From: aryeh@cash.ucsc.edu (Aryeh Friedman)
Newsgroups: misc.entrepreneurs
Subject: Re: Mailing Lists vs Magazine Advertisements
Date: 10 Sep 1992 20:54:09 GMT
Organization: Marsnet
NNTP-Posting-Host: cash.ucsc.edu

In article <lav1mvINNsln@aludra.usc.edu> moghal@aludra.usc.edu (Nadeem Moghal) writes:
>I know it would be a very broad-spectrumed question, and it'd be
>difficult to answer it without a knowledge of a certain product,
>but can somebody tell me when should one place an ad in a paper/
>magazine, and when to go in for a direct-mailing?

On direct mail you have to way the cost to reach a qualified buyer vs. expected
response this is true for any medium you choose.   Do to this take cost over
the response amount (commonly avaible from many sources) times number of buyers.

>I have a few ideas, but they are in a very elementary stage. While
>I am trying to develop them, I would like to get started on this
>other front as well, so I could start as soon as I could. I would
>like to zero-in on the period before christmas.

Any ad medium will be over crowded at this time.

>This brings me to an important question: Is it a good idea to 
>flood people with your direct-mail letters before a major occasion
>like christmas? I don't mean immediately prior to it, but. say,
>a month or so. Are there any positive/negative apects of it that
>I should be aware of?

Your choice but if it is not a consumer item probelly not if it isn't probelly
it is.

>Alright. Here is the main part od my question. I hope someone 
>would be kind enough to suggest a few answers.
>
>   An Ad in a magazine like Popular Science costs at least $125
>   (for a smallest possible size). But it goes to a very large
>   multitude of prospective buyers. Even if half a percent of
>   those think favorably, you'd be talking of thousands of 
>   prospects.

	Do market research of how noticed those ads are if I remember small
badly placed ads get almost no attention.

>   Direct-mail, on the other hand, goes only to the people you
>   choose. Let's see how much it'd cost to mail the letter to
>   say, 5000 addresses:
>
>        mailing list  ~ 200   (is this a safe estimate?)
>        Postage (@.29) 1450   It goes for one-third under
>                              the special permit, but is it
>                              recommended? It LOOKS junk!
>        Printing/
>             Packaging  250
>
>           TOTAL       1900

	All depends on the geographic space covered if it is in a few
dense areas then you might be able to target certain groups easier via the
pone book like I do.  But then again we market to businesses so it makes this
much easier to do.

>   Add to this the time you'd have to spend in labelling the letters,
>   stuffing the envelopes and mailing them. Some headache it would
>   definitely be!

	Time your self on 15 letters then multiply by min wage and that
is your total cost.  You may not want to do all 5k so develope a cost per
letter and use that also look at the average return on each letter.

> 3-5% return

	My rule of thumb is 2% is doing good anything above that is great.

>So, on the basis of this comparison, magazine ad would seem a very 
>good alternative. 

	Depends very much on your markete and cost of each.

>Is there anything that I have missed out?

	You missed one thing which is how focused your market is.