The Little Black Book of Online Business: 1001 Insider Resources Every Business Owner Needs

19.2. AUTOMATED DIRECT MAIL FOLLOW-UP

Now this is so very cool from a marketing standpoint. Think of a marriage between an autoresponder service and direct mail. You can schedule any number of customer "touches" (communications) ahead of time, and they'll automatically go out without you giving it any more thought.

Once you get a customer, you would enter his or her information into the system. You'd already have a mailing profile that you'd attach this information to, and this would schedule:

A thank-you postcard three days later

A "here's a feature of your new widget you might enjoy" postcard four days after that

A birthday coupon five days before the customer's birthday

A Thanksgiving card

A monthly newsletter on a postcard, in addition to the preceding cards

... And more

With this company you can totally automate the nurturing of your customer relationships. It's like having a self-watering, self-weeding, self-fertilizing garden ... check it out here:

http://www.sendOutCards.com/

While SendOutCards.com focuses on regularly sending out simple cards, these companies allow you to integrate several online and offline follow-up methods into a single follow-up campaign. These may include email, fax broadcasts, voice broadcasts, direct mail and more.

http://www.infusionsoft.com/

http://www.automatedmarketingsolutions.com/