Making A List, Checking It Twice.
- Posted by Jim Tobin on October 24th, 2007
filed in The Business of Advertising |
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OK, this is not about holiday gift giving, this is about creating and maintaining a database for business. There are lots of sophisticated and complicated software packages out there and some excellent industry-specific systems available. I am not going to review those but rather I am addressing ideas and techniques for your average small business. A digital mailing list is worth its weight in gold. <<WARNING: STUPID METAPHOR… digital lists don’t weigh a thing!>> If you have any stupid metaphors you would like to share… please send them along. ANYway, as I was saying, lists are valuable. And costly. And require a lot of attention. But well worth the effort.
A well-maintained mailing list lets you quickly and easily communicate with you best prospects for new business. It keeps your name and good news in front of your friends, influencers and champions. Properly deployed, it builds your business, builds goodwill and can have a positive impact on your bottom line. But like any powerful tool, it can be misused, too.
How To Build A List: Purchase lists of prospects from various sources. Build your customized list from organizations and associations. Add personal contacts. Make it someone’s job to enter names into a database and discipline yourself and others in your organization to enter names into the database.
How to Maintain A List: Assign someone to call and confirm names and titles at least once a year. Perhaps this could be some sort of punishment.
List Tips: If you have Microsoft Outlook, use it. Learn it. It is great. Buy yourself a DYMO LabelWriter, a nifty little printer, inexpensive and powerful. It checks addresses, prints labels. Really worth its weight it gold.
What To Do With Your List: Develop an opt-in e-newsletter. Send out company “good news”. Send seasonal gifts to your best prospects. Send out white papers. Send sensible direct mail.
What Not To Do With Your List: Send unsolicited, unsubscribable emails. Send dumb, unbranded stuff. Neglect it.
In Conclusion: Yeah, this is so NOT the latest and greatest technology news. Nor is it deeply insightful. Or sexy/cool/trendy. It is plain old fashioned good advice. From your Mom. Or someone who could be. Except she’s in your office. Or managing a snappy smart ad agency. Now go wash your hands. And send everyone in your database and email about it.