Are you a one shot, hit and run marketer, or do you appreciate that the real gold to be found in business is in the list?
Hit-and-run marketers focus on one-shot deals. Savvy marketers realize the value of good lists, and seek ways to expand and derive more value from theirs.
What kind of lists am I talking about? On the Internet, it may be an opt-in list of those who have agreed to receive regular communications from you. Or it may be an offline list, comprised of postal mailing addresses, phone, or fax numbers.
The best list is a targeted list, comprised of those that are at least familiar with you; with whom you have already developed a relationship of trust. Ideally, it is made up of those that have already done business with you, or have at least expressed a sincere interest in similar types of items in the past. It is NOT a list of randomly gathered (untargeted) contact information, whether email addresses to which unsolicited spam messages are sent, or otherwise.
Once you have developed a good list, you have a valuable asset.
For example
* Valuable time, effort and expense are invested in gaining customers. Customer acquisition can be one of the largest expenses involved in marketing. Many marketers toss this investment out the window by selling one thing to a customer, one time, and forgetting about that customer forever.
A good list, on the other hand, lets you market your goods and services less expensively, since it generally costs more to locate new customers than it does to market to existing ones.
* The best customer is a satisfied previous buyer, because people like to do business with those they know and trust.
* Additional sales to previous customers are often easier to make and more profitable than the initial sale. A relationship of trust has been built, provided the customer is satisfied with his/her purchase, and with the service received.
*You gain leverage. When you approach others to arrange joint ventures, for instance, if you have a sizeable, properly targeted list, you have a bargaining tool worthy of consideration. (I have lately been arranging a few carefully selected joint ventures, and plan to publish the details in a future article.)
* You can sell advertising to others that want to market to your list.
* Repeat business is crucial to the success of virtually all businesses. With a good list, you have the greater potential to turn buyers into life-long customers.
* You have a built-in audience to which you can quickly roll out new offers of products or services.
If your home or office caught on fire, and you were only allowed to save one item, what would it be? For many marketers, it would be their list. It would be the one thing that would best help them to start over from scratch.
After reading the above, perhaps you are now thinking "But Marty, I don't have a list." Well, now you know how valuable a properly developed and targeted list can be. And if you already have a list, you have just been reminded of its value. Grow it, groom it well, and profit from it accordingly.
If you enjoy the information in this newsletter, you'll love the savvy marketing information in Marty's latest book, Internet Marketing Goldmine, available in e-book and printed formats. Discover this and other proven resources for your online success at:
http://profitinfo.com/catalog/
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