How To Find and Use The Best
Mailing List For You
By Don Thompson
Copyright August 1999
Believe it or not,
there is a near-perfect mailing list out there with your name all over it. I
don't mean your name appears on the list. I mean this list has the names of people
who will buy almost anything you have to offer. Puzzled? Please read on...
Even though you're trying to become a millionaire via the Internet, this doesn't mean you
should stop using traditional methods of marketing. Direct Mail is still the most
cost-effective and profitable way to Mail-Order success, if you do it right. You get your
sales package into the hands of those you want to receive it... and never worry about
spamming.
This report will show you how to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars, eliminate
wasting thousands of dollars, and how to get the most out of every mailing list you buy
(rent).
That near-perfect mailing list I mentioned is your in-house list of buyers and qualified
prospects. This list is as good as gold and you should treat it as such. It's the
best, most valuable list you will ever own! You'd have no business without it.
It's your future! So, how do you get your own super list? You must
build it from scratch. You must invest your time and money. There's no other
way.
However, there are expensive ways and low-cost, more affordable ways. This report
focuses on the affordable ways. If you're operating on a low budget, heed this
report and get more bangs for your bucks.
Place Ads...
... to get suspects (people you haven't made
contact with, yet. You don't know them or they, you) to write, call or email you and
request more information on your offer. The only purpose of the ad is to get people
to respond, not to buy. By responding, suspects become your prospects. (Having
your own 800# will result in more inquiries to your ads). Then you send your
information package, hoping to turn your prospects into customers. If they don't
order the first time around, send your info package to them again. You do, don't
you? You must do this and most companies don't. Oh well, all the better for
those of us who do; Less competition.
I mail the same offer to the same prospects six times (every two months for a year) before
I delete them. I always turn several prospects into customers on each mailing.
If you don't follow up, you'll lose 80% of what you could have earned. It
takes money to do this but it will pay off. Get the customer.
I've been placing 1" and 2" ads in 20 to 30 trade newspapers and magazines
almost every month for three years. I get more inquiries from Home Venture and
Jackpot magazines than all the others combined. Jackpot has a 100,000 circulation.
They're on the Internet, too. Write for a FREE copy: Jackpot, P.O.Box 6547,
Jacksonville, FL 32236-6547.
I joined Home Venture almost two years ago and get advertising package deals for less than
half the regular price. You can get these deals, too. And you don't have to
join to get them. Their retail prices are great, but you do save way more if you
join. Write to: Home Venture, P.O.Box 80, Foyil, OK 74031. They'll send you a
FREE sample copy of HV magazine. Tell them Don Thompson (0124-3) sent you.
Buy Or Rent
Mailing Lists...
The first and best place to look for good
mailing lists is your local library. Ask the librarian for the thick book titled
Standard Rates and Data Service (SRDS). This book is reprinted every two months and
costs almost $400. You can use it at the library, but you can't take it out.
It's considered the bible of mailing lists. You'll find more valuable information
than just mailing lists, though. Look here first.
Don't buy (rent) those lame mailing lists you see everyday in the mainstream trade papers
and magazines; The ones that offer 3, 5 or 10 names for the price of one. They're
old and worthless. Why buy a list from someone who offers 10 free names for each
undeliverable you get back? Who wants 10 more useless names? You're only helping
them clean their lists and you're paying for it. Stay away from them.
Most mailing lists are rented and, by law, you can mail to them only once. Don't try
to copy a rented mailing list and mail to it numerous times. You will get caught.
Specific permission is required but seldom granted. Rent your lists from
brokers or the list's owner (prime source). The prime source's list is the best way
to go.
Before you buy or rent any
mailing list you should ask these questions:
1. Where do your names come from? Is it a compiled list
or a response list? You don't
want the compiled list, which could have been extracted from any telephone directory.
You want the response list and ask about buyers only. Don't mess with freeloaders
and
tire-kickers. They're a huge waste of your time and money.
2. What product/service did they buy from you and how much did it cost? Use the
answers
to these questions to compare with your product/service and price. If the list is
from a broker,
send your sales package and let him pick the best buyers list for your product and price.
That's their job and the good ones will bend over backwards to ensure you get the best
list
so you'll come back for more. That sounds logical, but it doesn't always work that
way. Most
brokers just want to sell any list and couldn't care less to whom. They won't dig
for you.
3. How fresh are your names? This can be tricky because it's easy to fib over the
phone.
Almost every ad I see out there says, "All names are 30 days old or less."
That's the biggest crock in Mail Order. Most list sellers use these names
into the ground with their own offers before they'll even think about renting them to us.
You must ask this question, though, or you'll end up with a list that's 7 years old... and
they're out there.
4. How many names are on your complete list? A 1,000 mailing is a good test.
Order
only test lists that come from complete lists of more than 50,000 buyers. If the
test list
works well, you'll want access to many more names or you'll run out of good prospects
to mail to. You'll have to start all over again and that's no fun. Remember to
ask for their
most recent or newest buyers. The fresher the better.
How To Use Your Mailing List...
Let's say you rented a 1,000-name list and you
think you're ready to mail your nifty sales package to it. Don't do it! You
don't know these people, yet, or they, you. They are cold, so to speak.
Neither of you has made contact yet. They're suspects, remember? Mail them a
postcard first. This is very important to the survival of your business so listen
up...
