Ask HN: how to acquire customers which are small businesses via internet?

Re:Ask HN: how to acquire customers which are small business... by kinlan on Sunday July 15, 2012 @03:27AM (#4246414)

One plan I used in the UK and it worked well, was to send every new UK company formed the previous day a letter detailing what we could do for them. In the UK there about 100-300 companies formed everyday that are discoverable via the companies house website. Obviously this requires a small amount of capital to send the letters but it is minimal.

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Re:Ask HN: how to acquire customers which are small business... by corin_ on Sunday July 15, 2012 @04:21AM (#4246514)

On the subject of letters, I personally pay more attention when I receive a sales pitch in a letter rather than an email or phone call. I know it doesn't actually take a huge amount more effort, and companies can spam through the post almost as easily as over wires, but it just feels like they've tried a little harder to get my business.

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Re:Ask HN: how to acquire customers which are small business... by tlogan on Sunday July 15, 2012 @05:23AM (#4246588)

Excellent idea. We know even the exact type of companies, so should be easy to get the list.

Are you aware of any online service which can automate for us sending of sales letters and brochures? Something like sendgrid but for letters / brochures.

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Re:Ask HN: how to acquire customers which are small business... by garethsprice on Sunday July 15, 2012 @09:43AM (#4246928)

I researched this idea a while back and found that Vistaprint has the automated sending service. I don't think it'll have the API approach of Sendgrid though.

There's also a whole industry of fulfillment houses for direct mail, but in my experience they're pricey and very traditional in their approach (sales-people, couriered proofs, no/printed analytics reports etc).

If you're going to do this regularly you can save a ton of postage by signing up for a business account with the PO and pre-printing the envelopes in a special format (although I always wondered if hand-writing would boost the conversion rate).

Also, try postcards rather than letters as USPS postcard rates + biz account will let you get your rates down to < $0.20/mailing - but sales letters may have a far higher conversion rate depending on your product, making them worth the extra postage.

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Re:Ask HN: how to acquire customers which are small business... by ollyculverhouse on Sunday July 15, 2012 @06:12AM (#4246642)

If your in the UK, try Viapost.

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Re:Ask HN: how to acquire customers which are small business... by kinlan on Sunday July 15, 2012 @04:00AM (#4246469)

Another thing I have done in the past is to target the companies that manage small businesses. In the UK there are many accountants that manage the books for their customers who are small businesses. So target them can help scale your customer base.

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Re:Ask HN: how to acquire customers which are small business... by boralben on Sunday July 15, 2012 @09:26AM (#4246915)

Agreed. I was in a similar spot (trying to sell online to local biz). I was walking door-to-door, meeting local businesses, and at one restaurant, the owner happened to be sitting with his social media guy. That guy opened doors at other local businesses that were his clients.

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