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SMS marketing completely changed our business in a way that we weren't even expecting.

We are so passionate about helping our customers succeed that for many years we've been promoting direct mailing list rental as a way of reaching new customers. From time-to-time, we arranged SMS marketing campaings too but it was not the majority of our business.

However, over the last year or so, we've noticed a delcine in the number of small business owners who can afford to pay for printing and postage. As a result, we decided to change our entire business model. You see, for many years we have been in the business of renting lists: mailing lists, telemarketing lists, and opt-in email lists. We still provide these services to some of our clients, but the most exciting development in the past couple of years has been SMS marketing. (more…)

If you're the owner of an online or traditional business, you should definitely think about using opt-in email marketing lists. I really can't think of a more efficient and cost effective way to reach potential customers. While it may seem complicated to some, implementing an opt-in email campaign using email marketing lists is easier than it looks. In this post, I will show you some of the advantages using email marketing lists can give you.

Using Email Marketing Lists

First, using email marketing lists is one of the fastest ways to reach your customer base. You can create a message, format it and send it to thousands of prospective buyers the same day. Not only that, but you can start to get feedback from your campaign instantly and start to get more sales within hours. If you compare email marketing lists to direct mail, that's fast!

Using Email Marketing Lists is Cost-Effective

Using email marketing lists is also very cost effective. If you don't want to cover all the cost and effort associated with building your own email marketing lists, you can take a shortcut and rent email marketing lists from a list broker. All you have to do is write your email (or have someone write them for you). Once your message is created, just send it to your list broker and they'll send it out for you to certain email marketing lists. You'll get access to thousands of people just like that. You just need to supply your list broker with the email itself, your subject line, and your opt-out information (also called the unsubscribe link). (more…)

Have you ever rented a mailing list and then held onto it for awhile because you were too busy to do anything with it? Or have you ever wasted a rented mailing list because you didn't know exactly what to do with it? In this article I'll give you the top three things you can do with your mailing list right away before it goes stale.

The day that you receive your mailing list, you can be assured that it has been updated within the past 30 days and scrubbed against the NCOA (National Change of Address database). This is the time to put it to use! The longer you wait to get it out the door, the more you risk that the addresses will change.

Ideally, have your marketing piece ready before you rent your mailing list. Your list broker can help you with this if you need any assistance. If you're renting a direct mailing list, then have your sales letter ready and as soon as you get the list, prepare the mailing labels so you can send it out as soon as possible.

Your list broker might even be able to prepare the mailing labels for you. Alternatively, if you are using a mailing service, just email the mailing list over to them and they'll get your mailing done for you.

Here's the second tip: Whenever I rent mailing lists, I always suppress my current customer list against the new list so I know that every person getting my mailing piece is new. Your mailing list company should be able to offer suppression for you for a nominal fee (or free in some cases) if you don't know how to do it yourself. It's preferable to ask them about this before you rent the list, so you can get your list over to them in advance. If you are worried about confidentiality – don't. Mailing list companies do this all the time and if they are reputable (for example, a member of the BBB) you can be assured they will keep your list confidential and destroy it as soon as they're finished with it.

The third tip is for small business owners who are on a very limited budget and who cannot afford to mail out to the entire mailing list at once. Here's what to do: Decide on which demographics are most important to you and sort the list according to that. For example, let's say you are marketing a teeth whitening service to dentists, and your list broker has delivered a list of dentists who specialize in cosmetic dentistry. You can look at your list in Excel, and sort the columns according to sales revenue, number of employees and geography. (Make sure you ask for these selects to be included on output when you order!) You may decide that you want to send your mailing piece to the businesses with the highest revenues first. If you have sorted the businesses according to sales revenue, then you can easily pick out the top companies and paste them into a new file. Then you can create your mailing labels from that new list.

The most important thing to do is to put your mailing list to use as soon as you receive it. It pains me when people rent mailing lists and then don't use them because they are too busy or they don't know what to do. Ask your list broker for help and if they won't help you, find someone else who will!

At Strategic List Services, we go above and beyond for our clients. Give us a call today so we can show you firsthand!