The Money Is In The List

Hello,

Marlon here.

The money is in the list.

Always has been.

Always will be.

People get horribly confused about how you market online and make sales. They get dazzled by all the fancy sales pages written by high-powered copywriters.

But when you boil it all down, take out the smoke and mirrors, we have a simple business. A really simple business. That doesn't mean it's always easy. But it's simple.

The money is in the list.

We get people on a list.

And we make sales.

Typically, the more recurring billing you have and the higher margin products and services you sell, the more you make.

Here's a picture of how money was made back in the early 1900's:

So that's how they had to do it in the old days.

They have gigantic card files. And would print letters using a machine.

The heart and soul of the company was the DATABASE kept on index cards.

Back then, you had to build a list from all available public sources:

Today, a 40,000 email list isn't that big. But back then, a 40,000 list was a mammoth task to assemble and mail letters to:

Those Lists Were Kept and Managed In Massive Card Files And Multiple Stenographers Were Employed To Actually Type Personal Letters

Information on each prospect and customer was kept on elaborate cards:

They would have an entire CORRESPONDENCE ROOM with card files and staff to suport them:

A bank offered a a personal expense book for FREE.

They were able to turn the OFFER of the free expense book into actual deposits to the bank:

Marlon, Why Do I Give a Rip What People Did a Gazillion Years Ago?

Here's why: It helps you sort through the complexity and get down to the few things that REALLY WORK.

Think about it.

If they spent enormous amounts of time and energy to develop and manage lists on printed index cards, then mail them with actual printed letters, then it must have been worth it. And, in fact, it was. That was the heart and soul of businesses back then. Letters would be mailed. Sales people would follow up in persion.

The phone wasn't cheap enough to use it as a sales tool.

Move forward to today.

We don't need massive card files to store our prospect and customer addresses. We have databases.

We send emails at the click of a button.

But the heart and soul is the same: THE MONEY IS IN THE LIST.

Think about it.

If businesses could afford to have entire rooms just for their index cards or list, stenographers to write letters and machines to print and mail letters, they KNEW that money would make money.

Yet today, we have ALL OF THE ABOVE on a little thing called a smart phone or a laptop.

Yet, often we don't realize, THE MONEY IS IN THE LIST.

Always has been.

Always will be.

Now, that list represents real people. Buyers and potential buers. Customers with needs and wants.

If people spent part of the time normally occupied with searching for the latest and greatest gimmick to make profits and more time on simply building and tending to THE LIST, what impacst would that have on profits?

Back then, a 40,000 list would cost you a small fortune to assemble, store, maintain and use. Today, you can have it for a $20 a month autoresponder fee.

And yet, the value is just the same.

Those customers in that database, that list, are your HIDDEN GOLDMINE.

Best wishes,

Marlon