Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Franchise Owners Turn to Direct Mailing Lists to Build Local Business


NEW YORK -- Jim Whalen, owner of the Rochester, New York-based Re-Bath franchise has a “secret weapon” for increasing his local bathroom remodeling business: He orders a mailing list from USADATA and sends out 20,000 postcards.


Re-Bath’s first mailing list campaign with USADATA brought in over $250,000 in sales, Now, Whalen is strategizing his next campaign. As some competitors are cutting back, Whalen is full-steam ahead. “This is the perfect time to establish identity and brand while others back off,” said Whalen.

About USADATARe-Bath, based in Mesa, Ariz., utilizes an acrylic system to remodel bathtubs and showers."We're bursting at the seams where we are, so we're expanding," said company president Jim Fitlow. "We did 850 bathrooms in Utah last year and our goal this year is to do 2,000.""Our five-year track was $75,000, $225,000, $850,000, $1.8 million and $3.7 million last year," he said.Re-Bath of Utah employs approximately 45 people in Utah. Another 15 are located at ReBath franchises in Denver and Boise, which Fitlow also owns. Fitlow said he expects to hire 20 more employees this year.ReBath Kansas has opened at 2040 S.W. Wanamaker. Owner Kristine Rathke said Re-Bath will transform bathrooms from ugly to beautiful, quickly and affordably. Among the products and services offered arebathtub and shower bases and liners, wall surrounds, tub-to- shower conversions, safety tubs, seated shower bases, wainscoting, Fiberglass removal and accessories.One reason for the success of mailing lists is how specifically franchise owners can target sales leads. For instance, Whalen’s target market is people over 70 years old who own suburban homes in New York State and meet certain income levels.“We began ‘Musical Pathways’ without any brand recognition from scratch with mailing lists,” said Betsy Flanagan, Director of Musical Pathways Foundation (an affiliate of Kindermusik.) “We began with 24 families, and have grown to 275 families.”

USADATA, a provider of mailing lists for franchise owners works with a number of owner-operated franchises, such as UPS Store, FedEx and Toyota and is the leading provider of Sales Leads. On Demand™ and CRM Software On Demand. USADATA has securely delivered over 1 billion targeted, privacy-assured mailing lists that have helped over 100,000 businesses nationwide grow their business. They has been named to the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies, Deloitte & Touche New York Technology Fast 50, Computerworld’s Top 100 Emerging Companies.




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