A direct mail love story…of sorts

It’s February 1, 2009. My husband, an accomplished wood turner, has been a bit lax in marketing himself beyond his website www.kimblatt.com (yes, a shameless plug on his behalf). With Valentine’s Day just 2 weeks away, I had been encouraging him (he would say nagging) to send an email blast to his client list to promote a beautiful redwood burl wall hanging we had dubbed Red Heart. “That’ll never work,” he said, “people won’t buy a $4,200 piece of art from an email”. I love a challenge.

We created a visual message showcasing Red Heart as a unique, long-lasting gift, including a picture, dimension and price along with Kim’s logo. It was sent to list of just 53 previous collectors of Kim’s work. Results? Red Heart sold in 2 days – purchased by a gentleman in Virginia as a gift for his wife.

My point here isn’t about the message, but rather the value of the list that Kim had built. If we had sent this same email to a list of unqualified names, there would have been no sale, because Kim was correct. Very few people would buy a $4,200 wall hanging from an email – all we needed was the right one.

Start building (or rebuilding) your list today:

Be a Gatherer
Collect business cards. Read trade publications. Join associations. Acquire tradeshow attendee and exhibitor lists. Just remember, if you intend to send email blasts to these contacts, you need to ask and receive permission or risk angering the SPAM police.

It’s Quality Not Quantity
Volume doesn’t make a list better. As Kim’s list demonstrated, a database can be a just a few dozen names. What matters is the relevance of the contacts to your mailing objective and the accuracy of their information.

Home-Grown is Best
Purchasing a list should come with a warning label. “Caution: this list matches the criteria you requested, but you’ll need to do a lot more work to make it effective”. When buying a list, don’t use it “as is”. Take the time to sort through the information and verify. It will improve your results.

Software Options
There are a lot of options available for managing your list. It can be as simple as Excel or as dynamic as a CRM program like Salesforce.com. Databases can live online with your Email Service or your ISP. Your decision will be driven by list size, the number of people who need access to the database and the need to track multiple campaigns or generate ROI reports.

Maintenance
Once you build the list, don’t let it go stale! People move, change jobs and change emails. Add new contacts on a routine basis. Nothing is more stressful than scrambling to update names right before a mailing (as I will likely do before this article releases).

Be Specific
Use your database to capture other information like industry, SIC code, contact notes, revenue, number of employees, etc. This will be helpful in sorting and targeting your mailings.

Having a great list takes time, but as my favorite wood turner found out, it can really pay off. Since the success of the Red Heart email, Kim has been asking when the next blast will go out. Honey, I’m working on it!

The next issue of a full moon will be October 4, so in the mean time…your image is a valuable asset. Build it well.

Lori Blatt
Owner, Blatt Communications
610.987.9202
lori@blattcom.net