Business Marketing Newswire

Posts Tagged ‘Marketing List’

REUTERS – In a report by Ben Gruber on May 22, 2009 he cites that direct mail – or “junk” mail – whether you love it or hate it, is here to stay and that it can help stimulate the troubled U.S. economy.

In his report, Gruber points out that nearly one third of all mail delivered anywhere in the world is U.S. direct mail. While that volume has decreased in 2008, the figure is still staggering. According to the U.S. Postal Service, nearly 100 billion pieces of advertising mail were delivered to U.S. households last year.

Direct Mail Supporters and Detractors

Direct mail has its supporters and its detractors. William Craven works for an environmental group called ForestEthics. He says direct mail is a “pointless waste of natural resources.” Craven says, “Direct mail’s impact on the environment is enormous, especial considering that it’s something that most Americans don’t want and have no user for.” Craven points out that for direct mail there are 100 million trees are logged every year for something people largely don’t want and don’t use. Aside from the logging issue,  he also points out that the carbon footprint for the production and distribution of direct mail equates to that of some 6 million cars on U.S. highways.

But a strong case can be made for direct mail. One of direct mail’s supporters is Matthew Broder from Pitney Bowes, whose company represents the interests of direct mailers. He says that direct mail is recyclable and emits the same amount of carbon as that consumed by Americans when brewing their morning coffee. Broder says that the benefits of direct mail far outweigh the costs. He points out that direct mail very much stimulates economic activity. He says that study after study shows that consumers respond to direct mail. He points out that Pitney Bowes did a study showing that almost half of Americans have started a relationship with a business because of a direct mail piece they received.

According to the Direct Mail Association, the industry generates some two trillion dollars of sales and charitable contributions annually. Gruber points out in his report that although opinions on direct mail vary, most people are not ambivalent. They either love it or hate it.

As one woman being interviewed in the Reuters video report says, “If it can bring attention to a particular product or service, we need to stimulate the economy. We need to have people go out and purchase and buy and so the best thing I think to do is to find really creative, good ways to recycle those papers and to be creative as far as using it best for the environment.”

According to Broder, one thing is for certain – direct mail is not going anywhere, anytime soon. Broder also points out that there are several ways for consumers to decrease and have a say in the type of direct mail they receive. One such online service is dmachoice.org  that has 4 million registered users. Ironically, the association is seriously considering using direct mail to increase their membership.

Mailing Lists Direct is a full service mailing list company where you can find consumer lists, business lists and specialty lists at competitive prices. Mailing Lists Direct provides first rate customer support. No matter what your business needs in the way of an address list or managing your mailing list campaigns, our mailing lists will be able to satisfy all your needs. Call toll free at 800-741-0116.

Mailing Lists

Many businesses can increase sales and improve their bottom line by using direct mail. Sending out periodic direct response mailings will create inquiries that salespeople can convert to new sales and new customers. Doing so requires the use of quality mailing lists.

A small startup may be able to do it from their kitchen table, but most businesses – whether small, medium or large – will require a mailing list service to supply the names and addresses, print the mailing pieces, prepare the mailing labels or print the names on the mailing pieces, prepare the postal barcodes and sort, bundle and deliver the mailing pieces to the Post Office. These are a lot of steps but are only the ones needed to get the direct mail pieces into the mail.

There are also some follow up and maintenance steps to do if you want to get more mileage out of the address list. Someone needs to clean the list (remove the duds and make address corrections to the good names), make selections for future mailings and merge your in-house names (your own customers and prospects) with the purchased mailing list to remove duplicates.

