Huston, we have a problem. What to do with 1 Million leads ?

[bwh1]

Fellow warriors

That's maybe one of those sweet problems which appear only once in life. A problem which bares a huge opportunity.

The Situation: one of my friends has about 1 Million leads in his data base. He "got" them as a compensation for missing payments.

Whatever, the problem is that those leads are NOT active, not in a marketing sales funnel. And some are close to 12 month old.

They are separated into area (all US), gender, sex and all where collected over "loan offers". This information we do have. But what's about today ?

There is no branding or website recognition, nothing. Most will even not remember that they are on this list.

We made a test mail relevant to the "loan niche" those days to 2000 leads to see what happens. 1,35% open rate and 0,80% click through, 0 sales. Lousy to say - at least - but expected.

What would YOU do now ? I know I have to separate them into ACTIVE/INACTIVE.

But HOW should I do this ? What's the best way to get to a solid result ?

Offering a free guide to get them open the mail and take action ? A guide in the LOAN niche or anything else ?

Or simply sending a mail asking "HELP ME TO HELP YOU" ? to spare the good from the bad leads, insisting with those who didn't answer with this strategy. For how long time ?

I just don't wanna get a spam accusation, and don't wanna waste a ton of time here.

Any ideas from heavy list pro 's like Rich Schefren, Eban Pegan or Frank Kern are very welcome :-) (you didn't took that serious, didn't you)

G.

[Loren Woirhaye]

Read the spam YOU get. Swipe the most compelling subject-line
appeals. Try to use what you've got to build new lists in major
pain areas:

-money problems
-make money
-stave-off creditors
-weight problems
-love-life problems

Expect spam complaints. Expect angry phone calls too -
but that being said a phone number is likely to boost response -
maybe even use an 800 number as the response device instead
of a website. You might be surprised at how willing folks are
to call a number and leave mailing information.

Voila - direct-mail list.

[bwh1]

Thanks Loren

interesting, I thought to stay in the loan, financial niche only, but as they anyhow don't know where the mail is coming from it's better to try to make as much lists as possible in all kind of valuable niches.

Good idea about the 800 number, have to see how this can be managed.

Thks

G.

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye

Read the spam YOU get. Swipe the most compelling subject-line
appeals. Try to use what you've got to build new lists in major
pain areas:

-money problems
-make money
-stave-off creditors
-weight problems
-love-life problems

Expect spam complaints. Expect angry phone calls too -
but that being said a phone number is likely to boost response -
maybe even use an 800 number as the response device instead
of a website. You might be surprised at how willing folks are
to call a number and leave mailing information.

Voila - direct-mail list.