How to Build a List

How to Build a List

Specific, practical tips for how to build your mailing list.  You want to collect and save  cell phone numbers (so you can text and call them), email addresses, and mailing addresses for customers and prospects. 

Ways to build your list

1.  Look for customer information you already have

• Check on any forms, applications, or other documents customers complete.
• Look at your financial and sales databases for names and addresses.
• You can also use bill-to, ship-to, and sales reps' contact databases to gather prospects.

2.  Get everyone to help you

• Run a contest among your employees for who can add the most information about customers and prospects to your customer database.  Reward them with a day off or gift certificate or cash bonus. 
• Emphasize the importance of the accuracy of the data they share about customers and prospects. 
• Get this information added to the customer database.
• Reward employees for updating customer information (new email address, change in mailing address, name change, new cell phone number, etc.), not just adding new customer/prospect data. 

TIP:  Customer Databases: How to Collect and Save Customer Information

 

3.  To build your mailing list

• Keep a guest book and encourage customers to sign it when they visit your business.

• Hold a drawing and ask customers to enter their information for a chance to win a prize.  Do this only for your existing customers. You don't want to do this for anyone because then you'll just have worthless names of people who want to win something, not people who are interested in your company or products/services. 

• Develop a frequent buyer program and capture customer information on the application.

• Make a customer feedback box and invite customers to include contact information.

• Your current and past customers are the foundation of your direct mail list and customer database.  You want everyone in your company helping to collect customer contact information and keep it up-to-date.  Be sure to collect email addresses as well as mailing addresses.

• Ask customers to register with you.  You'll need to make a "value exchange" with them to send them information they want or special sales.  And reassure them that you won’t rent or sell the information they do share with you.

• Conduct customer satisfaction surveys

• Ask every caller if they want to receive your email newsletter...and then collect their email address and other contact information. 

• Add a fish bowl on your counter for people to drop their business card in for a monthly drawing.

• Add a "join our mailing list to receive our free email newsletter" to your website.

• Ask your Twitter followers to sign up for your email newsletter.

• Ask your fans on Facebook to sign up to receive your free email newsletter.

• Get a phone app that enables people to sign up for your email newsletter (many of the companies that offer email marketing services offer these).

• At events or trade shows, have a sign-up sheet for people to share their contact information. 

• Include a button to "forward to a friend" on your email newsletter and a way for new people to sign up for your email newsletter.

• On every appropriate page of your website, add a way for people to sign up for your free email newsletter.  Include samples of the newsletter and reinforce that they will not get spammed.  See MarketingZone's subscription center as an example of how to do this.  Look at this page.  There's an ad at the top about the newsletter.  There's a box on the side column about signing up for our free email newsletter. 

TIP: Other sources of names

• Trade and business publications
• Professional associations
• Government sources
• Trading customer direct mail lists with other business owners who market to the same type of customers.  You'll want to be sure to clean the file to eliminate duplicate names that are people who are your customers and theirs as well. 
• Real estate agents often have excellent direct mail lists of the subdivisions and neighborhoods they focus on marketing to.  They may allow you to rent or borrow their list.
• How to Select and Buy (it's actually rent) a Direct Mail List
  

What do you have to say?

Share your comments below or give advice about how to add more people to your customer database and direct mail list.