The Print Profiteer

Page | The Print Profteer bobrossoffine.
com 1
Te
PRINT
PROFITEER
Your personal guide to taking control of your local
business market and profting through print.
by Bob Ross
Page | The Print Profteer bobrossoffine.com 2
Disclaimer:

Tis report is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Neither
Structure Design, its agents nor I take any responsibility for the use or misuse of information contained within this
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Table Of Contents
Introduction ...................... 2
Section One
Proft by Design .............. 12
Section Two
Printing Out Profts ........ 26
Section Tree
Money from the Mail ..... 60
Final Toughts .............. 102
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Heres a hint:
keep your eye out for the golden nuggets.
Introduction
Hi there, my name is Jake (although you may know me as Bob Ross) and Im
excited to show some powerful marketing strategies that will propel you to new
heights for marketing local businesses in your community.
I dont even care if youve never made a dime in marketing before; the techniques
youll learn shortly are able to be started from scratch. Ill show you everything in
the most easy-to-grasp way as possible so you can start making money right away
and carving out a name for yourself in your local community.
As you probably know that over the past few years, the internet has been both a
pain and pleasure for marketing local businesses. Local ofine internet marketing
is exciting for sure, but nothing beats delivering real results without having to deal
with the unpredictable and volatile internet marketing landscape.
What youll learn over the course of this guide will likely seem revolutionary to
many of you, and at the least, will be refreshing and valuable. Start using these
methods immediately, and youll see money coming in quicker than you can blurt
out gimme some cash!
Te power that youll hold once you learn these simple-to-implement and
astoundingly efective strategies will empower you forever. Not only will you be
able to market your own business better, youll be able to deliver even more powerful
results to your clients.
And thats really whats important today, because business owners are tired of the
weekend marketers who pitch them services that dont do jack.
Todays business
climate is diffcult!
No doubt, we live in some tough times for running a business. Even some of the
big boys are struggling to fnd efective marketing in this ever-changing landscape.
No longer can you just build it and theyll come.
Marketing is essential, and more and more business owners are tightening up
their budgets and cutting out the things that dont work. Tats why marketers are
struggling to sell their services too. If its not something they can see a quick return
on, youll struggle to sell it.
Even though theres always the never-ending stream of business owners who
shouldnt be in business and have no clue towards marketing, theyre getting
smarter and smarter about what they spend their money on.
So my thoughts are simple... sell things that they can see a result on right away.
Fortunately, if you can ofer some marketing services that they actually WANT,
youll be able to target all of these dreamers who shouldnt be in business in the frst
place, in addition to the big boys who need even stronger marketing horsepower.
Youll be able to help grow Betsys business. Betsy loves baking cupcakes (and
theyre darn tasty!) but that doesnt mean she can make a thriving business out of
it. Poor Betsy will probably mortgage her house to keep her business going until it
just cant go any longer. Her marketing is piss poor if anything.
Even with the fancy website, the mobile optimized site, and even the free $100
adwords card, shes still not seeing results.
Regardless of the quality of product or service, if its not marketed well, Betsy is
done. Your job is to help market these businesses properly so that they do in fact
thrive, grow, and become a recognized name in their community.
Best service in town? It doesnt matter if no one knows about it continuously.
Best food in the area? Word of mouth only gets you so far.
Lowest prices around? How can you get enough people to come in and fnd out?
Te biggest advertising myth out there leads us to a huge problem with running a
business
Just getting your name out there wont do squat!
Te most widely accepted marketing strategy by local business owners is to get
their name out there.
Tey dont have a clue about targeting, copywriting, funnels, upsells, cross-sells, or
any of that. Tey just get roped into whatever the newspaper ad salesman says .or
the media sales guy, or the internet marketer selling SEO that never works.
A lot of money gets burned away on advertising quickly if you get carried away
with it. Tats why so many people are trying to get into the ofine marketing.
Tey all want to get a piece of some of that money. Right?
I cant blame you, thats why I got into it too.
I mean, theres so much money to get a hold of. Businesses have to market
themselves-even some of the dumbest ones understand that. Its just a matter of
where theyll spend the money and with whom.
It doesnt help the situation because virtually everyone selling advertising at the
local level is only concerned with how much commission or proft theyll make.
Actual results are more like an unexpected surprise than a strategic goal to the
average marketer.
But you, the budding Print Profteer, will be about delivering tangible results and
high value products/services unlike the rest.
You, armed with the right resources, knowledge, and support, can bring them in
customers on a whim, and actually TRACK the incoming business so they know
where theyre getting it from. So they can ramp it up further and further.
I bet you didnt know that most business owners have no clue whether their
advertising is even working or not.
Tats salt in the wound right there. See, most advertising does actually manage to
bring in people if you throw enough money into it.
What happens is a business will begin getting increased customer fow but they
have no clue where its coming from.
Most of my well-established clients were in nasty positions - spending thousands
per week on newspaper ads, billboards, radio spots, TV spots, and SEO yet had very
little to no clue whats working or not.
They were scared to death to stop any of it
for fear theyd cut whatevers working out.
Te swarms of advertising reps selling them hundreds to thousands of dollars per
month in advertising were not focused on what kind of results they got. Tey just
want to sell the advertising space for the commissions.
Teys sell on big audience and circulation numbers, which play right into the get
your name out there marketing mentality.
Pay $1,000 per month for this billboard over the freeway and 100,000 people will
see it every day!
Te logic sounds good, which is why the advertising reps love selling it. Its an easy
deal, especially when theres no tracking to determine if the billboard is working or
not afterwards.
Trackable results scare the crap out of ad reps.
Instead of being the jerk who only wants to take the customers money, you should
have a diferent outlook. You should want to actually help these little guys spend
their advertising dollars wisely.
You should be helping them develop a real brand that they can proudly promote
and market efectively to exactly the right people.
And you should be a blessing to them, for providing them services that no one else
has the smarts to provide.
So youll fnd out by the time youre done reading this guide, that...
These systems allow you to take profts away
from your competitors and into your pockets!
Let me ask you a question... Can you really food your client with business if you
wanted to? If they gave you $5,000 what would you even do with it?
How are you going to bring that local business owner results that are measurable,
on even meager budgets? Go ahead and check the internet, you wont fnd that
answer published. Its the holy grail of marketing.
Im going to show you how to do it. And before you know it, youll be the central
marketing force in your community. Youll be the go-to guy or gal. Sound good?
Good.
First of, you need to understand that regardless of what you may have heard
The internet is NOT the holy grail of local marketing.
Mobile, SMS, SEO, ORM, PPC, and whatever other three letter acronym you
can think of doesnt hold a candle to how much money is spent on traditional
advertising, particularly at the local level.
How much money are we talking about? Well, instead of quoting you some
skewered statistic about how much money is spent worldwide each year on
marketing, lets use some real fgures that will help (and actually make sense).
Te large majority of local businesses spend between fve to ten percent of their
gross revenue on marketing. Some spend a little less; these tend to be companies
that have an established customer base and trafc. And some spend a lot more;
particularly those who are selling high ticket products and services. Even upwards
of 30% or more is common when a business is trying to grow fast.
Tese numbers might surprise you, because any weekend marketer who has tried to
go out selling simple online services has no doubt ran into owners who seem like
they cant even cough up a few hundred bucks
Unless youve ran a brick & mortar business, youll have to trust me, theres always
some money to spend on advertising.
If they see something that they feel will truly beneft their business, theyll fnd the
money, believe me! Even the small businesses that make $500,000/year in sales or
less, youre still looking at marketing budgets in the $2,000 to $5,000 range PER
MONTH.
So why are they telling me they cant even spend
$500 for my services?
Why? Because they dont think what youre selling them is interesting or valuable
enough. Tats why.
Sorry to break it to you but Im not going to hold anything back. Believe me, if
they really were sold on what you ofered, theyd spend some money on it even if
they had to use their personal credit card.
$500 is pocket change to most businesses. Even the ones that are seemingly
running on fumes can come up with a few hundred bucks. It takes a lot of cash
to run a brick & mortar business and the problem for you is that the free cash is
accounted for.
Tere just not always a lot of money hanging around to spend on something on
impulse unless its highly intriguing, simple-to-grasp, or fat-out necessary.
Tose thousands per month they spend on marketing is likely going to traditional
advertising, be it yellowpages, billboards, radio/TV spots, newspaper ads, etc.
Youre not going to hear Im spending $1,000 per month on mobile marketing.
But you will hear them say Im spending $5,000 per month on newspaper ads and
even Im spending $20,000 per month on billboards, TV, and Radio.
Fact is, your average business owner is not spending the brunt of their marketing
money on internet services. Teyre spending it with idiot local advertising reps
who are pocketing big commissions and delivering dismal results.
And even though the results suck...
They still spend TRUCKLOADS of money each
month with these ad reps!
All because they dont really know whats working or not when theyve got so much
going on. My goal, by the end of this guide, is to teach you
How to get all that money going to you instead!
Because thats where their money belongs. In your hands, where you can do
something positive with it.
With the resources and knowledge youll soon have at your disposal, youll have
more marketing frepower than any ad rep in existence. Youll be able to crush all
your competitors to smithereens and take the money away from them.
I do believe that anyone (including you) can do this. Te beauty of my strategies
are that they are very easy to implement, highly simplifed, readily outsourced,
workable with any budget, long lasting, highly proftable, highly recurring, and
fexible to any scale you so desire.
If youd like to make a few hundred dollars a month to help pay the bills, now youll
know how. If youd like to build a million dollar business to sell for a large sum of
cash down the road, youll be able to.
While the frst and second sections will cover profting without having to deliver
response to their businesses, the third chapter will tie everything together and
introduce the methods that will start the infow of customers.
Because as a professional marketer, you should know that
Effective local marketing is about generating
trackable response and a positive ROI.
Unlike most marketers peddling crap services today, youll be focused on delivering
response and tangible results for your clients. When you can deliver response and
tangible results, the money comes in non-stop.
You will have a supreme advantage over the part-time peddlers.
When you have the ability to deliver response on demand, youll have people
calling you wanting to give you money constantly. Youll fnd yourself in the strange
situation where you actually turn down money, because your time will be worth too
much.
Right away, I want you to start focusing on what can I do to bring this guy some
business rather than what can I sell this guy on.
Tats what local business owners want. And the frst rule of making a lot of money
in marketing is:
Always promote a product or
service that people want.
I know it sounds so simple that you want to slap me upside the head and tell me I
already know that, Jake!.
But Im not quite so sure you do.
Lets move a little closer to the money.
Section One
Proft by Design
In the brick and mortar world of business, theres typically a lot of printed material
used for marketing (and everyday) purposes. Te basics would be business cards,
brochures, sales fyers, letterhead, and signage.
Everything printed requires some form of design, and should be branded with the
companys identity to help market their business further.
We call this print collateral by the way.
Not every business has a true brand identity, but Ill bet you bottom dollar that
every business wants a true brand identity thats recognized in their local market.
Identity is the heart of their business summarized into something as simple as a
logo and color scheme. Its something highly desired, but difcult to create.
For the smaller businesses, when they make an attempt to brand themselves, theyll
typically just pick out templates from their local print shop or (gasp!) design some
of it themselves on their home computer software.
Te more established and bigger companies tend to like keeping everything
consistent with their brand, so using run-of-the-mill templates wont cut it.
Everything is customized and tailored in a organized, consistent manner. And very
big money is spent creating it all.
Tis is why skilled graphic designers tend to have sky high workloads even though
they dont advertise. A good designer is almost always highly in-demand. Most
graphic designers never even need to advertise their services ever; they receive all
their work by referrals and repeat business.
One thing you can certianly count on is the fact that
Business owners LOVE seeing their
own brand in print!
Tey love having beautiful business cards and brochures to hand out. Tey love
when everything about their business can be encapsulated into even the smallest
print collateral.
What, you dont think theyll pay good money to have this:
Turned into this:
And preview a mockup what it would look like in real life, such as this?
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Most business owners tend to go batshit insane when they see what can be done
with design work and end up spending way more than they should on every
printed thing under the sun you can suggest.
Once they hook up with a good graphic designer and they start seeing how good
everything looks printed, they want more and more.
You, the soon-to-be Print Profteer, should be capitalizing on this.
