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Ask HN: Best way to Market to Customer Leads

6 points by visava ↗ HN
If I have phone, email, fax for customer leads whats the most effective way to pursuade them to sign up to a free trial of a subscription based service.

Also the service provides more value to end users as more people sign up (chicken egg problem similar to social networks)

3 comments

[ 6.3 ms ] story [ 1759 ms ] thread
jacquesm
Whichever of those you choose to use it's going to be spam in some form or other if you don't have a prior existing relationship.

How did you get this data in the first place ?

Did you buy it ? Did they sign up with you for something else ?

If the first then you're out of luck, you will have to use something borderline or even illegal if you wish to use that data, depending on where you live. Especially email is fraught with danger. If you really insist in that case on doing it I would take it very slowly, and approach a couple of them (say 5 or 10) on a personal level, email from your real publicly visible email address, asking them that exact same question, and then use the feedback to formulate a strategy.

If they are already in an existing relationship for another product then you might consider sending out an email about the other service, where you can legitimately email them, and add a line or two about your new offering at the bottom.

It's a tricky thing you are trying to do here. The best method of all would be to try to figure out where these people hang out as a group and market to that channel. That will cost you but it doesn't have a 'bad taste' associated with it.

Good luck, let us know how it worked out!, It's a problem that more people are trying to deal with here.

visava
Most of the data is collected from publicly available company websites from yahoo directory.

In that case is it legal to call company numbers and ask to speak to somebody in the related division.

I think I will start with adwords once I somehow signup 100 beta customers talking to them at a personal level.(Linked In might be a good way.) I will keep some free promotion to these intial 100 customers to encourage them to send invites to others for signing up.

Regular Mail marketing is also something I will have to try. This is a very niche field but I will look up if they have some related magazines in which I could advertise.

Trade shows may be expensive for me in the beginning.

Thanks for your suggestions.

jacquesm
That's called 'cold calling', depending on your jurisdiction there may be a 'do not call' registry, that should be fairly easy to check.

I think that the best person to answer here on HN would be 'grellas', but asking a good corporate lawyer where you live would be even better.

Better grow a very tough skin before undertaking this, and expect a very low rate of conversion.