The lost (??) art of direct mail

[Rob Toth]

Direct mail is cool.

I'm a guy who sold his DVD collection because I don't like having physical discs... I'd rather just buy/rent movies from iTunes... without the clutter.

I also had a friend rip my 300+ CDs to my computer so I'd have the music ... without the stacks of CDs.

And I rarely buy a book... it's usually audio courses, video courses or ebooks (all digital).

So I'm a fan of digital.

I'm also a fan of instant digital communiation: email, instant messaging, texting.

But the above has become a convenient norm.

And that's precisely why if I get a direct mail solicitation, it gets at least 10X as much of my attention as an email solicitation (for example, for a JV invite). AND, besides just getting my attention, it ensures I remember the person who sent it AND it brands them as "someone different".

So I'm a BIG BIG fan of direct mail to help solidify relationships, help introduce myself to key players I want to reach or to help start or continue discussions of a proposal (including JV/Affiliate recruiting).

I still send emails and I do jump on the phone... and I use facebook and Skype as well.

I wanted to post this as maybe a reminder of the world of direct mail.

Sure it's not free like email. But do you want free or do you want results?

Direct mail is super cool... and unless it becomes mainstream (everyone starts zigging), I'll continue to zag and keep using it for relationship building, introductions and affiliate recruitment (and other relevant followup). Even if only on a small scale. The impact it makes is better than any email you'll ever write.


ps. If you're in a non-IM niche and seriously want to add affiliates to a current or upcoming promotion or build up strong JV ties or even sell to high profile prospects ... get in touch. Email, skype or phone will suffice. Though feel free to send me a letter. ;D

[enrikole]

I am glad someone talks about things like that

I myself am a big fan of direct mail as well. I did it long before the Luke Jaden thing, and will keep doing it for a long time I think.

In my honest opinion, almost everything works with direct mail. Courses, promoting CPA offers and so on.

You really have to get your market research down if you want to do this.

How long have you been doing this Rob?

[Rob Toth]

Direct mail? Since day 1. Before any relevant "internet marketing".

Direct mail is a good part of how I replaced my job income. So 7 years I guess?

But I'm not talking 50,000 pieces per month. However for high ticket product offers, affiliate soliciting, relationship building / introductions etc ... been using it right from the get-go.

Now I'm going to have to go research your "Luke Jaden" reference. I take it some $2000 info product was pimped about how to make oodles of cash with direct mail?? And made it a trend and hip in certain circles?

let's go find out...

[Rob Toth]

Luke Jaten. Just dug up your reference. Yeah, as suspected a high ticket high buzz info product making an age old advertising medium cool again.

$5k for a license?

I didn't bother digging into it... kinda curious on what he's pitching for $5k.

I could provide a FULL system (I mean data manipulation tactics, data importing, postcard design, list cleaning, "autoresponder by mail" systems, full blown automation, ROI tracking, best practices etc)... a FULL piece by piece here's how to do it system so easily.

Maybe I should be putting together a premium priced package for this. lol.

On second thought though... I'd rather just keep milking the medium vs selling the how-to. This is one area I think has more gold in the actual mining vs selling the shovels.

I'll just let my clients in on any of this. To them, I'm an "open book". No interest in selling the info to everyone else though. (yup, I just snuck in a last minute self-indulgent soft-promo for some Genie services)

[enrikole]

I bet somewhere out there is a guy who is putting together $2k course on how to advertise in newspapers

Seems we are going back to old school. One thing that I have been curious about, but never really had any time to test are running informercials . I mean with Google TV ads and all , it seems definitely a platform that can be tested for quite a low cost.

To be honest I was considering doing a promotion for Luke then and I did manage to take a look at this. Content was GOOD. Suprisingly good. I would say one of the best "guru" course I saw being pushed then.

But still , charging that amount was low. Real low.

If there are enough interest here, I would be happy to give my 0.02 cents on this topic. I am sure rob would be as well.

[vivek narayan]

Hi Rob,
Yes,direct mail is cool.The likeliness of getting a physical letter opened is always higher than that of an e-mail and with an attractive sales letter almost anything can be promoted.

Direct mail is something that is often been considered out of mainstream internet marketing.Most of the marketers think about this art as someting outdated,time consuming and less profitable than online methods of getting traffic.

One reason behind this thinking may be the lack of quality information on this topic.Apart from the "12 month millionaire",very few courses are available on this topic.

Thanks,
Vivek

[Rob Toth]

>> Apart from the "12 month millionaire",very few courses are available on this topic.

On Direct mail??

No shortage of it. Yanik Silver had one. Alex Mandossian. Ted Nicholas. Dan Kennedy. T.J. Rohleder.

Direct mail is, of course, older than internet marketing.

There is a LOT of content on its tactics and its still a very active and lucractive model today.

Just need to look outside of the IM circles. Subscribe to mags like Target Marketing Mag, check out The Total Package by Clayton Makepeace or just start off with some of the direct mail bestsellers on Amazon.

Also dive into some of the direct response / direct mail forums.

[Laurie Rogers]

I bet somewhere out there is a guy who is putting together $2k course on how to advertise in newspapers

Seems we are going back to old school. One thing that I have been curious about, but never really had any time to test are running informercials . I mean with Google TV ads and all , it seems definitely a platform that can be tested for quite a low cost.

To be honest I was considering doing a promotion for Luke then and I did manage to take a look at this. Content was GOOD. Suprisingly good. I would say one of the best "guru" course I saw being pushed then.

But still , charging that amount was low. Real low.

If there are enough interest here, I would be happy to give my 0.02 cents on this topic. I am sure rob would be as well.

People have been teaching how to advertise in newspapers since before we all got crazy on the internet .. Don Lapre is actually what his name was .. .. I know he sold his company a LONG time ago, but he used to have a pretty gig going and then a bunch of stuff happened after his informercial success and not sure what's going on with him now. BTW definitely not recommending to buy his stuff, just saying "classified ads" as an example to answer your question.