Page 218 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

children. About two years ago there was a “craze” for masks and their use as
premiums stimulated the sale of many a slow-moving product. These masks
included comic-strip characters, movie stars, clowns, etc.

Direct-Mail Advertising

One of the great wastes in promoting what might be called a “limited” appeal
business is spending money to contact people who are not prospects. It might
be all right to stand on a street corner and shout your wares to all who pass, if
you have something to sell to the masses. But if you can sell only to people
with a certain amount of money, or to owners of automobiles, or to farmers,
or to some other specific class of people, then it is important in planning a
promotional activity—whether it involves showmanship or advertising, or
both—to pick those upon whom your effort is to be expended. The more you
concentrate your promotional effort, the more resultful and effective it will
be. That is where direct-mail advertising comes in. It enables you to hand-
pick those with whom you wish to do business, and focus your entire sales
promotional effort on them.

The first step in using direct-mail is to build a mailing list. A good mailing
list is the backbone of a business, and that holds just as true of the large
business as it does of the small business. It is not enough to take a telephone
directory and call it a mailing list. That is just a list of names. A mailing list is
something more. It is a list of people you definitely know to be prospects for
what you have to sell. These names may be obtained through your own
personal acquaintance, through friends, or by having a “survey” made by
some person employed for the task. As a rule the money you invest in getting
a good live mailing list is about the best investment you can make. Having
compiled such a list, do not stop there. Spend a few dollars more for an
addressing machine and make the most of the names. You can buy a small
hand-addressing machine for as low as $25. You can use it not only to
address advertisements to your mailing list, but also to print postcard
announcements. You will find such equipment a big dividend producer.

Remember that a mailing list is no more valuable than the number of times it
is used. Get something out regularly—the more often, the better. Keep the