What You Don't Know About Lists

So you've built your business, paid for a few advertisements in the local newspaper or phone book, and now are just waiting for your customers to arrive and buy something.  Sound familiar?

Many small business owners feel overwhelmed. They’ve spent so much time on the technical aspects of their business to get it up and running that they just automatically assume that customers would show up, simply because their business existed, backed by some traditional advertising channels.  I’m here to say that it takes more effort than that to truly build a stream of customers to your business that you can bank on.

Rather than wait for the newspapers to bring in the customers, why not be proactive and generate the leads yourself?  There are many ways this can be accomplished. 

You can use a lead company or list broker to purchase a sales lead list of customers.  Just tell them the demographic profile of your typical client and they’ll do their best to match you up with a list to meet your needs.  They should be able to provide you with list counts and price quotes on the same day, or even have a website that generates these instantly! 

You’ve got to be careful here because list brokers are in the business to make money, and you have to really know what you are paying for.  Some things to look out for, is the age of the list.  If the list is 1 or 2 years old, then you can almost forget about its reliability.  Studies show that people move around so much that these lists can easily have 30%-70% bad addresses. 

Another item to consider is the size of the list.  Many times you’ll have to commit to a minimum list size of 2,000 – 5,000 people, so just take this into account when purchasing one. 

There is also what’s known as “selects” that allow you to narrowly focus your list to certain characteristics.  For example:  women only, or males that earn over $60,000 and have an American Express card.  These are great to laser focus your business to a targeted market.  Just be aware that running these selects can add hundreds of dollars to your list order cost.

Here’s a great idea! Why not call your local Chamber of Commerce and request that they send you a list of local business people.  Then, you can contact these like-minded entrepreneurs, introducing yourself and making an irresistible offer to them! 

Why not offer to put one of their flyers on your counter in exchange for them selling your product or service at a 10%-15% discount?  These joint venture deals can be very lucrative for both parties, and you can really let your imagination run wild when putting together these relationships.

To illustrate my point, suppose you are trying to get insurance sales leads and you find a plumber in the Chamber of Commerce that is struggling to build a business list himself.  You can create an alliance of sorts where each of you agrees to refer business to one another’s companies.

Do you really know who your customer is?  It’s absolutely necessary in marketing to know who your target audience is, because it helps you decide exactly what advertising medium is right for what you are trying to accomplish!  I recommend visiting your local library and reading all the trade journals, books and newspaper articles related to your industry.  This may reveal some interesting facts about your customers that you didn’t know!

For example, if you realized that your typical customers were healthy individuals that exercised frequently, perhaps you would make an effort to build up your sales list by strategically partnering with local health club owners to help you sell your product or service.

Using just a few of these strategies, you should be well on your way to building up a profitable business without having to rely on disappointing traditional advertising that frequently produce low rates of return on advertising dollars spent!