Email Blasts - Cheap and Easy way to test new options

Opt In email marketing has created some wonderful new options for Direct Marketers.  In the by gone era of Direct Mail, marketers were force to outlay a large amount of money to merely test a list or marketing idea.  The math used to workout to 1 dollar per piece, with printing and postage costing the largest part of the cost.  Now marketers can do an email blast and instantly have a profit or loss on the program.  Sometimes its about generating information or filling a survey or just educating a group of business execs.  The big difference is the cost per piece can be as little as 2 cents and as much as much as 40 cents per sent email.  The higher side is usually for opted in B2B email and lower end for non-targeted consumer email. 

As a direct marketer, it is important to look at all the options for testing your offer.

List Brokers - Helping you reach the right people

Targeted lists are the only real way to grow your business through Direct Mail. Companies are finding more and more that the use of mass marketing or unaddressed admail just kills trees. Businesses should know who can use their product and what best to offer them. SIC codes are a great way to identify your intended audience. But consumer marketers unfortunately for the most part don't have access to simple Codes that can sort consumers, as a result we just use unaddressed solutions. We pray that we have hit the right person at the right time.

We have found tremendous success with a couple of our consumer list providers, survey data being a great way to reach everything from obesity to vacation property owners. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your marketing efforts be more selective/targeted.

Direct Marketing - Keys for success

As marketing becomes more sophisticated, we as consumers become more cautious of offers we receive via email, mail or fax. Given this we as marketers need to use all the "tricks" in our bag to make sure consumers feel completely comfortable with the offer we send them. I use the word 'tricks' losely - we never won't to try and deceive anyone. Always let your conscience be your guide.



Tips for helping results:

1. Profile - choose lists that will help best target your prospective customers.

2. Personalize wherever possible.

3. Make repeat offers and attempt to stay top of mind with your prospective clients.

4. Utilize niche portals/mags/websites whenever possible.

5. Build a relationship with your customers.

Foreign Representatives Leadership Mailing List

This is a pretty impressive file - The Foreign Reps. in the US Leadership List provides direct access by mail, telephone and fax. The file gives you access to Execs and Dignitaries in the US offices, missions and embassies of over 1800 non-US Corporate institutions and organizations around the globe.

Send us an email if this file works for your DM needs.

www.westlists.com

Congrats to Mark Henry of Direct Marketing News on being named publisher. Having had Mark's help in advertising over the years - this is a well deserved promotion.

International Mailings - Postal Cost Savings

For US and Canadian Companies looking to do a mail out - there are terrific cost savings to be had by using a mail drop service in the country your mailing to, especially when it is another country.

Local cost for a business letter in Canada is 51 cents Canadian. The savings for a US company would be around 10-25 cents per piece.

The second advantage would lie in having your mail shop doing a pre-sort - Canada Post and the US Postal service all give discounts on mailings when the information is presorted to the local walk.

Something that WLC has been able to do for several large mailers - large being in excess of 25,000 pieces into Canada. Is provide a delivery point for which to send all mail pieces - we then send them out, our cost still saves the mailer a large chunk of change.

Delivery Expectations

How long should a list take to supply. Well back in the old days of Mag Tapes - it could take 3-5 working days to produce a list. Today, however, our expecations are much quicker. Many clients request that we get them the data same day. If this is a list that WLC provides, then it may be possible. The reality is that most suppliers worth their salt can't get a list ready that quickly. My major concern is that they get the requirements right before sending out the list.

Having a service bureau usually means that the data is stored in a secure server and that turn around time can be an issue.

If you're feeling the crunch on the day of your drop - here are some things to keep in mind.

1. Make sure you give your list broker enough time to get the list. Try to make it five business days.
2. Make sure you know which list you want long before you need to order. Searching and ordering can be a real challenge.
3. Get your mail shop involved - make sure they know that your renting lists and that they need to come in before hand.

The biggest thing is to give yourself lots of extra time!

As always - for more details find us at www.westlists.com