How?
By simply brokering out the design work.
You are the marketer. Youre the missing link between the oft-disconnected
relationship of a designer and a business owner.
Te designers job is to make everything look good. Your job is to help put purpose
behind that sweet looking design.
Not only can brokering design work be a fantastic foot-in-the-door opportunity
to sell bigger services, it gives you an extreme sense of accomplishment, when you
become the person responsible for creating a whole brand!
Te good thing is, you dont need to even have any design talent at all. Look at
Steve Jobs, he couldnt program a computer if his life depended on it. But he (like
most wealthy people) use the skills of others and take most of the profts and all the
credit.
Because Id like you to do the same, Ill show you exactly how to let everyone do
the dirty work for you.
Get paid hundreds per hour for doing almost nothing!
$50 an hour is a typical rate for professional graphic design. Most people will never
challenge that (and if they do theyre not worth the aggravation, trust me!).
Real-life examples would be $100 for a business card design, $300 for a brochure,
$200 for a postcard, and all the way up to $1,000 and much more for logo design
and full brand identity.
All of this can now be easily outsourced to highly talented designers all over the
worldfor a fraction of those costs. Because the world has gotten smaller with
the growth of the internet, theres now a massive pool of design talent all over the
world at your disposal.
So, in good business form, you, the Print Profteer, has the advantage of connecting
these relationships, charging full-pop, and pocketing the diference.
Outsourced designers work in the background, allowing you to take complete
credit for the result.
Teyre like ghostwriters, and they prefer it that way. Its no diferent than
outsourcing web design-except theres no annoying html/css issues or technical
issues!
So where do you fnd these outstanding, magical and
inexpensive ghost designers?
Plenty of on-demand designers are available on sites like:
Warriors for hire
Fiverr
Odesk
Elance
I also recommend logonerds.com for very inexpensive logo design, brand identity,
and everyday collateral design. Current rates are only $47 for a logo, $47 for a fyer,
$57 for a brochure, $27 for a postcard, and $17 for a business card design!
Logodesignteam.com is also fantastic for outsourcing logos primarily. You cant
beat the price and quality. Its a fantastic feeling to charge $1,000 or more for logo
& brand development when all it costs you is around $150!
If youre a premier member of mine and would like to have a
relationship with my own screened designers that you can rely on,
you can simply use the ones I suggest.
Te good thing is that print design is a LOT easier to deliver than web design. Te
lack of technical issues and complexity, the ease of reproduction, and the fact that
you can see (and touch) it physically, make it a much more valuable perception.
Now youre about one-third on your way to becoming a full-blown Print Profteer,
ready to proft by using every unfair advantage available.
Oh, and in case youre wondering why more business owners arent using these
cheap talented designers on their own...
Its because they dont have the time, dont have the motivation, and often dont
have a big enough brain to even think of it in the frst place!
Convenience, communication, and a person they can have a real relationship with is
much more important to them than trying to seek out a designer from abroad.
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You are the link between the two and deserve all the credit.
So how do you get these projects in the frst place?
Hopefully by now you want to get out and start making some design cash.
When prospecting for design work, youll fnd that its very easy to get owners
interested in talking with you because in most cases, theyll actually admire you.
Designers are looked up to by most people, because its a skill that many people
wish they had but never could learn.
Simply introduce yourself to the owner, tell them you own a local design and
marketing business, and ask if theyve ever considered having professional design
work done to help brand their business.
Specifcally mention business cards, brochures, fyers, or any printed material.
Nearly all businesses either have a need for some of these or will have a need for
these in the future.
Mention the fact that you didnt notice a company logo or a color scheme.
In my experience, business owners tend to want a logo even more than they want a
website, Who the heck doesnt want a nice logo for their business. Give them what
they want!
All you need to do is open up some communication with them and believe me
theyll start yapping about all sorts of design stuf they need. Tey might as well
just open their wallet and tell you to start taking some cash in most cases.
Go to my personal printing site - printing4supercheap.com - and take a look on
the left side for all the things that I ofer printing for, and see all the things that
business owners use everyday in print.
Rack cards, hang tags, stationery, banners, display signs, posters, thank-you cards,
table tents, brochures, postcards, fyers, business cards, letterhead, envelopes,
calendars, catalogs, booklets, yard signs, doorhangers, presentation folders, and
more.
All of those commonly ordered products needs design!
Need a pitch that works like gangbusters?
Heres a script that Ive used with almost unfailing success:
Nice to meet you (handshake),
My names Jake and I own a small graphic design business right in Smithville.
I dont want to bother you but Ive got a quick question. Have you ever thought about
having new brochures, business cards, or fyers designed?
Whats great about this introduction is that 1. You establish yourself as a local
business owner (just like them!), and 2. Youre asking a question thats very easy to
lead to a sale.
If they tell you theyre all set, ask them if they may consider anything in the
future and see if its OK to contact them later on or if you can give them more
information. Get their info and permission, and keep following up.
As far as picking out the best businesses to target, thats a whole separate subject
and Im trying to keep things brief in this guide.
Te best way is to just go out and fnd smaller businesses that will have owners who
are easy to reach. Even email works great for these services.
Over email, I tend to use the light workload approach, which I think youll have
success with as well.
Subject:
I saw your sign the other day
Body:
Hi, I drove by your store the other day and I thought Id send you a quick email. I
own a small design and marketing business here locally and Id love to design some
nice business cards, fyers, or brochures for you down the road if youre interested.
Have you ever thought about getting some fresh design work done on your print
materials? Im easy to work with and Ive got a light workload at the moment, so I
thought Id take send you a quick email.
If so, give me a ring at 555-1212 or you can email me back, thanks and have a great
day.
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Keep your emails very simple and casual. You want to solicit a response, thats it.
Dont try to sell them all on the frst shot on the frst email.
If theyre interested, theyll respond and youll likely come out with a sale every
time.
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One really really juicy type of business to target is the one that just opened. Tese
are as close to shooting fsh in a barrel as you can get. I love em and would visit
them all day if possible.
New Businesses are as good
as money in the bank!
You can build an entire business model solely on targeting new businesses. Tey are
ripe for the picking and ready to be juiced for the profteering.
Tis is your chance to get in good before theyve spent all their money, wasted their
advertising dollars, and become jaded by advertising and marketing salespeople
who will never give them anything useful.
How do you fnd new businesses? If you have a subscription to infofree.com you
can look them up anytime you want, anywhere in the USA. If you dont have an
infofree.com account, google around for new business listings in your community
and youll fnd that many counties release these publicly.
One of the best ways to fnd them are simply to keep your pulse on the local
community yourself. As a professional marketer, you should be looking at
businesses wherever you go and no matter where you live, I am 100% certain that
youll see new businesses popping up all the time.
Explains how bad these places need better marketing!
Anytime you see a new business pop-up, get your butt in there ASAP. Help
them build a brand and design every piece of print collateral with their identity
prominently displayed.
Logo identity, business cards, stationery, brochures, fyers, are all a basic necessity.
New businesses want to feel established. Teyll feel that if they dont have these
basic and required materials, they wont be taken seriously.
Tis is one of the most PERFECT ways that even a young student or an older
retiree can get into marketing and make some nice side money.
Designing for local businesses
is a walk in the park!
Honestly, it will get very repetitive and boring as you go on. Youll fnd that most
business owners are easily impressed and tend to be amazed at anything with a
remote look of professional design.
Tis is also why good designers can be found working so cheap online. Teyre
cranking out dozens of designs per week and tend to learn exactly what works and
doesnt.
A good designer tends to take your information and get it right the frst time (or
maybe with a small revision or two).
Keep in mind you likely wont be working with big corporate staf and bloated
marketing departments. Tats a pain in the ass regardless of the money!
All youll be working with is the hardworking local businessperson who simply
wants their company to look interesting and professional.
Most of the time everything is straightforward. Particularly with re-design.
Example: you see some poorly made brochures or business cards and you ofer to
re-design it inexpensively. Tats some of the easiest $100 to $300 proft jobs ever-
and you can pick these projects up daily if you go out looking!
Whether you want to make a few hundred per month or a few thousand, you can
certainly do it just by brokering out design jobs for everyday business needs.
Once they see what theyre missing
they freak out by not having it!
Few business owners want their marketing to look amateurish and cheap so youll
fnd that they often get scared when they realize how bad their marketing materials
look (and feel).
Dont be surprised if they start shelling out hundreds or even thousands on
redesigning everything to match. It snowballs fast, believe me.
And when youre ready to make even more money, you can start getting deeper into
brand identity, because...
Theres a lot of hidden money in brand
identity you can take advantage of.
Re-design and new design is all fne and dandy (especially because its so cut and
dried) but theres a lot of hidden money that can lead to much bigger marketing
relationships.
Business owners ENJOY talking about how their print collateral should look.
Anything that spurs conversation and interest with a business owner is good for
you, the budding Print Profteer, because theyll refer you to everyone.
When youve got the conversation fowing, and youre discussing their entire
identity, you have the pleasant opportunity to start branching of into printing,
copywriting, online marketing, and other direct marketing.
Not only are you a positioning yourself as a branding guru in their eyes, but youre
quickly able to solidify your ability to help them market their business even further.
You see, when you position yourself as an expert in branding and marketing in
general, you have so much more to credibly sell them. When you make the mistake
of positioning yourself as an internet marketer, they might never take you seriously
enough when you recommend other services outside of online methods.
But Jake, I cant pretend to be a designer!
Some of you might feel uncomfortable carrying yourself as a designer when all
youre really doing is outsourcing it out and capturing the proft.
Whats funny is that no one seems to have a problem telling people theyre a web
designer when they outsource that out!
If you willingly want to help the owner come up with the best identity for their
business, you have the right to run a design business. You dont have to be the
designer to own a design business.
Tis is what wildly successful business owners do, my friend.
Te entrepreneurs who fail to hire skilled people to work for them will always be
struggling, trying to do all the work themselves.
To make the most money for your talent and your time you need to work on what
you do best, and let your workers do the hard work.
You dont have to lie. Tell them you have a small team and that your job is to
come up with the concepts so that your skilled design team can create it fast and
accurately.
You arent exactly pitching to rocket scientists here. Most of the time, a business
owner will hand you their brochure and say make this look better! Tats it. $300
or more in your pocket.
You just hand the work of to the pros, take all the credit, and half or more of the
proft.
Even though these projects can be simple and will make a few hundred dollars per
pop for you, keep your eyes on the BIG picture...
Graphic Design natura lly leads to Printing, Copywriting,
Consulting, and all sorts of Direct Marketing Opportunities.
(which all mean very BIG money for you!)
Over the next section of this handy dandy money making guide, youll learn how to
turn these simple design projects into some big recurring money.
All in a natural and logical continuation that virtually pushes itself forward.
You dont want to limit yourself to just selling design services. Tink of it as an easy
foot-in-the-door. Tink of it as the frst step in the automatic funnel.
If you focus solely on selling design services, youll end up only making a few
hundred to maybe a thousand or two a month. Even though that can easily make
your car payment or even your mortgage, youre leaving a lot of money on the table
if you stop it there.
While profteering by design is a great way to make money; more importantly-
its a way to open the door to a beautiful relationship with the business owners so
that you can show them how to make direct marketing work for them and bring in
business.
Youll snowball into a relationship that pushes more of their fve to ten percent
advertising budget to you instead of someone who isnt going to truly help them.
So lets talk about how to snowball more money in your pocket.
Section Two
Printing Out Profts
Oh dear Lord do I love this money-making machine. Bear with me and youll see
how your pocketbook can get a lot fatter.
Youre now a full one-third of the way to becoming a true Print Profteer. By the
end of this chapter youll be two-thirds of the way there.
Now that you know how to broker out design, Im going to show you exactly how
to make a bunch of money by brokering out printing.
Because if youre designing for them, why would you want to lose out on all the
money theyll be spending with the printing?
You might think, Crap I dont know anything about printing and I sure dont have
a God-forsaken commercial printing press in my house!
As crazy as this sounds, you dont need to know anything about printing and you
dont need to own any kind of printer at all.
You wanna know something crazy? I went from being totally clueless about
printing to selling hundreds of thousands of dollars in print jobs within months.
