Customers and Not-Customers

What exactly is your marketing goal? Is it to generate new customers, or to get more business from established customers? It may very well be both, but we want you to think about three things today. First, direct mail is a very good way to acco

mplish either goal. Second, it’s usually a mistake to try to do too much with any individual mail piece. And third, the “customer” message and the “not-customer” message can be significantly different.

Think about that. The message for not-customers — in other words, people who haven’t bought anything from you yet — is please give us a try. The message for customers — people who have bought from you in the past — is please try us again, and maybe please try some of our other products and services.

Now, there’s no question that you can get results with a combined approach, for example, a generic catalog that goes out to customers and prospects. The point is that you can probably get better results with a more personalized message. If you can segment your mailing list between customers and not-customers, we can help you to market more effectively. And if you can’t, we can probably help you to build a better database, giving you every opportunity to market more effectively in the future.