Has anyone ever tried salesgenie.com for leads to send direct marketing materials to?

I went to their website, but they don't give info on pricing, at least I didn't see it, which means it is probably listed there somewhere (lol). There is a 3-day trial, but I don't know...

I feel kind of strange buying a list; not sure it would be the right thing to do.

Cindi

Hi Cindi, I haven't purchased leads from this particular company, or leads specific to being a VA, but when I was working in direct sales a few years ago I purchased leads for a few months. My conclusion: it is much more lucrative being a lead seller than a lead buyer. On the email leads: unknown to me, some of the names were children and their parents were not happy to have me contacting the kids, naturally. And, kids certainly were not my target market. An embarrassing waste of money. On the phone leads: no one I spoke with admitted to requesting any info about the services I offered. A question to ask the seller: how are the leads generated? What makes someone a "lead"? Is it just that they are warm and breathing, or are they targeted to your niche?

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Virtual Bankruptcy Paralegal
www.bkprep4u.com

Thank you Kate. My target market is transcribing for attorneys and investigators. I think I will skip buying leads and use my handy-dandy phone book!

Cindi

Creating your own list is a great idea. You will know who you want to target. From what I've read a 2% success rate for direct mail is considered very good. It's good to know what numbers to expect so that you don't get discouraged. If you mail to 100 people and 2 respond, those are good numbers (which is why I don't pay for leads anymore). I hope you get a couple of great clients from your efforts.

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Virtual Bankruptcy Paralegal
www.bkprep4u.com

I have been working on creating my own list (don't have the money to buy one and don't know a reliable company to purchase from.) I am using the phone book, local newspapers and the online member directory from the local Chamber of Commerce. We'll see how my list works out.

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Annemarie
Mid-Michigan Bookkeeping

I have decided to do the same thing. I think it is more personal this way. At least I will have control of who is on my list :-)

I am going to do some mailings and will post back here when I have some results.

Originally Posted by Annemarie Fox

I have been working on creating my own list (don't have the money to buy one and don't know a reliable company to purchase from.) I am using the phone book, local newspapers and the online member directory from the local Chamber of Commerce. We'll see how my list works out.

I was about to recommend the same. I made a mailing list for my 9 to 5 job and that is where I found a lot of businesses. Another option would be to check the legal section of your local newspaper (I work for one) because new businesses have to post their incorporation.

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Teressa@Reese Virtual Assistant
www.reeseva.com

Originally Posted by Teressa

I was about to recommend the same. I made a mailing list for my 9 to 5 job and that is where I found a lot of businesses. Another option would be to check the legal section of your local newspaper (I work for one) because new businesses have to post their incorporation.

I will start looking in the newspaper. We only get the Sunday paper delivered. I wonder if new businesses will be in there. If not, I will have my husband start bring the paper home from his work when everyone is finished reading it.

Hi,
I plan on using www.lawyers.com and our city's weekly newspaper to build my list.

Cindi,

I've never purchased a mailing list. Since my current business is primarily location-based, I tend to use two other methods to compile a mailing list (both of which are one-time labor intensive but worth their weight in gold once complete): 1.) I use my local telephone book and local newspaper to see who is advertising or otherwise making news and 2.) I use the readily available list of Chamber members on the Chamber website. I then send them a one-time self-designed postcard congratulating them on their news or inviting them to an upcoming seminar. Sometimes I simply make them aware of other free and paid resources in the area like the Chamber and the SBDC.

Once I used www.Manta.com to create a mailing list of all the photographers in the area and I found it to be very accurate. (Manta is also free.)

Now I tend to concentrate more on marketing through offline methods where I can showcase my skill set while building relationships.

Since I'm very comfortable speaking in public I often offer to partner with those who are more powerful or in higher profile than I (like my local Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Development Center). Sometimes the organizations even make money off my presentations which I'm more than happy to allow them to do as they have the audience and I have the knowledge.

Leslie