Chapter Five. How to Get Orders through Publications

The formalities of inaugurating the business are over now; the die is cast. The item to be sold has been selected and provision for a supply, when the orders begin coming, has been made. Now a decision must be reached: where and how to test?

Let us review first the sources of mail order. Most mail order business comes from advertising via publica­tions (magazines, newspapers, almanacs); direct mail (cir­culars, catalogues, etc.); radio, television and miscellane­ous media (match books, car cards, etc.). Although no figures are at hand, a guess placing direct mail as the most popular medium, and publications next in order, would probably prove correct.

In this chapter we will take up publication advertis­ing; other media will be discussed later.

Selecting a Publication

The type of product or service to be sold will immedi­ately rule out certain magazines and newspapers, thus nar­rowing the field and making a selection easier. Would you advertise dresses, pressure cookers, nylon stockings in a man's magazine? Obviously not. The publication you want must have a predominantly feminine readership. How about sporting goods, auto accessories, men's apparel? Sound judgment would dictate an all-male magazine.

Newspapers present a more rounded circulation; the division is not as sharp as between men's and women's magazines. There are few papers, with exceptions in the financial and sporting field, that could be classified exclu­sively male or female. However, even here there is a choice. Some papers fall into the so-called family group. These are usually afternoon or evening papers, which the bread­winner brings home from work and are read by the whole family. The morning paper, bought on the way to work, might then be considered male. Inquiry at the newspaper office should disclose more facts about the circulation.

The family newspaper is probably best suited for mer­chandise having both a selective and universal appeal. A picture enlargement offer, gun sight, or cosmetics, would probably sell in the family newspaper, while in the morn­ing or business paper, only the gun sight might do well.

Are there products and services that may be advertised profitably in both groups of magazines? Of course. A com­parison of men's and women's magazines will disclose many similar offers in both. Obviously such offers have a univer­sal appeal. In this group are correspondence courses, gray-hair colorings, jewelry, home gadgets, medications, etc.

In addition to men's and women's magazines, there are some whose circulation is about equally divided be­tween the sexes. Generally, it is safest to test products with a wide appeal in this group, but like everything in mail order, the hard-and-fast rules always produce exceptions. See the Appendix for a partial listing of publications frequently used by mail order people.

Determining the Size of the Ad

In the beginning, the pocketbook will determine the size of your ads, but for the purposes of this discussion it will be necessary to assume that you are not handicapped by a lack of funds.

The primary factors to consider in choosing the size of an ad are the nature of the circulation and the rate struc­tures. In everyday language, this means that if only 10% of the magazine circulation selected for testing is in the older age group, it would be wasteful to schedule a full page ad in selling stockings for varicose veins. More sen­sible space would be about a tenth of a page, on the theory that those using or needing such stockings will be drawn to the ad anyway. The rate structure of the magazine may be such that a fifth of a page is only slightly higher than a tenth, in which case the larger position is recommended.

We come now to the inevitable exception! If you per­fected a revolutionary stocking, really feeling like and re­sembling regular stockings, then larger space—even a page —would be practical and probably very profitable. The psychology behind this large spread is, by reason of its sen­sationalism, to persuade as many (if not all) of the maga­zine readers who normally use such stockings to send for your product—even those who usually would not consider buying by mail.

Let us examine how to decide the size of an ad for a new weed killer to be run in a farm magazine. A small ad probably will get little attention because the farm publica­tions are full of weed killer ads, and the readers may be a little tired of seeing them and wary of their claims. Clearly, it will be necessary to overcome this skepticism, which is not likely to be accomplished with anything except a large ad—a full page perhaps, with very strong copy.

Where would one advertise a remedy for blemishes, pimples or blackheads? The best media would seem to be teen-age magazines, comics, movie-fan books, song lyric magazines, etc. Since most of the juvenile readers have, or think they have, some skin disorder, large space is indi­cated.

Advertising Rates

An examination of the rate cards of any group of sim­ilar type magazines will show substantial variations in the cost per thousand readers. This fact should be taken into account in selecting advertising media. The publisher of the higher price (per reader) magazine will defend his rate on the grounds that the circulation is "better," more "loyal" to the magazine, etc. This may be so, but you are not out to buy "better" circulation—it is customers you want. Good sense indicates trying the magazine with the lower (per reader) rate. Publishers supply rate cards upon request.

Special Testing Media

There are a number of newspapers and magazines that some mail order men use regularly for quick testing. This type publication has short closing dates and the results of the test are known soon, usually four to five days after the ad appears. In the group are pre-date editions of some of the big city newspapers, rural weekly newspapers, and sev­eral monthly farm publications. (See Appendix.) Accord­ing to some mail order people, a flop in these tests generally foreshadows failure for the product; a good pull, however, is a green light and full speed ahead in the regular media. Our counsel is to find out for yourself. We know of too many cases where the results were poor in these test­ing media, but elsewhere heartening. There are no guar­anteed short cuts to testing.