All you need is an internet connection and the right resources. Its literally that
straightforward these days.
Take a moment and think about how often people need things printed. Even
though some of you nerds may think that paper will be obsolete in a year, there
are still foods of people right now in your community that run to the printer and
spend money with them every single day.
And this will be the case for a long, long time. Contrary to the very dumb
weekend marketer belief, print is still alive, well, and thriving.
Te naysayers who are against print, are the same ones that think a link wheel, a
mobile site, and a QR code are the keys to marketing success.
Printing and design is in higher demand than internet services by leaps and
bounds. Yet theres eight zillion marketers pushing trendy (and quickly-outdated)
internet services rather than the stuf thats in high-demand.
When so many of your prospects spend money on printing all the time, why would
anyone miss out on this huge revenue stream thats so easy to tap into its almost
criminal.
Some run-of-the-mill examples:
A Business needs 5,000 fyers printed to promote a big sale.
A Charity needs three versions of 1,000 brochures to promote their cause
A Community event needs 5,000 event programs printed to sell at the door
A Chinese take-out restaurant needs 1,000 magnets printed
A Church event needs 500 programs printed for a community event
A Business preparing for a trade show needs 2,500 business cards, 5,000
brochures, 5,000 rack cards, 2,500 catalogs, 5,
A School needs 5,000 booklets printed for a big fund raiser
Just those examples above would total an amount of $15,000 or more in sales.
And by sticking with print, you never need to worry about search engine
algorithms, unpredictable changes, outdated strategies, and all that horsecrap.
Dont get me wrong, Im still a fan of internet marketing, I just view it as
supplemental services to ofer. Last thing I want to deal with is worrying if my
clients will ditch me when their search rankings plummet out of nowhere!
Ill stick to the proven stuf. I keep my eyes on the free-fowing money that goes on
in the local printing world everyday.
Now whos likely to get all this business?
Te large majority of people get their artwork printed at whatever printing shop is
convenient.
It might be a local print shop; a chain store with printing departments like
ofcemax and staples; or a big corporate chain printer like fedex(kinkos) and
minuteman press.
A small percentage of them will go online through sites like vistaprint.
Printing is a commodity-so they tend to seek out wherever is cheapest, fastest or
most convenient. Since its a commodity, you will rarely, if ever, fnd a printing shop
having to go out and fnd prospects.
Its one of those businesses where you build it and they will come because its in
such demand. Te ones who get the majority of the business will be the ones who
keep their costs low and their convenience high.
Printing needs are so common that they fnd you.
Sounds like a good industry to be in huh?
If youve been spending your months peddling marketing services that require
banging your prospects over the head just to listen to you, you might not be used to
something as easy as to sell as this.
Personally, I cant remember the last time I saw local biz owners heading on down
to Mikes Mobile Webshop or Samanthas SEO Specialty Store hoping to spend
some of their money.
But stop into a local kinkos and youll see no shortage of people happily making
the efort to go in and pay hundreds or thousands for printing and generic design
services.
Tis is exactly why Im suggesting you learn how to broker printing because youll
make money very fast with very little work and with very little prospecting eforts
once you get your stuf together.
Ok Jake, tell me how to make money on this!
Just print everything on your home inkjet printer to keep costs low.
Just kidding.
Fortunately, the recent growth of the internet has given birth to a big fat cash-baby
known as the online printing industry.
What these online printers do is get their business without physical storefronts, and
proceed to group multiple orders together on the same print runs-which lowers
the operating cost tremendously. Te extreme efciency and high volume creates
lower retail costs than anywhere local.
(Its called gang-run printing but dont even worry about remembering that!).
Because of their ability to generate business 100% online, the whole country
(regardless of what country you live in) becomes no farther than a place down
the road, so they are pulling in orders from anywhere. Teyre not limited to a
struggling local economy.
Placing an order from Detroit wont be any diferent than if you placed an order
from Maine or Texas. You can even live in Baltimore, do your printing in Kentucky,
and blindly ship it all to your client in Florida without you ever touching anything!
God bless the interwebs, ferce online printing competition, and print profteering.
Even though online printing is growing tremendously, the large majority of
business owners
Have no clue it even exists in the frst place!
Even if they do fnd out about it, most of them are so intimidated by the printing
process (making sure artwork is acceptable for print standards, selecting the proper
paper stocks and coatings, etc) that they seek out the convenience of the local
professional print shop instead.
Although online printing is almost always cheaper in cost than a local printer,
the convenience of speaking with someone they have a relationship with is worth
spending more.
Which is why you can capitalize on this so easily.
If you learn the basic lingo and familiarize yourself with the printing process to a
small degree, youll be able to broker these jobs out with no problem at all.
Youll not only become their design guy and branding guru, youll be their go-to
person for printing now!
Teyll say (in all seriousness)... Is there anything you CANT do!?
Heres a question for you...
Is it bad to offer commodities for cheaper than
all your competition?
Heck no.
See, heres my opinion:
Printers (both online and local) know that they sell a commodity. Tey are in
business to print whatever someone wants.
You however, are helping them build their business, with printing just being a piece
of the marketing puzzle that youve created for them. Youre selling much more
than simple printing services, so you deserve to have this advantage.
You, my budding Print Profteer, are ofering more value than what your printing
competitors do.
Bad for the local printer who isnt out there scooping up the business pro-actively.
But very good for you, entrepreneurial Print Profteer!
Your street smarts, resources, and business sense allow you to leverage others hard
work and resources instead of slaving away on a printing press like the competition.
With a click of a button, you leverage a multi-million dollar
printing press from your kitchen table.
Tats right, a multi-million dollar printing press. Tats how much the good ones
cost. Tey can fll half of a gymnasium in size and require multiple teams of trained
people to operate.
Teres a huge diference between these big boy printing presses and the old
dinosaur presses that are in mom n pop shops. So not only can you print at better
prices than your local competitors, youll be able to print at better quality as well.
This is one of those very rare situations where better quality
can come at a better price.
Te way youll make money is by using specifc online printers who can print dirt
cheap and ship blindly. You have to know the right ones to go to or you could be
overpaying, or getting junk quality.
Tats why Im here, to help. Just like brokering the design, you will be pocketing
the proft and taking all of the credit.
So how do you fnd the best print sourcing possible?
...use TRADE PRINTING whenever possible.
Trade Printing is the BIGGEST SECRET to
making big profts in printing.
Trade printing is a secret underworld in the printing industry; which puts the
power of super-proftable print right into your grubby little palms.
Trade printers are online printing companies that specifcally cater to people already
in the printing trade-hence the name trade printers.
Instead of trying to compete with other local printers, they support them by
giving them wholesale prices in order to resell at a proft. Tis gives you the unfair
advantage.
99.9% of all consumers and business owners will never see the trade printers prices
because they are solely open to print brokers who they approve. And approval
generally requires proof that youre in the printing industry, such as reseller
certifcates and copies of your business license.
Te screening process looks for someone who falls into these categories:
1. Local print shops who want to expand their oferings but dont have the
equipment to produce certain items.
2. Local print shops who want to take advantage of lower cost printing, where
they can simply act as if they printed it in the back of their shop.
3. Design professionals and ad agencies who want to proft from printing but
dont want to own printing equipment.
You will fall into the last category. Youre the rogue marketer who wants to get out
and generate this business by becoming a kitchen table print-profting machine.
Since you dont have nearly the overhead a print shop or a design agency would
have, youll be able to proft of slimmer margins than anyone else can compete
with.
I mean seriously...
Where else can you sell a commodity for cheaper and have
better quality than anywhere else locally!?
Only the rogue print broker in town. Tis you.
You can go out and drum up the business yourself. Virtually no one is out doing
this. Youll be the connection that everyone refers their business buddies to.
Tese local print schmucks never go out and talk with business owners themselves.
Tey dont go out and introduce themselves. Shame on them.
New business opening up down the road? Tey probably pass by it and hope the
owner will come in sometime! Pure laziness.
Not you, fellow Print Profteer. Youre smart enough to go out and introduce
yourself. Call people. Visit them. Email them. Whatever you have to do to simply
introduce yourself and grab that business.
Just reach out I swear on Gods green earth youll fnd business. I will fnd at least
ten local business owners who will pay me for printing services before I fnd one
that will let me sell them a website.
Business owners either want to have things designed and printed for them-or
theyre already doing it and are open to getting it done cheaper by you.
You win either way.
Now Im certainly not saying that you can land a deal from every business
you contact, but go out and see how easy it is to get them interested. Youll be
astonished that everyone else isnt doing this.
What does it take to process a print job?
Not much. I print jobs retailing from a few hundred bucks to a few thousand bucks
every day and it takes me maybe fve minutes each one. All you do is learn the basic
industry jargon the best you can, and click a few buttons everytime you want to
print the money.
Tats it.
Using a trade printer, you get to run your print jobs on million dollar presses that
are calibrated daily with whole teams dedicated to quality control-yet you dont
have to incur any of that cost.
So how exactly does one become a
trade printing profteer?
I know youre a giddy little school right now, seeing all this cash in front of you by
printing without doing much, but you cant go totally blind into it.
Trade printing is not something to attempt unless you have a tiny bit of experience
and preparation. And I do mean tiny. Just some basics will be fne.
In fact, you could make some serious mistakes if youre not careful, so I better be
careful going forward and warn you that you might have to pay a little attention.
You want to avoid mistakes that could cost you a whole lot of money-because one
little screw up might put you in the red very fast. You dont want to mess up an
order that could cost you thousands to reprint!
One way I can help make sure youre OK is by giving you the best trade printing
resource and print-profteering hand-holder in the USA myself !
I happen to own a trade-priced site that caters almost exclusively to my members
just like you.
If you live outside of the USA, just search in your favorite search engine for trade
printers in your country... or simply target businesses in the USA and let me do all
the printing for you!
By the way, here are some great printing sites with low pricing to use
internationally:
gotprint.uk.co (they have sites for UK, France, Belgium, and Ireland)
onlineprinters.com (Standard shipping is free to Germany, Belgium, Italy,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Czech Republic. France,
Principality of Monaco, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom also beneft from free
standard delivery when ordering for a certain minimum merchandise value.
In the USA, if you use my trade printing prices (check em out at
printing4supercheap.com) Im able to do your printing at rates lower than youll
fnd anywhere published publicly online. And if theyre not cheaper, I can match it
and generally get it to you faster.
More importantly though is my personal assistance making sure you wont screw
anything up. Have any questions? Email me at [email protected] anytime you
fancy and I will personally get back to you ASAP. Ill look over your artwork to
make sure its print-ready and Ill give you any templates and specs to give to your
ghost-designer.
I ship everything right to you or your clients, and theyll have no way of fguring
out where the printing actually came from, so that you never get cut-out.
Of course you can apply for any trade printer you like (google trade printers) but
youre on your own with fguring out how to get approved, let alone upload artwork
correctly.
Before I continue tooting my own horn, here are some of the pros and cons of trade
printing in general:
Tere are two main benefts to using trade printing:
1. Trade printing is signifcantly lower in cost than any retail online printers.
2. Trade printing allows products shipped blindly to your clients or yourself so
that no one has a clue where it really came from. Tus protecting your proft.
3. Trade printing is not designed to compete with you or force people out of
the market. Its there to KEEP printers in the market, if they so choose to
use it.
Te difculties associated with trade printing is:
1. You will not be able to land a traditional trade account if you are not a
legitimate business that is already in the printing or design industry.
All trade printing accounts are manually verifed for legitimacy and often
require minimum volumes to be met in order to keep the account active.
(Tats why I recommend using my services).
2. Pricing is often dependent on your volume and history. If youre not doing
high volume, you wont get the lowest pricing.
3. Trade printing is not full service. Te reason its so cheap in the frst place is
because it doesnt need the full support and bells & whistles that consumer
printing requires. If youre not familiar with the printing industry and how it
works, you can very easily make mistakes that can cost you a ton.
In order to compensate for very small proft margins, trade printers automate
everything so that theres as little human assistance as needed. Tis is why mistakes
can be common if youre new to the printing process.
If you dont know what crop marks, bleed, colorspace, safety zone, resolution, and
rich black are, then you are deep doo-doo if you place orders on a trade account!
