CASHMASTER'S TOOLBOX |
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| Why is a Targeted Mailing
List So Important to Me?
You will hear the term “highly-targeted” mailing list used over and over again by publishers and mailers. But what does it actually mean — and is the meaning ever distorted in order to get your business? The answer to the last question is “YES.” There are people out there who distort the meaning of “highly-targeted mailing lists” because they know that you (as a customer) will never know who they mailed your ad to and also know that you will never question it. Therefore they will lie to you and misuse the term just to get your hard earned money — giving you nothing in return. - You must realize that every time you advertise in a publication of any kind, you depend upon the publisher to make sure your ad is seen by people who are interested in what you are selling. How would a publisher know who these people are? Certainly not by a mailing list they purchase from someone else. Instead, the only true way a publisher knows what type of interests the people on his mailing list have is by viewing the ads they place themselves or by doing surveys to determine their interests. This, of course, takes time. And most people don't want to find the time to do it. Compiling a good mailing list for the advertisers in a publication is not only time-consuming; but it also takes work and research. Again — many publishers place their needs above their advertisers and will concentrate more on selling adspace rather than building a good mailing list so that their advertisers will get responses to their ads. - One publisher even told me that he didn't care if his advertisers got a good response rate or not to their ads. Since he was not getting a cut of their profits — why should he care? I then asked him: “If someone ran a full page ad in your publication and made $4,000 in sales, how would you feel?” The publisher said he would be mad because he felt he should have had some of that money. What is the world coming to? This shocking discovery almost floored me; because I knew if someone ran an ad in our publication and made $4,000.00 in sales — they would continue to advertise with us again and again. So I REALLY WOULD receive the benefit of that advertiser's $4,000.00 in sales (over the long run) plus I would have a good repeat customer in the process. I believe that is the RIGHT way to think. The other selfish publisher is so off base I saw no need to continue our conversation. - A “highly-targeted” mailing list is where extra steps are taken to mail a publication directly to a specific group of people interested in the products and services their advertisers are selling. For instance, my ezine, BizLinks for Entrepreneurs, is “targeted” to homebased and small businesses. But I take it a step further with “highly-targeting” my mailing list by conducting surveys and analyzing all reader feedback. This way I know my subscribers are interested in the advertisers' products and services. - And if an advertiser attempts to run an ad that is not relative to my target market, I don't accept it. That's right! I turn away money if someone wants to run an ad that my readers would not be interested in. Why? Because in the long run I will get more subscribers and attain more success. Why not give up a measly $75 now to reap the benefit of 10 times that much? (YES, this process takes time and costs money — but it's the way I feel is right.) - But you as a customer also need to be aware of these things and question any publication before you choose to advertise with them. Call them up and ask them who they mail their publication to. If they cannot answer you sufficiently, consider placing a classified ad to “test” them out. Don't judge any publication by the amount of circulation or readership. You can get a better response to your ad with a 100-piece “highly-targeted mailing list” than running it in a publication with a 20,000 circulation made up of a hodge-podge of names. More Reports
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