How to keep leads off of your list

Question

I have been doing mailers for just over a year and I always get the "take me off your list" calls. I always do take them off my list, but now I am getting to the point where I need to refresh my lists. How do other marketers deal with this. Do you keep all of the "Take me offs" and when you refresh your list you manually go in and take them all off?

Even with the standard yellow format postcards I get threats to sue me. Now I don't think they could or would sue me but I don't want to intentionally upset anymore people.

Even with the standard yellow format postcards I get threats to sue me.  Now I don't think they could or would sue me but I don't want to intentionally upset anymore people.

Tim Leslie · Answer

The first call I got on my first ever yellow letter campaign was from a guy who didn't have anything better to do with his life. He told me how he had 30 properties and that's way more I'll ever own because "I'm a low life criminal looking for houses to steal." Went on to tell me how he was giving the letter to his lawyer to sue me. He couldn't tell me what he was going to sue me for though haha. Oh and he was also hiring a private investigator to find out who I was, where the letter came from, AND to put me in jail. Needless to say I was a little nervous to answer the next 20 calls I received but it was definitely a great learning experience.

Ronald Perich · Answer

@Scott Arpan Another trick if you are using Excel or a Google spreadsheet... you can use the vLookup function. You can search for some great videos on how to make this happen. Here's one I found for two tabs within the same spreadsheet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dic8-TFp20

Happy spreadsheeting!

Scott Arpan · Answer

If you are using a mailing software program it should have a method to mark "flag" certain records and a "find duplicate records" function. These programs are sold at any office supply store and work well for databases under 50,000 names. I think most are $25-$50.

You can flag any record in your list to exclude it from mailing again. When you refresh your list use the find duplicate records to match up any flagged records to records in your new list that you do not want to mail.

I don't have any specific programs to recommend. I use Access to manage my list but it is overkill for a smaller list.

If you are using Excel or other spreadsheet, create a new field to flag records to exclude from your list and use the help button to find tutorials how to filter out records you don't want to mail. It is not that hard but their tutorials can give you better instructions then I could.

John Horner · Answer

Ha that's rough being your first call.  You learn to get thick skin though, now I have to laugh.

We had a guy once who told me he wants $300k for his property worth $150k and that he was big league and we could never do what he did, then he hung up on me.  Turned out we had bought a property right next door to his as a rental about a month earlier.  I really wanted to call him and say "Hey were neighbors, I guess we're in the same league huh?" haha

John Horner · Answer

I had a gentleman leave a voicemail message yesterday that made me laugh, I quote "If you send me another letter I am going to sue you for disrupting my happiness and my contentmentness (yes he used that word)"

I just want to tell these people "You could just throw it away next time."  It says right on it "Call if you are interested in selling your house".

John Horner · Answer

A little bit of a problem.  I have just been deleting them, not keeping track.  So I only have their absence, lol.

Ryan Dossey · Answer

This is a good question. We just had someone text us off of ours yesterday using... colorful language and letting us know we won't mail them again. Here is the kicker.... they wouldn't give us a name or address. I simply told them they could return to sender or provide the address or they would continue to receive them.

I would imagine that there is a way to scrub your list. Maybe try importing it into the same spread sheet. If your software is "smart" enough it should tell you that you have duplicates and give you the choice.

How to keep leads off of your list

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