How to Set Up a Free Mailing List

Conventional mail is still essential for some businesses.

Any business really needs a list of customers. Setting up a mailing list for free is relatively easy if your company sells its goods through mail or courier. If you record your customers' names, you have a ready-made mailing list from those previous transactions. A mailing list of past customers can be put together at no cost.

Things You'll Need

• List of customers' names and addresses
• DTP program
• CD or DVD

Instructions

1. Record all the addresses of your customers and keep them on file. This should be a matter of course for any business serving its customers through mail or via personal deliveries. The mailing list should be of previous customers and people who have contacted your company, but the targeted group should be the previous customers.

2. Make the list out of all the people who have purchased any of your products by mail in the past year. Making up a list from older orders won't be as fruitful, as some of your customers may have moved. Set up the mailing list in sections if you mail out several different types of brochures. Group the names and addresses of customers by what they have bought in the past.

3. Assemble the list of names and addresses with a computer program. Save a copy of the list to a CD or DVD. You can add or change the mailing list at regular intervals.

4. Mail to your customers regularly, but not more than three or four times a year. If you don't receive a response from some people over a period of time, it could mean that they are waiting for something to grab their attention, and not that they've lost interest in your company.

Tips & Warnings

• Mailing lists are available to buy, and you could sell yours to other companies, but this is not always deemed ethical, though you will find yourself open to good offers. Companies which already have mailing lists won't have to do this and can save money. Be careful about whether you to decide to sell your mailing lists to, effectively, your competitors.

• Never add names and addresses randomly, and then mail information to people. Unwanted mail will only harm a company's reputation, and give it a reputation for junk mailing.