Nothing like printing 5,000 brochures for your client and they wonder why theres
white borders around the edge, the graphics are jagged and fuzzy, and the beautiful
blue background is now a splotch of purple mud.
And when your client wants their money back, the trade printer replies two days
later in a support ticket reply; you deal with it buddy, youre the pro who shouldve
known better!
But if youd like me to help you
Lets make some money
printing and profting!
Tere are a lot of fantastic reasons to use me for your printing and I really dont
know why you wouldnt let me help you. Unless youre plum crazy of course, or if
you live across the big blue sea.
Heres the main reasons why its a good idea to use my printing services,
First of all, Im going to give you better pricing than anywhere published online for
the same specs. Tats a reason in and of itself. Ill match or beat anything for the
same specs so long as its publicly published viewable online.
Second, youre going to feel very comfortable working with me. I will look at your
fles and make sure they dont have any issues that would normally cause a disaster
elsewhere.
Tird, I get things printed very FAST, without the crazy upcharges that other
printers tack on. And shipping is swift as a bird, without the upcharges.
Again, my printing site is printing4supercheap.com where you can see all my
products and pricing. Feel free to email me at [email protected] with any questions
or help about your specifc jobs.
Even though I have thousands of members, I answer all emails personally and I
look forward to helping anyone with their projects. I am truly devoted to your
success.
Enough talk about me, youre probably curious...
Bob (I mean Jake!)... tell me how much money I
can make selling these services!
Yeah, lets talk about proft here.
Well, heres a simple example to wet your whistle. One of the most commonly
ordered items are tri-fold brochures. 500 of them printed locally will be around
$300 to $1,000 or more. Yet with me its only about $120, so you can make
hundreds without doing anything technical!
And you will be re-ordering these again for your client down the road, as well as
printing more and more products for them as they need.
Heres some general guidelines on pricing for proft:
1. Dont price yourself too low
2. Dont price yourself too high
3. Use your competitors pricing as a reference to know what you should charge.
4. Always have a distinct advantage, such as convenience, special coatings,
thicker paper stock, etc.
Lets assume youre at the dentist ofce and turns out theyre almost out of the
three brochures they distribute in the waiting room. You tell the dentist that you
noticed it and said she should check your prices out.
Its a standard 8.5x11 (or A4) brochure thats tri-folded. She says they usually order
about 500 every couple months from the print shop down the road.
Te quality is OK, nothing special. Paper is fimsy and the colors look dull (almost
always the case).
How do you price it?
Well, there are some factors that will come into play as you strategize your pricing
but lets not get too ahead of ourselves. Were just trying to make some quick cash
at the moment.
Lets look at some straight pricing comparisons.
I dont know what your local printer charges but give them a call and ask. Dont tell
them youre a competitor of course, just tell them you need a quote for your spouses
business.
Most will likely charge around 30-50 cents each, or somewhere around $150
to $250 for 500. Dont be surprised to fnd that some printers will charge even
upwards of 75 cents or more than a dollar per brochure.
Your price from me (or a similar trade printer) for 500 tri-folds will be only around
$120 (less than 25 cents each).
And if you double the quantity to 1,000... trade printing prices will be only around
$170!
Tese print products (remember we call them collateral) are in use ALL THE
TIME by the majority of businesses and 90% of the time they just stroll down
to the nearest local printer or ofce supply chain store with their credit card or a
check to get them printed when they run out.
Te faster they want it printed, the more expensive it gets.
Ive seen businesses pay $1 or more each for business cards, just so they could get
them printed that day. Tis is important, so keep reading.
Heres an example of pricing and how proftable print profteering works.
Lets get back to our dentist who wants to have 3 brochures printed in quantities of
500 each.
As of mid-2013, these are the prices for 3 brochures of 500 each through various
sites that I searched online:
Ofcemax: $1035
Staples: $1949.97 for in-store printing
$929.70 for 7 day delivery
Vistaprint.com: $705.45 (3 day delivery)
$674.55 (7 day delivery)

Overnightprints.com $645.72 (2 day delivery)
Uprinting.com $819.36 (10 day delivery)
Printplace.com $789.48 (5 day delivery)
Gotprint.net $492.27 (6 day delivery)
Printing4supercheap.com $361.93 (5 day delivery)
Gosh, thats a big difference!
My suggestion is to take what the average local pricing tends to be and try to get
as close to that as possible. Personally, when I need to quickly fgure out what an
average retail price might be, I look at printplace.coms pricing calculator and I
charge that.
Ive got to give credit to this strategy to Doran Peck from the Warrior Forum, who
really opened my eyes to these possibilities of profting through printing.
Printplace.com is almost always 20% or more cheaper than what any place local is
charging, so I like using their calculator as a quick guideline for what to charge my
clients.
For our hypothetical Dentist client, you might charge roughly $263 each or $789
total, plus tax if required in your area.
Tis should save her a hundred or more dollars, plus give her the convenience
of not having to spend time to deal with a print shop. Youve now become her
personal print source.
You receive a proft of $427 for simply clicking a few buttons.
And most likely, you worked a re-design in there too and pocketed a couple
Incredibly low pricing, allowing
you to proft MASSIVELY
hundred more.
Ten in a couple months youll get the call to print another run when shes running
low, and make another $427 for clicking a few buttons.
And youll get calls from their friends in business who want their stuf printed as
well! Within months you might fnd yourself clicking buttons every couple days to
simply print more of whatever your clients are running low on. Clickety click click
and the proft starts printing more and more.
Trade printing is the gift that keeps on giving.
Businesses from the tiniest startup to the largest corporations routinely fnd
themselves in need of things printed. Dont forget all the basics.
For example:
Brochures to showcase services or give information
Flyers to promote sales
Rack cards to pass out cheaper than brochures
Postcards to send out to customers with sales or coupons
Letterhead and envelopes for communications, invoices, etc
Catalogs to showcase inventory
Business cards to promote their brand and leave contact information
And even more!
Te options are truly endless.
Next, lets squeeze some more juice out...
Profting on extras
On most initial print jobs, youll be able to tack on some extra charges that theyll
more than willingly pay for.
Te frst thing is design costs. Youll need to either use their existing artwork or
create new artwork. In almost all cases, your client is going to want new artwork
because theyll want to make changes to their existing piece.
Charge for this! Dont be shy.
Most graphic design pros will charge somewhere around $200 to $500 for a
brochure design. Price whatever you feel is appropriate for the project. Even if its
only costing you $75 or whatever to outsource it! [insert maniacal laughing here]
Heres a hot tip, if the client is a pain in the neck, charge them more. Believe me,
you dont want to be doing this for charity. If theyre taking up a lot of your time,
make sure that youre charging enough to make it worth it.
Here are some upsells to make sure youre ofering and charging for:
Adding bleed
Adding new stock images
Ticker paper
Setup fee
Better paper coatings
Faster turnaround
Logo reconstruction
Logo creation
Copywriting assistance
Tese are the extras that you can easily use to bump up your order by a good 30%
to 200% or more.
So you know this is basically how vistaprint.com makes money. Tey advertise
very low prices and very low quantities, then add-in small upsells over and over
throughout the ordering process until youre paying signifcantly higher than what
you originally were drawn into.
It works for a reason. Mimic it.
Confused by words like bleed? Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, youll need
to learn some very basic printing terminology to get up to speed. Slug through the
next couple pages and youll be good to go.
I promise, this should be the only boring part of the guide.
Boring Print Lingo and Terminology
(unfortunately important)
I like to keep things as non-technical as possible but since were dealing with a
pretty technical industry, Ill need to give you some of the basics to bring you up to
speed.
You want to know just enough to get by. Te rest will come to you as-you-go.
Much like web design, you only need a generic understanding of the technical
side of things, since all the tough stuf with be handled by your hard-working and
talented outsourcers.
Tese are the terms youll need to somewhat familiarize yourself with so you can
become a true print profteer in the near future:
Templates
Always request a template from the printer youll be printing with. Hand this
template over to your designer so that theres no hiccups as far as how the printer
wants the artwork setup. Tis will eliminate most major headaches!
File Formats
Printers will require various fle formats for your artwork. I highly suggest that you
always submit your fnal fles in PDF format, because it will have as little screwup
potential as possible but here are descriptions of other types:
JPG and PNG
Tis is mostly used for web images. Tey are compressed formats that makes the
fle very small and as a result, lose quality every time its reproduced. Most printers
will accept these if needed.
GIF
Dont ever use this for anything in your artwork. Ever. Its junk, lets just leave it at
that.
PSD, Ai, and IDD
Tis is the format thats used in adobe photoshop. While the quality can be near
perfect, its not a good idea to submit your fnal fles in. It can be accidentally edited
and it may have used fonts that were only on the designers computer, forcing a font
substitution which is never good! You want to provide formats like .PDF which
embed the fonts and restrict editing.
TIF (or TIFF)
I like these 2
nd
best to pdf. Tey can be exported as fnal print fles with virtually no
loss in quality from the original artwork. You must have them saved using LZW
compression or else the fles will end up HUGE.
PDF
Tis is the preferred format for virtually every printer out there. It displays
everything the same regardless of the computer its on and it can be customized to
work for any printers specifcations. Always try to get your fnal fles as PDF and
tell your designer to use the preset PDF/2001.
Colorspace and Resolution
Printing uses a diferent way of creating colors than a computer monitor does. Tis
causes some confusion because the way everything looks on a screen might look
diferent when its printed.
A computer screen illuminates everything, so colors tend to look brighter and more
vivid. Your computer screen uses three colors - Red Green and Blue - to make
every color. Youll see this called RGB color and it is NOT what is to be used for
print. Its used only for web design.
Print uses four colors to create all other colors, which consist of Cyan, Magenta,
Yellow, and Black. Youll see this called CMYK and ALL your print artwork
should be in CMYK colorspace.
You just simply make sure your designer knows that you want them to use the
printers template, pdf format, and CMYK colorspace. Tats all.
Resolution
Our computer screens not only use a diferent set of colors and light, but they use
far less detailed resolution than print requires.
What looks totally fne on a computer screen might look very fuzzy when printed.
Always make sure that your designer creates your artwork in a resolution of 300 dpi
(dots per inch). Web images tend to be 72dpi or 150dpi, and if you want to check
on how it might look when printed, zoom in 300% and if it looks fuzzy or jagged,
then it will likely look fuzzy when printed.
Always get everything done in 300dpi when working with print so tell your
designer that!
Bleed and Safety
Such a brutally named term isnt it!
Sorry its not actually gruesome though. I know youre disappointed.
Bleed is when the ink goes all the way to the edge of the paper so no white paper
stock is visible. Tis is preferred on nearly all artwork because it looks highly
professional. When you print something on your home printer, there will always be
borders around it because the ink cant go to the edge of the page. Teres no bleed.
Even on a million dollar printing press, the ability to print directly to the edge of
the paper is impossible.
In order to print to the edge, the size of the overall size of the paper has to be
bigger than the size you need and the extra paper is chopped of afterwards with a
guillotine so that the edges all bleed with color.
Tis means you always have to add extra size to your artwork to accommodate it
being chopped of by the guillotine. If youre printing something that is 8.5x11 (or
A4), youll need to actually make it 8.75x11.25 because the bleed is almost always
.125 around all sides (1/8
th
inch).
If this starts to sound confusing, dont worry because your designer can simply use
templates provided by the printer and it lays everything out.
Safety Zone
Te safety zone is an imaginary line inside the edge of your artwork where theres
absolutely no chance for it to be trimmed of.
Te blade is very accurate at the top of the stack, however as it slices down, it may
slightly move 1/16
th
of an inch or so, which is why we have the safety zone.
Important graphics and/or text that you cannot risk getting chopped of should
be no less than 1/8
th
of an inch inside the trim line. So, on all your ready-to-print
artwork, you should have an outside area that will get chopped of for bleed, and an
inside area that is the boundary for all important things you cant risk losing.
Again, if it sounds confusing, just use templates and youll be totally fne.
Paper stock
For the most part, youll be choosing between two types of stock. One is non-rigid
and one is semi-rigid.
Non rigid stocks are mostly used for letterhead, brochures and fyers. Youll see the
term book or text stock for these types.