More Than a List Broker

A full service mailing list company is more than a list broker. Although finding the right list broker is vital to the success of your mailing list venture, as you can see there is a lot more to managing a successful, ongoing direct mail list campaign. Just consider these facts:

• How are the names going to be affixed to the mailing piece? Are you going to use mailing labels or will they be printed on the piece?
• Who is going to design the piece? Does the designer understand the necessary postal regulations? The dimensions have to be right. The location of the mailing labels, indicia and other markings have to be right. On a folded piece is the fold supposed to be on the left or the right in order to be run through the postal equipment? If they mess this up you may have to pay surcharges because the piece doesn’t conform. Worse yet, the piece might not qualify at all. Then your whole printing job is down the drain.
• If the mailing piece consists of separate parts – an offer letter, coupon, return envelope, brochure, etc. does the designer know how to assemble all the pieces in the right order? Are the pieces laid out properly to be assembled by machine? If this isn’t done right you might be stuck with a lot of manual assembly or a poor response rate. Design errors can cost you big time.
• Do you have a mailing permit or are you going to use the mailing house’s permit?
• How are you going to handle address corrections? Are you going to clean the list in-house or use a mailing service or are you simply going to skip it altogether?
• How are you going to make the selections from your in-house customer list? How often do you mail to them? What if you are doing a monthly mailing? Do you send the mailing to all the customers every mailing or do you prioritize the names? For example, do you mail more often to customers who have purchased something recently? Do you mail less often to customers who have not purchased in awhile? What are the rules? How do you make the selects?
• Who is going to do a merge-purge of your in-house names with the mailing list? Are you going to attempt to do this yourself? How can you find and remove duplicates?
• Who is going to print the piece?
• Who is going to sort, bundle and deliver the mailing to the Post Office?

Mailing Lists Direct is a full service direct mail list company where you can find consumer lists, business lists and specialty lists at competitive prices. Mailing Lists Direct provides first rate customer support. No matter what your business needs in the way of an address list or managing your mailing list campaigns, Mailing Lists Direct will be able to satisfy all your needs. Call toll free at 800-741-0116.

Mike Doughty is a small business owner and entrepreneur with a background in direct mail marketing, manufacturing and distributon. During his career, he produced a mail order catalog and worked on many successful direct mail campaigns.

Did you know that buying mailing lists in a recession can actually help increase your sales? When you buy a mailing list from a reputable list broker, make sure the marketing list contains accurate and up to date contact information of your potential sales leads. When you purchase accurate data and current mailing list information that targets your public, you have the best chance to present you story, sales pitch or product. Direct mailing list campaigns have not gone out of favor because of today’s economy, but instead it is just the opposite. The fact is that more businesses are utilizing this method as a way of generating sales leads. The last thing a business should do is contract in a recession. In fact it is the perfect time to expand. Buying mailing lists that are targeted to your audience and are cost efficient is one of many approaches businesses should be taking in today’s environment.

When you purchase a mailing list, it allows your business the opportunity to not only generate sales leads but in turn increase revenues. Because direct mail list campaigns are specifically targeted to your audience, they allow you to easily promote your services or products efficiently.

Let’s say you are a startup business but no one knows anything about you. How do you get your message out there? A marketing list prepared for you that addresses your potential customer would allow you to deliver your message to the right customer base.

Are you offering any specials, launching a new service, changing your business model or expanding your product line? Let your customers know what is going on. When you buy a mailing list from a reputable mailing list company, the marketing list will contain potential customers most likely to purchase your product or service. This is extremely important since your return on investment ROI plays a big part in the decision you will make. A reputable mailing list company should be able to help you with all aspects of your marketing campaign, including the mailer, design layout and printing.

As you can see, the use of a direct mailing list campaign as part of your marketing arsenal is actually cost effective when compared to other means of marketing such as media advertising. Buying mailing lists have proven to be an effective and low cost marketing method for advertising and promotions. Pulling back your promotions in a recession is never the answer. It most certainly will make things worse. Find the most cost effective way to get your message out there to your potential customer. Buying a mailing list from a trusted mailing list company is the answer. Do your homework. Make sure the mailing list company you choose is reputable, affordable, have accurate mailing lists and an excellent customer service department to help you through the process. Don’t give up. Promote! Promote! Promote!