The Importance of Mailing Lists By Colleen Davis At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

When it comes to marketing your business, the mailing list you use for your postcard marketing campaign and any other postcard printing or mail campaign is the most important factor. The Internet is a good place to collect and maintain a list, even if your business only operates offline.

The key to having a successful mailing list is to make sure it is extremely targeted. Mailing postcard printing pieces to everyone in the phone book and calling that your list is a waste of money. You’re just guessing at who will respond and hoping that they do. It’s the same idea if you don’t target your postcard marketing list: you’re just wasting your money.

The different types of mailing lists

No matter what business you’re in you need at least three different mailing lists: one for potential customers, one for first time buyers and one for repeat customers. Why? Because you need to tailor your message to each type of customer. People who already know what products you carry don’t need to know about those products; they just need to know what’s new with you. On the other hand, if you only advertise what’s new to people who’ve never shopped with you, they won’t know what else you have to offer.

The data to collect

The most important data is the information you need to communicate with customers. If you send out an online newsletter, you’re going to need email addresses. For other businesses, you need the mailing address. You can collect as much data as you need from list brokers or online and offline surveys. Just be sure you get whatever qualifying information you want – meaning whatever qualifies the person to be on your list. Whether that’s income or marital status. Just be sure to ask how many times they’ve shopped with you so you can categorize them into your three lists.

Focus on communication

Make sure that you’re using the mailing list for the right reasons. You don’t want to bombard your customers with a bunch of junk mail. A nice letter to see how they’re doing and to check if they’re satisfied is a great way to build up your communication. This way people will be more apt to open mail from you or read your postcards – they won’t be expecting a sales pitch every time. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to use your business card printing budget and include a business card in your letter, just in case they need it.

Maintain your list

People move away, have babies, get new jobs and increase or decrease their income – people’s circumstances are changing all the time and your mailing list should change with them. Be sure to keep it up to date. A business card printing company doesn’t want to send their brochures to companies that aren’t in business any longer! Although it takes time to update your list, doing so will save you money (and make you money!) in the long run.

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