The term "junk mail" is a well-known term. To the common guy or gal on the street, "junk mail" to them is advertising flyers from the local grocery store and pizza shop that arrive in their mail every day. To the mail order dealer, it means something totally opposite because a mail order dealer in St Paul MN is not going to get a pizza ad for a shop in Jackson MS. Therefore, "junk mail" refers to pyramid schemes, chain letters and other worthless information that you are inundated with as a newcomer. Often you will get so much of it that you will think this is all mail order has to offer and quit. THIS IS NOT TRUE. This is only one phase of the mail order industry -- and it's too bad that beginners get hit with the bulk of it. As you continue to grow in the mail order business, the amount of "junk mail" you receive will diminish compared to the legitimate offers and orders. This is how you know your business is growing in a successful direction. But back to the matter at hand. How can you make money with this "junk"? One way is by studying and analyzing the piece of mail from a marketing standpoint. Since people obviously are making money with "junk mail" (it would have phased out long ago if it didn't) it's up to you to find out HOW they are doing it. Is it the words they use? Normally, "junk mail" offers appeal to a person's emotional wants and desires. They claim to offer hidden secrets, untold wealth and quick cash. They make false claims by telling people they can now send their kids to college, buy their wife a beautiful diamond ring, take a well-deserved vacation to an exotic tropic island and pay off all their debts. When the person reads this stuff and forms visions of sugarplums in their heads, they will rush right away and send away for the product immediately. What made them believe you? How was the "junk mail" written to cause a person to immediately react in this manner? These are things you have to study and determine. Then, use this new found knowledge to sell your own product. The problem with "junk mail" is that if a person gets all hyped up and sends away for the product they have built it up to be bigger-than-life. And when the product or information they ordered arrives, it simply is a sheet of paper or another piece of "junk mail" trying to sell them something else. The person feels cheated, stupid, and taken advantage of. People may always exist that will respond to this type of "junk mail." But you can use the same marketing concept to provide the people with something REAL. This way, they won't feel cheated, stupid and taken advantage of. This is where the "junk mail" authors who wrote this stuff in the first place overlook the true marketing potential. More money could be made if the person buying something is satisfied and makes a repeat purchase. In fact, newcomers are eager to learn and will buy anything to get started learning. By taking advantage of them only means that you will make one sale in that person's lifetime. But if the product is good and worthwhile -- they will order from you again and again. Many newcomers today will be big businesses tomorrow. And I'm sure if a newcomer found a honest company that really helped them break into the mail order field they would continue to do business with them when they really did make millions of dollars. See what I mean? The back-end sales for a lifetime would be worth the investment. I'm not saying that you can take a piece of "junk mail" claiming to make the person $1 million in 30 days or less and turn it into a valuable and worthwhile product. Since this is a downright lie, there is no way to market this honestly. However -- you can study the piece of "junk mail" to determine what words and phrases were used and how the ad is written so you can understand how to present a REAL product that people will be eager to buy. Then, pass the word and tell every new person you come into contact with about these pie-in-the-sky-schemes. You might even want to try writing to some of the people listed on the chain letters. Explain how all this "junk mail" only appeals to their emotional needs and how the company who originally wrote these materials are USING them to only get their money. If everyone passed along this information -- it wouldn't take very many years before we could put a stop to all this nonsense. If people slack off on buying it and see the scam for what it really is -- the cons will diminish! |
