Catalog Distribution

Catalog distribution still remains the most popular choice for many big companies to promote their products. If you have a mail box you know what we are talking about. Whether people buy or not they love to browse through catalogs. But let's be realistic here. Mailing catalogs can be a very expensive project because in most cases they will end up in non-productive destinations where the catalogs will be browsed and thrown away and you will be loosing lots of valuable marketing money. However, if your goal is to get into mail ordering business we have the perfect solutions for your. You can refer to our "Mail Order" selling strategy and learn more details on how to be successful in that marketing method, but for now we will suggest you to take these powerful sales tools in front of all kinds of motivated and eager buyers who want what you've got. The kind of buyers who are really ready to give you the cash to put their hand on the wonderful collection of products you will be carrying along with you now in a catalog. We will show you how to get your catalog distribution business off to a great profitable start. So let's get started.

JUMP START THIS MONEY MAKING PLAN:

• Take your World of Products catalog out of the Business Kit.

• Show it to a friend, neighbor, workmate, classmate, cousin, and anyone you can think of.

• Offer a big discount of 15% to 20% for a first order and you will still have plenty of profit margin.

• Accept their order with a smile and assure them that they will receive their products very soon while you pocket the profit.

If you put the effort of showing your wonderful catalogs to people you know or don't know, you are guaranteed to receive some orders which means profit money in your pocket. Now that you have got the money in your pocket, there are few things you need to do to move forward with you newly found business. You need to know how to order catalogs, which catalogs to order, how to recognize every distribution opportunity, and other great sales tools to distribute.

HOW TO ORDER CATALOGS AND WHICH CATALOGS TO ORDER:

Ordering catalogs from Gleewares is exactly as easy and fast as ordering products, because you will use the same ordering interface. You can either use the "Search" option on the home page of the Gleewares site or you can use the "Express Order" option under reseller tools. Just search the catalogs by their item # and mention the quantity and then you can checkout with your shopping cart.

For your convenience we carry two catalogs and various brochures and fliers. To browse through our collection of catalogs, brochures, flyers, and other supply products click on "Supply Items". For now we are going to describe our 2 catalogs - World of Products and Bayberry Lane.

World Of Products (Item # 4311): Big and beautiful featuring the entire product line. This will be your primary catalog when you are on a hunt for orders. There is something for everyone in this monster catalog so show it around. Even though this is an expensive catalog, this is the hardest hitter and guaranteed to land you some orders.

Bayberry Lane (Item # 4301): With it's bound-in-envelop this catalog is designed to make it easy for buyers to check out great gift ideas and when decided to buy a product they can conveniently drop a check into the envelop and mail or hand the order to you. This catalog is updated seasonally for sales campaigns throughout the year.

So which catalog should you buy and start distributing? The answer will depend on how you are targeting the prospects. Ideally your goal should be to get the World of Products catalog into as many hands as you can afford because of its wide collection of products. The Bayberry Lane is perfect for use for Mail Order or as a leave-behind when visiting customers.

When you are leaving catalogs with prospects, it's a good idea to get them imprinted with your name and contact information. Browse through our catalogs listed under supply items and look for imprinted catalogs; however, imprinted catalogs are only sold in thousands. For a cheaper solution you can order personalized rubber stamps and labels (also listed under supply items). If you have business cards you can staple them to the back cover of every catalog you hand out.

HOW AND WHEN TO DISTRIBUTE CATALOGS:

After you buy the catalogs you must plan a solid distribution campaign. Always keep in mind on how to get the most out of every catalog you distribute while keeping the costs as low as possible. If you properly plan on how and when to distribute the catalogs you will definitely see a high return on your investment. You can come up with ideas of your own and also follow our proven to work guidelines.

To keep the costs low at first show around the World of Products catalogs while leaving behind the Bayberry Lane catalog. If the prospect is a hot buyer you can choose to leave the World of Products catalog behind because of its wide array of products. Anyway use your own judgment. There are number of ways you can start your catalog distribution campaigns:

• Show them to friends.

• Show them to neighbors.

• Leave some with your dry cleaner, doughnut shop, coffee shop, Laundromat, and everywhere else where you are a regular visitor. If the owner lets you to keep it for free that's great! Otherwise offer them a percentage of all orders.

• Show one to your local PTA Chairperson and you could end up with a fund-raising campaign.

• Take them to work, especially around the holidays.

• Ask if you can leave one in your doctor's office. You might want to offer free gifts or percentages to the receptionist in return to hold the orders for you or you could just leave the Bayberry Lane catalogs so you can directly receive the orders yourself by mail.

• Hand out lots of them on bowling night, or at the lodge meeting, or any type of club gathering.

• If you are familiar with the neighborhood and feel safe, take a Sunday afternoon and go door to door.

• Wile you are watching your child's contests, friendly sports game, show catalogs to the other parents. Be sure to show the directory of these events and you might end up with a lucrative fund-raising campaign.

• If your job requires you to make deliveries to various homes or businesses, be sure to leave a catalog, with the owner, receptionist, or receiving representative at each stop. Again offer free gift or percentage of total orders.

• Hire a crew of kids to distribute brochures on car windshields in parking lots.

• Hire that same crew to hand out brochures at large sporting events, concerts, fairs, etc.

• Take some with you to the beauty salon, gym, tanning salon, etc and show them to staff and customers.

• Ask if you can leave several catalogs in the teacher's lounges at the local schools.

• Ask the Human Resources Directors at local companies if you can place catalogs in the employee lounge or lunchroom.

