Have you considered incorporating physical mailings into your marketing tactics?

If not, you’re missing out on a valuable avenue of outreach especially when it comes to marketing upcoming shows in cities where you don’t have a following. Even though letters and postcards are considered a thing of the past as they take a backseat to more modernized methods of communication, snail mail still has been able to keep it’s magic. Just think about it. A typical mailbox trip will result in a handful of bills and credit card offers. But, if you see something handwritten or from a name you don’t recognize, that’s the first thing you’re going to open, right?

Thus, utilizing snail mail to promote your shows can be very beneficial because it will give you more control over your message, more personal attention, and you can target whatever neighborhoods you want.

To get a list of 100 addresses from InfoUSA, an online mailing list distributor, you’ll probably need to fork over at least 100 bucks if not more. I’ve done it before and paid an arm and a leg for a decent mailing list. However, I just recently discovered a way to get a mailing list with names and addresses for free.

One day I was browsing around on a site for realtors. I think it was a forum or something similar. One realtor posed a question about getting the addresses of neighbors of current clients. One person responded with this neat little trick.

Whitepages.com lets you do a reverse address lookup. All you need is one address in the area you’re looking to generate addresses for. Type that address into the search bar and the website will return an address with a matching name and other current residents.

 

Here is a screenshot of a neighborhood in the Houston area.
This screenshot shows a list of neighbors next to a reverse address lookup.

Once you pull up the info page associated with the address you typed in, there is an area at the bottom of that page listing all their neighbors – including head of household names, current residents living in the house, along with addresses. The first page gives you about 7 addresses, but when you click on the ‘more’ button,’ you’ll get 99 more.

Here is a list of 99 additional addresses that I pulled up based on the 1 address I entered into the search feature.

So that’s over 100 addresses you just got for free without having to pay to get it. All you’ll need now is to print up some postcards and buy 100 postcard stamps.

Instead of spending $200 or more on a mailing list, postcard printing, and stamps; you’ll spend about $50 – $70. That’s quite a difference!

One thing to remember is that when you purchase a list, there are a few benefits included that you won’t have access to when creating your own list such as demographics, household income and debt, interests, etc. I’m not even sure how these mailing list companies even know this information or if it’s reliable. But it is an extra feature associated with buying a list as opposed to generating your own list. Another convenience you will get with buying a list is that you’ll get it formatted in a spreadsheet which makes it easier to merge and print mailing labels. When generating your own list, you’ll have to do all the organizing and formatting yourself. It’s not rocket science, but it will take some time to do.

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If you don’t have the time or patience for this type of data entry work, you could always hire a virtual assistant for 1 hour to do it for you. You can hire a virtual assistant on Fiverr starting at just $5.

Your postcards can be super simple. It can be a smaller version of your show poster, or something entirely different. You can also choose a font that makes it look like you wrote it by hand. Depending on your situation you might be able to offer discounts on tickets or merchandise to give them further incentive to come out.

If you’re looking for ways to promote your shows, try sending out postcards using a self-generated mailing list. With a reverse address lookup, you can get as many addresses as you’d like for free and save the money for something else.

Have you tried running a mailing list campaign? What are your best tips and tricks. Share your thoughts in the comment section.

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