thousands of categories.
The issue with NextMark however, is that most or maybe all their lists have a 5000 minimum whereas the other list brokers below have a 1000 minimum and one company has 2000 for $150. Most of the list brokers rent their lists for about $100 per thousand. I say “rent” their lists – you do not buy them… you rent them for a one time use except for one broker who offers lists that you can use as often as you wish.
Do not attempt to make copies of the label sheets and then jury-rig your printing of the lists onto your own labels… they’ll know this and ban you from buying from them again. They “seed” the list with a few of their own addresses so they can weed out those people who might try and re-use the list again illegally (against their terms of agreement).
If you don’t want to start with 5k, that’s fine… go with one of the other brokers – wolf enterprises is good. But as you make money, try and upgrade to NextMark as soon as you can. Spend some SPARE time studying the lists available from NextMark. They have their own search engine and you can do a search for ‘MLM” or “Home Business” or “Cash Gifting” to see what they offer.
You can also do searches for any type of category such as golf, pet owners, facial cream, weight loss, personal development, success motivation, real estate investing… like I said, there’s over 60,000 lists in there, so knock yourself out and get excited. Just getting the connection here for NextMark alone is worth way more than the price of this course. NextMark can literally be your source to make you rich.
Fresh, high-quality names of people interested in starting their own home-based business. These are fresh, “out of circle” beginners who have called or written in response to national advertising. http://www.wolfenterprises.net/mailinglists.html
Opportunity Seeker mailing lists offer over 45 targeted categories including: opportunity seekers, MLM leads, extra income seekers, home businesses, work from home, get rich quick buyers, mail order buyers and much more.
http://www.opportunityseeker.com
Thousands of new opportunity buyers each month! Everyone on the list is interested in pursuing Home Based Business Opportunities. This includes all types of MLM, Network Marketing and Work at Home opportunities. These are real leads - red hot and exclusive to you. No one else gets your leads. They’re sold one time only! http://www.opportunitylists.com
A Mailing list that’s correct for your offer, must be used, or you’re throwing your money away! Mailing List Broker and List Manager DAJ Direct, provides Opportunity Buyers Direct Response Mail Lists. The premier list brokerage house for MULTI LEVEL MARKETING, Opportunity Buyer and Work From Home mail lists. Specializing in providing responsive, targeted, Opportunity Buyers Direct Mailing Lists to the MLM (multi level marketing), Business Opportunity and Work at Home community.
http://www.dajdirect.com
Business Opportunity Mailing List Tip: Be sure that whoever you chose to buy your Business Opportunity Mailing Lists from, be clear with your broker than you only want names of those that have purchased a business opportunity in the past (buyers). In other words, stay clear of Income/Business Opportunity Seeker Lists… they’re a waste of your time and money.
To Your Success,