Marketing Your Numerology or Astrology Reports.

Did you know that almost every business makes 80 percent of their money from 10 percent of their customers? Your database of customers is an important part of future marketing.

You probably purchased our software - or numerology or astrology software from another source - in order to make some extra money, perhaps even a full-time income, or to add numerology reports and software to your current line of products so that they may include astrology and numerology as well as other products.

Whether through advertising, direct mail, the Internet, or by visiting psychic fairs, the opportunities are there.

I have tried every one of those avenues and found success through trial and error.

Below you will learn about the different marketing avenues we tried. At this time, we are focused almost exclusively on the internet and we are doing quite well.

But let's look at other options:

Psychic Fairs, New Age Expos, Astrology conventions, demonstrations in Health Food Stores and New Age Bookstores.

Psychic Fairs, new Age Expos, Astrology conventions, and other shows requiring an investment in booth or table cost are basically a crap shoot. Some are good, some are bad. In 6 years of participating in approximately 30 to 40 shows a year, I have lost money in only 3 shows when based on booth cost and materials alone. However, when I include the cost of travel etc. I have lost money on about one-third of the shows. Advice: don't go to shows requiring considerable travel and other expenses unless you are pretty sure your sales will be at least 3x your total investment.

On the other hand: the chance of loosing money on a psychic fair in your area - not requiring any travel expenses - is small.

Keep in mind, after participating in a show where, for example, you talked to 200 people and sold 40 reports and 5 software programs, you will get some residual sales and referrals as well. Going to metaphysical, astrology, or alternative lifestyle shows is an excellent way to build up a nice database of customers.

When you decide to participate in a show, whether it is a small local fair or a large New Life Expo, make sure:

Based on my own experience, I rate shows as follows:

Small 2-day shows, such as local psychic fairs or small astrology shows, with a booth or table cost of less than $150 and with 5 to 25 vendors and 5 to 25 readers should bring in at least $600.00 in sales. A bad show may bring in only $300, a good one as much as $2000. I have never done less than $500 except for 3 shows (Bandwagon Promotions in St. Louis, in 1996, the Environmental expo in 1989 in San Jose, and a small psychic fair in Wichita, Kansas in 1994).

Medium-size shows with a table or booth cost of less than $500 and with 25 to 100 vendors and up to 50 readers should bring in at least $1500 in sales (and they do about 60 percent of the time - the risk is somewhat greater here). A mediocre show might bring in between $800 and $1000. A good show as much as $3500. If your travel expenses and booth cost combined total $900 or more, make sure you talk to some vendors who have participated in those shows in the past.

Large shows with a booth cost of $700 or more and with 100 or more vendors, such as Whole Life Expos, New Life Expos, and others. The risk here is substantial unless your travel expenses are less than $300. I have done approximately. 50 to 60 of these shows and never made less than the booth cost. However, I have lost money on perhaps one-third of them when travel expenses exceeded $600. Call around, don't rely on the person who sells you the booth for accurate information regarding estimated attendance. They ALWAYS exaggerate. And by large margins. It is not uncommon to be told that a show expects to get at least 10.000 visitors, and only 3.000 actually show up. The estimates are generally at least twice the actual numbers. Remember, they want to sell you a booth and will not shy away from a little exaggerating to get you to sign on the dotted line.

Call other vendors before committing to a large show. Also, pay a lot of attention to the location of the booth. The larger the show, the more important the location of the booth. Corner-booths are always worth the extra $100 or $200. Find a booth as close to the center of the show area as possible and ideally closer to the entrance. Avoid any booth outside the MAIN-HALL.  (Some of the larger shows divide the vendors over a main hall and one or more smaller rooms or a hall way or lobby area - avoid the smaller rooms, or hall ways, at all cost.) Make your booth as attractive as possible. Get a big banner (approximate cost $100 to $150) with a slogan such as: You Will Not Find A More Accurate, Complete, And In-Depth Personal Reading Anywhere. Guaranteed!! (This is true, so you can feel good about it.) Make one or two signs with clear descriptions of the products. Make sure you have at least 5 books (Numerology; Key To Your Inner Self, by Hans Decoz) on your table, as well as information about software versions (selling one software version can be as profitable as selling 12 reports). Invest in some lamps, a nice table cloth, etc. to brighten up your booth.

