New Opportunity Promises Success and Sales for Franchisees - And Their Customers

When Bruce Rogat offered to distribute some marketing material for a friend in his free time more than 10 years ago, he never imagined that it would turn into a full-time job - let alone a successful business franchise.

Rogat, former owner of a Denver-based furniture company, had spent the afternoon visiting his friend in the real estate business and noticed newsletters, potholders and note pads on his credenza in his office. This friend, like thousands of business people nationwide, had purchased the marketing materials, but never found the time to distribute them to potential customers.

"All of his marketing materials were just sitting on his credenza collecting dust," Rogat said. "Having just retired from the furniture business, I had some extra time, so I spent the afternoon at my dining room table labeling the mailers. Little did I know, that was the first of hundreds of afternoons that I would spend working there."

To his surprise, when Rogat reported back to his friend to let him know that his distribution efforts were successful, the other established realtors in his friend's office asked if Rogat would be willing to distribute their marketing materials as well. He agreed - but for a fee, of course.

More than just a label

As time went on, Rogat, along with his wife Margo, was spending more afternoons - and mornings too - at the dining room table labeling mail for real estate agents throughout the Denver area. Soon, the business, which they named New Method Marketing, Inc., became so large they had to relocate from the dining room table to the basement, and then, in 1996 to a small office space near their home.

Even before Rogat moved his business from his dining room table, he had a feeling that it was just the beginning for his direct mail business. He invested in a scriptographic label machine that allowed him to label up to 2,500 pieces of mail per hour. Upon relocating to his basement, Rogat bought a printing press, learned to do his own graphics and began printing and labeling direct mail postcards on his own.

"I knew that there was a high demand for a service such as this, particularly in the real estate industry," Rogat said. "Direct mail marketing is a service that many businesses need, but don't have the time or the resources on staff to provide for themselves. Through the New Method Marketing service, we get these realtors, insurance agents, dentists, chiropractors, mortgage bankers, financial service representatives and other business people's marketing materials into households throughout their communities."

As his business began to grow, and more real estate companies along Colorado's front range began relying on New Method Marketing to meet their direct mail and marketing needs, Rogat expanded his staff. He hired a pressman and a graphic designer, and together the group was printing more than 50,000 direct mail postcards each week. These jumbo postcards, which feature anything from schedules of local sports teams to recipes alongside advertisements for local realtors, began landing on hundreds of people's refrigerators everyday. These cards, which often remained on refrigerators for months at a time, would make daily impressions on families at a rate of more than 11,000 per year in a family of four.

Cards across the Country

The names and faces on these "Keep 'Em CardsT" not only became familiar within households throughout local communities, but also served as effective marketing materials for hundreds of businesses on a national level. Through their individualized database programs, New Method Marketing, was able to send out client's "Keep 'Em Cards" to any neighborhood in the country, regardless of size or location. With these individual client databases developed and maintained by New Method Marketing, "Keep 'Em Cards" were being used as an effective and geographic specific marketing tool for businesses across the United States.

Eventually, the Keep 'Em Card program developed into a 13 month marketing plan that allowed businesses to target several different geographic areas, either locally or nationally, with their direct mail. The unique program allows businesses to select a different card to send out each month, while also letting them target a specific geographic area with both the information featured on the card and the distribution area. In early 2000, as the New Method Marketing customer base continued to stretch into other parts of the country such as Phoenix , Las Vegas and Los Angeles , Rogat considered the prospect of Franchising his business. Knowing that his unique community-based direct mail service was not offered by any other company in the direct mail industry, Rogat believed that his company had more than just a shot at success on a national level. With the help and support of many in the franchising industry, Rogat launched NEWMETHOD Direct T in June 2001 - giving people across the country the opportunity to run their own home-based business.

In the Market for Franchisees

Currently, NEWMETHOD Direct has franchisees in Orange County and San Diego, Calif., with several contracts pending in San Jose, Phoenix, and Dallas. Through NEWMETHOD Direct, franchisees have a chance to get into an untapped market of services, and offer local realtors, chiropractors, dentists, insurance agents, mortgage bankers, financial service representatives and other business people the opportunity to reach out to current and potential customers in a unique and cost-effective way. Franchisees are provided with sales and marketing material, including on-site training in Denver and a personalized website to help ensure them a successful business venture.

"The marketing services provided to us by NewMethod Marketing have helped our sales figures soar to unbelievable heights, with projected annualized income of six figures by the end of our first year" said Dan Butler, President, NewMethod Direct franchisee. Orange County, CA. "Our profit structure allows us to build a team of sales agents, increasing our income even more. Through our direct mail services, we have made many of our clients a household name throughout many of the communities that we service."

NEWMETHOD Direct franchisees work out of their homes - needing nothing more than a car and a phone to successfully run their business. They pay only a one-time $40,000 Franchise fee to start, and have the opportunity to earn a considerable amount in their first year. The role of franchisees in the business is to focus on selling the product - everything else from printing to shipping to billing is handled by corporate headquarters in Denver. Franchisees simply show product samples to potential customers in the area, such as real estate agents, chiropractors, dentists, insurance agents, mortgage bankers or financial service representatives, then fill out a contract and send it to headquarters where the order is filled.

"I think that this is a major benefit of being a franchisee for NEWMETHOD Direct," Rogat said. "Many people who are great sales people aren't equally great at doing bookkeeping or graphic design. Through this franchising opportunity, people can focus on the most important part of their job - making the sale - and we take care of the rest. We believe in not only offering great service to our franchisees, but to their clients as well."

NEWMETHOD Direct currently meets the direct mail marketing needs of more than 1,200 customers on a monthly basis, distributing more than 600,000 postcards nationwide. Today they have the capacity to design, print, label and mail up to 40,000 postcards per hour. With more than an 80 percent repeat renewal rate and all of the new franchisees selling new customers, the customer base is expected to grow to more than 4,000 within the next year, with production running at approximately two million postcards per month.