How To Find Hundreds of YOUR Ideal Prospects

How many customers will do business with you next month? A thought that has created many sleepless nights for small business owners. You silently pray that it'll be enough to cover your business and personal expenses.

Deep down inside, you feel like you have no control over how many customers actually show up to do business with you. Word-of-mouth is your number one marketing strategy - or perhaps your only marketing strategy.

There are countless ways for small businesses to bring in customers; word of mouth is truly only one of them but few take the time to explore others. Here's an awesome way to reach hundreds (even thousands!) of ideal prospects for YOUR business.

This is apparently a well-kept secret for many small business owners as they are often surprised when I reveal this. The secret is LISTS! You can buy a list of ideal prospects and the number of names you purchase can be set to whatever your business budget can afford. Using lists to send mailings to your target market is direct marketing.

Rather than purchasing an expensive advertisement and blindly hoping it reaches the right people, you can speak directly to the people whose demographic and other descriptions match the description of your ideal customer. Here are some pointers on how to make direct marketing work for you:

KNOW YOUR TARGET MARKET

Although direct marketing through list purchasing is an effective way to reach more clients, if you are not crystal clear about who your target market is, buying a list will not be effective for you. Defining your target market would be your very first step (e.g. age, income level, other demographics, location, etc)

TYPES OF LISTS:

You can purchase a variety of different types of lists:
• Subscriber lists (e.g., names and addresses of people subscribed to Parenting Magazine or some other magazine that matches what your target market would read)
• Purchaser Lists (e.g. an appliance repairman can purchase a list of names and addresses of people who recently purchased a new appliance)
• Compiled lists (e.g. a list that came from multiple sources such as the ones mentioned above. You'd have someone who reads Parenting Magazine and also that made a specific type of purchase)

For any of these types of lists, you can get it sorted geographically (e.g. zip code), income level, men or women only, only people with kids, folks with kids of a certain age, people who have a history of shopping online, people who purchase a lot of self-help books, people of a specific age, etc). The criteria is endless so that you can fine-tune it precisely who your target market is.

WHERE TO GET LISTS

• Online : www.InfoUSA.com is one that I've purchased a few lists from to do direct mailing and find the site incredibly easy to use. There are countless others as well. Another great resource for all types of lists is www.srds.com. That site is used by direct marketers (which is what you become the minute you start using lists to market your business). For a yearly subscription cost, you can use keywords to search for a list that best matches your target audience. At this site, you can find contact information for many lists that matches your criteria.

• List brokers: These are people from whom you can purchase lists. They sit down with you to understand your specific needs and help you determine the best list for you. You can do a google search for list brokers online or in your area. Personally, I've found www.InfoUSA.com to be quite excellent.

PURCHASE OR RENT A LIST

Rent: You can rent lists for as little as $49 per thousand names & mailing addresses. But when you rent, you must commit to using the list once only. There are names and addresses planted in the list so that if you try to use it more than once, someone on the list reports you and you essentially get flagged and banned. And you definitely don't want that.
Purchase: Some lists you can purchase for multiple or unlimited use. These are typically a bit more expensive. www.InfoUSA.com sell lists that you can use repeatedly.

WHAT TO SEND TO A LIST

When you have your golden list of ideal prospects in hand, then the ball is now in your court to woo them to your business, product or service. If it's the very first time you are connecting with these people, don't try to sell them something instantly. People rarely buy from strangers unless is something that's very low cost and low risk. A great way to start is to offer something for free in your area of expertise. (free booklet, free teleseminar, free CD, free report, free checklist, free evaluation, etc). But it must be described in a way that would entice the recipient.

In exchange for the "free something" the person provides their contact information. If they accept your offer, then you know you have a lead - someone who is interested in what you do. It is then your job to turn them into a client. At my web sites, when a prospect becomes a lead, my first step is to ask questions on their problems and challenges so that I can later create or offer what's most desired.

DIRECT MAIL MUST BE REPEATED

Be prepared to do a direct mail campaign of at least 3 different mailings to the same list. Doing a 1-time mailing is rarely effective and you are likely to get little or no response. In fact, the more iterations the better, but remember you can start with just a small number of people to match your budget. As you begin to acquire new customers and clients, you can use larger list sizes and also have more repetitions to the same list.

A direct-mail campaign can have 3 different marketing pieces with a different (or same) offer in each. You can even send the same piece 3 times with only slight modifications. If you've never attempted to do direct mail piece, I highly recommend the book "The Ultimate Sales Letter" by Dan Kennedy. It not only shows you how to craft an effective direct mail piece but it also tells you the secrets to getting your direct mail read (vs thrown in the trash) by your target audience. Dan Kennedy has been an awesome mentor to me in learning the skill of direct marketing.