The advantages of going to shows, especially when travel expenses are minimal, is that besides the money you make on the spot, you increase your customer database quickly. Many people who may not buy on the spot will take a brochure and call in an order later. In addition, the referral and reorder rate is very high. For every 100 readings you sell at shows you could receive anywhere from 20 to 40 readings in the next 6 months.

The disadvantages are that when travel expenses are high you can easily loose money. It is also much harder work than most people expect.

I have done at least 5 shows that brought in more than $6000 in sales not including software. The three largest show organizers that I know of (but I have not gone to a show in over 2 years due to personal circumstances) are:

If you enjoy interacting with people you may find the shows an excellent and fun way to sell your numerology reports.

More advice:

You will increase your sales by sending a simple thank you card to each customer within 2 to 4 weeks after purchasing a reading. Ask if they enjoyed their readings and offer a discount for ordering two or more readings for their family or friends. This is an in-expensive but lucrative way of maintaining customer contact.

When you create your database, include the month and day of a customers birth date. Send a Happy Birthday card a few weeks before that date. The key is staying in touch with your customer.

Demonstrations in Health Food Stores and New Age Stores.

This is an excellent way to sell your products. Most stores will not charge you or charge you only 10 or 20 percent of your gross. Most stores like to offer their customers some in-store entertainment such as a person creating numerology reports. I have done as much as $1,000 a day or as little as $100. In addition, you can set up an account at each store. Place a sample reading, a colorful sign, and some brochures in the store. The store takes the orders, you fulfill them. The deal should be between 30 to 40 percent for the store, with high enough volume and selling at full retail price, you may even consider 50 percent for the store.

New Age or Metaphysical centers.

These centers can be found in most cities through local papers found at Health Food stores and New Age bookstores. Metaphysical centers, or Astrology conventions, often offer small psychic fairs on a monthly bases or engage in other activities where you are able to market and produce readings (advertising in their newsletter is often an in-expensive way to get the word out). The costs here are generally minimal and the advantages are enormous. You build a local database of repeat customers. You network with people who will help you expand your business, etc.

Direct Mail

Direct mail has always been my most successful approach. However, finding the mailing lists is tricky. Here are some tips:

Your best mailing list is your own data base (which you will build over time).

Call local new age papers, astrology newsletters, or metaphysical centers and offer to buy their data base (cost should be between 6 and 10 cents per name).

Don't buy too many names at a time. If you find a source offering you 5000 names or more, buy 500 to 1000 names to test your mailer on and to find out how accurate the mailing list is. (You should always put a return address on your mailers. If more than 8 percent of the mailers come back to you as undeliverable you have a bad mailing list on your hands. Five to eight percent may be expected. Less than 5 percent is a nice clean list.

Make a deal with a local new age bookstore to buy their customer database or, if they don't want to sell their database offer to supply them with flyers to be included in their own mail-outs, with a percentage of sales going to the store.

If you want to go bigger and faster, call large nationwide magazines such as Yoga Journal or Magical Blend or Faith magazine, and ask to buy 500 or a 1000 names to test the market. If successful offer to buy more names.

Return on direct mail I have done in the past has varied between 2.7 and 3.9 percent. Calculate your potential to make money on mailers as follows:

3% of # of mailers times the amount of average sale (the average sale being the average amount of money one customer spends).

If average sale is $30.00 and number of mailers is 1000, sales is 3%=30 x $30.00 is $900

Cost is usually about 35 to 45 cents per mailer depending on how fancy your brochure is. Cost here would be 1000 x 45 cents is $450. Reorders and referrals would add another $300 to $400 over the 6 months following your mail-out. In addition, you won't know your true return for at least 4 to 6 months after the mail-out. Most orders come in the 4 to 5 weeks following your mail-out. However, some people hold on to your brochure for a couple of months, or wait for a birthday to come along before filling out your order form. Sales will continue to trickle in for several months following your mail-out.

Increase your average sale by offering discounts on multiple orders, as well as some higher priced products such as software and courses, and you will see your sales jump. For example, offer a $5.00 discount per reading and/or buy 2 get 1 free and your average sale might jump to $50. The same scenario mentioned above at 1000 mailers at a cost of $450 would offer the following return: 3% = 30 sales at $50 is $1500.

