Hello Children,

       We could have planned to run an AD, sent out mail, used flyers, bought radio spots or even TV time. No matter what we choose we need to work with others to get stuff done.

       Fortunately for me, I already know great people and other terrific marketers that also know great people. So here is what I would do if I didn’t know anyone already.

       Most of my knowledge is of space Ads and direct mail campaigns.
       

       When you are first trying a new campaign go to a broker. Brokers work like travel agents. They know the ins and outs of an industry which is very complicated.

       AD brokers get their money from the companies they represent and if they don’t get you better rates they can get you better placement and so forth.

       Preston, you just bit me very hard. I had to yell at you because I am not the type to sit and reason with a 4 year old about something as vital as “don’t bite people.”

       My dad always showed a certain patience with me, I didn’t quite understand, until now. You are a great little guy and I can tell we are going to be very close to one another. Man my leg hurts. I am going to take a break and come back to this later.

       Okay Pres, you are sleeping now so maybe I can get some work done before Emma’s story is acted out by professional stage actors at her school.

       I am so very proud of you Emma. You love writing stories and I can’t wait to see what your play is about.

       Back to the lesson.

       Brokers of mailing lists and ad space have lots of information and connections you do not.

       When your ad is a great success and is running twice a week, you will need to know what is the next best paper to run an AD or which is the next hottest list you should mail to.

       Now brokers all have one goal and that is to see you buy as much advertising space as possible.They really do want you to succeed.

       The only danger is of a broker selling you on a big expensive list that really doesn’t perform well or a paper that doesn’t get much response.

       This is easily avoided by not rushing in with all your capital. My father speaks of ways to ensure this doesn’t happen in his newsletters but I have no problem with a company giving me the best of the best names to start off with. If I only buy more names and don’t try to jump from mailing 10k letters to 100k letters any problems with the list can be spotted before it consumes too much capital.

       For this AD I will work with Nancy Jones. She is bar none the best of the best and everyone who works with her finds her irreplaceable.

       If my ad works at all, she will be the first person I will turn to for advice on which other papers and magazines we should run the ad in.

       For a list broker I trust advice of Eric Weinstein.

       I have known both of these people since I was a kid and trust them 100%.

       They both really keep their thumb on the pulse of the marketing world and can tell you what types of offers are working well and which lists, magazines and papers respond well to direct mail offers.

       For E-mail lists you can use list brokers as you would with snail mail campaigns.

       SRDS id online at www.srds.com and now includes e-mail lists too.
 

       However, I think e-mail lists work so much better under a few conditions.

• The original campaign that built the list does not send out spam or rent it to people who will.
• The e-mail list is generated by people and enterprises with a loyal following.
• The marketing is mailed from the people who have the loyal following with a whole hearted recommendation.

       Because of this I do feel that networking with people in related fields works better than list rentals.

       It all depends on the numbers. The grail for direct mail is to make a list work to the Donnelly List. They have a lot of lists but they are famous for putting together all the names and addresses in all the phone books in the United States.

       If you can sell to that list, it means you can sell to any list. The only thing all those people have in common is they live in the united states and are listed in the phone book. Some don’t even have phones.

       If my pitch is appealing to finance students or retirees, I will expand the marketing in the direction it takes but I feel IBD investors will be receptive to my offer.

       I won’t bother to approach Nancy until I think the AD is ready and the website is up, because when you want to be taken seriously nothing works better than showing progress that took effort.

       Enough for today.

       I hope your play is a smash hit Emma.

       Love,

       Pop