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Selling mailing lists can be a profitable sideline for any mail order business. Many distributors rely on “direct mail” to promote their products or services. They are always interested in good, fresh prospects. The most popular name classifications are “Opportunity Seekers”, “Cash Customers” and “Mail Order Distributors”. Mail order resellers are the easiest names to come up with. To get them, all you have to do is copy the names and addresses of the advertisers from the current mail order trade publications. To get a good selection of mail order magazines and newspapers, and to respond to “Big Mails” ads.
Opportunity seekers are those looking for ways to earn additional income. “Cash Customers” are simply those who have made purchases.
Never copy someone else’s lists. This could land you in “copyright infringement”, a federal crime. Also, you could be duplicating old and outdated lists. To be successful, your names and addresses must be up-to-date and accurate. This will keep your customers coming back again and again. To get started, you need a computer or someone to write the names for you. Look in your yellow pages under “Secretarial Services.” Or contact mail order distributors who sell names. Many of them will write at a reasonable rate. Another suggestion is to contact the typing teacher at your local high school or business school. Students love earning money to spend, and it’s good practice for them too.
The best way to write the names is through the page. Use white paper and a new black or red typewriter ribbon, never blue. Each 8 1/2 “x 11” page can easily contain 50 names. Each page should also be carefully coded in any top corner in terms of page number, classification, and typewritten date. Use the code you want, but one of the simplest is the following: “3CC10169”. This means page 3, Cash Customers, written on October 16, 1999.
The date is very important. People change direction quickly in this country. Names older than 6 months may be out of date. After this period of time, it is better to discard these names. Or you can send a “follow up” email to each name on your lists. Send these letters first class with your return address clearly visible. Those that are “nixies” (that cannot be delivered for one reason or another) should be removed. Instead of rewriting the entire corrected list, you can have the replacement names written on a separate sheet of paper. Then carefully cut and paste a replacement name over each name that can no longer be used.
After the names are spelled correctly, take them to the printer. It will cost you 3-4 cents to print each sheet, if you order 100 copies at a time. This means that every 100 copies of each page will cost you between $ 3 and $ 4, but it can be worth between $ 100.00 and $ 300.00, depending on how much you decide to charge for every 100 names. The best way to establish the “current price” is to check the advertisements of other mailing list distributors in the mail order trade publications. Never load more, or less. The middle of the road is always the best.
To promote your new mailing list service, run ads like this: 50 New Opportunity Seeker Names for FREE! Free for long self-address sealed envelopes! (Your name and address). “Ads like this will save you postage and envelope.
When orders come in from your free list, also include a price list of other names you have for sale. Somewhere on your price list, say something like “GUARANTEED DELIVERABLE! We provide 10 free names for every one that is returned!” This will close the sale, keep your customers happy, and keep you coming back for more!
And for every customer who responds to your ads and / or buys names from you, you have another name to add to your
Mailing lists!
Copyright 2004 by DeAnna Spencer