Split-Run Testing

Certain publications make available split-run testing facilities at a small extra charge. The advertiser submits two similar mats or plates of the same size but carrying dif­ferent copy. The presses reproduce these ads in alternate copies of the paper but always in the same position. Thus, a newsdealer, getting a bundle of fifty, and examining each paper, would find that the top paper contained ad A, and next paper ad B, the third paper ad A, etc.

Even the beginner will immediately see the signifi­cance of the split-run to an advertiser. It enables him to test, under identical conditions, the effect of special offers, different selling prices, headlines, body copy or art work. Below are reproduced two actual tally sheets showing the results obtained by an advertiser seeking to determine the pulling power of two identical pieces of copy featuring different selling prices. Considering the cost of the mer­chandise, he found that the $2.98 price was the more profitable.

Type and Character of Circulation

This topic was touched on briefly before but it merits fuller treatment. While the selection of media according to sex is easily understood, there are other factors that may prove equally decisive, as one small mail order firm, not too long in the business, found out. They had just introduced a low-priced novelty men's sport jacket. Three men's media were selected for tests—a class magazine, a fraternal, and a group of detective books. When the final returns were in, the tally sheet showed that the fraternal and de­tective publications had paid out, but the class magazine was a flop. The higher advertising rate (per reader) of the magazine had been taken into account, but the returns were way below the other two media when based just on circulation, regardless of rates. The head of the firm did some deep thinking and finally came up with an explana­tion: the product was too "cheap" for the readers of the class magazine.

The firm very naturally repeated the advertisement in the next closing issue of both profitable media. This time only the detective magazines paid out; the fraternal just about broke even. Here the explanation had to come from an old timer. The circulation of the fraternal was all subscription, with very little turnover, whereas the de­tective books circulation was all newsstand, with perhaps a 50% turnover of readers each month. It was these, the new readers, that really put the ad over the second time.

Hank Bookman purchased a quantity of books on sex education for children at a close-out price. He chose the above-mentioned class magazine, a family-type magazine and a detective group. Only the class men's magazine was profitable. The readers of the other media apparently were not sophisticated enough to buy a sex education book for their children. This, despite the fact that they might have and indeed did buy a sex book for their own use, advertised in the same publications!

These are some of the points to consider in appraising the character of a publication.

Position

Every advertiser wants his ad displayed in the most prominent place. The more people who see it, the better chance for it to pay out. The front cover or page (in the case of a newspaper) would be an ideal position, but with the exception of a few trade magazines, publishers in this country do not sell this space. (In England such practice is the rule rather than the exception.)

The next best position is the back cover or page (if a newspaper). As a matter of fact, some advertisers claim that the back page is seen more often than the front; they point to the growing habit of many readers to begin from the end. There have been several studies made on the question but nothing to unseat the front page prominence has come from these surveys.

The back cover, being the preferred position, is nat­urally the most expensive. Usually the publishers require the advertiser to run color ads, further boosting the out­lay. Very often the censorship for the back cover is more rigid than for the inside pages and only certain types of copy and art are accepted.

Next in order of preference come the third cover, sec­ond cover, and all pages in front of the book. The page facing the third cover is another choice position for mail order. There is disagreement on the value of the second cover, especially in the case of comic magazines. According to some authorities, the youngsters will not clip a coupon ad on the second cover because to do so would mutilate the front cover and reduce the trading or "swapping" value of the comic.

Cover and front positions usually require page ads, the smaller units being assigned inside and to the back of the publication. Experience has shown that next to a full page, the most desirable space is an island position, that is, being the only advertiser on a page otherwise taken by editorial (publication) reading matter.

Experienced mail order firms generally request that their smaller units (column, half-column, etc.) be placed on the outside of a page, and many will skip publications that repeatedly run their ads against the backbone or "gutter." This position is undoubtedly the poorest from a pulling standpoint and should be avoided, especially when running coupon copy. Several instances are known to the author where "gutter" positions cut the pull almost 80%, although 20% to 40% is probably average, with the great­est percentage drop occurring in the "fat" narrow-col­umned publications.

Timing or Scheduling

The seasonal nature of certain products is easily un­derstood and even a neophyte will avoid obvious boners. It is not against selling ice to Eskimos that the novice must be cautioned but rather against many less apparent factors that somehow, inexplicably, turn a smooth-running oper­ation topsy-turvy.

We saw earlier how one advertiser had to call upon the experience of an old-timer to explain the unexpected behavior of a fraternal magazine. Proper timing might have made all the difference; in this case, there should have been a longer wait before repeating. Many mail order men find that this type publication requires such spacing and a wide berth in the summer besides.

Because of the long closing dates of certain publica­tions, advertisers must be on guard against mistaking is­sue date for on-sale date. Thus, a publication carrying a September cover date may be circulated as early as July. The type of merchandise intended for September might not pull as well in July.

The substantial fluctuation in circulation between seasons is to be considered when timing ads. Actually this condition is very often decisive for many advertisers, and because of it, they are able to advertise profitably only dur­ing four or five months when circulations are at peak. The advertiser should appraise his pull in terms of the seasonal factor. Let us examine some illustrative figures.

