Marketing Lists Direct Mailing Lists: 2010

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

How Marketing with Direct Mailing Lists to Promote your Product or Services

Direct mail marketing may be a perfect way to market your new product or service. Direct mailing also allows you the ability to reach a larger group of targeted consumers or businesses. The following information will provide some key valuable tips when you choose direct mail marketing to aid in marketing your new or existing business.

First, when you make the decision to incorporate direct mail marketing, you should have a basic idea of your target market in mind, and gather appropriate mailing lists. A qualified mailing list provider will also be able to assist in helping your target based on your specific industry. You want a mailing list that is compiled of potential consumers of your product or services. Analysis on your current customer database may aid in securing a new prospect mailing list. It is always good practice to make sure the list is up to date and includes all the required postal paperwork. It is also a good practice to eliminate any duplicate names on the mailing list. You should never send the same letter to the same person more than once. Marketing Lists Direct also offers the ability to remove your current customers for your new prospect mailing list.

Second, when using direct mail marketing to promote your product or service, it is always more effective to mail the information to a specific person, and not simply to a general title. You should always receive exact first and last names and the titles of the people on your mailing list.

Third, it is important to hide the demographic codes on your mail piece for tracking purposes. This will help you in tracking who is responding to your offer. For example, if you are marketing to people age 40-60, income levels of 50k+, a reputable mailing list provider will include codes on your file for each demographic. Income 40-50k may be coded with a letter B. When these codes are on your mail piece, you can track who is responding and adjust your next list purchase to the audience that has shown the most interest in your product or service.

Lastly, when using direct mail marketing to promote a product or service, be sure to never use abbreviations. Many address lists are sold with abbreviations like "Co." for "Company". There are several other abbreviations which are often included in mailing lists. Prior to printing any mailing list database, it is always best to take a visual scan over your list.

Monday, December 13, 2010

When to Use A Free Mailing Lists Versus Buying a Mailing List

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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Distinguish Between a Consumer and Residential Mailing List

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Monday, December 6, 2010

Purchasing a Direct Marketing Mailing List Can Increase Business Sales

Seminar Mailings with Income and Investment Specific Mailing Lists Increase New Customers for Financial Advisors

Social Media Slowing Business Productivity Compared to Direct Mail Marketing with Mailing Lists

Selecting a Mailing List Broker or Company

Endorse New Business Opportunities to Money Making Opportunity Seeker Mailing Lists

Grow Company Revenue Using Direct Marketing with Quality Business Mailing Lists

Direct Marketing and Mailing List Options for Automotive Dealers

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Social Media Slowing Business Productivity, Use Direct Mail Marketing with Mailing Lists

Social media has become the new marketing hype. Every business today has a Facebook page, Twitter account, MySpace page, Linkedin page, and more. This form of advertising seems to be a must in the office, similar to having an email account and an instant messenger account. This goes well beyond marketing contacts and involves every employee. In most office environments, every employee has their own personal user id and is constantly logged into these media websites. Are they truly promoting your company or simply using it for personal use? When comparing the two, direct mailing lists are more effective than social media in creating sales.

Are your employees promoting business or simply socializing? The majority of employees would presumably be socializing and updating their personal status. Social media seems to be another distraction in the workplace along with cell phones, text messages, instant messages, emails, and website browsing. Businesses need to realize their employees are being paid to work and not to socialize.

With a slowed economy, businesses are looking to cut budgets in every aspect. The first cut businesses normally make is in their marketing budget. With little or no cost utilizing social media, businesses have been hoping this is their saving grace. Social media does not offer any call to action like direct mail marketing. A direct mailer will state respond by, visit us for, etc. As with anything in the world today, you get what you pay for. Zero dollars produces little to no results.

Direct mail marketing has consistently produced 2-3% response rates with a great offer, accurate mailing list and attractive mail piece. Direct mail marketing can be the best way to market your new product or service. Direct mailing also allows businesses the ability to reach a more targeted audience. It also does not distract or take away focus from employees’ productivity.

Another advantage of direct marketing with mailing lists is that the results are track able. There are several ways to track a direct mailing campaign. The additional of PURL’s (A PURL is a personalized website created from the mailing list purchased, which allows the prospect to respond to your offer online), is one solution to tracking the response of your direct mailers. You can also insert coupon codes into your mail piece for responders to refer to when inquiring to your offer.

