Daifukucho
(Source: Waseda University )
A ledger book that brings "great" fortune. As its name suggests, it was the second most important thing to merchants at the time after their own lives, and in the unlikely event of a fire, they would say, "No matter what, you should throw the daifuku ledger into the well to protect it."
What I would like to introduce to you today is "House List," a modern version of Daifukucho, which could be considered the BtoB SaaS corporate version.
What is the definition of a modern house list? How do you create one? How can you maximize its effectiveness? We'll answer those questions in more detail than anywhere else.
What is a house list?
A house list is a list of information about potential and existing customers that a company has collected through business activities such as exhibitions and websites . Overseas, it is sometimes called a "retention list," and is a list that compiles contact information such as the names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of potential and existing customers.
It is not just the company name and contact information, but also the approach history and order probability for potential customers, and for existing customers, the person in charge and order details. It is not something that you create once and then forget about it, but it is necessary to update the information regularly and keep it up to date.
The difference between a house list and a white (cold) list
Similar to the house list is something called a "white list."
A whitelist is a term originally used in the world of IT security. It involves making a list of IP addresses and domains that pose no risk to a site or server, and then denying access from any addresses or domains that are not on the list. It can also be said to be the opposite of a blacklist, a "safe list."
In marketing , whitelists are mainly set when delivering ads, and are used to increase return on investment (ROI) by whitelisting only addresses appropriate for the ad content from the list of delivery destinations and preventing delivery to any other addresses.
Similarly, it can also refer to a target list that is narrowed down from an existing customer list to only those customers who are suitable for the campaign when conducting marketing activities or sales campaigns.
In Japan, it is often used together with words such as "inside sales", "BDR" and "ABM". Please refer to this article on our blog for more information.
What is the difference between the house list and the hot list?
Another similar thing is the "hot list".
In marketing, a hot list refers to a list of high-value customers who have a high probability of conversion or closing a deal, mainly in marketing and sales.
Hot lists are similar to whitelists in that they are lists narrowed down from existing customer lists, but in many cases, hot lists refer to "hot leads" who have been scored list of taiwan consumer email through "nurturing" and "qualification" in past marketing and sales approaches and who have shown a high interest in the company's products and are likely to make a purchase .
Demand Waterfall
( Source: SiriusDecisions )
For more information on hot leads and lead qualification , please see this article on our blog.
The Importance of a House List
The Daifukucho was the second most important book to Edo merchants after their own lives, and its importance remains the same in its modern equivalent, the House List. So why is the House List so important?
Contact information is known in advance
One of the reasons why Edo merchants were willing to throw away their existing goods and money to protect their house lists (daifukucho) was because the house lists contained information such as contact details of their customers (or potential customers).
The most basic function of a house list is to record basic contact information such as the customer's company name, key person's name, and email address.
Of course, no matter how much money you have to start a business or how many products you can sell, you can't do business if you don't have someone to sell to. What's more, even if there is a company that seems like they might be willing to buy, it's common in business to be turned away if you don't talk to the right key people.
The house list also records detailed data on the relationship value with customers, such as how you have had contact with them in the past, what approaches worked and what didn't, etc. This allows you to approach customers according to their attributes and interests.
Communication is easy because there is a certain degree of relevance
The whitelist mentioned earlier was a list of targets for advertising and other marketing and sales campaigns, regardless of whether they had had previous contact with the recipient.
In contrast, house lists are basically potential customers or existing customers who have had some kind of contact in the past.
Having had contact in the past can have a surprisingly big influence when it comes to communication.
It's not hard to imagine that it will be easier for the other party to listen to your story or open your email if they have the impression that you are "the company we spoke at the XX exhibition," rather than receiving a sudden call from a completely unknown company.
No costs associated with acquiring new leads
In marketing, you have to constantly spend money on advertising to obtain contact information, and in sales, you have to be passed around from one department to another before reaching the relevant department, and you have to contact them and visit them multiple times each time, so it tends to be costly to acquire new leads.
Of course, it's possible that customers on your house list have cost you similarly in the past, but by building and expanding your house list, you won't have to go through those same "birth pains" over and over again, and you'll be able to maximize the effectiveness of your past marketing spend.
More stable results than new acquisitions
Another benefit of house lists is that they provide stable results such as higher conversion rates and sales.
When it comes to converting completely new customers, the success rate is difficult to predict and the results tend to be inconsistent.
However, by using a house list to refer to past contacts or transaction history, you can make some predictions about conversion rates and success rates based on the past facts of each customer. This allows you to get stable results or take measures to achieve them at an early stage.