Advertiser Jones estimates his pull from an ad placed in the February issue of PICTURE magazine at 400 or­ders. This will give him a 20% profit on the total opera­tion. The space rep (salesman) for PICTURE calls about January 20th and suggests repeating the ad in May. Jones declines. "But you're doing fine, aren't you?" asks the rep.

"Yes, in this issue, but I examined PICTURE'S cir­culation chart for the last few years and found that May issues drop about 30% circulation from February. This reduced readership means, my experience has shown, about 100 to 135 less orders, which further means a loss of about 30% on the operation instead of a profit of approximately 20%. Try me again for October."

If Jones' profit had been greater in February (that is, if he received 500 orders) the likelihood is that the ad would have been repeated in May.

These are examples of scheduling problems. There are many more, some requiring statistical analysis, which have a place in a more comprehensive work but not one intended for the beginner.

Backed-Up Coupon

Mail order firms would prefer that no printed matter appear on the reverse side of their coupons, but unless will­ing to pay for the white space, the coupons will almost al­ways be backed up either by editorial or advertising copy. Their pet peeve, however, is the publisher's practice of backing up a coupon with that of another advertiser. This occurrence is supposed to have a disastrous effect on the pull of both ads.

It is difficult to ascertain from those in the field what the facts actually are, because some of the smaller publishers will almost always make an adjustment in rate if the inser­tion order requested that the coupon not be backed by another. It is the writer's opinion that a backed coupon will affect the over-all results only slightly, if at all. Assume that a publication with a circulation of 500,000 has backed up the coupons of Advertisers A and B. Advertiser A, sell­ing a book on automobile repair, requires 1000 orders to pay out. Advertiser B, selling a skin medication, needs 500 orders. Even if Advertiser A gets his 1000 orders, there are still 499,000 readers with magazines carrying Advertiser B's coupon. Even if we assume that A's buyers are potential customers of B (which is unlikely) we note that B lost only 1/5 of 1% of the purchased circulation.

This topic has been discussed in detail, not from a desire to assist the publisher, but rather to disabuse the advertiser from the illusion that a backed-up coupon is responsible for poor pull, rather than the product, the medium, or the ad itself.

Contingent, Make-Good and P.I. or P.O. Agreements

Small media owners (both publication and radio), will sometimes accept orders from advertisers on a contingency, make-good, P.I. or P.O. basis. In such a case, one of the fol­lowing deals is usually meant:

a. The advertiser will pay for the ad only if it proves profitable.

b. The advertiser will pay only that fraction of the price of the ad at which a profit will be made.

c. The publisher agrees to carry the copy gratis in future issues until a profit is made.

d. The advertiser will pay only a certain sum (agreed beforehand) per inquiry (P.I.) or per order (P.O.) re­ceived.

The beginner who expects to get on through such deals will find meager pickings. In the long run, only the popularity of the product or service will assure success.

Method of Keying Ads

Advertisers use various codes on the coupon to keep track of the number of orders obtained from each ad. Most popular is the "department" method.

Example: ABC Mail Order Co.
Dept. 219

Usually a two-digit number is assigned to a specific medium, as 12, 43, 89, etc. Other digits are added to in­dicate the issue. For example: 65 is the code number of FIGHTING WESTERN; the key for the June issue of FIGHTING WESTERN would then be Dept. 656 (the last digit—6—identifying June). October would be Dept. 6510.

When all the two-digit numbers have been assigned, a new set of two-digit numbers, prefixed by a letter, is fre­quently used, as Dept. A652.

The inventive beginner no doubt will be able to work out other keying methods.

Preparing and Placing the Ad

Most mail order men use an agency in preparing and placing their advertising, and our counsel to the newcomer is to do likewise. (A more detailed discussion of the role of the agency will be found in Chapter VIII.) But whether you place the ads directly or through an agency, you should know certain elementary facts.

First and foremost, understand your product or service as no one else does. Sell yourself, and a thousand reasons will spring to mind why others should buy. The prepara­tion of the ad then becomes a matter of putting on paper, in words and illustration, the reasons why people should send for your offering. If you are blessed both with the gifts of language and drawing, then by all means try your hand at getting up the ad; but if you are like most of us mortals, the chances are you can do one or the other, and at that, not too well. Remember, $10,000 is not an unusual salary for good copy writers, and in the larger agencies there are some $15,000 and $20,000-and-up men—there must be something to the copy writing art. The same applies to commercial art.

Since more people can write than draw, the likelihood is you will be needing an artist, and your local classified directory or newspaper will show you where to find one; together you can work out the ad. The practice is to do a rough layout first, and if that meets with approval, a com­prehensive layout. Next step is to get the type set up (either by the publication or a commercial typesetter) and the finished drawing made. Now, depending on the re­quirement of the publication, an engraving of the whole unit is prepared, or the material assembled into a roto print.

Rate cards state the mechanical requirements of a publication, closing dates and other pertinent information. The serious mail order beginner can save himself money and headaches by consulting an elementary manual on the different printing processes. Unless the necessary technical knowledge is obtained, we again recommend that an agency prepare and place the ad.

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