Is it a Winner?

Archers have always impressed me… a good archer that is. They’re usually decked out in camouflage; you’ll see all kinds of contraptions on their bows to silence the arrow, to aim, and to keep the arrow feathers unmarred. I’ve even seen archers who have glow in the dark sites on their bows for those cloudy, dark days of fall when it’s tough to see.

Long before the hunt, the archer will be out on the range practicing. He’ll pull back, close one eye, hold his breath, steady the bow, and then let the arrow fly. A quick look, and there it is… the arrow sticking right out of the bull’s eye.

Let’s talk a minute about direct marketing, archer style. I’m surprised at how many direct marketers would look like me out on the shooting range. I’d grab my bow, pull back the string, close both eyes, and shoot blindly… then I’d run up and paint a target around whatever the arrow was sticking out of. Heck, what’s the chances of me actually hitting the target?

Yeah, silly… I know. But that’s exactly what some direct marketers do. They invest a great deal of time and energy into creating the perfect ad, and then try to find a target market to send it to.

Highly successful marketers study the target long before they create the ads to aim at them. A successful priority list might look something like this:

1. Select a target market
2. Discover the demographics about the market
3. Create an advertisement to reach that market niche

Don’t be discouraged if you’ve already started a campaign like I mentioned. It’s not too late to start sharpening your skills. Start aiming for the target, rather than painting the target around your aim.

Look for seven ways to increase you chances of charming your market in the next issue.

Dedicated To Your Further Success.

All the best,

Allyn Cutts

PS To contact me via email, Click Here

About the Author

Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers.

Allyn consults personally with clients to design and deliver offline and online direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://AmazingMarketingStrategy.com or you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays

You may reprint or distribute this article as long as you leave the content and the resource box at the end intact.

The $coop on Lists

Networking has become a common buzzword. I recently even read an article directed to the unemployed that touted networking as a step toward success in getting a job. When people come together for a common goal, and share knowledge, connections, and success strategies, everyone wins.

Have you thought of connecting with other businesses and sharing your lists? Here’s the scoop… a basic list with the bare bones minimum of merging and purging is going to cost you about $35 dollars. A really good list is going put your blood pressure through the roof if you’re crunching numbers to just make ends meet. Why not network?

WARNING *WARNING* WARNING There are some great ways to save a few bucks, but listen up… reusing a list you rented for a one-time use isn’t one of them. In fact, it’s downright dangerous- a good way to find yourself in court.

Why? In most lists are a few “seeds” planted to catch anyone tempted to cut corners. These “seeds” are paid to get your mail and report anyone abusing the privileges they paid for.

LEGITIMATE MONEY $AVERS

#1 Track your lists: Knowing which lists have the highest conversion rate is as easy as coding each mailing. Fictitious suite numbers or telephone extensions are great ways to keep tabs on who is responding and from which mailing.

#2 Buy a nth name list: Basically it works like this… in a list of 10,000 names you may decide to buy every 10th name. It’s like a test drive of the list. If you like the results you can go ahead a purchase the portion of the list you didn’t use. Otherwise, you’ve saved yourself a bundle.

#3 Check the Yellow Pages for local list brokers: You may not need all of the information provided in a national listing. Why pay for it? Local brokers are sometimes more helpful and easy to deal with.

Coming up… a new topic, “Is it a Winner?”

Dedicated To Your Further Success.

All the best,

Allyn Cutts

PS To contact me via email, Click Here

About the Author

Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers.

Allyn consults personally with clients to design and deliver offline and online direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://AmazingMarketingStrategy.com or you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays

You may reprint or distribute this article as long as you leave the content and the resource box at the end intact.

Test Drive

Are you up to taking one of the lists listed at srds.com for a test spin?

I’ll randomly pick a list… business executives, The Kiplinger Washington Letter (a subscriber list for a political, business, and tax newsletter). Let’s see what we can discover.

• We know the average consumer on this list will spend about $68.
• The subscribers were approached through direct mail.
• There are 406,000 names listed as subscribers.
• A current subscriber list costs $85 per thousand names.

Wow! There’s some pretty powerful information packed into a few lines. Not only do you know how many, how much, but you know exactly how others have successfully approached these customers for sales. No sense in wasting big bucks on magazine ads, when a simple direct mail campaign will do the trick.

The next step… Find a broker and get an even more detailed description. How many are in your state, who uses the lists, etc?

Here’s some food for thought. What if you found two subscriber lists of similar magazines, then chose only names that were on both lists? A doubly qualified client would be more likely to make the purchase!

Yeah… you’re probably already wondering how much this is all going to drain from the budget, huh? Next time we’ll discuss solutions to minimize the costs specialized lists entail.

Dedicated To Your Further Success.

All the best,

Allyn Cutts

PS To contact me via email, Click Here

About the Author

Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers.

Allyn consults personally with clients to design and deliver offline and online direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://AmazingMarketingStrategy.com or you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays

You may reprint or distribute this article as long as you leave the content and the resource box at the end intact.

Which List?

Lists play an important part in all of our lives. Some lists are simply “wish lists.” Other lists give us perspective on what’s important in our lives. The lists we’re going to talk about today are lists that could very well be a turning point in your financial success.

Last time, we began talking about the three types of consumer lists:

• Subscriber Lists
• Purchaser Lists
• Compiled Lists

All three types of lists have specific value. Subscriber lists are obtained from publishing companies, purchaser lists name customers who purchase a certain type of product, and compiled lists are names merged from a variety of sources according to similarity.

Each of these lists meets certain needs. The tough part is finding out which kind of list is right for your needs.

*Are your needs geographically oriented? Just about any of these lists can by sorted by city, state, county or zip codes.

*Do you want to test a promotion or new product in one area? Again, a geographical break down of one of these lists will work perfectly.

*How about a “hot” customer… one who’s really into a brand new passion and ripe for the picking? Finding out who the recent subscribers are to a magazine is the key.

*Loyal customers? Subscriber lists will again tell you who renews their subscriptions to magazines or newsletters time and time again.

*Big spender… little spender? Do you want to know who you can count on to spend a lot of money on your product? Purchaser lists have the answer.

*Do you need to categorize your information? You’ll be able to identify heads of household, income levels, job titles, business types, credit card users, etc. with a compiled list.

Now that I’ve got you wondering just where to find these pieces of magic, surf on over to srds.com. You’ll find exactly what you need.

Stay tuned… next time we’ll test drive a few experimental lists

Dedicated To Your Further Success.

All the best,

Allyn Cutts

PS To contact me via email, Click Here

About the Author

Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers.

Allyn consults personally with clients to design and deliver offline and online direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://AmazingMarketingStrategy.com or you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays

You may reprint or distribute this article as long as you leave the content and the resource box at the end intact.

The Perfect Customer

We’re going to take a brand new slant on last week’s email. We’ve already learned that it pays to figure out exactly who our customers are. We might be surprised when we put all the facts together about the clientele that makes up our regular customer list.

What about future customers? Think about it this way… if you’re going to expend time, energy, and money finding new customers, why not go for the gold? Do you know the real hard facts about the customers you’d love to woo?

What is the single most defining characteristic of your dream consumer? You might be surprised to know that there are lists, long lists, of consumers who fit that category. In fact, the SRDS Directory (Standard Rate and Data Service) lists just about every mailing list and mailing list supplier known to mankind.

What a bonanza! More than 1,600 pages crammed with potential consumers are just waiting for the right business to come along.

Basically these lists break down into three different kinds of lists.

Purchaser Lists: The names on a purchaser list could be just about anyone… people who purchase from Hanes catalog, music clubs members, those who buy tickets to concerts… you name it. The category is up to you.

Subscriber Lists: These names are typically those who subscribe to a magazine, newsletter or other publication. The really cool aspect about subscriber lists is that they can be broken down into geographical areas, new subscribers, or even those whose subscriptions are about to expire.

Compiled Lists: With the exception of the Yellow Pages, compiled lists come from a variety of sources. For example, a list may consist of names of CEO’s of manufacturing companies with more than 100 employees.

If you’re looking for a competitive advantage, you may want to check into purchasing one of these national lists. This insight will put you ahead of 99 percent of small business owners who have no idea that they exist!

Next time we’ll take a more in-depth look at the advantages and disadvantages of these different types of lists.

Dedicated To Your Further Success.

All the best,

Allyn Cutts

PS To contact me via email, Click Here

About the Author

Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers.

Allyn consults personally with clients to design and deliver offline and online direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://AmazingMarketingStrategy.com or you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays

You may reprint or distribute this article as long as you leave the content and the resource box at the end intact.