Mail campaigns

[CaraL]

Hi
I am looking at doing a postal mail shot campaign for a web hosting company.
Are there any legal things about doing a google search to find companies to send info to?

does anyone have ideas on how to get company info at low/no cost - primarily i want to target web agencies within a certain geogrphic area to do a test on how well the campaign works then i will expeand it to other industry sectors.

or is it better to just buy the data in? if so what sort of costing will this be...

thank you

[scooby]

My best advice is to buy the data from a Data house such as Experian or Market safe for the whole region. Make sure any supplier is MRS or DMA approved !
They will have the info to see if the company will be receptive to mailing campaigns.

You want and test it on a smaller area first e.g. a town to monitor the response . Data houses will will gather the info from telephone directories, companes house and previous research to give the latest info avalible e.g. postal address, main contact
Important things to remember
* a contact, to make a personal message
* the right address ( how do you know its right from a website, it could be HQ)
* how are you using the data - is it just a one off postal campaign or are you following up laterwith a phone call? This will help you decide if you need to use a single or multiple use license, which affect the price overall.
* Roughly you will be looking at £180-200 per 1000 contacts for single use
* you need to consider the Data Protection act which overlaps into buying data, the Telephone Preference Service and Postal pref service too
* maybe getting the idiots guide to Direct mail from the Royal Mail website will help too

[barney1]

Your local council may have a business directory you can use - normally free of charge.

[genexbs1]

There are no legal issues with sending mail flyers to other businesses around. However you should do it sensibly to save your efforts. You must send these mails to verifiable companies and I agree with buying approved business data from external sources. This will help you save time and get better results.

I hope that helps.

Best regards,
Genexbs.com Team