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Branding Information |
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Optimize Your Mailing List For Better Results
A list of customers who have previously bought from you is your mostimportant asset. These are the customers who will provide you with returnbusiness, which is more profitable than the first sale. Are yougetting the most from your customer list? There are some secrets you shouldknow, so you can squeeze the most benefits out of your mailing list. Most business' customer lists consist of this information: Name, Address,City, State, Zip. That's it. Unfortunately, this mailing list is almostworthless. You need to have more information in your files than just that.I have 32 information fields in my customer database! You should be able toset these up in your computer's database, or, if you don't use a computer(you REALLY should), all this information should fit on a large size indexcard in a card file.Here are the fields I have in my customer database: Product Code Publication Issue Purchase LastName Of CustomerFirstName of Customer Address1;Address2 / POBox City; State;Zip; Amount Paid Ship Date Phone Number Almost any address possible can be put into my database without having toleave out information or abbreviate. The next three are for phone numbers.You MUST have your customer's phone numbers, when possible, to be able tofollow up quickly and efficiently. Making one phone call can be thedifference between a big sale or NO sale. The InqDate field is where I record the date the customer first inquiredabout my products and services, and the date I sent the information, sinceit's always the same day (there's no excuse not to follow up your inquirieson the same day you receive them). This information, coupled with theReferSource field, tells me when my ads are hitting, and how quickly peopleare responding to them. If I see that inquiries are coming in slowly, orlong after the ad is out, I know that I need more action incentives in mynext ad. The ReferSource field is where I enter the "key" from my ad. Iuse a letter code after my street address to indicate which publication andissue the inquiry comes from. I also code my mailings, for the same reason. I enter a date into the two FollowUp fields to indicate when I want to sendfollow up literature to customers who don't order on the first try. Iusually put a date two weeks from the InqDate in FollowUp1, and one two weekslater than that in FollowUp2. Then, every day, I run a search on these twofields to pull up any records that have today's date as a follow up date. Ican then print labels and put them on the envelopes and literature I haveready for follow ups. I use the next three fields (SubDate, SubAmount, RenewDate) for thenewsletter I publish. These would have the date I receive theirsubscription, the amount they paid (I sometimes run special prices), and thedate I want to send subscription renewal information (usually 10 1/2 monthsfrom the SubDate). I can then print labels in the same manner as I do forthe FollowUp fields. Next come the Purchase fields. I have three sets of purchase fields, onefor each purchase the customer makes. In the Purch1 field, I enter a codefor the product they have purchased. The other two fields get the date andamount of the purchase. The second and third sets of fields get the sameinformation for the customer's second and third purchases. The bestcustomers to mail offers to are the ones that have purchased within the last90 days, so I don't have to worry about many customers making more thanthree purchases during that time period (though I hope they will!). Ifsomeone does make a fourth purchase, I move the second and third sets ofdata up to the first and second lines, and enter the new purchase informationin the third data set. These fields are extremely important. I can instantly pull up a list ofcustomers that have purchased within the past 90 days, or 60 days, or 30days, or even 15 days. When you rent out your house mailing list, like Ido, this information is vital. The rental amount you can charge increasesas the amount of time since the customer's purchase decreases. The Comments field is used to store any miscellaneous information about thecustomer that I think is important to know. I use the final field, Cust#, for a specially coded customer number that Iassign each customer. I use this code to identify the recipient of anycommissions I may pay to customers who have brought business my way. That's a lot of information, and you may be wondering why I would need allof that. Well, I've already told you how I use the purchase data fields foridentifying the "age" of the customers. I can also use the TotAmount fieldto compile a list of customers who have bought more than a certain amountfrom me. Together, these field searches can be used to produce a customizedmailing list of, for example, customers who have bought more than $50 inthe past 30 days. These would be the most responsive people to mail to, andwould render the highest rental rate. I can also use certain mailing list fields to identify people who should bedropped from my list. For example, I can search for customers withFollowUp2 dates that are four weeks past today's date, and TotAmounts ofzero. These customers could be erased from my list. Or, I could leave themon file, and put a word or two in the Comments field reminding me not tomail anything else to them, in case they inquire again. This saves me thecost of mailing something to someone who probably won't respond. They might,but chances are they won't. Finally, if I get a customer who has returned too many orders, or hasdefrauded me in some way, I can put that information in the Comments field.Then, if they order again, when their file comes up, I will see theirhistory, and can use extra caution with them. As you can see, if you use foresight when initially setting up your customerlist, you will have a valuable tool that you can use to increase your orderpotential, increase your income through specialized list rental, anddecrease your mailing costs by eliminating "deadwood" from your list. Thisis one of the most important methods you can use to increase your chances ofsuccess. Copyright 2004 by DeAnna Spencer Note to editors: This article may be redistributed freely on the Internet as long as the resource box remains intact.
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