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OPERATE A CIRCULAR MAILING SERVICE and *Whether you are in mail order, or any other business, you will need things *mailed for you. You can make extra money, as well as save a lot of mailing *expenses for your own offers, by running a mailing service. and *I'll break down this business for you. When you mail a one-page flyer first *class, there is a lot of empty space in that envelope. You could fit 4 - 6 *more pages in there without going above one ounce, depending on the type of *paper each page is printed. This translates to 8 - 12 sides of advertising *that could be sent with your offer. If you divide the cost of your mailing *by the number of sides of advertising that you can include at no extra *postage cost, you will get the cost per page. A markup can be added to this *cost per page, and charged to other mail order dealers, who will send you *their flyers and ads to include with your mailing. Thus, your offers can be *mailed for FREE by selling the remaining "envelope space" to others, plus *you'll make a profit. You can actually get paid by others to send your own *offers out! and *Here's an example: Say you have a one page flyer that you are sending to *1,000 customer mailing list. The postage for this (first class) would be *$290. Say you can fit 6 more pages in. This would be 12 sides, or *$24.16/side. If you went an extra ounce, postage would be 52 cents/envelope, *or $520 for the mailing. A total of 13 unused pages, or 26 sides would be *available, at $20/page. As you can see, as you go up in weight, your cost *per page decreases. and *What you want to do is set your prices at a point where your costs are *covered. Then, observe what other mailing services are charging. If you *are far below them, add a markup and there's your profit. If your cost is *higher than what they charge, you have two alternatives. and *First, you could send your mail by bulk mail, instead of first class. This *will greatly lower your costs, but you will need to sort your mail by zip *code (not a problem if your mailing list labels are generated by computer), *and you will need to send a greater number of envelopes. Your post office *has informative brochures on bulk mail permits and services. If you don't *understand some of their information (which will probably happen - it's not *very clearly written), the postmaster will be happy to explain whatever you *need to know. By using bulk mail, proper sorting techniques, and the other *tips you'll get from the post office, you can easily cut more than half off *your postage costs. While bulk mail is a bit slower and not as reliable as *first class, it is still good enough to be used by the large mail order *houses, and will allow you to be competitive with the other mailing services. *Most of them also use bulk mail, so you will not be providing a lower *quality service than your competition. and *Second, you could sell smaller space than a full page. Divide your page *into four columns, and sell ad space by the inch. You will be creating your *own ad sheet, which is a whole business in and of itself; one which is *covered in greater detail in the next report. You will make more money per *inch from the smaller ads than from the bigger ads. Depending on your *circulation, a good ad sheet or two may come close to paying for the WHOLE *mailing, making all the other flyers and inserts dealers pay you to send *pure profit! and *One idea to think about is to skip the envelope and create one page that *can be used as the outside of the package. Use half of one side of the *paper for the mailing area, with your return address, space for a label and *postage. Put all the flyers together, with that page on the outside. Fold *them in half, staple, and you have a self-mailer that doesn't have the *envelope's added weight. On the other half of the outside page, you can *either put advertising, or some enticements to whomever is receiving it to *open it and read through all the pages. and *Another wrinkle to explore is combining this service with the printing *brokerage described in the previous report in this series. This way, people *who have offers but no preprinted flyers and ads can participate in your *program. These two services fit together hand-in-hand and are great to *offer together, as a print-and-mail service. and *If you combine bulk mail, ad sheets and full page mailing, you can easily *cover the costs of mailing your own offers, plus make a profit. Any mail *order dealer would be smart to offer this service. and and and |
