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Say it Ain't So... Can Direct Mail Build an Email List?

by secretcopyman
7 replies
Question for the Warriors....

Had a real interesting convo with a direct marketing fanatic.

He's certain it can happen.

He feels that there is a way.

He says that through direct mail, you can build a solid email list.

Now this is a little... well different.

Perhaps if you CAN build a list through direct mail, it would be a very responsive list. After all, if I signed up for an email list from something that came in the mail, it made a huge impact on me. I'd at least pay attention to whenever an email came through.

But this is something foreign to me. Maybe that's me being ignorant, but I wanted to throw this out there for the marketers.

What say you about this concept? Something tried and true? Something ridiculous? Something interesting?
#build #direct #email #list #mail
  • Profile picture of the author secretcopyman
    Also wanted to add... if anyone has ever done this, I would LOVE to hear about it. Nothing like a good testimonial.

    :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      I know people who have done it with a "leaflet-drop". That's not exactly the same as "direct mail", I know, but in some countries (where you can actually get the leaflets delivered with the mail, by the Post Office) it's about as similar as you can get.

      .
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        You're describing a variation of the basic two-step direct marketing process. The only real difference is that instead of clipping a coupon and mailing it in, you ask the person to fill out a subscription form.

        If your offer is good and, more important, your postal mailing list is good enough, it can be very effective.

        Like any form of paid advertising, though, if you get it wrong you can burn through a lot of money in a very short time. The trick is to test in small batches until you're confident in both your list selects and your offer before rolling out on a bigger scale.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Trujillo
    There are many ways to market, some ways are online, and some ways are offline. Offline marketing is a great old school way of marketing, and when you build your list it with it you can have the best of both worlds. The key to succeeding with offline marketing such as direct mail is to make sure you know exactly who you want to target first of all, than from there find the proper list broker to mail to. From there start low with the amount of pieces you mail and if it works out look at scaling your efforts. Having a high quality list for direct mail is essential to your success. Of course you must have a good system in place and know how well your offers convert prior to investing any $.
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  • Profile picture of the author fulfilledlife
    I think it definitely can be done. But direct mailing is more expensive, so the final return should be worth it, otherwise very easy to burn though a lot of money very quickly.
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    Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value - Albert Einstein

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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
      This can work, depending on your offer and your demographics. Direct mail to someone who lives on their phone, I would suspect is not going to get you many signups.

      Pretty much, your offer has to be incredible, not just, "Sign up for my email list"
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  • Profile picture of the author SethLogan
    I think it's possible if the offer is pimp
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