Direct Marketing: How To Make Mailing Lists That Would Generate Maximum Sales Leads

So you are planning to use mailing lists (direct marketing approach) for some or all of your products/services but you are wondering about the mailing lists, you are confused rather you have no idea which type of mailing list would deliver, would get you the maximum sales leads.

Well it’s not such a big problem; yes! not a big problem unless you don’t know ;), so today I would give you an easy approach to create mailing lists that will surely deliver maximum.

The approach I am going to discuss with you guys is not ordinary, normal approach of making mailing lists by asking potential customers, buying mailing lists from third parties or capturing addresses of people from here and there and then bombarding them with your mails.

The idea is, your mail should connect, resonate with your potential clients/customers if it doesn’t then it would be waste of time and resources, right ?! and frustration!

As just bombarding your target market, any xyz customer with mails/emails would result in marketing communication failure, failure to engage the target market, target customers, clients as they won’t perceive the message being relevant to them. 

So first you need to find, identify customers to whom your mail is relevant, to whom your products/services are relevant and only then you will be in better position to acquire maximum sales leads!

Now to do all of that you need to follow the following approach.

PS&YC  & Others Like You

To make a mailing list that would deliver, would resonate with your target market, customers you need to start basically with two things.

1.       Products/Services & your customers (PS&YC)
2.       Others Like You (Your Business)

Products/Services & Your Customers (PS&YC)

Means the products/services you want to sell through direct marketing (mailing lists).

You need to know your products/services utilization in a given situation and exact need fulfilled, competitive advantage, customers who frequently buy these products, why do they buy these products, when do they buy these products, their buying habits, what group of customers mostly buy these products (for instance baby boomers, Gen x, Gen Y), other demographics of such customers, preconceived notions, ideas, prejudices that either encourage or discourage these customers to buy your products/services etc.

In a nutshell the more you know about your products/services and the customers who buy these products/services, the better!

Others Like You (Your Business)

I could have used the word “Competitors” instead of “Others Like You” but I didn’t on purpose, as the word competitors encompass not just others like you but also the best of your industry, sector.

And there are two key issues when one focus on competitors instead of “others like you”.

1.      Overnight
2.      Overload

Overnight:

This is the first problem that you face as a small medium business when you try to take on the big guns and at the same time overlook or neglect “others like you”. 

And that’s the problem, no matter what, the truth is you can’t just become the big brand overnight or can take on big brands just from nowhere, it is impossible! it will definitely cost you almost the same rather more in terms of effort, time, resources etc to become the next big brand as it has been the case for present big brands, they have taken small but persistent steps, baby steps, years of hard work, efforts, testing and retesting to become what they are today so don’t be the one who is in delusion of doing it overnight.

It’s not gonna happen!

I mean it all started in a drug store for coca-cola in Columbus Georgia, see it wasn’t a brand at all rather some local product and today it’s a different story. 

Likewise Nestle origins date back to 1866, to two small enterprises in Switzerland and the rest is history. Similarly Facebook, it all started in Harvard dorm room and now it is a website utilized by 400 million people (around the globe) a month.

In a nutshell you need to win small battles (others like you, taking gradual but persistent steps etc) to win a war (to beat the best, big brands). You have to prepare yourself step by step, battle by battle…

Overload

Plus trying to compete with the best in your industry, sector you will be overloading your business beyond its capacities as it won’t have the resources that makes the best “the best”.

Now when you focus on “Others Like You” you need to do the exact thing as you did with your products/services that is to identify for what products/services do they use direct mail, emails and why.

You need to know those products/services utilization in a given situation and exact need fulfilled, competitive advantage, customers who frequently buy those products, why do they buy those products, when do they buy those products, their buying habits, what group of customers mostly buy those products (for instance baby boomers, Gen x, Gen Y), other demographics of such customers, preconceived notions, ideas, prejudices that either encourage or discourage those customers to buy their products/services etc.

In a nutshell the more you know, the more data you have about “Others Like You” products/services and their customers, the better!

Better Insight & Selection Benchmark

You will gain rich insight by collecting and analyzing all this data, information now the next step is to devise a selection benchmark on basis of that insight. You should carry out this whole approach by taking team approach.

Now once you have a benchmark then you need to identify and select customers on basis of that benchmark to create mailing lists and mailing the right message to get the right response (sales leads). 

By adopting such approach your mail will not only resonates but would precisely target the right customers thus increasing the frequency of sales leads. To understand this whole approach better check the figure 1.1 above.

You may also like to read Customer Data: Let the Customers become the Managers

That's it, now let me hear from you guys! :)

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