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During the past 30 years I've bought or compiled thousands of mailing lists. Eventually
I learned how to find lists that always produced highly profitable results. You'll
discover how I do it in this article.
WHO SHOULD BE ON YOUR LIST?
Implementing any successful mailing program begins by determining who will get your
mail. You need to find or compile a mailing list of qualified prospects for your offer.
The success of your mailing is directly dependent on the accuracy of your mailing list in
targeting prospects most likely to be interested in your product or service.
For example, an offer for information about a quick, easy way to lose weight will get a
big response if it is sent to a "targeted" list of subscribers to a weight loss
magazine or newsletter. But, you will get a very meager response if you send the same
offer to the membership list of your local Chamber of Commerce. Your offer would not be
relevant to most people on the Chamber of Commerce list and most of your mailing budget
would be wasted. Remember, you must target prospects likely to be interested in your
offer.
The lack of serious attention to selecting a mailing list can doom your mailing
campaign to failure. Poor list choice often occurs because the decision seemed so obvious,
it was done quickly and with little serious thought. I developed a simple procedure I
always follow to be sure I select the best list for my offer. I use this procedure even
when the list selection seems obvious. It usually enables me to create and implement a
mailing with profitable results on the first try. Here's what I do...
A SIMPLE PROCEDURE
I begin my search for the best list by defining the person I want to reach. Starting
with a blank sheet of paper, I list all of the characteristics I can expect qualified,
interested prospects for my offer to have. If I'm working in an established market, I
write down the names of some of my best customers in that market. Then I write down the
characteristics they have that make my product or service valuable to them.
Once I develop this list of characteristics, I make a list of actions and activities
these ideal target prospects pursue that might be recorded in some way. For example:
- What associations or clubs would they join? (Many association or club membership rosters
are available to the general public. If not, you can get it from one of the members.)
- What licenses would they be required to have? (All licenses except driving licenses and
auto registrations are public information you can get at your city, county or state
licensing offices.)
- What publications are they likely to subscribe to? (Most publications rent their
subscriber list to other mailers.)
- What products or services are they likely to buy? (Many companies are willing to share
their customer list with other non-competing businesses who are willing to share a
customer list in return.)
WHAT ABOUT LIST BROKERS?
Take time to think about ways you can find or compile the ideal list without getting it
from a list broker. You'll not only save money, you'll also have a list your competitors
will probably never find. By avoiding a list broker, you may also enjoy the advantage of a
list that is not being used by other mailers. Heavily worked lists tend to be
unresponsive, even when they are highly targeted. By finding or compiling your own list,
you'll have a list that is not heavily used by other mailers and your potential for a high
response is maximized. You'll also have a list you can re-use as often as you want without
paying another rental fee. Most list brokers charge an additional fee each time you use
their list.
If you decide to get your list through a list broker, the simple procedure I described
above will enable you to tell the broker exactly what you want.
Unless you already work with a trusted list broker who has proven his or her list
selection skill to you in the past, call several brokers with your requirements and have
each of them give you their recommendations. Then, be careful not to make your final
decision based solely on the cost of a list. Whenever I thought the cost of a list was
expensive, it nearly always produced a profitable high rate of response. Lists I thought
were bargains nearly always produced an unprofitable low rate of response. I've learned
that the cost of a list is not important when it contains people who have the exact
qualifications I need.
Finding the right mailing list is not difficult when you follow this system. It enables
you to quickly maximize profits from your mail while avoiding expensive, time consuming
trial and error tests.
Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales personnel and developing
sales leads. He is now a Sales Consultant. Bob recently wrote a report for small business
owners titled "How to Find High Response Mailing Lists and Not Pay a Lot For
Them" and several other publications to help small businesses grow & prosper. For
more information: Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: "Lists Report". Phone: (702)
658-1707 (After 10 AM Pacific time) Or write: Bob Leduc, PO Box 33628, Las Vegas, NV 89133
**Editors Note**
Some of you may be wondering why we would use a tutorial like this since it isn't
specifically about email lists. Simple, my marketing friends, quite often what works in
traditional media is transferable to online activities. This is the case here!
Bob has had much success using this method so with a little thought it is easily used
for email. Lets look at the four ways to develop your own list and with a
little thought we can make it work online. I'll quickly comment on his list:
1. You could contact the club and offer some benefit to members or contributions to the
club based upon sales. I used to be a direct marketer and always used this method as
part of a campaign. Clubs are always looking for ways to raise funds. The
biggest benefit is it makes your perspective customers comfortable knowing that the
executive has checked you out in most cases. I'll admit it has been a while since I
left the direct marketing biz and at that time email wasn't really being utilized by
organizations but I'm sure many organizations are using it now.
2. Plug in newsgroups and discussion lists here and you're off to the races. Just
remember that in a lot of cases it will backfire if you strip the names out of the list.
Post using an effective .sig, and offer a report by autoresponder which will add
them to your list for future use.
3. Same as above. You can take names from a list but I don't recommend this and
definitely don't tell or imply to the perspective customer that you got their name from
the list.
4. You could possibly contact other marketers and ask about exchanging lists or use this
as a criteria for buying an opt-in list.
Building lists internally is by far the easiest and best method. Always
record and add addresses to your list that have responded to or asked for
further information. An article on leveraging
forms to build lists.
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