Include contact names in addresses?

I want to start a business selling advertising space at gas stations.
My mailing list consists of the name brand of the gas station (Al's
Quick Stop, Pete's Shell, Chevron) and mailing address. It does not
include the owner, manager etc. Thus far, all efforts attempted to
find a specific contact name have been in vain. In addition, a lot of
time has been wasted trying to find contact name information.

Does addressing a sales letter or postcard to a specific person verses
the generic "Dear Service Station Owner/ Manager.." garner a better
response rate? Will it be worth the effort to manually lookup and
enter in this info into my database?

Keep in mine that there really is know way for me to know who is the
right decision maker at each gas station.

"esseryn" <esseryn@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:bhr03p05pc@enews2.newsguy.com...
>
> I want to start a business selling advertising space at gas stations.
> My mailing list consists of the name brand of the gas station (Al's
> Quick Stop, Pete's Shell, Chevron) and mailing address. It does not
> include the owner, manager etc. Thus far, all efforts attempted to
> find a specific contact name have been in vain. In addition, a lot of
> time has been wasted trying to find contact name information.
>
> Does addressing a sales letter or postcard to a specific person verses
> the generic "Dear Service Station Owner/ Manager.." garner a better
> response rate? Will it be worth the effort to manually lookup and
> enter in this info into my database?
>
> Keep in mine that there really is know way for me to know who is the
> right decision maker at each gas station.

Have you done any footwork? I suggest you walk into several gas stations and
ask for the boss. In fact, if you walk into twenty gas stations a day for
five days, that's a hundred gas stations. I bet that will get you a lot of
valuable information, and maybe a few clients. Good luck! -- Mike

"esseryn" <esseryn@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:bhr03p05pc@enews2.newsguy.com...
>
> I want to start a business selling advertising space at gas stations.
>
> Does addressing a sales letter or postcard to a specific person verses
> the generic "Dear Service Station Owner/ Manager.." garner a better
> response rate? Will it be worth the effort to manually lookup and
> enter in this info into my database?
>
> Keep in mine that there really is know way for me to know who is the
> right decision maker at each gas station.

Where at the gas station will the advertising be displayed? I would put a
graphic on the outside of the envelope or large postcard with a picture of
that space and maybe something like, "Turn this space at your station into
$$"
Your other problem will be that a lot of stations deal with corporations, if
they're a franchise and have very strict rules they operate under.

--
McWebber
No email replies read
If someone tells you to forward an email to all your friends
please forget that I'm your friend.

Try your Secretary of State, or Division of Corporations, most are
searchable online.

"McWebber" <mcwebber@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:bhsbt10265c@enews2.newsguy.com...
>
> "esseryn" <esseryn@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:bhr03p05pc@enews2.newsguy.com...
> >
> > I want to start a business selling advertising space at gas stations.
> >
> > Does addressing a sales letter or postcard to a specific person verses
> > the generic "Dear Service Station Owner/ Manager.." garner a better
> > response rate? Will it be worth the effort to manually lookup and
> > enter in this info into my database?
> >
> > Keep in mine that there really is know way for me to know who is the
> > right decision maker at each gas station.
>
> Where at the gas station will the advertising be displayed? I would put a
> graphic on the outside of the envelope or large postcard with a picture of
> that space and maybe something like, "Turn this space at your station into
> $$"
> Your other problem will be that a lot of stations deal with corporations,
if
> they're a franchise and have very strict rules they operate under.
>
> --
> McWebber
> No email replies read
> If someone tells you to forward an email to all your friends
> please forget that I'm your friend.
>
>
>