Gary Halbert · whole document (17)
a mail 100 00 letters
"What's a 'co-op' mailing?" asks Mr. Druggist.
"Well, you explain, "It's very simple. What happens is everybody gives
me their advertising flyer and I'll mail them all in one envelope and
the costs will be evenly divided among all the different businesses.
That way, instead of it costing you $22,851.20 to mail everybody in
your trading area, it's only going to cost you in the neighborhood of
$2,200.00 which is a savings of over 90%!"
Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, it is a good
idea... but... you've got to be careful. The first thing you've got to
do is make sure none of the participating businesses are in
competition with each other. And, the second thing you've got to do is
make sure your direct mail message stands out, head and shoulders
above all the rest.
Fortunately, that's easy.
You see, many of those businesses will have
their advertising prepared by a local ad agency and it will be
terrible. The problem here is most people who work for ad agencies
only know how to "be creative" and win awards and not how to
create direct mail that sells. The rest of your "co-passengers"
will probably create their advertising themselves... and... while
that's better than hiring a moronic ad agency... they still won't have
the special, inside knowledge and know-how you're going to enjoy as a
subscriber to my newsletter.
So, what this means is most of the people in
your mailing co-op are going to be mailing coupons, announcements of a
special sale, a brochure that explains what hours they are open and so
forth.
Not you. No Sir. See, at this point, a light
bulb is going off in your head and you are remembering what you read
in that other section about what to write on a simple postcard
mailing that will make people flood into your business.
Remember? Remember how I suggested you write
something that gets people to call and listen to a free
recorded message that will entice them to call you or come to your
place of business? You do remember? Good! And, since you're in
the real estate business, you have a bunch of cards printed up that
say something like this: