Looking for less costly ways to acquire customers? What mailer isn’t? Mary Ann Kleinfelter, owner of Milford, NH-based consultancy Marketing Solutions Today, offers several suggestions:
* Use models to select prospects with the greatest likelihood of buying–but be careful. If you use multiple models from multiple sources, make sure they don’t conflict with each other. How? Call the folks doing modeling for you during the planning phase of the campaign. Ask their advice. They know how these models are being used and what is working. Discuss what they are basing the model on and how they will test it.
* Consider alternative media, such as space ads and package inserts. Rates are at their most affordable.
* Ask your best customers for referrals. Some marketers, for example, offer customers a discount for each new buyer they introduce. Referrals respond better than other inquirers and can be very economical to acquire.
* Be sure the data you’re getting are clean. Ask everyone whose lists or databases you use how and when they clean their data. Even the greatest prospecting ideas won’t work if the data are not clean.