It’s almost too good to be true.
As if you thought it couldn’t get any better than Direct Mail Advertising. Along came “solo ads”, or “exclusive ad mailings.” Your ad alone, by itself, sent to all those recipients. The mere thought of it concluded the same with so many people: this is it, my website is going to blow up, I’m going to be RICH. So why are there so many disappointments?
Simple, caught up in the “high” of forthcoming success few come to realize, or understand, how the system works. This article sums up the process, hopefully giving you a better understanding of what to expect with your solo ad. Kind of like a tutorial.
Overall, there are three factors you will want to understand when calculating the results of your solo advertisement.
Understand these 3 basics:
1. What to expect.
2. What an ad copy should be.
3. The whole process.
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1. What to expect:
“OK there’s 40,000 subscribers, my product/service is $29, if I bring in just a 3 percent response, that’s 1,200 responses or $34,800!” Sound familiar? Not everyone is a pending order.
The biggest thing to understand here is that every existing recipient isnt on standby waiting to decide whether or not he or she wants to buy. In a perfect world, yes. But in ours, no. Some subscriber’s delete-on-contact, others are no longer checking that mailbox, and most just wont read through the mail.
The best thing to remember is that there are so many factors that contribute to the fact that your ad is not going to sit in a solid XX,XXX amount of viewers. Undeliverable addresses, duplicate addresses, fabricated subscriber lists, and the majority of subscribers who will delete an ad as soon as they see it, just to name a few.
Expect profitable results, but don’t expect that brand new car, your son’s college tuition, or that island vacation. So what do you do? Aim to bring in the subscribers who do see your ad.
2. What an ad copy should be:
Impossible! Your ad didn’t bring in any sales, and it went out to all those people too. You were probably talking out of your you-know-what that’s why!
It has to be understood that these subscribers are receiving solo advertisements day after day. Or with some lists, hour after hour. Do you honestly think they sit down and read through every ad copy? I don’t, I delete most of them.
Summing it up. Be quick, be to the point, do not write more than 2-3 paragraphs of text. Almost no one will read through that. Who knows, your ad may have sold otherwise. That’s if you didn’t expect your viewers to read that long essay of an ad.
A subtle hint for success: make your subject line relevant to the offer! Subject lines are so important if you take the lame way out and use things like…
Re: hello 7,897,428,322 FREE ads forever!!! Don’t delete, you’ll regret it for LIFE.
Ok…your bound to be put where all the cheesy spam-like offers go. In my “Deleted Items” box. As both an ad publisher, and a long time advertiser, I strongly recommend that you write a subject line that sums up exactly what you have to offer. You are now relaying this message to every subscriber. They all know what you can give them, and make a conscience decision to take you up on it or not.
Everyone sees a subject line. Not everyone will see the ad.
If you use an irrelevant, “catchy” subject line. Your fair game for all the people like me who will just delete the ad. Without ever knowing what you actually offered. This became the difference between $0 profit, and $1500 profit for me. And guess which one worked.
– PART II
Part I of this article covered the first two factors to understand when working with Exclusive Ad Mailings. We will conclude with the final one here.
3. The whole process:
Sign-up, sale, or subscriber. With most people, at least one of those things defines the purpose of the solo advertisement. So obviously, this means there are stages a recipient must go through in order to perform and complete the action.
1. Receive your ad
2. See your subject line
3. Open your ad
4. Read the advertisement
5. Respond to it
6. View the website
7. Respond to the offer
8. Complete the action (sign-up, sale, etc.)
If one of these elements is lacking, you have compromised this crucial process, and your direct mail solo advertisement is almost invalid.
What am I talking about?
Earlier we discussed, among other things, effective subject lines. Suppose your subject line is great, your ad copy is horrible, and your actual websites sales page is excellent!
You have interrupted the process. People will view the ad, but because it is ineffective, wont click-through to view the great sales page. There is a gap in-between there that will impair your ability to pull in a response.
The same applies for instance to a great subject line, great ad copy, and bad sales page. The potential response makes it all the way to your website to face a major turn-off. Then leaves.
You have to smoothly and effectively execute the process all the way through in order for an individual to complete the action. This is the core of Solo Direct Mail Advertising. It is more than just the ad, it’s the process.
Understand the whole process and make sure that each element in this process is in place. Nothing should or can be lacking. From ad view to response, everything must be set-up. Using this information, when you actually sit down to prepare your advertisement, you should concentrate equally on making sure all elements are effective.
A smart marketer sits down and makes sure he/she is completely confident that from start to finish, the ad will work. It is not wise to deny any part of the process, reasons discussed above.
The article concludes here. I hope a little light has been shed on how you can maximize your profit and response when paying for a solo or exclusive ad mailing.
Re-hashing:
1. What to expect.
2. What an ad copy should be.
3. The whole process.
Understand, and accept, these three factors of your mailing, and you can easily come to grips with the reality of this great form of advertising. Than you can capitalize on it.
So many people have sat back shocked into utter disbelief when the solo advertisement they purchased pulled in no results at all.
Hopefully that won’t be you.
Dennis Williams II is the editor for the interactive publication: “The People” E-Zine-Forum located at iInnov.com.
Visit his website at http://www.iinnov.com