Social Media seems to work well for large already branded companies, but for a small to mid-size company it does not seem effective. A local pizza shop, accounting firm, investment firm or privately owned retailer will see very little results using this means of marketing. The objective is to bring customers through your doors and to buy. Direct marketing with mailing lists will guarantee increased sales with a specific call to action and help bring in new customer. Social media can help to increase your rankings in search engines but for local retailers direct mail marketing is going to be the most effective advertising avenue.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Combining Telemarketing Calls with Direct Mailings will Improve Mailing List Response Rates

Telemarketing is one of the most common forms of direct marketing in which marketers contact consumers by phone. Whether you are direct mailing to consumers at home or key executives at their office, telemarketing follow up calls will dramatically increase your return on investment. There are many advantages to allocating marketing dollars and time into telemarketing follow-up after any direct mailing list campaign. The majority of mailing lists have telemarketing telephone numbers available.

The consumer direct mailing list database has phone numbers where available. Due to the National Do Not Call passed in 2003, residential phone numbers available have dropped off significantly. It is important to register with the national do not call registry as a telemarketer. Approximately 10% of all residential addresses have a telephone number available for telemarketing. As an example, if you are mailing to 10,000 households, it is realistic to expect roughly 1,000 phone numbers. Calling those 1,000 phone numbers will still have a large impact on improving the results of your overall direct marketing campaign. It is also important to note that political organizations, charities and non profits, and survey companies are exempt from the do not call and are permitted to call all phone numbers available, even numbers registered with the federal do not call.

The business direct mailing list database also has phone number available for telemarketing. The advantage to the business file is that every business record on file has a phone number and are all permitted to be called. Business phone numbers are exempt from the National Do Not Call registry. That gives the advantage of being able to call and follow up on every prospect that has received your mail piece for follow-up. Combining the business phone numbers with a top contact name within the organization, can make your campaign the ultimate success.

Telemarketing can also increase sales from your current customer file. Even if your current customer file does not have telephone numbers, a reputable mailing list broker provider can append phone numbers to your in house database file. You can append phone numbers to a residential or business customer. Also, if a residential customer has purchased from you within the past 12 months, they are also exempt from the national do not call.

Telemarketing puts slight pressure on a potential customer to react and/or respond to your offer or product. Direct mail is a softer sell, where as, telemarketing is slightly more in your face. Telemarketing also offers as a great follow up to push a prospect to make a move. They may have been interested in your mail piece, set it aside for a later date and now has completely forgotten about it. A quick telemarketing call will not only remind them but may encourage them to act faster to your offer.

Overall, the combination of direct mail and telemarketing will bring greater results and increase your rate of return. There are many ways to incorporate telemarketing into your next campaign. Telemarketing call centers are a fast way to have the calls made and generate response leads. Voice broadcasting is also available, although slightly less personal. It also helps to have your sales staff make these calls. Any choice that is selected will bring a beneficial increase in your marketing efforts.

I am experienced direct mail professional and publisher on the topics related to telemarketing lists and mailing lists.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Direct Mailing List QuestionsYou Should Ask Mailing List Provider Broker Company

It is important and hard it is to find a reputable mailing list broker and mail list company. It is essential to find a list broker who realizes the importance of creating a true partnership with their clients, other than simply selling you a list. The mailing list is one of the most inportant factors in your direct marketing campaign.

Some list providers are consistently hiring new sales representatives with little or no direct marketing experience. True marketing professionals are continuously learning new marketing solutions each and every day. It is essential to know how long your rep has been in the industry. It is not suggested purchasing from any person without at least 5 to 10 years experience.

Direct mail marketing is one of the most effective types of advertising a business can do today. Direct marketing yields an average return on investment of over 1100 percent based on the lifetime value of a new customer. A reputable list provider can show you how to make these numbers a reality in your own marketing efforts.

It is important for your broker to know and understand every aspect of your product or service. Here are a few important questions to ask your list broker:

How many years experience to you have in creating mailing lists?

What type of mailing lists do you offer?

Do you have suggestions on who may be our target audience?

Do your mail lists include all necessary postal paperwork?

What types of industries do you normally work with?

Do you offer any discounts for a first time orders?

Most Importantly, How often are your mail lists updated?

An experienced mailing list broker will answer these questions before even being asked. An experienced Mailing List Company will ensure they create a perfectly targeted list. It wouldn’t make sense to mail a pet sitter offer to a household without pets.

About Marketing Lists Direct. Marketing Lists Direct is a full-service direct marketing firm with over 40 years of industry experience. The firm can fulfill any of your data needs with a Marketing Mailing List, Sales Lead Generation, Consumer List, Direct Marketing Database, Business Mailing List, Telemarketing List, Targeted Mailing Lists