Two questions about direct mail, although I'll take any advice or website information that I can get.

Where do you get your mailing list for direct mail?


Is there software that will automatically print labels, custom letter (with each address of the person your sending to and a salutation), and help you track response rates?

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It depends. What segment are you targeting? Are you looking for print list or email list? And, is this mailing going to be a local mailing or national or international ?

You could use database system like Access to manage that :P I cannot give you any recommendations about the out-of-box packages which can mange this as I have never researched into the software available for it

all local. I just want suggestions as to what the members here use for campaigns.

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If you are doing a untargetted mailing campaign, you can purchase the voter roles for the areas where the mail will be sent. If you are targetting businesses, you can buy a CD of listings at Best Buy. Probably have consumer based CD's as well. Other things such as marriage records, divorce records, court settlements and such are public information as well. All can be gotten for a price.

For targetted lists, look in your phonebook under Marketing. They keep track of income levels, purchases, car preferences, home owners/renters, number of kids and pets. where they work and more. All can be gotten for a price. With "loyalty" cards so popular in the supermarkets these days, they can even tell you what brand of diapers the lady down the street buys.

Microsoft Word will do a mail merge with special fields in the letter and print labels for you.

As for where to get lists... you can buy them from a variety of sources. I've always found that targetted mailings work better and try to find very qualified leads to mail to... instead of just blasting a ton of mailers to any company out there. Many online services can narrow down specific criteria to search by. That will save you time and money...

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I joined our chamber of commerce, which consequently gave me a free mailing list of all it's members. The response rate isn't so great yet though. 1 site out of 100 mailings. I just sent another 500, still waiting for the results.

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You mean to say that you sold 1 site for 100 Mailings! 1% is a good response rate... in my opinion, you should get a bit more aggressive with it.

BTW have you read Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins? If you haven't then you can download a copy free copy in the members' area... It covers direct mail in depth!

yeah, that's what I have read, that 1% is a good response rate. Doesn't pay the bills though. I've got to make the jump from direct mail, to direct face-to-face marketing.

This same chamber of commerce has meetings, events, etc, but I doubt I would make a good impression just walking around soliciting my service. I've never wanted to be a salesman, because of the fact that I don't want to be one of those telemarketers you always hang up on. Consequently, I'm having trouble making the jump.

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Your Chamber of Commerce is for networking. That is exactly what you are supposed to do. Walk around and introduce yourself and hand out business cards. Go to the mixers and have a good time. Meet people in the local business environment. Meet with their SCORE representatives to get ideas about what works in your town.

You can be a salesman without being a telemarketer. That is only one form of sales. You will find in your Chamber of Commerce, that you can buy inexpensive advertising in their newsletter and that other members will only purchase from COC members. Participating in other business mixers in your area will also get you contacts and referrals.

To purchase a direct mail list by Zipcode, I found Melissa Data at www.melissadata.com. You can narrow it down to the the type of business and zip code to make it more worthwhile.

thanks for the tips.

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