The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1919-1935, 1922-11-17
MAKING MONEY BY NAIL Diff.
ClTLT--HEAD OF DyG invERTIS.
ING FIRM SHOWS WHY BEGIN.
NERS OFTEN FAIL.
by ST. ELMO MAssENGALE.

Is the head OF one OF the largest ad.
vettisins organizations in the United
States. Its activities include the mail
order branch of publicity in all its
phases and from many years expert
ence he has obtained an experts stand
point. The number Of persons who have
attempted the mail order business as
means OF obtaining wealth is enor-
nous. The great majority failed. Mr..
Massengale in following tells why.
FIR every man who makes money in
the mail order business. there are prob
ably more than a Thousand who do not
success. The mail order business Is
far from Il gold mine for many who
go into it.
The chief reason so many enter the
mail order business is due to their be-
lief it requires practically no capital,
limited or no business experience and
only deskroom in ones home. The
truth Of the matter rs, the mail order
business requires considerable capital,
highly specialized business experience
and office equipment second to no 9TH
er business on earth.
Capital is required TO. only for ade-
quate office equipment and the mer-
be sold by mail, but sufficient money
must he had to carry on the test work
that every mail order man new to the
business should do before he considers
himself ready to go after business in
earnest and can expect to do such bus
mess prOfitably
The test work is simply series Of
tests Of the pulling power OF each
niarn faf oI iSirSr fho% 70
be used. For instance, a mail order
man must test out whether it is cheap
err to advertise in magazines and n. VS.
papers or to send out his advertising
direct by mail to lists of possible GUS
toners. II he makes \ test of news
papers and magazines. he must test
out whether the advertisement should
be worded so as to directly sell the
reader, or worded to merely obtain in
quiries that are then to be followed
up by the direct by mail advertising.
y further test must be made to see
what class Of publications develop in
quries or sales at a low cost enough
to allow the mail order man to con-
duct his business profitably.
Other tests should be made to snow
what size advertisements one can most
profitably use in eacn publication, and
with what frequency or at which sea-
sons the advertisements should ap-
pear.
Each form letter, folder, booklet and
other piece of advertising matter
should be sent out to limited list of
typical prospects. to deterine it's ac-
tual sales value. Two other important
tests are to find out how many days
apart each follow-up should be sent to
the prospect and exactly how many
follow-ups it will pay to send to a
prospect.
In number of instances mail order
men have even made tests to find out
what color stationery obtained the
greatest response.
There are certain things peculiarly
| adapted to all order selling. as we'll
| as there are certain things which sell
best through other distribution chan.
| nels. 1t requires the judgment of a
man with a keen merchandising mind
to decide whether mali order methods
| will best sell a commodity or service
| Beginners in the mail order business
/ often jump to the conclusion they car
| avoid the cost of follow-up literature
by selling directly from an advertise.
mcnt in a newspaper or magazine. As
/ a matter of fact, there are cases where
it has been found move econ ,mical I,
do this; but as rule. where anything
is sold directly from an advertiseme n,
! the selling price must be comparative.
| ly low and the size OF the advertise
ment must be considerably large thar
where the advertisement seeks to ob
tain inquiries. In the latter case. rn'
| advertisement does no have to OK
plain everything in detail.
Some mail order advertisers offer t,
send book. razor, or some othe
article of merchandise for free trial
| Where such an offer is made, the al
vertiser must have Il follow-up serie
of collection letters; not becarse pee
pie are deliberately dishonest, bu- be-
cause they are forgetful and slac
about making payment. There ~
some mail order houses. however, VIII
send on trial, that will not ad>ertis
in certain publications and in cer+ai
localities because they find thei
losses from payment are too rea
from their advertising in thos publ
cations and localities.
Beginners In the mail order bus
ness, as a rule. do not appreciaee ho
valuable is the list of names they OF
tain by their advertisements in II
publications they are using. A pro:
pect is followed up only few time
and then the prospects, name is put
a dead" file if a sale is not mad
Oftentimes the same procedure is 70
lowed with the prospects name after
: sale is made. 1t is seldom that a
experienced mail order advertiser II
CARDS the name obtained by adverti
ing as dead" If the prospect doe
not make a purchase, advertising lite
allure is sent--with longer and lnng'
intervals between the mailings--f'
sometimes as long as two years.
All of the foregoing applies parti
ularly to the mail order house that
T selling some special service or cor
II modify or line of commodities. II
I huge mail order houses that carry
> general line Of merchandise. hecau
u Of the very fact they do carry so NAL
Z and so varied lines Of merchandise,
- not have to do as great or intensi
follow-up selling as the speciality
one line mail order house must