DRAW CUSTOMERS INTO YOUR "STORE"

Your Mail Order Business Can Benefit From Common Retail Practices. Here's How to Use Them.

By Terry Thomas

It's no secret that the key to success in retail is to get people into the store. The same principles apply to mail order. Of course you don't have a physical store that customers can visit. Instead, you have a catalog or stable of products that you offer. It doesn't matter if you have a huge store or a simple catalog. If you don't get people to visit your business, you will never succeed.

Retail stores have this practice down to a science, literally. How often do you see huge ads for things like soda, beer or snack items? Are the stores making huge profits by selling these products so cheaply? Of course not. In fact, many times they are actually LOSING money on the sale of these products. The only reason that they offer them for such a low price is to lead you into the store. Hence the term "loss leader," which means that they offer a highly-saleable product in huge demand at a loss in order to "lead" you into the store with the intention of selling you other products on which they DO make a profit.

Auto parts stores are famous for this practice, using motor oil. Many times they will offer sales of motor oil at a loss in order to entice you into their particular store instead of the competition. Once you're in the store, they sell you filters, tools and any number of products. These are the "back end" sales of the retail trade.

Another tactic stores use, once they draw you in, is to place items that are the most popular in the back of the store. Ever notice that the items you use everyday, such as milk, orange juice, meats and the like are located in the BACK of the store? This is not by accident. It's done so that you have to walk down all those aisles of products just begging for a piece of your hard-earned money.

APPLYING THE PRINCIPLES TO MAIL ORDER

If you're selling something by direct mail, you need to attract potential customers. This is the number-one priority. After all, if you don't first attract "potential" customers, how in the world can you expect to make any sales? You can use the same strategies that retail stores use to not only attract prospects, but keep them, as well. Don't make the mistake of trying to sell your products on the front end unless you can afford to place a lot of full-page ads. And even with full-page ads, it's much more effective to place ads that "draw" customers to your company. If they are happy with what you give them on the INITIAL contact, there's a good chance that they're going to buy more products from you.

The trick is to get the initial contact and make it be in such a way that you qualify your prospect. In other words, you want them to be interested in what you're offering on the back end as well as the front end. An auto parts store does not lead you into the store with a sale on motor oil to sell you shoes. You shouldn't offer something on the front end that doesn't strongly relate to what you sell on the back end.

Some people make the mistake of thinking that once they get a prospect they can sell them anything. This type of thinking will lose you a lot of money in advertising. For example, if you're selling "how to" books on making money, don't lure prospects with a generic "FREE INFORMATION" ad promising great riches unless your information actually shows them how to earn money and is not simply a bunch of "get-rich-quick" offers.

There are many ways to lure customers to your mail order "store." You can use free offers, premiums, special sales or other incentives. One of the most effective ways is to use a loss leader on the front end to get people to actually purchase something from you. Give them value for their money and they'll be back for more.

THE SECRET OF SUCCESSFUL FRONT-END OFFERS

Like most mail order people, I started out trying to sell one main product from a classified ad. It didn't work. Then I tried the "two-step" method by placing a classified asking for a SASE or a small fee for information. Worked a little better, but still not good enough. Then I went the "FREE INFORMATION" route and placed ads offering free information. This worked much better, but I wasn't getting many sales. In other words, people were answering my ad, but only because they wanted the free stuff. Even though I was following up with a strong sales package, I wasn't qualifying my customers.

Then I stumbled upon the secret. I started placing an ad for a small booklet related to my product. I didn't give this booklet away. I charged a couple of bucks. I also made sure that I filled these orders with a booklet that had a much higher perceived value than the purchase price.

BINGO!

Suddenly, I was not only pulling in some orders from my initial ad, but I was turning those prospects into customers on the back end, as well. I didn't even care if the initial ad made money. I just wanted to draw enough prospects into my "store" to make a profit on the follow up sales.

You can do this, too! It's not difficult and you'll find your sales increasing at an eye-popping rate. For example, let's say that you're trying to sell a book on home gardening for $19.95. That's a little too much to sell from a small display ad and not enough to sell via direct marketing. Even if you had a $17.00 gross profit, you'd still have to get a two percent response just to cover your postage. You could offer free information, but you would receive a lot of responses for people that were not really interested in what you're selling. However, you can offer a small report or booklet with "101 Gardening Tips" for $2 or $3 and sell it from a one or two-inch display ad. Now you'll get people sending for your booklet that are actually interested in gardening. Fill the order with a professionally-printed booklet and your sales package for the gardening book or a catalog of other books. You're using the small ad to "draw customers to your store."

This is just one example of using a strong, inexpensive front-end offer to draw customers to your company. As you get better at writing ads, and more financially secure, you can even offer free information. Just be sure that you're qualifying your prospects so that you're offering something related to the rest of your products.

Once you draw customers to your "store," don't forget to lead them through the "aisles" of your catalog, just like a retail store. Place the most popular sellers inside the catalog so that the customer has to page through the rest of the catalog, looking at as many of your products as possible. You may mention the best-seller on the cover, with a "See Page..." The point is that you want to expose your prospect to as many items in your catalog as possible to maximize your potential sale. Whatever you do, make sure that your customer is satisfied so that they keep coming back!

Terry Thomas is the owner of TJT Marketing Associates, a Direct Marketing Services Company. He has owned his own businesses since 1987 and publishes the innovative and provocative newsletter, MAIL ORDER MARKETING NEWS. This newsletter provides a continuing education in mail order, along with success tips, marketing strategies and money-making opportunities.

For a sample issue and mail order catalog, send $1.00 to:

TJT Publications
P.O. Box 55685
Valencia, CA 91385

Or, to speak with Terry, call him at (661) 291-2353 or fax him at: (661) 291-2354.

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