Hey everybody, I just moved to a large city with over 4 million people and trying to get my business name (webdesign services) to the local businesses. Aside from Adwords, I was looking at buying/renting a list of business email accounts from infousa.com. They can do a one-time blast for $1,200 and it includes over 1700 local email addresses. Now, if I just get 1-2 gigs out of that, then it would be worth it! Now, my questions are: 1.) Why haven't more people done this? Why are no people talking about this in the forums? I mean...you just need to get 1-2 jobs out of it! Next to Adwords, isn't this the best thing? 2.) Is the 1,200 price good? Are there better deals elsewhere? Locally? 3.) Has anyone actually done this before? Was it worth it? 4.) Any last minute advice before I try it? Thanks and I look forward to your responses
You're going to pay $.71 per address to spam people? You can spend that $1,200 much more wisely- IMO.
I agree. And, while I'm not a freelancer, a better idea in my opinion would be to take that 1200, grab your local phone book, and hire a telemarketer for $10 per hour to give you 120 hours of cold calling to generate some leads for you, and just follow up on those. I would think that would yield better results and would give you better potential to get a job then an email would..
You'll need some guarantees. All major ISPs like Hotmail, AOL, GMail etc. will block those emails if they see multiple of their users receive them. Like you said, you only need 1 or 2 conversions out of 1200 but do make sure you actually get the message out to 1200. After that, it has to be compelling enough that people read the message. It can work but renting lists and sending the stuff can be quite a headache after the writing, testing etc.
I rented a email list once from a large magazine publisher. The list was of people who subscribed to their very specific, small circulation publication that seemed to be perfect for our online business. We sent out 1700 emails, and got 5 complaints, zero sales. I was shocked and dissapointed, to say the least. On the other hand, our own monthly newsletter does generate sales. People have to opt in, and no one considers it to be spam.
If getting 1 or 2 jobs in your new home town is all you need a much better option IMO might be to actually get to know your city, take a WALK - look at good looking business suitable for online promotion and check their web sites ( businesses typically have their web site published somewhere outside their business or at the door ) look at SEO or mistakes you find and how you could improve that site then contact that business in person select hotels restaurants and other high profit business for a visit any business you have experience or you need in your life as well walking thru your city and getting to know personally your city - at least part of it - might be much cheaper and more efficient AND more pleasant to find a few new jobs to do and get you acquainted with your new home. as a promo gift you may even offer first a free web site make up to one or two of your preferred local business you visit or use yourself and then get more customers from their friends ... I travel a lot here and if web site design would be my business i might have a full time job just doing that. without mail list - just direct talk to site owners and giving them free advice to improve their income with actual results you create for them will make them interested in more service - even paid services. just another option to traditional options that you might want to consider ...