Semi-rigid stocks are typically used for greeting cards, upscale brochures, postcards,
doorhangers, rack cards, and business cards. Tese are named cardstock.
All paper stocks will come in diferent weights and thicknesses. Tis can get
slightly confusing but Ill try to make some sense out of it for you.
70lb smooth
Tis is what most letterhead and notepads are printed on. Its a fairly thick piece
of a paper that feels premium in the hands compared to what we normally use for
paper everyday. It doesnt have any gloss to it but its fnished smoothly so that ink
still looks crisp and clear.
80lb book or text
Tis is usually the minimum thickness for fyers and brochures. Its not a very thick
paper stock for fyers and will wrinkle somewhat easily.
100lb book or text
Tis feels thicker in the hand and also doesnt wrinkle nearly as easily as 80lb. I
suggest always using this stock for fyers and brochures as it holds up well and feels
good.
100lb cover
Even though its the same weight as the 100lb book/text, the fact that its on
cardstock means that its semi-rigid. Tis makes it a good choice for upscale
brochures in my opinion.
14pt cardstock (250gsm)
Most of your printing besides fyers and brochures will be on this stock. At a local
print shop, this would be considered a premium stock but for online printers, its
almost always the standard.
14pt cardstock is thick and pretty rigid, so it holds up well. Its defnitely a big
diference when someone holds it for the frst time compared to what theyre used
to.
16pt cardstock (300gsm)
If 14pt is still too thin for you, then 16pt will be your buddy. Tis stock might cost
more but some places will keep the cost the same as 14pt. Te added weight will
likely increase shipping costs though keep in mind.
16pt feels even thicker and it also holds up slightly better. Business cards and
postcards are what you would primarily be considering this heavyweight stock for.
Coatings
Uncoated
I rarely use uncoated stock.
Uncoated paper stock does not have any fnishing on it, its just plain paper. If
youre going for that green look then use uncoated stock, because it looks and feels
very organic.
Because its not coated, the ink tends to splotch and soak into the paper pretty bad
if youre using a lot of dark ink.
Colors will also become very dull because there is no sheen to it.
Aqueous Coating (AQ coating)
Aqueous coating is a water-based coating that goes on the paper to make it glossy
or dull, depending on which you want. Tere are diferent levels of glossiness and
Aqueous would be considered in the middle.
Glossy paper (aka 14pt C2S Glossy) is the frst level. Tat means its a very slight
shine. Aqueous coating gives it a little more shininess and also makes it slightly
slippery to the touch.
Most glossy coatings people have felt are Aqueous coatings. Tey also make colors
look slightly more vivid because they refect, like a car polish.
Ultraviolet Coating (UV coating)
Te most glossiest coating of them all is Ultraviolet coating or UV coating for
short. UV coating not only makes everything super glossy and slippery, but it adds
thickness and protection to the paper.
Because of its thickness and super glossy amazing-ness, it makes colors look even
more brilliant. Its just like putting a thick coat of wax on a car and polishing it
really really well.
If you hold something UV coated youll know it, its unmistakably smooth and
slippery to the touch. Postcards, rack cards, business cards, and doorhangers are best
suited for UV coatings although it can be done even on fyers as well.
Specialty Coatings
Tere are lots of unique coatings that specialty printers provide and some of them
are quite impressive. Examples of these are:
Spot UV
Spot UV is kind of neat. Tats where everything is dull except for parts of the card
that you specify, where UV is applied to. So maybe your logo will have UV coating,
making it super shiny while the rest of the card is subdued.
Foils and Metallics
Metallic colored ink and gold or silver foil can be applied to specifc areas as well.
Picture a dark black background with a logo or text in silver metallic foil.
Silk Laminate
Tis is one of my favorite coatings of all. Its actually a laminate, which means the
edges are covered too unlike UV or Aqueous.
Silk Laminate is a super smooth but not glossy fnish that is slightly translucent. It
has a fantastic upscale feel that is unlike almost anything youll ever touch made of
paper.
Suede, Leather, Wood
Some specialty printers ofer cards with soft suede fnishing, leather fnishing, and
even some made of very thin wood!
Tats pretty much all you need to know about printing terminology. Just refer back
to this when you get confused, or shoot me an email!
Ok lets get back to money-making stuff!
Enough with the boring terminology and specifcations. Lets get back to the
money ok?
You might be asking... Jake arent business owners likely to want samples to see?
My answer is, sometimes yes. A lot of times no. Regardless, it might make sense for
you to have some physical samples to show so they can see what quality printing
looks like.
Heres just how to get a portfolio built freely. Go on google and search out all the
online printers you can fnd.
Tere are lots of them out there in internet-land. Most of the ones that rank in the
top of the SERPS will have free samples available.
Order all the free ones you can. Within a week or so youll have every paper stock
sample under the sun along with every product sample under the sun.
Cherry pick the best ones and make sure they dont have the printers name on
them (some will some wont). Now you have some samples to show in the feld so
your prospects can see and feel what real quality looks like.
Teres a million diferent ways to prospect for business but whatever you do, keep
this in mind-little print jobs will almost always turn into bigger and better ones.
Business owners get HOOKED on printing and design. Its like a drug.
Often they go completely overboard, wanting things printed like crazy because it
appeals to their ego and they feel their business wont be taken seriously without it.
Tey want awesome business cards, awesome brochures, awesome rack cards, and
so on. Sell them everything you can. Package up deals for them. Trow something
in if they buy a bigger quantity or upgrade to a thicker stock.
Raise the price and lower it and tell them youre giving them a discount. Whatever.
Just make them feel like youre taking care of them.
Heres an example of creating value out of thin air:
Say your client wants 1,000 glossy business cards and hes youd normally charge a
low cost of $175.
Tell him the normal turnaround is 12 days but if wants to order now, youll upgrade
him to faster printing and get it to him within a week or so (which is the normal
turnaround, so youre not spending any more anyway!).
While youre at it, tell him youll upgrade him to super mega glossy UV coating for
free since its his frst order. (Again you wont pay extra for this!).
Or better yet, wait to tell him when you deliver the cards to him. Ten casually
mention it and make his eyes fall out of his socket when he sees them and feels
them.
Too many people will just mouth of every feature and beneft when they could
shut up and build value to it instead.
You know another reason to build value like that? When he orders again he will
want to pay for those upgrades! Now youve got a guy shelling out $265 for his next
1,000 business card run with no qualms at all, for something that costs you maybe
$25 or so!
Theres opportunity everywhere
Youll start seeing printed material everywhere. Teres your opportunity to mention
you do printing. If you see some brochures somewhere, why not ofer your services
and save them some money?
Tats the beauty of prospecting for print, youre not pitching Id like to make you
money, youre pitching Id like to save you money. It sounds messed up, but
people often respond to saving money more than making money.
Businesses arent the only prospects either. Charities, events, churches,
municipalities, and everyday people all need stuf printed that you can ofer.
Cold walk, Cold call, Email, SEO, PPC, Direct Mail, Networking, Linked in,
Facebook, Craiglist, Kijiji, and whatever other ways of reaching people will work
for getting clients.
You have a commodity available at a lower price and better
quality than anyone. What better unfair advantage can you
get as a marketer?
Push referrals. Word of mouth will build your clientele fast, so you want to
accelerate the process all that you can. Simply asking your customer who they know
that needs printing will be sufcient.
Everyone wants to share their connection.
You should be getting two or three referrals minimum from each job you sell.
Before you know it, youll be getting calls frequently from referrals, and referrals of
your referrals!
Every businessperson wants to know a trustworthy and attractively priced designer/
printer. You become their drug dealer in a sense.
Youll get calls from business owners who ran out of business cards and need them
in their hands like their lives depend on it. Youll get emails that go like this...
Hey Debbit its Aaron the business owner, I REALLY need some business cards and fyers printed
fast.

Im almost out and I have a big sale coming up. What can you do for me to get these in by the end of
next week?

I dont mind paying extra, just tell me how much I need to pay!
I once had a client tell me he needed business cards so bad that he told me fat out
hed pay $500 if I could get him 100 within the next day or two
Dont even think for a moment that Im feeding you hype. Im telling you, future
Print Profteer, youll be getting these emails in no time!
Now, lets get to the third requirement to become a full fedged Print Profteer...
Section Tree
Money from the Mail
Welcome to the third and fnal avenue of making money as a print profteer.
Tis is where the really big money is.
Id like to show you how to incorporate direct marketing into your arsenal of print
profteering. I know some of you may doubt the efectiveness of direct mail, but
whatever youve heard negative is wrong. Direct mail is money in the bank.
Your bank and your clients bank.
Direct mail has been the reigning king of advertising for a long time and if you
know how to use it correctly, it will literally become you and your clients personal
money-printing machine. You will run the machine and it will print money.
Like all advertising, it only works reliably if you know how to properly use it. It can
be loser in the wrong hands-but in the right hands (which will be yours very soon)
will generate so much cash its insane.
Tis will all start making sense shortly.
Lets frst explore some everyday situations where people are using direct mail
currently. Tese are always good situations because as a Print Profteer, youll be
looking to replace their existing services with your own at a cheaper (or more
convenient) rate.
Here are some everyday examples of direct mail already in use everyday at the local
level:
A politician running for local ofce sends 50,000 postcards mailed
throughout the city
A charity sends 10,000 postcards mailed to past donors
A Chinese take-out sends 2,500 magnets out twice a year
A restaurant sends 1,000 postcards each month to his customer list
A dentist sends 5,000 postcards to everyone in the neighborhood each
month
A pizzeria sends 2,500 menus to their local neighborhoods
A car dealership sends 100,000 giant fyers out to the nearby communities
A furniture store sends out 10,000 sale fyers each month
A village sends out a monthly newsletter to the entire village
A school mails out a quarterly newsletter to the community
If you look at the examples above, which happen throughout the world on a daily
basis, you should see all this as an opportunity to broker the mailing services just
like you would for printing.
Tere are four diferent methods I recommend using to generate profts through
the mail:
Overtake existing campaigns for clients
Create new campaigns for clients
Create campaigns for yourself
Create Co-op direct mail platforms
All of these above are proftable, its just fguring out whats best for each situation
and for you. Depending on the campaign size and involvement...
Youll be earning profts of around $300 to $3,000 or
more every time you handle someones campaign.
It doesnt take a genius to do the math for what youll earn if you run even a few
campaigns per month.
I told you it was some big money. And its all out there ready for whoever wants to
take it.
But Jake, how do I broker mailing?
Just like brokering the printing, and brokering the design, you can broker the
mailing. Most major online printers ofer mailings services and you can even
handle some of them on your own if you wish (Ill explain shortly).
I ofer mailing services as well, so feel free to leverage me to be the ghost mailer
for you. Youd be hard pressed to fnd a better person to trust your mailings to (if
youre targeting within the USA) and my pricing is rock bottom.
Before we get too far, let me give you a crash course in how mailings work and
what some diferences are.
Mail Campaigns arent diffcult to sell
Im going to simply show you how to fnd fresh prospects in ways you never
thought of, and ofer them the most powerful form of local marketing in existence
today, postcard direct mail.
Tis material that is going to give you the power to become a truly professional
marketing consultant almost overnight. Once you have the ability to drive new
business in for your clients on a whim, youre going to instantly become the expert
that they will trust and ultimately depend on.
By delivering results and gaining their trust, you position yourself to be able to
sell them any other services you suggest, since youve proven yourself. Teyll refer
you to their business friends and within a short amount of time you can literally
become the hottest commodity in town.
I dont care what your experience in marketing is so far, how old you are, how ugly
you are, how broke you are, it doesnt matter. Im going to make everything push
button easy for you like no one has ever done before in ofine marketing.
First, lets learn about direct mail and its power...
The Marketing Beast
Literally nothing else will even come close to the efectiveness of a properly
strategized direct mail campaign yet theres virtually no one out there selling it to
business owners.
The average ROI for direct mail is
over FIFTEEN DOLLARS for every $1 spent.
Postcard marketing can achieve 100% exposure rates with an almost infnite choice
of people to target instantly. A giant billboard on a freeway with 300,000 cars
passing by it everyday can get zero response, yet a tiny postcard sent in the mail to
1,000 specifc people can bring them in by the dozen.
