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Author Archive

6 Ways to Lose Money In Direct Mail

By Jeffrey Dobkin   |   March 5, 2010

1. Dash off a letter, then photocopy it on cheap bond, and send it with a business card… and call it a direct mail campaign.

Or worse yet – photocopy your old brochure and send it with a business card and call it direct mail.  Then, when it doesn’t work call me up and complain, “Yea, we tried direct mail and it doesn’t work.”  Real direct mail letters and literature are created from scratch with their original purpose defined as “to use as a direct mail solicitation,” and the objective of “To generate a phone call.”

And BTW, a real direct mail “campaign” isn’t a single mailing of anything.  Campaign = more than one mailing. Read More »


12 Places To Buy Your Mailing List

By Jeffrey Dobkin   |   February 19, 2010

There are two types of lists, determined by their origin: compiled lists and response lists.

Compiled lists are a common source of names and records that have been gathered, collected, and entered into a database.  The names may have been acquired through public records such as vehicle owner registrations or high school teachers.
Read More »


A Winning Promotional Strategy

By Jeffrey Dobkin   |   February 5, 2010

Here’s how to get your best prospects to call you, and the cost to you is $20. Send me the $20 and I’ll tell you.

It was a joke.  Come-on, lighten up.  You can send me the $20 later.  It does cost $20 a lead, but hey, they’re your best prospects — and you’re going to get to them to call you.  How much is that very warm lead worth?  What are you paying to get each lead to call you now? Read More »


How To Get Your Prospect To (Willingly) Accept Your Next Call

By Jeffrey Dobkin   |   January 19, 2010

Having trouble building a relationship with a prospect in that first phone call?  Yes, me too.

Ever wish you had a simple, effective method to get that 2nd-call welcomed, that you could use time and time again.  And it worked every time.  Yea, me too.

Hey wait! here’s a solution! It’s about getting the client to willingly accept your second call. Read More »


10 Questions For Inventors

By Jeffrey Dobkin   |   December 19, 2009

Like it or not, at one point if you are serious about your invention – and moving it forward – you need to answer a few questions.  The good part: Don’t worry – you can change your answers at any time. Just rough it out for now.

1. Do you have a budget?

Nothing happens until you spend little time, money… or both. So – What is your time commitment,  hours/week?  What is your $$$ investment? Read More »


10 Steps To Take Before Sending Direct Mail

By Jeffrey Dobkin   |   December 5, 2009

One of my readers asked “How do I market a product?”  Yea.  It’s just that simple. And here’s your simple answer:  Invest time, money or energy.  Or just pick two.  Or, maybe it is just that simple.

The first questions about marketing take into consideration if you are marketing a product or a service, if it’s local (geographic marketing) or national; industrial, business to business; to a wide or narrow niche, or a retail product through wholesalers or directly through retail stores to consumers.

Also – how much does your product cost, what is the sales cycle, and is it need-driven? Impulse? Or seasonal?  Is price important?  Read More »


I Got Your Email. The Reason I Didn’t Read It Is…

By Jeffrey Dobkin   |   November 19, 2009

Yea, I got your email yesterday.

I get everyone’s email, at least that’s the way it seems.  500 Messages a day.  Including, ahem, enlargement products, low mortgage rates, sex from Russian women who are lonely, free money from the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Viagra stores, a whole barrage of messages in Spanish which I don’t speak, and now in alphabets I can’t decipher.

Yes, I’m sure I received the email from you, but just refresh me – what was it about? Read More »


Improving “Glance Readership” In Post Cards Part III

By Jeffrey Dobkin   |   November 5, 2009

Let’s see, where were we…  oh yes, you were bitching, er… complaining that your post card wasn’t long enough to sell your products, and I said you’re right – it isn’t.   The ONLY job of the post card is to make the reader pick up the phone and call YOU, then YOU sell your products.  To do that, offer something FREE. Read More »


Improve “Glance Readership” Part II

By Jeffrey Dobkin   |   October 19, 2009

Glance Readership is the 2 seconds you get when someone first picks up your post card.  In this time they decide to either read it — or throw it out (along with your money).

In part one of this article, we discussed creating a great headline to drive readers into reading the rest of the post card text.  This was by using Read More »


How To Improve “Glance Readership” In Post Cards

By Jeffrey Dobkin   |   October 5, 2009

Post cards make sense in today’s bludgeoned economy. They’re cheaper to print than a full direct mail package, easier to handle, and are less costly to mail. They can be effective if created correctly. Read More »