A postcard is like an ad, but you can say a lot more on a postcard than you can in those
itty bitty ads. The cost of printing and mailing 1,000 postcards is a little less
than half the cost
of printing and mailing your whole sales package, which averages 50 cents apiece, equals
$500 per 1,000 mailing. Weeding out undeliverables is cheaper this way and you're
qualifying
your prospects.
Important: If you mailed 1,000 sales packages and 20 people bought your offer, then 980
packages were trashed. That's $490 and a lot of time down the toity. Even if
you made a profit
on your sales, you still wasted $490! If you did it right the first time and mailed
the postcard to
suspects, then mailed your sales package only to those who asked for it (prospects), you'd
have made hundreds more profit than you actually got. Don't lose your shirt before
you get
started. Eliminate the waste!
When you get orders, fill them soonest. Send another offer or two with the order.
They'll
get a free ride this way and your new customer should still be in a buying mood.
It's the
best time to send an offer, period. Whenever you add a new product or service to
your line,
send the offer to all of your customers first. After all, it's your very best
mailing list. Send
the new offer to your qualified prospects second and a rented mailing list third (using
the
postcard method, of course).
I mentioned Home Workers Alliance earlier in this report for a very good reason.
I've been
in business for three years and HWA's mailing lists are the best I've found so far, bar
none.
And believe me, I did my homework looking around and paying the price.
From June (98) to July (99) I averaged an 8.2% sales rate on one product, using Direct
Mail alone! That's for more than a year, not just a few mailings. HA's lists
cost only $45 per
1,000 names (retail), which isn't bad. Join HWA and you'll get 1,000-name lists for
only
$13.50! Write to GD Services, P.O.Box 80, Foyil, OK 74031 and take advantage of their
money-saving, money-making opportunies. If you join, you'll be in my downline and
I'll do
everything in my power to help you succeed. It can't hurt to check it out.
Now read on and learn how to add 1,020 more good names to your super list...Now!...
OWN Our 1,020-Name
In-House Mailing List
Of Nothing But BUYERand Qualified Prospects,
Don't Rent It!
Just a few reasons to buy our list, instead of
renting others:
1. The average rented list costs $75 to $100. Our list costs only $60! You
save $15 to
$40 right off the top. Don't let our price fool you, though. This list is as
good as any out
there and twice as good as most. We want you to succeed, affordably. You get
more
for less with our list. Much more.
2. You can mail to this list umpteen times. Rented lists, only once.
3. Our list comes with full reprint and resale rights! You'll have every right to
copy
and sell this list at no extra cost! At $60 a pop, if you mailed this offer to 100
prospects
and sold only 2 lists, you earned $70 profit, after you got back the cost of your mailing
and deducted the cost of reproduction and shipping!
Where else can you find a list like this? Where else will you get a return and
profit like
this? Don't pass up this opportunity. You won't find another like it.
4. Our mailing list is sold on plain paper only. All names and addresses have been
typed in
bold italic (fancier) so they stand out from all the Plain-Jane labels out there.
Just bring
your list to your copy guy, along with some blank labels (we use labels #5160, 30 labels
to
a sheet) and have him copy from your list onto labels. When you decide to sell the
list, give
your customers and prospects similar instructions. Simple.
5. This list is as clean as you'll ever find. It don't get no cleaner than this.
When we get
undeliverables, they are replaced with buying customers!
Consider this list a low-cost, one-time
investment in your immediate future and beyond.
Acquire a solid prospect base now! How much do you think it would cost you to place
enough ads in trade papers and magazines to gain 1,000 qualified prospects? It's
safe to
say around $1,000, maybe more. And don't forget it takes months, maybe a whole year
of
advertising time, if you're lucky. Eliminate all that time and advertising cost by
ordering this
list today.
Do you need more incentive? There's more...
2 Bonuses for
ordering within 10 days...
The first bonus is 4 pages of Direct Mail Basics
tips FREE. Learn and apply these tips to
your business and sell more of anything through the mail, period. A short version of
these tips
was published in the May/June 99 issue of Income Opportunities magazine. Take
advantage
of it.
Bonus #2: We'll send you an 800# to call and get your own 800# service. You'll get
unlimited incoming calls (inquiries to all your ads) for only $12.95 a month! And
there are absolutely no hidden charges, whatsoever. We've had our own 800# for two
years and don't know how we'd ever get by without it.
With your own 800#, you can get inquiries 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no matter what.
Having your own 800# gives you credibility and shows all who read your ads that you are a
professional. It's quick and easy to get set up, you won't pay one cent more
than $12.95 a month for the service and you'll wonder how you ever got by without it.
You must order within 10 days to get the bonuses.
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Key point: We aren't set up with a merchant account, yet. And we don't know
how leery
you are about ordering online, anyway. Let's use traditional mail. It takes a
little longer,
but it's safer, and the wait will be well worth it.
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Here's how to
order...
Fill out the order form (Click
Here for a printable order form).
Send a $60 check or money order, along with the
order form, to:
Top Shelf Enterprises - Offer 16, 26 Falmouth St., Rumford, ME 04276-1605.
You won't have to wait weeks for your check to clear. We'll mail your order, first class,
the same day we get it. And you won't pay one penny for shipping, either!
Order now, before you forget and miss out on your bonuses.
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