Direct marketing has the ability to pinpoint exact people who are likely interested
in some ones product or service, and can place a compelling ofer for it into the
persons hands within days.
When other marketing methods fail, postcard direct mail is tirelessly working and
succeeding. Its a beast, but when you know how to tame and control it youll have
the most reliable marketing out there, ready to print money at a moments notice.
I can guarantee that almost anyone whos had a bad experience with direct mail has
simply NOT done it properly. Its a completely fail-proof method of bringing in
business when utilized correctly.
WHY ITS NOT USED BY EVERYONE
Direct mail looks simple at frst glance... Just send out a bunch of postcards or
letters. But the truth is, direct mail campaigns involve some deceptively difcult
elements that lie out of the skill range of 99% of small business owners.
A lot of small business owners will think negatively of it because they view it as
junk mail or something way too expensive or difcult to put together. Most
weekend marketers coincidentally think the same thing, so they foolishly bombard
business owner with ofers for internet services that barely do anything at all.
Some owners will have tried direct mail previously and had poor results, but again,
its because they didnt do it right. Tey likely didnt put a good enough ofer on it
or a call to action. Tey likely didnt send it to the right people.
If you dont know what youre doing...
STAY THE HECK AWAY FROM DIRECT MAIL!
Ive talked with quite a few business people who have spent hundreds to thousands
on failed direct mail campaigns. I even spoke with one owner who spent close to
ten thousand dollars last year on a letter campaign that didnt produce one stinking
response. Now we have a monthly camapaign that costs her 1/3 of that and gets
response every single month.
Te keys to direct mail is simply not understood by most small business owners
and often their shot-in-the-dark campaigns turn out to be nothing but a complete
disaster.
Teyll spend thousands on newsprint ads, outdoor advertising (billboards), and
TV/Radio, that gets minimal response but theyll keep doing it over and over
because they see their name out there.
Its reassuring to them to when they see their own ad in the newspaper, on a
billboard, or on TV, but mailings are diferent. Direct mail is a very private, one-
on-one experience and doesnt readily ofer that highly visible experience that
billboards and TV ads do.
If the response isnt high enough to cover the cost of the mailing, theyll simply
ditch it and call it a failure. Even though it might have required one or two more
mailings before the customers really started fowing in.
No diferent than running a series of TV commercials for a week and saying the
response sucked!
Direct mail is not made for do it yourself-ers
Teres just way too much involved in a mailing for most business people to take on
themselves. Copywriting, printing, designing, targeting, and postal prep all require
separate skill sets, each one seriously afecting the success of a campaign.
Direct marketing is best left to professionals like yourself, who concentrate on what
theyre doing, not business owners who are busy running their business. Tis is
where you come in.
HANDLING CAMPAIGNS YOURSELF
I cant really help you if you want to handle targeted direct mail campaigns entirely
by yourself. You could buy a postal permit, list sorting software, NCOA services,
high speed inkjetting machine, and then sort all of the mail pieces and transport
them to the post ofce bulk entry units, but who in their right mind would want
deal with all that?
Seriously, forget doing any campaigns entirely by yourself and just use someone like
me or a mail provider who can take care of everything for you.
YOU CAN BECOME AN EXPERT EASILY
Within the short time it should take you to get through this whole report, Im
going to empower you with the ability to develop powerful direct mail campaigns
that will drive in rapid response to nearly any business you choose.
I highly doubt that anyone else has ever published anything like this before. Ive
seen plenty of articles on how to do direct mail campaigns for yourself but never on
how to ofer campaigns to other businesses. Tis is where the real money is though
and Ill tell you why...

Continuous results will bring you endless profts.
What this means is that if you can bring continuous results to your clients, youre
going to make some serious money as a result. If you want to get emails every thirty
days from clients who are thanking you for another month of bringing them new
customers, youll get that if you ofer them successful direct mail campaigns.
Reaching new levels of expertise.
Te best thing about delivering a successful direct mail campaign is that once
youve brought in such tremendous response to your client, you open yourself up to
selling other services that will increase your profts exponentially. Now, not only are
you a true Print Profteer, but you can credibly sell any marketing service under the
sun.
You become a guru in their eyes and theyll follow your lead because youve proven
yourself. All the other marketing services you can think of can come into play.
SEO, PPC, SMS, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, etc... all become an easy sell
but its only easy AFTER youve gotten their attention with the high response that
only direct mail can give you within a short period of time.
You become the go-to guy (or gal). You hold the cards, you give the directions. As
you continue to bring in sale for these businesses...
Theyll become completely and utterly
dependent on you.
Tey know that if they leave you, youll simply stop generating business for them
and most likely go to their competitors. Youre like a heroin dealer. Its really that
powerful.
You can never get this reputation from doing all the dinky online marketing
services that are so common today. Stop thinking youre going to sell 100 websites
at $50 per month and make $5,000.
Tat WILL NOT happen, and its not a real business.
Print Profteering, and specifcally direct mail marketing is what will bring results
instantly and consistently, almost without fail, which leads to cementing your
reputation as a local marketing enigma.
Te best part is that Im making it fantastically easy for you to do.
How to put together a direct mail
campaign for your client
If you can click some buttons on your computer, you can develop successful direct
mail campaigns. Its really that simple.
Creating postcard direct mail campaigns is actually ridiculously easy if you have the
right resources.
In the next part of this section, Ill show you how to fnd these lists easily, and you
have the printing/mailing resource of myself (printing4supercheap.com).
Or you can even put together your own local campaigns using the USPS EDDM
program. If youre not in the USA, theres a 99% chance that your postal system has
the same program available, typically called unaddressed mail.
POSTCARD SIZES
Te US Post Ofce has confusing terminology and its important that you
understand something frst. Te post ofce considers postcards to be no more than
4.25 x 6.
Tose are those small sized postcards you would send to a family member while
youre on vacation. Anything larger than that and it falls under the letter rate and
is called a letter even if theres no envelope.
Any postcard larger than a letter falls under the fats rate.
A 6.25 x 11 or larger will be considered a fat.
Size Matters
Te bigger the postcard, the more it will stand out. You can send up to 9 x 12
postcards that dont require folding, but thats going to cost you an absolute fortune
to send (unless youre familiar with the EDDM process where we focus solely on
that size).
For targeted mailings, youre usually looking at sizes of:
4 x 6
5.5 x 8.5
6 x 11
I like the 6x11s the best, they are really impressive and will stand out instantly.
So all-in-all, just like you would with SEO or Web design, all you have to do is
outsource this baby to the experts!
Teres no better way to establish yourself as an expert than by delivering results,
and direct mail is absolutely the BEST way to drive in response. And you dont
have to do any dirty work! Sit in your pajamas all day and cash in.
Our next few pages will cover the process of targeting a little more in detail.
Targeting for proft
Te essence of direct mail is its ability to precisely target its recipients. Its truly a
beautiful system when used properly.
A lot of people dont realize this, but a tremendous amount of information on each
of us is being stored, analyzed and sold everyday.
In the last three years have you bought a bunch of electronics? Well youre probably
on a list somewhere of people that buy electronics.
Do you use credit cards when you go to the health food store to buy supplements?
Youre probably on a list somewhere not only as someone interested in healthy
living but also on a list of people who use credit cards. Your age, sex, marital status,
credit profle, household size, vehicle make and model, buying habits, birthday, and
about a million other things are on lists everywhere for marketers to purchase at
any time they please.
Te reason that people want information like this isnt to scam you its to market
products or services that you might like, getting their message directly to you.
Targeted Marketing Example
Lets pretend you are an avid wine drinker. On the internet one day you were
searching for reviews of certain wines. You happened to sign up for an online
newsletter that popped up on the screen.
Tey might sell their list of subscribers to others who want to market to wine
enthusiasts.
Wine Conneiouser buys the list and sends you a free issue with an ofer for a 12
month subscription for only $12. You subscribe and they sell their list of to large
databases that tracks buying behaviors and lifestyle interests.
Soon, youre getting catalogs with gorgeous wine racks, wine-of-the-month club
promotions, and maybe even Alcoholics Anonymous letters.
Smart advertising departments will begin to intelligently market to you because
they know youre interested in their products and arent likely to perceive anything
with wine in it as junk mail.
If you, the wine enthusiast,
happen to get a postcard in the mail
from a local liquor store for 15% off any case of wine,
Are you likely to use the coupon?
Of course you probably will!
Tats a perfect example of direct marketing efectively.
Now what if you start getting coupons from them every month, would you likely
stop buying wine from your normal place and start going where the deals are? Of
course.
Are you seeing how beautiful a good direct marketing campaign can work? It
reaches the right people and keeps getting in front of them until they break down
and buy.
Ten it keeps continuing to make them come back as often as possible.
Now if this liquor store ran an ad in the newspaper that just said:
Jims Fine Spirits, in business over 20 years
Tey would have a terribly inefective result. It wasnt targeted enough and it didnt
have any element of eliciting response.
Yet thats how the majority of business owners advertise today. Its backwards.
Want to know what makes a good direct mail campaign that generates response? A
good direct mail campaign:
Reaches the right people
Has high visibility
Contains a compelling ofer and a call-to-action
Repeatedly gets in front of them over and over.
A bad campaign may stem from the lack of any of those above bullet points. If you
send out one single mailing to random people, put no coupon or ofer, and hide it
in an envelope or squashed in a catalog, I can guarantee that you wont be happy
with the results.
In fact Id be surprised if there were any results. Tis is why people have bad
experiences with direct mail (and most advertising in general).
Tey dont know what the heck theyre doing. Tats why they need someone who
does, like a Print Profteer such as yourself.
Response rates
Tis is the part that makes those of us who are experienced in direct mail shake our
heads. Inexperienced marketers and business owners will often say things like:
Well, direct mail gets a 2-3% response rate so...
Statements like this are crazy. Teres no way to base your expected results on some
concrete number.
Te response of the campaign depends on a lot of variables such as: average sale
price, ofer, timing, scarcity, etc...
3% or whatever percent is a bad rule to go by.
Heres how Ill prove that...
If I send out a hundred postcards to random people with a big bold graphic of the
brand FERRARI, are you telling me I should get at least 2 or 3 of them interested
in buying a Ferrari? Of course not! Id expect zero response.
Now what if I sent 100 postcards with a coupon for a free car wash, timed it to
land on a sunny spring weekend, and sent it only to newer vehicle owners that lived
within a quarter mile radius of the car wash location?
Should I expect only 2 or 3 responses? Of course not! Id expect a ton of response!
Response is variable, but can be predictable.
Both of the above scenarios are ridiculous and will immediately disprove any
estimated response crap when someone mentions it.
Te industry averages for direct mail do tend to hover around 3% as a whole
but thats only an industry wide statistic. It means almost nothing in relation to
individual campaigns.
Response is afected by so many things that theres no way to really predict it until
you consider all the variables and run mailings often enough to test it.
It doesnt have to be risky though because once you understand how it works, youll
be able put the right ingredients in to make it proftable almost every time.
Key visual ingredients of a successful
postcard direct mail campaign.
A good ofer
A clear call to action
A bold image
A compelling headline
Key logistical ingredients of a successful
postcard direct mail campaign.
A precisely targeted list
G
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g
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e
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s
A large enough sample to mail (ideally 5,000 minimum)
Repetitive marketing to the same list.
The List
Te list is the most important element. You must have a targeted list in order to
direct market efectively. Your message has to reach the right people as accurately as
possible, which means you have to know who the right people are. Sometimes it can
take a bit of creative discovery, but thats why youre so valuable.
Because this section of the guide is devoted to you being able to ofer direct mail
services to local businesses, its important for you to understand what will be the
ideal customer for your prospect.
Once youve got a business owners attention and can talk with them about their
customers, its easy to narrow down who to target, but I fnd its best to have a good
idea of what list might work best for your clients prior to contacting
them.
Tis way you can pique their interest and use it as a closing tool.
When you approach a business owner with the fact that you already have a list of
interested people, you get their attention much faster.
Targeting Example
Lets say your wife works next door to a uniquely decorated childrens store that
showcases unique hand-woven diaper bags in the window. Tink to yourself what
kind of customer is likely to shop there and buy those expensive diaper bags?
Personally, Id imagine it would be the families who have a baby in the house.
