There is an adage in the sales and marketing world:
“Your best customer is the customer you already have.”
And for this reason, you are likely to do well when you send a mailing to people who have purchased from you before.
But what about the almost-ran?
What about the people on your in-house prospect list? People whom you have had contact with before—through the mail, by email, over the Internet, or other medium—people who asked for information but did not convert?
If they did not convert after the first contact, are they really any better a prospect than someone who is hearing about you for the first time? And if they are a better prospect, does it matter how long there is between contacts?
Test: This week we are going to look at an interesting list test that was done by G.A. Wright. The idea was to see if the house list of prospects would out-pull a purchased compiled B2B list. But the test went a step further. The house list was segmented by age. The idea was to see if the length of time a prospect had been on the list would have an effect on whether they converted the prospect.
Results:
The purchased complied list pulled a response of .306%. The in-house prospect list blew the complied list out of the water:

• Current year: 1230% better for a 4.070% response rate
• 1 year back 816% better for a 2.082% response rate
• 2 years back: 357% better for a 1.398% response rate
• 3 years back: 315% better for a 1.269% response rate
• 4 years back: 173% better for a .835% response rate

Do you think you know why?
Let me know what you think—call me at (310) 212-5727 or send me an email with your thoughts to [email protected].