Читать книгу Direct Mail in the Digital Age - Lin Grensing-Pophal - Страница 16

You will need to consider whether you can reach your market effectively through direct mail. Suppose you’re selling a product that appeals to lawyers. It’s easy enough to get a list of lawyers. You can reach your market. However, suppose you’re selling a product that appeals to 30-year-old redheads who collect stamps. You’re going to have a very tough time finding a list of these prospects (although tools such as Facebook Ads make this more of a possibility than in the past). Even if you were able to find a list of this target group, the number of potential customers will be so small that you may not be able to sell very large quantities of your product.

As we’ll see, in direct mail the list is the most important aspect of your marketing effort. If you can’t reach your market (e.g., if you can’t find a list or enough lists), you can’t sell your product.

Despite the cautions in the following sections, and even though you may not be able to sell every product or service through a direct mail effort, what you can often do is generate qualified leads. Having qualified leads can then become part of your sales pipeline, providing salespeople with names of individuals or companies that have expressed some interest or affinity that suggests they might be a good candidate for a follow-up call or visit.