MATH and the cost of time.

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Jenn

Hiya Gordon,

I'm in that FB group and many others, lol. The group itself is a pretty good group of folks. I bought the 9x12 product some time ago but haven't actually sold a 9x12.

Yep, you're absolutely correct Gordon. It does appear very time consuming for little up front reward.

There was a member last week who mentioned changing things up a bit to go after the big fish for solo mailers instead of the 9x12 and you should've seen some of the odd reactions about this poor fella's decision to move away from the 9x12 approach, who simply had a light bulb moment after speaking with a direct mail guy who mails 100K postcards a week for his clients and doing quite well.

There are a few members who have figured out how to make the 9x12 profitable and have created a nice system to get repeat customers.


There's one group in particular, that consists of a 3 member team who have cranked out 18 cards over the last year or so. They have shared some clues about how they go about it. It's pretty ingeniously simple once you piece what they're doing together and they're able to close out cards now it seems in a week with their approach.

Thanks Jenn, groups have a tendency to follow the leader.

There is no right or wrong way, as you see Ron (a pro) and I do things differently too.

For me, it is ALL about time. I want to close a card in hours, not weeks or god forbid, months. So the question two years ago was HOW?

Answers came from many sources, the best one was from the Warrior Forum, in the form of a smaller card, few ads, lower prices.

So, I tested. And found out what a Co-Op ad card could or couldn't do for the businesses. Without meaning offense to any business, when I say bottom feeders, these are small businesses with almost no advertising budget, they often got into business without giving thought to how to get customers, it was a build it and they will come.

Most businesses could use a steady stream of new customers and keeping old ones. With newspapers dying out and print getting expensive POSTCARDS are an easy way to keep name and OFFERS in front of targets.

My research from the last two years, and this includes 2 dozen people who were doing the 9x12 card, showed:

There was a lot of running around.
There was a lot of CHASING down.
There was a lot of TIME spent in layout, design and proofing.

Several guys who had been doing the 9x12 quit because after all is said and done, they basically had themselves a low paying job, without benefits...and more than a few went back to work.

I found HOSTS, nothing new there, Don Alm wrote about this for years.
The Host sponsored the card and got advertisers on the back.
Then, I found TRADESHOWS, where thousands of people attend and

ONE card with 7 offers of at least 100 bux each, was worth more than any one card or promotion from the show, the power of the Co-Op, especially for related but non competing industries.

I found out cards sent to me for pizza shops across town were a waste of their money, by talking to drivers, owners and actually knocking on doors of people who had ordered.

A shop sending 10,000 EDDM cards, was wasting half his money, because it was too many to the WRONG place.

Also, some gurus were touting a 5% return, saying if they sent 5,000 cards, they could get 250-300 coupons redeemed. I've never seen that happen, but, it is used in phone calls.

I never have talked about performance, but a combo of branding and offers.

Today it is a Zip Zone approach, where in my area (44223) there are 11 pizza shops within the zip code, but only ONE gets on the Co-Op ZipZone mailer, it becomes a DON'T CARE SALE.

I honestly, truly, just don't care who is on the card, and I can close in one call based on that alone, WHEN I use the proper tools (a map).

So, like Ron posted, maybe ONE roofer or plumber will give you the one card. My studies showed about a 2700 net profit from the 9x12 with 14 ads which took 6 weeks.

I can get a 700 net in a day from one co-op of two guys, so it just makes more sense to ME, TO take the path of least resistance, so I could start on Tue morn (never a Mon) and be done by THUR, with a week's paycheck, and have six of those before a nine by 12 guy gets his...

but, it is whatever works.

I'm not a group guy, and don't really care what others do, I like fast, easy and less slop.

Thanks for posting,

Gordon