The advantage of direct mail: when you find a mailing list and a brochure that works, you can increase the number of mail-outs steadily without much risk. Also, the larger and more sophisticated your mail-outs become the larger your profit percentage. For example, let's say you find that Prevention magazine with a database of several hundred thousand, and a brochure offering a certain discount for volume etc. works. You tried 1000 @ $450 and saw a return of $1500 gross. Next, you buy 10.000 names. Your brochure, printed in such large volume is cheaper. Your envelopes are cheaper, etc. The cost to you now is $4.000 for 10.000 mailers. The return is still 3% bringing in 300 orders @ $50 ea. is $15.000 gross. In the meantime, referrals and reorders from your first mailer start coming in. You are building your own data base. You perfect your brochure, perhaps adding a spot color, or going full color, and so forth.

If you have a home office and are willing to learn about bulk-mail rates, mailing houses (who will do the job for you) etc., direct mail offers potential.

Advertising

The most difficult and risky way to go, but also the way to make big bucks if you do it right.

Start small. Test, test, test!! Select papers and magazines that cater to your target market, such as new age papers, holistic health papers, modern women magazines, astrology magazines, etc. Forget the Washington Post (wrong market) or the National Enquirer (too much cheap stuff offered to a market that is financially strapped - compared to more sophisticated papers).

Start with local New Age-oriented, Holistic Health, Astrology newsletters, or Metaphysical papers offering relatively in-expensive display advertising space or classifieds (Leisure Learning, and papers offering information regarding local events, movies, plays, art openings, etc. also can be good). Test an ad you can afford to run for at least 3 and preferably 6 issues. Most ads require maturing, i.e. people have to see your ad a few times before ordering. Think how or why YOU respond to ads. Oh look, they are offering a (whatever), that's interesting, I may go for that. But, unless you are immediately ready to order (i.e. a compulsive buyer), you will forget the ad within 5 minutes. Next issue comes out and you see the same ad and go: Oh yeah, there is this (whatever) advertised again, I really should order one. And you forget within 15 minutes. (Can't find your pen, or your checkbook). Next time you see the ad you might finally get up and order the thing, or perhaps you have to see it 4 or 5 times. The point is, that ads generally have a response-curve that does not jump into the profitable figures until it has run a number of times.

When an ad does not work, make your changes gradually. Don't change the whole lay-out without at least making it recognizable and connected to earlier ads. Pull the ad when your response is particularly disappointing.

The advantage of advertising is that once you get it right, you can sit back and let it grow.

Let's say that you place your first ad (one-sixth of a page for instance) at a cost of $100 a month in a small local paper. First month response is 3 inquiries and no sales. Second month 5 inquiries, one a repeat from last month. The repeat inquiry develops into a sale of $30.00. Next month 10 inquiries and 2 sales. Next 15 inquiries and 6 sales. You now know you have an ad that works. you made $180 gross on a $100 ad and there is visible growth. Inquiries have shown that people are confused about which reading offers what, so you change your wording a little. Next month you get 25 inquiries and 12 sales. Now you are beginning to show a profit. Why not place the same ad in 2 local papers. And on and on. Some advice: Don't use too much text in your ad - allow plenty of white space. Keep it simple. Create a logo or some other visual thing that you can include in every advertisement or brochure; it makes you recognizable.

Classifieds, when worded right can also be an excellent way to advertise.

The most important thing with advertising is a commitment to take your time, move slowly, and follow the responses carefully (place more than one advertisement and code them to track which ad responds better. Tracking is done by adding a department number to your address; for example, one ad might have dept. 4021, another 3021. This system should also be used in Direct Mail campaigns)

Advertising has by far the largest potential because growth is truly unlimited. However, it is, in my opinion, also the most challenging and potentially costly avenue.

In September of 1988 I finished the software program for the Personality Profile. I went out and bought advertising space in 9 nationwide magazines - full color, full page. At a cost of $6.000 per month, I lost my shirt and than some. It took me years to get over that disaster. I have no doubt in my mind that, had I started slowly and used the money I lost in this venture following the above mentioned scenario, I would have succeeded much quicker. Don't make that mistake! A much smaller investment, perhaps only $100 a month, has the potential of success following the above mentioned scenario.

Best wishes.
Hans Decoz

Hello Hans,
I just want you to know that I'm very impressed with your system. I've dabbled in Numerology for many years feel very fortunate to have 'accidentally' found your programs through the search tools.
Thank you so much for your dedication to this specialized field.
Renne Rhae 12/9/2003

You have been wonderful to work with and so professional in your timely responses. Unfortunately, this is a rarity in today's world. Thank you!
Ginger Kelsey 12/13/2003