ARE YOU ENJOYING THE PROFITS HIDDEN IN YOUR OWN HOUSE MAILING LIST?

Copyright 1999 By Bob Leduc.


During 30 years in business and consulting with other
business owners, I've found the three most cost-effective
sources of business are always the same - regardless of the
type of business. They are:

1. Existing customers
2. Referrals
3. The business's own "house mailing list".

These sources may not produce your largest block of
business. However, they always produce your most profitable
block of business. That's because there is little or no
advertising expense involved in getting business from these
sources.

Every business should have programs operating to promote
repeat business from existing customers. Every business
should also have systems in place to produce referrals from
existing customers, prospects and contacts. However, the
volume of business you can generate from these two sources
is limited by the number of customers you have and contacts
you know. Plus, you have very little control over the flow
of business generated by these sources.

By comparison, the volume of business you can develop from
you own house mailing list is predictable. You can also
control the flow of business from this source.

WHAT IS A HOUSE MAILING LIST?

Let's start by defining "house mailing list"? A "house
mailing list" is any list owned by a business and compiled
as a result of inquiry or buyer action. Your customer list
is a house list. However, we won't talk about your customer
list in this article. Instead, we'll talk about your
prospect list. For this article we'll define house mailing
list as "the stored database of contact information for
prospects who have expressed an interest in your product,
service or business opportunity but have not yet done
business with you".

Contact information in this database should include some or
all of the following:

* Person's name
* Company name (if applicable)
* Postal address
* Email address
* Telephone number
* Fax number

If you don't save this contact information from every
inquiry you receive, begin saving it now. You'll pick up a
lot of very profitable business in the future by using it to
make future offers to these prospects. Let me use my own
business to illustrate the value of saving this information.

I maintain a house mailing list of potential clients and
customers for my consulting and business publications
business. The list includes contact information for
everybody who at sometime requested information about my
services or publications.

Every 60 to 90 days I contact everybody on this list with a
special offer related to their original inquiry. About 50%
of my profit every month comes from business generated by
these special offers made to prospects on my house list.

USE LOW COST METHODS OF COMMUNICATION

Here's the best part. The cost of contacting prospects on my
house list is very low... lower than any of my other
advertising. I keep the cost low by using two very
inexpensive methods of communication - email and postcards.

I use email whenever I have the prospect's email address.
The cost for email is close to zero. I use postcards when I
don't have the prospect's email address. The cost of
preparing and mailing a postcard by First Class Mail is only
about 24 cents in the US (20 cents postage and about 4 cents
materials and preparation). Postcards provide another
benefit in addition to the low cost. Nearly 100% of the
recipients will read my message because it's delivered
"already opened" on a postcard.

If you don't already have your own house mailing list, start
building it today. Keep expenses low by using email and
postcards to communicate with prospects on your list. You'll
soon discover that a house list is a very cost-effective
marketing resource that adds substantial profits to your
business.

Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales
personnel and developing sales leads. He is now a Sales
Consultant. Bob recently wrote a manual for small business
owners titled "How to Build Your Small Business Fast With
Simple Postcards" and several other publications to help
small businesses grow and prosper. For more information...
Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: "Postcards".
Phone: (702) 658-1707 (After 10 AM Pacific time)
Or write: Bob Leduc, PO Box 33628, Las Vegas, NV 89133