List Building

byjohnfink

110 followers

10 years ago

The Money is in the list.

I learned at an early age the importance of building a list. In my last post I talked about my first exposure to Direct Response Marketing when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I responded to an ad in the back of a Superman Comic Book.
For the next several months I received several letters offering special offers. I didn't know it but I was placed on a mailing list. This was in 1950 and there was no such thing as Email; my mail was delivered by the US Postal Service.

Many years later, in 1960 I learned the importance of a mailing list. I was attending college and working at a Christian not for profit origination in Chicago (The Pacific Garden Mission) that provided services to the homeless. Each month that mission would mail out a Newsletter. Inserted in the Newsletter was return postage paid envelope. Within a few days the mission started receiving those return envelopes with checks in them. The money was in the list.

In 1964 I started a similar work in Atlantic City. Prior to opening that agency I was invited to speak in a number of churches and civic clubs to talk about the plans for starting this mission. At each of these speaking engagements I passed out a form for people to receive our free monthly newsletter. Today, I know that I was building an 'opt-in" list although I'm not sure that term was in use back then.

I want to emphasize the term "OPT IN" Some non-profits some marketers purchase mailing list. I never did that. Back then I hated junk mail as much a I now hate spam mail. The term "The Money is in the list" is not exactly accurate. The money is in a "Qualified List", people who want to receive your mailings.

In 1969, I resigned and went to work for another well-known Christian nonprofit organization; a division of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. There I learned about, "list segmentation” Many people came forward at crusade or wrote in for spiritual guidance. Those people received helpful inspirational literature. They were never asked to make a donation. The association had another list called the "Donor List".

The only way to get on that list was to actually make a donation. In other words people who requested help received help - people who donated money was asked to continue supporting the work. As marketers, our most valued list is our buyers. People who just requested information should continue to receive useful information about any new product we have to offer; people who bought from us receive "sales Letters" for additional products.

That may sound like a lot of work. Well there are a lot of details. However, today that can be fully automated with what is called the "Sales Funnel” In my next post I will be talking about the Sales Funnel and how it can be used to generate qualified leads and to make sales.