People tend to be twice as likely to buy things after a major life event.
Now what if you could instantly fnd the addresses of all the people that have just
had a newborn?
Do you think that the store owner might be interested in getting her products
directly in front of everyone who in her area who just had a baby?
Of course she would and shed have no problem paying you if you could market
directly to them for her. While this example involves a baby store, the concept is
whats important for you to understand. If you have a list of people that are highly
likely to buy something, all you have to do is get that product or service in front of
them.
A professional direct response marketing consultant would instantly put together a
direct mail campaign to reach the right people, which in turn would drive in loads
of new customers to her business. A person selling websites or social media isnt
going to bring in any noticeable business.
Tis is why direct response marketers get paid the big bucks.
This is why YOU need to do these type of
campaigns for your clients!
Pulling lists
For decades, and up until recently, if you wanted a list of certain customer profles,
youd have no other choice but to contact a list broker who could source the
targets you wanted and deliver them in a spreadsheet that you could rent for a
mailing.
Over the years, there have been more and more websites that allow you to hand
pick your own lists online and buy them at very reasonable prices (usually ten cents
or less per lead).
But if you approach things the way Ill show you, you dont have to shell out any
money until you actually charge your client for it FIRST!
The best list sources
Trough my own experience, Ill give you the best list sources that I have used or
currently use:
leadsplease.com (cheap and good data)
usadata.com (very good data)
infofree.com (cheapest lead costs, and with a subscription, allows you to view
any list on-screen an unlimited amount of times).
Te awesome thing about the frst two is that you can look up counts of what you
want without having to buy anything!
Tat way, you can approach the prospect with a detailed count and list
demographics without having to spend any money at all.
Hot lists
Hot leads can be your best friend forever. Hot leads are ones that change
frequently and are typically in very receptive buying stages. Tese lists revolve
around major events which create a window of behavior that involves typically
needing certain services and products.
New businesses, recent movers, new homeowners, turning 65 years old, recent
bankruptcies, new parents, are all examples. (infofree.com has these lists by the
way).
Lets use Recently Divorced as an example. Tink about who might beneft from
a having a targeted list of people just recently divorced in your area? How about a
gym or ftness center.
A targeted mailing campaign with postcards from a local gym headlining:
Remember how your body used to look?
Get it back in 30 days with our proven
rapid ftness program!
Tis might deliver a very good response to recently divorced individuals that are
starting a brand new life, dont you think?
Hot lists are incredibly responsive to direct mail and in my experience, they are
ultra-deliverable too (which means they have a low chance of being returned
because the data is typically fresh as can be).
Get into the mind-set of the prospect
When someone experiences a major life event, they often have new desires, new
outlooks on life, and new responsibilities.
In order to fulfll those needs, wants, and responsibilities, theyll need certain
products and services. Since we were just talking about recently divorced people,
lets think about them...
You have to start thinking of what goes on in their heads during this life changing
event. By understanding their thoughts and wishes, you can target business that
may want to market to those people through you.
What happens when someone is recently divorced?
they have a fresh new look on life
they want to become attractive again
they want to meet new people
they might want to buy a new house
they want to buy new clothes
they might be depressed
they might be horny
they might want spiritual guidance
they might suddenly have more income
they might have bad credit
they might want a new car
All of these reasons can provide great marketing opportunities. Tis is where the
professional direct response consultants shine and theres no reason you cant follow
this same process in order to proft yourself.
At frst glance, most marketers would say who the heck would want a list of
people recently divorced?
But as you see, with some thought, weve come up with a lot of reasons why
someone would want to. I bet theres well over 20 industries in your local area that
would love to get ofers in front of every recently divorced individual.
Tey just never thought about opportunities like this, and if they did, they probably
never found anyone to handle it for them.
Strong emotional/visual marketing
When people are in emotional states (happy or sad), theyre much more receptive
to direct response marketing. Tats why when youre targeting hot leads, you want
to hit them hard with an image and an ofer.
Tink of the typical recently divorced female. She probably has endured a difcult
marriage and most likely shes ready to experience the world like she did before she
got married. Chances are, shed like to get her body back in shape and restore some
confdence.
A postcard with a great image on the front that matches a similar age range to
the average divorced female who wants to get back in shape can be very powerful.
Heres one I made while writing this...
Teres no doubt about it, that image and headline is going to hit home with a large
percentage of recently divorced females.
Divine Intervention?
Te headline reads Isnt it time to get your body back?
Shell probably think Wow, yeah it actually is time to get it back, and may very likely
blame this postcard on divine intervention.

She has no clue that someone has intelligently marketed to her!
Now for the back of the card:
The back of the card
Te back of the card is even more important because thats actually what gets seen
frst in the mail (the postage side up). Some key elements to have on the back of a
postcard is:
A bold headline at the top
A short blurb of copy
Bullet points featuring the benefts
A clear call to action
A clear way to respond (website and phone number)
A compelling ofer
You want your target to be interested enough to turn the card over, where they can
see the striking visual that hammers home the message you want to send.
You can actually design the back of smaller postcards in black & white if youd like
but on larger size postcards (6x11 in particular) you almost always want to print the
backs in color.
If youre printing with me, full color printing costs almost the same anyways! Heres
an example of the format for the back of cards that works for almost any business.
You can simply plug and play with this format.
Te back of the card (plug & play)
Lose weight FAST
Feel better about yourself
Look younger instantly
Bold, clear
headline
Compelling offer that
stands out
Red Arrow
for strong
emphasis
Short copy
and benefts
driven points
Clear phone number and
website to respond to.
Clear call to
action.
Divorced Female
123 Lonely Lane
Smithville, TX 12430
Okay so now you should understand the concepts behind direct mail and how it
can be targeted, written, and designed proftably.
Not only do you now know how to run your own successful direct mail campaigns
but you now have the ability to ofer them to others, which is where some very big
profts lie. You literally are now able to generate business on a whim for almost any
industry you can imagine. If you can think of a specialized list, you can think of
businesses that would want to market to it.
If youre ever in the position where a business owner needs to generate proft, this
is the answer for them. Te only other way to generate business rapidly would be
to implement a PPC campaign, but that is still only limited to the people locally
searching for their services.
No Limitations
Direct mail isnt limited to people already looking for a place to buy something, like
SEO is. Targeted mail seeks and fnds people who are most likely to be interested.
It gets the right message in their hands without fail. Because of this fnd-and-seek
ability, it generates any amount of business you wish.
If you or your client need to make X amount, direct mail is the only method to
predictably bring it in on command. You just need to fgure out the best ofer, the
best people to mail to, and the correct amount to mail. Tats the PIN code for the
direct mail ATM.
Nothing else touches this kind of automated power.
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The interest is all in the list, not the service itself.
I can tell you from experience, business owners will be most interested in hearing
that you have a specialized list that you can help them market to.
Te baby store earlier was a good example. Imagine if you were the owner of
a childrens store, which of the following two sales pitches would sound more
attractive to you?
Sales Pitch #1:
Hi, my name is Bob Ross and I specialize in offering direct mail services. I can send mail to targeted
prospects for you which can generate a lot of business and customers.
I can handle everything and we can lookup a list of the type of people that typically frequent your
business.
Would you like to send mail to targeted prospects consistently?

or...
Sales Pitch #2:

Hi, my name is Bob Ross and I maintain a list of every new parent in our area, which is updated
weekly. I can inexpensively send postcards in the mail to every single one of them with coupons or a
special offer on it.
We all know how new parents look forward to coupons for baby products in the mail. I also maintain
a list of local families that make over $75,000 per year and have children younger than fve.
Would you like to consistently get your products in front of all the brand new parents in our area?
Hopefully you said pitch #2.
Te reason that the second pitch is so much more efective is because it revolves
around the exclusive list, not the service itself.
If I didnt explain this to you, I think youre natural reaction would be to start
pitching people on the fact that you can handle direct mail, which isnt that
impressive to them.
Te list is what will interest them and you must be very clear about what type of
list you have. Tats the big selling point, not just the fact that you can do direct
mail for them.
I want to pound this in your head,
its all about the LIST.
Approach businesses with the fact that you maintain and can market to a list that
theyd be interested in.
If youre prospecting for kitchen remodelers, you want to say things like:
I maintain a list of 45-55 year old couples making $200,000+ per year in the
Atlanta suburbs Have you ever thought about ofering your services to them?
Rather than
I ofer direct mail and can send postcards of yours to a targeted list that I can buy.
Make sense?
Pricing
Pricing your campaigns are where you decide how much youre going to make.
Notice I said YOU decide. You dont have to follow a strict price, you can make any
proft you want.
All you have to do is sell it for more than what it costs you to run the campaign.
Te easiest way to deal with pricing is to separate it in diferent elements. Tis is
also going to actually make it much more easy to present to your clients as well. Te
price you pay to send the campaigns will only be around 40 to 50 cents per piece
(depending on size) including printing,sorting, addressing, and postage!
All you need to provide is the list and the artwork.
Keep in mind, you want to mark all of your services up or rearrange them so that
theyre covered.
The typical piece rate that most businesses will easily pay is
around 70 cents or more.
Yellowpages for example, charges 90 cents and more for each piece mailed and they
mail out more than youll ever dream of !
Dont believe me? Check it out here http://adsolutions.yp.com/advertising-
solutions/direct-mail-marketing
If you ever see a yp.com logo on the very bottom edge of a postcard arriving in your
mail, you should be calling that business and taking over that campaign.
Seventy cents per piece is totally fair to charge, which means that you end up
profting anywhere from 20 to 30 cents on each piece.
A 5,000 piece campaign should net you around $1,500 in proft.
Just like drug dealers move people up to higher power drugs once theyre hooked,
youll be able to continue to sell your clients on larger campaigns. Once people
realize the power of postcard direct mail, theyll want to do more and more.
Its EXTREMELY common for small businesses to start out with small campaigns
of 1,000 to 2,500 pieces per month, then move up to 5,000, then 10,000 etc.
Remember way back in the beginning of this guide where I told you wed create
little money-making machines for ourselves and our clients? Now you see how.
How to quote pricing to your clients
Even though its easy for you to gauge your proft by reducing it all to per-piece
mailing, its not actually the best way to quote your prospects or clients.
Te reason why is that if you group everything together into one, they will base the
whole cost on just each postcard, which may seem too high at frst glance.
Use the per-piece metric only for yourself to gauge your profts quickly. Youll need
to break your prices quotes down into certain elements that are easily understood.
Pricing & Strategy Example
Lets say you are going to quote a campaign for a local Audiologist (hearing-aid
business). Audiologists are great targets for us because their target market is senior
citizens, who tend to respond extremely well to direct mail.
You strategize with them and they tell you one third of all people over 65 sufer
from hearing loss. All he needs to do is get people to come into his business so that
he can examine them and show them how much better their hearing can be with
inconspicuous modern hearing aids.
A typical custom hearing aid set will run anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000 and
up. Insurance doesnt pay for convenient hearing aids so he needs people who can
aford them out of pocket or on fnancing that they provide.
You pull up a list of people in the local zip codes that are 60 and older. Lets say
theres 25,000 of them. Next you may want to ask him whether females or males
are more commonly buying hearing aids? He says males, so you narrow the list to
males, which cut it to 11,500.
Now we narrow it further by whether or not they are typically married. He says
that most of them are married. Tis brings the list to 8,000. Since the devices are
expensive, you narrow the list down to 5,000 by selecting only $25,000 incomes
and up.
Now you have 5,000 of his prime prospects in a list. Tis is a great number to send
out. I try and not send out anything less than 2,500 but 5,000 tends to give a very
good response when mailed to with a good message.
You do some research and fnd that FREE battery replacement and FREE
hearing exam seem to be the best ofers that large audiologists are promoting in
other states (all found via online searching around).
Going with a standard 4x6 postcard, total quote for the mailing on your end might
be around $90 for the design, $220 in printing, $120 in addressing, and $1400 in
postage.
Aside from the design, the total is only $1,740. (35 cents each), so anything you
sell more than that is PURE PROFIT. As I mentioned before, charging 70
cents per piece to the business is a perfectly fair deal.
