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An Introduction
To
Using A Direct Mail Marketing List For Internet Promotion
Copyright
© by John
Baril
Most people who
have a business on the Internet
are so concentrated on online promotion that they fail to appreciate
the lucrative
field of off-line direct mail strategies.
That's a shame
because you can make a lot of
money with a traditional direct mail shot. While a direct mail shot
need not
make any mention to your website, offering your leads the option of
purchasing
the product via your site is a great way to introduce your online
business to a
new group of individuals. The least you can do is to encourage your
mail shot
readers to subscribe to your online newsletter by visiting your site
and
filling in a form. You could even direct them to an exclusive page
where you
offer them some freebies or other incentives to sign up.
Now let's
consider several of the basics of
managing a direct mail marketing list.
No matter how
nicely designed your promotional
campaign material is, if you do not use a well targeted, list you won't
achieve
a good result. In short, you will have wasted your money. You should do
everything you can to ensure that you are using the best possible list
for your
market and then strive to improve the percentage of responses you get
from the
sales letters that you post out.
So what's the surest way of finding a profitable direct mail marketing
list?
With thousands
of lists available in many
different niches, your best bet is to get a good list broker and tell
him what
you require. Make sure you understand the difference between a list
broker and
a list manager. Whereas a list manager owns the list, a list broker is
an agent
who matches up list buyers and list managers. A reputable broker will
show you
a range of different lists and let you see some figures about how
responsive
the lists have been up to now.
When it comes
to the lists themselves, you can
work with a "response list" or a "compiled list" in your
chosen market area.
What's the
difference?
A "compiled
list" is made up of names
and addresses that have been garnered from various public sources, or
lists of
individuals who live in particular postal areas and so forth.
A "response
list" consists of people
who have bought products in a certain niche market before and who may
be
expected to buy that type of product once more. Response lists are more
expensive than compiled lists for the obvious reason that they are more
"responsive".
The maturity of
the direct mail marketing list
is another essential point that you need to consider when choosing
which list
to go for. As you would expect, the responsiveness of a list will
inevitably
decrease over time. The fresher the list, the more you can expect to
pay.
A list will
also work better if it's tightly
defined. So try to assist the broker in determining the best list for
you by
giving him a clear picture of the type of potential customer you are
targeting
and what kind of response you are looking for.
Now that you
have reduced your choice to just a
few lists, you'll want to test the lists to ascertain which one
performs best
for you. See if it's possible to purchase 500 or 1000 names from the
list so
that you can test it. Mail out a test mail shot to the list and track
the
results so you can evaluate how well it responds. Work out how many
responses
you will need to cover your costs. Once you have got such a list, you
will feel
more confident in using it in conjunction with your mail shot.
Direct mail
strategies can be very profitable,
but if you are to make money in this field you will need to focus on
testing
every variable in the campaign from copywriting and design to getting
the best
direct mail marketing list for your promotion. Get all those factors
right and
you'll be in the money.
I
wish you the best of success,
John Baril
Copyright © John Baril
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