I am still bemused by the number of companies with whom I speak who don’t have a list of the email addresses of all the firms that have dealt with them or asked for a quote in the past year.

I’m even more bemused when, having that part of the conversation we seem to move on to talking about direct mail as the only alternative.  There’s no email list, so drop the subject, let’s talk direct mail.

Direct mail is always a good thing to do if you have a list of recent customers and firms you have quoted, and I would never stop anyone doing such a promotion.  But just because no one has ever added email addresses to a list of potential clients in the past, it doesn’t mean it can’t start now.

Of course I am always willing to admit that the fact that I don’t convince people of the need to go out and add the email addresses is probably down to my inability as a salesman, but I must admit I do find it frustrating.

It is quite easy to research 100 email addresses from past customers in a day – in fact you can do many more.  And if you don’t want to do this you can always go out and get an outside firm to do it for you.   And the fact is, once you have got that list, you can email these people with offers, background, information, news…

But in thinking this through I have begun to wonder if maybe the problem is not so much the getting of the list that is the issue, but what to say to people when you mail them.

If you are a subscriber to Direct Mail Secrets (the daily news service on direct marketing) you may have noticed, I do slip in adverts for Hamilton House from time to time, alongside announcements and ideas related to direct marketing.   The same mix works for most companies.

If you would like to talk about how you could transform your direct mail list into a list that you can email and direct mail, do give me a call on 01536 399 000.  But even if you don’t want to do business with HHM, I would still recommend you do it, if it has not been done yet.

And if you are not a subscriber to DMS you can join by sending an email to direct-mail-secrets-subscribe@yahoogroups.com – you will get an email back from Yahoo – just click reply and then you are in.  You get one email a day four or five days a week, and you can leave at any time.

Tony Attwood