Many people think that the only important part to building a customer mailing list is finding a creative way to gather the information. While this is an important first step, you must use the information wisely once you have it. If a customer or client took time out of their day to fill out a questionnaire or a contest entry then they must genuinely care about your business and the product or service provide. You have managed to build a degree of good will with that client and you don’ want to squander it just to send out unsolicited information. Let’s take a look at some do’s and don’ts of customer mailing lists.

Respect your customer base

The whole point of having a customer mailing list is to grow your business, so if a customer specified that they don’t want to be called during the day, don’t. If they specified that they don’t want to receive emails about certain topics, make sure they don’t. Nothing can burn a bridge faster with a one time loyal client than blatantly disrespecting their wishes. It is this kind of behavior that scares people away from giving out their personal information in the first place.

Target your solicitations correctly

If you are in the casket selling business, and you’ve managed to collect a few thousand names and addresses, you might not want to send the same flyer to the local nursing home as you would to a young newlywed couple in their 20’s. This is why it is so important to gather as much information as you can when you are compiling a customer mailing list. Yes, you want a mailing address and an email address, but you should also try to get the sex and age of the people, as well. You have to know how to market your product or service to different demographics. If you blanket everyone on your mailing list with the same promos, you are going to annoy most of them and only convert a limited number of those solicitations into sales. It may take some extra time to separate everyone on your list into different niches, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Keep building

If you do get some responses from your mailing list solicitations, take that time to try to build a broader consumer profile. If you are getting a lot of responses from people in a particular age group or from people who live in a particular area, record that information and see how you can use it to your advantage. A good customer mailing list never, ever stops growing or stops improving. You may have a sellable niche right under your nose and you don’t even know about it.

Get fresh eyes on your data

The last point leads to the natural conclusion that the more people you have analyzing your data, the better chance you have of discovering additional sales opportunities. You don’t have to go out and hire a third party to come in and look at what you’ve gathered, although that isn’t a bad idea, but simply having everyone in your office take an hour or some set period of time to browse and analyze the data to look for patterns. This small investment of time can pay off handsomely if you find a new niche to market your product in.

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The following blog post addresses some of the provisions most commonly found in Internet Advertising Agreements.

Definitions: The first paragraph of an Internet advertising agreement should set forth the definitions of the key terms that the agreement will refer to frequently.

Term: The agreement should recite how long the agreement is for.

Positioning: This paragraph should clarify how the advertising banners will be positioned on the advertiser’s website, and may refer to a schedule attached as an Exhibit.

Click-throughs: A “click-through” means that a user has clicked on the banner or the link to the purchaser’s website. If the agreement is for a certain amount of click-throughs per month, this provision of the agreement must clearly describe the commitments promised by the advertiser.

Exclusivity: If the deal points include an exclusivity provision, the agreement must reflect this intention. The agreement should be drafted to recite something to the effect of “no competitor of purchaser shall be permitted to place or purchase from advertiser, banner or promotional advertising as defined in Exhibit B, and advertiser agrees to use reasonable efforts to prevent third parties that are entitled to place ads on advertiser’s site from placing any banner or promotional ads of purchaser’s competitors.”

These are the most key provisions of an Internet Advertising Agreement. Once you and your advertising partner have reached an agreement, it is wise to consult an experienced transactional attorney to draft the agreement for you.

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