• Approach merchants at local swap meets who are selling non-competing items and ask if they would display your catalogs and take orders for a reasonable percentage.

• If you have relatives living in different parts of the country try to ask them if they would be interested in distributing catalogs by using any of the above mentioned methods, for a percentage of course.

• Make a deal with the local newspaper to insert your brochure.

• Anytime you deliver an order always stuff the order with additional catalogs and brochures.

• At Christmas time, make a deal with the Christmas tree lots to let you distribute catalogs. Same with pumpkin patches at Halloween.

• Senior citizen communities are a great place to hand out catalogs. Many of the residents aren't able to get around as well as they used to and appreciate the opportunity to shop at home. Extend a healthy discount because most senior citizens are on fixed incomes.

• Many communities have Welcome Wagon services. Contact those service providers and get your catalog included in the Welcome Basket.

Certainly you may come up with many more ways to successfully distribute your catalogs and brochures. Any way you come up with is fine, as long as you get your material into a prospect's hands.

It is illegal to distribute sales materials by just putting them into people's mailboxes.

TURNING A LITTLE GRAY INTO A LOT OF GREEN

Laura's been fighting the battle against premature graying since she was twenty, which necessitates a once a month visit to the hair salon. Every time she goes she brings along her World of Products catalog, and offers a 10% discount to everyone in the place. Sometimes she leaves the catalog on the receptionist's desk. Customers and staff flip through it, writing down their orders and mailing addresses on a large manila envelop next to the catalog. They then drop their checks into the envelop and Laura fills the orders. No wonder she can afford to leave such a big tip!

One of the most important part of catalog distribution campaign is to recognize the ideal selling seasons and distribute accordingly. The great thing about our product line is that it's always in season. Throughout the year during holiday season, summer season, and spring season you will have special shopping days like Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentines Day, Mother's Day and various other when people will most likely buy products for these gift giving occasion. Along with the catalogs you will have access to our various colorful brochures targeted for each season:

Holiday Season: You've not only got seasonal Bayberry Lane catalogs, you've got Divine Inspiration (Item # 4677) and The Christmas Collection (Item # 4658)- two killer brochures specially targeted for this season.

Spring Season: Between Valentines Day, Easter, and Mother's Day you've got a profit making spring season that cannot be missed. Use the seasonal version of Bayberry Lane along with the Divine Inspiration brochure. You can also make good use of the New Arrivals flier (Item # 4378) released every month.

Summer Season: While traditionally a slower season for mail order, your catalogs feature some fantastic patriotic items like bald eagles, American flag patchwork products, and many more. Definitely use the New Arrivals flier released on the month of July for huge Independence Day sales.

HOW TO COMPEL PROSPECTS TO PLACE ORDERS:

You as a seller have to keep in mind that your customers will always think if they are getting a good deal or why should they buy from you. Try to apply various marketing tactics like time sensitive offers, discounts, free products, new arrivals, or even free shipping to make people buy your products as soon as they see the catalogs.

Time Sensitive Offer: This marketing trick is the most versatile way of creating the urgency among the prospects to buy products from you right away. You can incorporate this method with all of your other marketing plans. With all of your offers like free gifts, discounts, free shipping, you can tell your prospect that this offer is valid only for a limited time. You could say something like, "If you place an order within the next three days I might be able to squeeze in a 20% discount. I cannot promise that big savings later because we are running a special promotion which will end in three days." Well you get the idea. You can come up with your own selling phrase the way you think is going to work but try to create a sort of urgency in your buyers so that they place an order right away.

Discounts:  Everyone loves discounts. Statistics show that people buy more when there is a sale or a discount offer on products. That's why throughout the year big malls offer big sales during the shopping seasons. You can also offer discounts on your products because of a high profit margin. If you offer a 20% discounts on your products you will still have a profit margin of more than 70% excluding shipping. When you are offering discounts try to put the shipping charges on your customers to keep a high profit margin but the choice is yours. You have to calculate what sort of discounts you are going to offer.

Free Products: How many stores do you know that are promoting "Buy 3 Get 1 Free" offer. Certainly plenty. Why? Because people are more inclined to grab that free product and in result you are getting an order of 3 products which means more profit money for you then selling just 1 product. Plus you will get more sales. For your convenience we have created a "buy three, get one free" sticker (Item # 4810) so that you can very easily make this offer to your select customers. Just place a sticker on the front of the Bayberry Lane Catalog and one on the space indicated on the bound in order envelop and voila! you have great marketing tool.

Always give the lesser priced product for free if you use the "buy three, get one free" promotion.

New Arrivals: The colorful New Arrivals fliers are perfect to augment your sales efforts. Every month order a good-sized quantity of New Arrivals fliers and either mail or hand deliver them to your current customers; plus you can stuff your catalogs with the latest flier when you contact a new prospect. The whole idea is to make your prospects and customers believe that you are not carrying the same products everyday rather you are a unique source for new exciting gift items. Every time we release the New Arrivals fliers we see a tremendous boost of sales here at Gleewares. Wouldn't you like the same thing happen to you?

Free Shipping: One of the most well known marketing tool is to offer free shipping. Ah, again that lucrative word "FREE" that no body can deny. So why shouldn't you be able to offer free shipping? Of course you can but make sure you calculate your profit margin before you do that. Typically if you are able to sell one product at retail price and offer free shipping you will still have a profit margin of 60%. That's not bad at all. Now what if you have a huge order. Usually for you the shipping costs will get smaller as the order gets bigger which means more profit for you.

THE 30 DAY ACTION PLAN: