Can I Get Customers Through a Mailing List?

Posted on February 20, 2009 
Filed Under Marketing

mailing lists may not always work for a gift basket businessSamantha asks:

“I bought a mailing list of corporate names and addresses, and I sent all of them a letter and my business card to order my gift baskets. It cost me a lot of money, and none of them ordered. I don’t know what to do now.”

I’ve spoken with other designers who, over the years, have had the same negative results. It happens for one main reason: people who don’t know you and don’t have any connection to you treat your mail like junk and feel no obligation to buy.

I thought about using this same route to build my business back in 1990, but the cost to rent a mailing list was too much for my budget, so I started treating the people in business that I know as if they were already customers.

These people have been mentioned in the past in my newsletters and on the Gift Basket Business blog: my doctor, insurance agent, accountant, bank manager, dog’s veterinarian, and others who already knew me. Getting them to buy was easier than asking strangers to become buyers.

I developed a group of letters, which are available here, to contact them, and through those letters, business grew steadily.

This is one of the major growth areas that stop many of us from succeeding and why designers in the Golden Basket Club get full doses of training in this area and watch their sales increase every month.

Use my example as one to create your own dynamic business.

Related articles to learn, grow, and profit:

  1. How Do I Get Customers for My Home-Based Business?

Comments

4 Responses to “Can I Get Customers Through a Mailing List?”

  1. Rosemarie on February 21st, 2009 10:24 am

    I have also used a mailing list – but I didn’t have to purchase it. It was the member list for the Tri-State Chamber that I am a member of – the president sent me the list with contact information. Can’t say that I got a great response, but I did get a couple of orders, after the mailing. But, I didn’t get any holiday orders, which I think is weird because there isn’t another designer as a member. So, not sure about what’s going on.
    I do know that I probably wouldn’t have sent a mailing if I purchased the list because that is expensive with no guarantee on return.

  2. Shirley George Frazier on February 21st, 2009 10:44 pm

    Getting the mailing list through the chamber due to your membership was a great perk, as great as moving forward with your marketing campaign.

    To promote your holiday gift baskets, did you send follow-up mailers or send any type of communication to encourage orders? If not, I wonder if that would have made a difference.

  3. Rosemarie on February 25th, 2009 9:14 am

    Hi Shirley,
    No, I haven’t sent any follow-up mailings, now that you mention it it probably would have made a difference. I’ll have to get back to it.
    I’m thinking about ordering your sales letter package. I have Word 2002 working on XP will they work?
    Thanks,

  4. Shirley George Frazier on February 25th, 2009 1:16 pm

    Rosemarie,

    I tried to find the answer to your question through the Microsoft Word Web site but cannot find and do not know if the program will word on Word 2002.

    Perhaps your own research will help you to find the answer.