I Created a New Marketing Medium for Local Businesses

Please don't take this the wrong way, but feelings have no place in direct mail. Everything in direct mail is math.

EDDM works for Pizza because everyone eats pizza. And the pizza vendor is paying $500 for a 20,000 mailing...not $14,000. It's not a select audience. In fact, the best results with EDDM mailers would be pizza coupons. But if it cost $14,000 to mail 20,000 magazines devoted to pizza (and other foods)....it would be impossible to sell enough people pizza to pay for the magazine.

Here is an example from my own marketing. I sell vacuum cleaners in my retail store. I use direct mail, and direct mail coupon magazines.

Here are a few things to know;
Everyone has a vacuum cleaner. It isn't selective. Eventually, everyone will buy what I sell. Maybe not from me, but they will buy.

I ran full page ads in a coupon magazine The Money Saver. I pay about $500 to mail to 25,000 homes in my local area. In a great month, I used to average one vacuum sale from each thousand magazines mailed. ...25 a month. In a typical month now, I'll average 4 sales from the magazine. Now, truthfully, that's about a $1,000 profit from a $500 cost, so I'll take it. But I only spent $500, not $14,000.

And I know how to advertise so it pays. I even wrote a book about it, and give seminars on local advertising. I've spent years learning what works in direct mail.....and mostly by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising...and testing the results. Math. So my results are better than average.

The sample you showed was for a cosmetic surgeon. Certainly a high profit business. But $14,000? For 20,000 mailings to complete strangers? How many will invest in cosmetic surgery this year...out of 20,000? One? Two? Out of 20,000 mailed by EDDM...how many pieces are actually looked at before thrown away? How many are actually read like a real magazine? I promise you the answer is less than 100.

How many offers are on each page of the magazine? Is it tailored to the specific business? The specific town? Do the merchants write the content? Or is it generic content?

I mean no disrespect, but I can tell certain things by your first post;
1) You have never done this at all.
2) You haven't studied direct mail advertising.
3) This idea just "seems" like a winner...without anyone who has done it telling you of their experience.

And you are making two major mistakes that all new marketers make when thinking of marketing;
1) You think people will actually read what you produce. Complete strangers, who don't care about you or your business at all...who have shown no interest in your business...who have not asked for information at all....who are not qualified in any way......

2) You think that real offers don't work as well as general information. It's the opposite, by a huge margin. Everyone here that has ever successfully marketed by direct mail will tell you that. Clear, concise , well crafted sales letters...with a strong offer...and a strong call to action... will work where "brand building" ads will not.

Let's say it's the cosmetic surgery example. Who will even look at the magazine for more than a second? People thinking of cosmetic surgery in the near future. And that's less than 1% of the population. And now you are expecting them to read your magazine and make the leap that...because they got a magazine with generic information in it...they will choose the person that mailed it...or the one with their name on the front...even though they didn't write the content. And there are no offers. It's impossible to buy without an offer.

You are almost guaranteeing that the person spending the $14,000 is getting nothing back.

The way to sell this idea is by seeing merchants with large customer bases, that get direct mail regularly from that merchant. Then maybe...maybe...a mailing to existing customers will get some result. But enough profit to pay $14,000 for 20,000 generic magazines mailed? I can't really think of an industry (maybe boats, or time shares) where you could even make this sale.

Anyone that has $14,000 for a direct mail offer is going to compare your offer to every other way to advertise by direct mail.....
And...you're a rank beginner. Do you know how to sell advertising for $14,000 a pop?
Do you even know anybody that does this, that could teach you?

This reminds me of a friend...years ago...that got the idea to mass mail catalogs that he had printed to a cold list of residents. The catalog had hundreds of items in it. Something for everyone. He even rented an oversized PO Box for the anticipated deluge of orders.

If I remember correctly, he spent $25,000 on one mailing...to 25,000 random homes.
Can you guess his results? I did. Not one sale. Why? Because none of these people sent for the catalog.

One possible way to sell this is to position it as something other than marketing. Take out the profit motive altogether. Sell these "magazines" as brand building "feel good" pieces to give out in doctor's waiting rooms, or leave on the counter at a merchant's store.

It may appeal to their vanity and feeling of self importance in their town.

There may be a reason that direct mail marketers don't mail these things out in mass to every resident in the area. Maybe they know something you don't.

On the other hand, if someone writes you a check for $14,000...and you gave them no promises of results...print those things up ad deliver them.