It is becoming more and more difficult for a sales man to work advantageously without active support from the house which he represents. Direct advertis ing provides a means by which the salesman's state ments are authoritatively supported over the signa ture of one of the officials of his company.
A certain sales manager estimates that his firm loses $8,500 a year thru calls by his salesmen upon buyers who are absent from their offices at the time of the call. He could save that loss if he could devise an ap pointment system that would insure that the buyer would be on hand when the salesman calls. Direct advertising may help in such a case. Even tho it fails to insure an appointment in every instance, it may indicate whether or not it is worth while for the sales man to go to great trouble to make an appointment with a particular prospect.
The visit of a salesman is a large expense, and there are many dealers to see and few 'salesmen to see them. By using letters at frequent intervals, to supplement the calls of salesmen, the manufacturer or jobber is enabled to keep closely in touch with his distributors and at the same time cut down expense.
4. Compiling the ?nailing list.—The success of a mail campaign depends primarily upon the mailing list. Bad advertising matter sent to a live list is no doubt partly wasted, but good advertising sent to a had list is yet more futile.
The first step in compiling a mailing list is to deter mine what class of people are most likely to buy the goods offered. Certain broad classifications may be quickly determined; for example, those based on sex, on occupation, on income, or on foreign extraction. Business and professional men are said to be liberal buyers of certain commodities; while bankers and farmers are conservative buyers.
The selection of the sources of mailing list names is seldom difficult. The following outline is suggestive of the many mines of information for the wide-awake advertiser.
One of the quickest ways to construct a live mailing list of general consumers is to offer something at a reduced price in a magazine, newspaper, or other periodical medium. One of the great mail-order houses obtained its first mailing list from publishing advertisements offering thirty pounds of sugar for a dollar. Within a few days the company had the
names of thousands of people who had demonstrated their willingness to buy direct by mail when excep tional value is offered. Among other ingenious schemes of this sort are prize offers and voting con tests.
Valuable mailing lists may be purchased on very short notice from listing agencies and addressing com panies. The price of these lists varies with the dif ficulty of compiling them and ranges from one-half cent to as high as 8 or 10 cents a name. Reputable listing agencies usually guarantee their lists to be from 95 to 98 per cent accurate, according to the nature of the list; and they refund for all "dead letters." In buying "names" it is well to stipulate that letters returned because of wrong or insufficient address shall call for a refund.
5. Getting a correct establishing a list for mailing purposes it pays to spend thought and care to get it correct. One defect in lists compiled from directories is that commonly only the first and last name are given in full; while the middle name is in dicated by initials. The John H. Smith of the di rectory may sign his name in any of various ways. He may prefer to be addressed as "J. H. Smith," or "John Hepburn Smith," or possibly "J. Hepburn Smith." He may also prefer to be addressed with whatever titular degree or other designation he is ac customed to.
The subject of "right names" was investigated by a well-known publishing company. By comparative tests the company found that a list made up of names as customarily signed achieved results 14% per cent better than a list copied from a directory.
Oftentimes names and addresses of the same per sons are obtainable from different sources and one can be used to check the other.
The nature of the business will to a great extent determine whether other information besides name and address is desirable. In some retail businesses where it is expected to serve the same customer many times, the facts collected by the advertiser concerning birthday dates, political and religious affiliations, size of family and similar matters are numerous.