The Real Gold Is In the List

By Marty Foley
Posted Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Are you a one shot, hit-and-run marketer, or do you appreciate that the real gold in business is in the list?

Rather than focus on one-shot deals, savvy marketers realize the value of a good list, and seek ways to expand and derive more value from theirs.

What kind of lists am I talking about? On the Internet, an opt-in list of customers, or others who've agreed to receive regular communications from you. Or it may be an offline list of postal mailing addresses, telephone, or fax numbers.

The best list is a targeted one, comprised of those who are at least familiar with you; with whom you've already developed a relationship of trust.

Ideally, it's made up of those who've already done business with you, or have at least expressed a sincere interest in similar types of goods you offer in the past. It's NOT a list of randomly gathered (untargeted) contact information, whether email addresses to which unsolicited spam email is sent, or otherwise.

Once you've developed a good, targeted list, you have a valuable asset. For example:

. Valuable time, effort and expense are invested in gaining customers. Customer acquisition is one of the largest marketing expenses. Many marketers toss this investment out the window by selling one thing to a customer, one time, and forgetting about them forever. A good list, on the other hand, lets you market your goods and services much less expensively.

. 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 that your customer is satisfied with his/her purchase and the service received.

. You gain leverage. When you approach others to arrange joint ventures, for instance, ownership of a sizeable, properly targeted list is a powerful bargaining asset.

. You can sell advertising to others who want to market to your list.

. Repeat business is crucial to the success of virtually all businesses. With a good list you stand a much better chance of turning buyers into life-long customers.

. You have a built-in audience to which you can quickly roll out new offers.

If your home or office caught on fire, and you were only allowed to save one business asset, what would it be? For many savvy marketers it would be their list. It would be the one thing that would best help them start over from scratch.

After reading this, perhaps you're 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 one, you've just been reminded of its value.

Grow it, groom it well, and profit from it accordingly.

More Helpful Resources...

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Want to boost your opt-in email profits? Sign up now for ProfitInfo's free Email Profits E-Course:
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About The Author
Marty Foley is a successful home business owner and the founder of (http://ProfitInfo.com/). His Internet marketing techniques and resources have helped set the standard in e-commerce, and have often been imitated by other famous Internet marketers. They can truly help you succeed online: (http://ProfitInfo.com/)
MFoley@ProfitInfo.com