Big Profts with just a few campaigns
If you keep reaching out to good prospects, and telling them that you have targeted
lists of people theyd have good results mailing to, youll be reaching fve or more
clients running campaigns with you monthly in no time.
Tats some major income fowing your way and remember, it doesnt require barely
any work to do.
And they wont be calling you for tech support issues. You can run everything from
your couch in your pajamas. Youll never be overwhelmed since you have the perfect
outsourcing resources to handle everything.
How exactly should you best format the pricing quote? Take a look on the next
page.
Quoting
Heres an example of how you should be quoting your direct mail marketing:
Design and copywriting $289
Customer profle list research and development: $600
Married Men over 65 years old in
zip codes 83281 and 83282,
income over $30,000 per year:
5,000 Glossy postcards, full color printed $1125
UV Coated high gloss
Addressing/sorting/mail prep $431
First Class Postage: $1,400
FIRST TIME MAILING DISCOUNT: $200 OFF
total cost for design/copy/list/printing/addressing/postage $2245
only 44 cents each
total cost monthly for postage $1400
only 28 cents each
Hypothetical response with an incredibly good offer:
1% (50 responses).
If 10% convert = 5 sales @ $3,500 each = $17,500 in revenue.
So the audiologist only pays a few thousand but could very well get $17,500 in
revenue!
You proft over $1,600 and he gets lots of people coming in the door and lots of
proft himself.
Show the possibilities and try to get the most amazing ofer you can to the most
targeted list of prospects possible. Tats what drives response in.
Your proft
You just keep collecting checks from your client on autopilot. Meanwhile, you can
sell them SEO, PPC, and all those other fancy acronym marketing services because
now theyre just a supplemet, so when they dont work you just cut them and
continue whats working.
Tats why I like dealing with businesses that have high sale prices and high lead
costs. When you mail to a list of laser targeted prospects, the response can be
dramatically more than theyve ever experienced in advertising.
As you increase the mailing size, just broaden your targeting criteria or expand into
new territory. Continue mailing to the same lists so long as response keeps coming.
You can ALWAYS keep mailing if the response keeps happening.
Flexibility
You dont have to use the pricing I used as an example, charge anything youd like.
Te system is completely fexible to whatever markup you choose.
You are in control.
All I can tell you is that youre ofering the very best service these businesses can
ever get and you should be properly paid for it. If theyre going to make tens of
thousands each time you mail, you deserve to make a few puny thousand, right,
fellow Print Profteer?
Lets discuss pricing a little further because its one of the most important-to-know
topics when selling direct mail campaigns.
How to casually quote the cost while in conversation
When you initially communicate with prospects that are interested in marketing to
your lists, you want to give them an idea of the cost but you need it to sound easily
afordable.
Its best to say something like this...
Well, printing high quality full color glossy postcards run about 40 cents each.
Researching and targeting the exact local people youre looking for costs about 15
cents each. Complete design is about $300. Postage as you know is almost ffty
cents Tis brings everything to around $1.50 for each piece to be mailed.
Now youve justifed to them the high cost of direct mail. Youre in a great position
at this point to make a very attractive pitch for what you can do.
Because I take care of everything myself and dont have salespeople or high
overhead, I can cut down the cost of printing by more than HALF.
Te average ROI of targeted direct mail is over $12 for every $1 spent. Youre
missing out on tremendous business if youre not marketing directly to all the
people locally who want your services.
Making it simple to understand
You dont want to overcomplicate anything when youre talking about direct mail
to your clients and prospects. Tis is the same issue that people who sell PPC and
SEO deal with. Tey arent really interested in the technical details so much.
You want to really hit home that you:
have names and addresses of exactly the type of people that are likely to want
their products and services.
can get their business name and special ofers directly into their hands with a
proven method that brings in results every time when one properly.
Objections
Sometimes youll come across objections but theyre more like concerns. Youll
prevent most objections if you can handle them before the ever come up.
Te main objections that youll get are Its not afordable or costs too much and
direct mail doesnt work.
First of all, to overcome afordability issues, just simply target businesses that
can aford it. Again, this is why its best to target businesses that have high ticket
services or products and high lead costs. Tese people spend thousands on good
advertising without batting an eye.
If youre running into businesses that are saying they cant aford it, youre simply
targeting the wrong businesses so you should go fnd where the money is.
The low advertising budget businesses are better off with my 9x12
system.
Te smaller mom n pop places are MUCH better suited to the 9x12 program I
developed in 2011 (which is still pumping out profts like nothing else!)
If youre interested in learning more about that system, you can go to my original
warrior forum mega-thread that was locked (according to the mods it sucked all
the air out of the forum) or if youre feeling particularly jovial, you can purchase
the guide at: 9x12system.com
Now back to the objections and how to handle them...
Direct mail doesnt work
Tis is a fairly common objection and its really more of a concern. Te reason that
people say this is almost always directly due to the low response rates.
Youre bound to hear people say
No one looks at this kind of mail, 90% of it gets thrown out.
Just think about that statement for a second. Flip it around and you get
10% of people keeping it!
You can reply to their statement with, I wish that only ninety percent threw it out!
We would both be billionaires if that were the case! Te truth is, only a very few
percent will look at it and do something about it.
You want to put in perspective that very low response rates are actually super
proftable.
If you send out 1,000 pieces of mail directly to the most common buyers of your
service, even a 2% response will get you twenty new paying clients!
A billboard on a highway gets seen by tens if not hundreds of thousands of people every
day. What percentage of those people respond to it?
A newspaper ad gets seen by tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands per day, how
many respond to that each time you run one?
You want to make them realize that direct mail is diferent than ANY other form
of advertising. A super low response rate is actually tremendously much higher
than any other form of advertising. A great instant reply is:
Youre not interested in the thousands of people who will throw your postcard out. Youre
interested in thee ones that end up responding to it-and becoming new clients!
I mean really, if youre going to knock direct mail for its low response rates then you
might as well knock every other advertising medium out there because Id love to
see a billboard pull even a thousandth of a percent response, seriously!
Taking over direct mail campaigns
When youre targeting medium to larger size companies, youll often run into
businesses that currently do direct mail. Tis is a great opportunity for you actually
because youre able to do everything cheaper. You dont have the overhead like the
company they probably are using.
When someone tells you they already do campaigns, ask them how it works out for
them and whether theyre interested in getting the same thing done signifcantly
lower. Youre ALWAYS going to get interest here because they know how expensive
direct mail is, so someone who says they can do it cheaper is defnitely a big thing.
Like I said before, most places charge around 70 or more cents each to mail,
depending on the mail piece. You can just take over their current campaigns,
undercut their current provider and STILL make a big proft. Its not like you have
to do much work other than email and click buttons.
Even if you manage to land only a few clients, when each one makes a whole car
payment in proft for you, its worth it!
Reaching Every One
Heres a refreshing piece of information that you can use to literally reach every
one.
As far as I know, every country with a functional postal system has a program
typically called unaddressed mail. It may also go by the name of Saturation Mail
or something to that efect but its all the same.
In the USA, we recently had a more user-friendly version of it pop up, which is
known as Every Door Direct Mail or EDDM for short.
What saturation mail does is reaches every address that a mail carrier goes to.
Instead of buying a list and trying to pick out targets, you simply look at the
neighborhoods that most likely ft the demographics you like, and the mail carrier
delivers your postcards to every address.
Tis is very, very convenient because it takes 90% of all the difculties in handling
mailing yourself, away.
By following the very simple-to-do preparations for a saturation mailing, you can
have postcards reaching entire communities instantly.
What!?
Yes, by using programs like the EDDM system, you can literally send a postcard to
an entire local market, almost instantly.
Most local business is well... local!
Tat means for the most part, the buyers come from the very close radius of people
that happen to be living near their store or service area.
For some of you, who live in low population areas, that might only mean 5,000
addresses.
Even in big cities, for your local mom n pop stores, the buyers typically still come
from a compacted radius. Maybe 20,000 address at most.
Keep in mind that a household has 2.2 people on average in it, so a 10,000 address
area would be a population of around 22,000 people.
Service providers tend to have larger market coverage but can often be honed down
into specifc neighborhoods and communities where most of their business comes
form.
Regardless, you can - for the most part - concentrate marketing eforts on a fairly
tight geographical area around where your clients location is, and most likely that
specifc area is only 5,000 to 20,000 addresses strong.
With saturation mail like EDDM for example, you can reach those addresses for
postage at the ridiculously low rate of only 16 cents (as of 2013)!
And... to top it of, the postcard sizing required are HUGE.
6.5x9, 6.5x11, 6.5x12, 8.5x11, 9x12, and even a mind boggling 12x15!
If you were to send targeted mailings at these sizes, youd be spending almost a
dollar in postage alone.
So, my full-blooded Print Profteer, you should be taking massive action in selling
EDDM campaigns.
If you live outside of the USA, use your unaddressed mail program or target the
USA and have me do your mailings. (I currently only charge 35 cents per mailing
for 9x12 EDDM to any carrier routes anywhere in the USA).
You can mail saturation campaigns easy. Just go to https://eddm.usps.com to look
up all the routes you want anywhere in the USA.
You get the printing done, bundle it in 100 piece packs (I provide shrink wrapping
if needed), and slap the paperwork together that the EDDM website provides for
you.
You bring it to the post ofce (5,000 per day limit), pay your postage and it arrives
the next day or two in everyones mailbox.
People sell SEO over the phone for thousands per month, and that takes months to
even see results (if theres even any!). Dont tell me you cant sell postcard campaigns
that reach every single stinking person in their local community, instantly, with
results right away to boot!
And fnally, lets talk about one of the most fantastic ways to get prospects to try
out direct mail...
Co-op Direct Mail!
Tis takes a little legwork but its incredibly proftable. If youre having a hard
time fnding people to cough up enough to do solo mail campaigns, simply patch
together multiple businesses to share the same card!
If youre sending EDDM out (saturation, unaddressed mail), you can use a giant
postcard size like 9x12 (or A4 outside the usa), which can comfortably hold even
18 spaces on it for advertising.
Tink of it this way, if you partner up just two businesses that want to reach a
similar target, you cut the cost to them in HALF.
Te more you add, the more their cost goes down, which makes it an easier sell.
Also, you get the beneft of charging more per piece since its diluted so much by
the partners.
If a 10,000 piece campaign to blanket a whole village costs $3,000 or so in printing
and postage... you can charge a dozen or more businesses only a few hundred bucks
each to take a ride on the card and youll proft anywhere from a couple thousand
to $7,000 or more!
Yeah, do the math on that. How many cards would you need to run to make
$10,000 per month in proft, $20,000 per month proft, or even $30,000 or more.
Not many!
How difcult can it be to sell nearly any business on a few hundred dollars in
exchange for reaching their ENTIRE local market!?
I could talk about this method further but I have entire guides dedicated to it and
it would be better for you to acquire them if you want to progress in co-op direct
mail.
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Final Toughts
Congratulations, Print Profteer, you made it through the whole guide.
Youve learned theres a lot more to being a local marketer than selling simple
internet services for peanuts a pop.
A true marketing pro should be able to do a lot more than just put up a website or
outsource unpredictable cross-your-fngers SEO.
Youre now be able to help your local businesses develop a real brand and identity
that you can use to market directly to the people who are likely to buy.
You know how to get their message directly into the hands of the best prospects,
from start to fnish, and without having to do any technical or difcult labor. If a
prospect handed you over his advertising budget of $5,000 per month, you would
actually KNOW how to bring him a return on it.
No longer do you have to limit yourself to selling intangible services that are
too confusing for your prospects to simply grasp in the frst place. Or worry that
anything will become outdated.
Teres nothing like seeing a business owners face light up when they see a new
logo for their company created and a fresh set of collateral that feels and looks like
a million bucks.
You can look back a year from now and be amazed at how youve grown struggling
businesses that had no identity and no marketing focus, to thriving local brands
that constantly engage their local market better than anyone else.
You, Print Profteer, are now armed to the teeth with the resources to truly market.
Recommended Resources
Links that you might need:
USPS EDDM tool
Leadsplease.com
USADATA.com
USPS open and distribute remote mailing instructions
Mobile Renegade
and other products of mine that you will go bonkers over....
Bob Ross M3 System
Bob Ross 9x12 System
Email me with any questions at [email protected]

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