Can I Get Customers Through a Mailing List?
Samantha 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.
How to Market Gift Baskets to Men
Karen asks:
“I have found that my customers are at approximately a 3 to 1 ratio, men over women. This just from customers walking in.
What’s the best way, and (how do I find them) to market to men?”
Have you asked your male clients:
This will provide solid clues to connect you with more of this segment so you can increase sales.
I often ask men exiting Costco with gift baskets why they chose to buy from this source. Their response, overwhelmingly, is “convenience.”
That tells me that area designers aren’t capitalizing on marketing their easy deliveries and other incentives to this segment, as price isn’t a major concern.
Costco is also mentioned in this blog article about competition.
When you survey your male clients, you will uncover the best ways to market to them.
You’ll find more sales information in articles on the Success Tips’ and Success Articles’ pages.
How Do I Get Customers for My Home-Based Business?
Helen asks:
I have a home based gift basket business and it has been a struggle to get customers despite trying all the techniques suggested by experts (at least most of them).
Could you please advise? i am actually considering opening a store so as to be in the public eye maybe that might help.
Thanks
Lack of customers is not a symptom of being based at home. If that were true, home-based businesses would not exist.
In addition, opening a retail store in itself will not guarantee success.
Both spaces require marketing, and without it, you’ll sell to no one.
I don’t know everything about your situation – how you’ve marketed, who your target market is, what types of online and direct mail promotion you’ve completed – all of this is important.
Simply telling someone that you have a gift basket business will not bring sales.
Are you talking to people about the time you save them from traveling to buy gifts, other buying benefits, perks/incentives you provide, how people feel when they receive your gifts and baskets, etc.?
Marketing and follow up is the key to sales success. Take a good look at your marketing plan, get advice from other business owners while networking at meetings and events, and watch how successful retailers make money.
The ebook, 101 Ways to Market Gift Baskets, also provides sound ideas for increasing sales.
All of this will guide you to make sound decisions that start the cash register ringing.
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