Direct mailing lists provide opportunities for companies to acquire, retain, and create loyal customers. However, which lists tend to be the best performers? How do you search for mailing lists? And once you’ve found a list, how do you know if your investment was worth it?

Direct Mailing List Basics

Direct mailing lists generally fall into three categories:

1. Company-owned lists: These are direct mail (or email) lists that you have created on your own. Many online businesses include a subscription box on their website so that customers and visitors can choose to provide their email address in exchange for information, news, white papers, and other gifts. Businesses can also create their own “house lists,” as such lists are called, by using records of previous purchases and leads to build a basic mailing list. For direct mail, you can use physical addresses without tacit permission. For email marketing, always use a subscription method and only do permission-based marketing to avoid being branded as a spammer.
2. Answer lists: Response lists are rented by companies that specialize in mailing lists, called list agents. Such a list is based on past purchases or response behavior and may include catalog mailing lists, direct mail or direct television shoppers, or magazine subscribers. Many companies make money by renting their list to other companies. The idea behind using such a list is that past buying behavior is the best indicator of future buying behavior. In other words, if someone responded to a direct television ad for jewelry, they are more likely to respond to another jewelry offer. Listing brokers often add additional selections for an additional fee, like 3-month buyers. This allows you to target people who have recently purchased such an item. Again, based on years of data from many industries, these people are more likely to respond to similar offers again, which is why direct marketers look for those lists.
3. Compiled lists: Compiled lists are created or compiled from public records. Such lists used to be based on DMV records, but are now mostly written on computers directly from phone books. Sometimes public data, such as census data, is added to the list, providing some ability to sort by income and other factors from the census data. Compiled lists are the least expensive but also the least likely to respond to specific offers. Going back to the jewelry example, you can rent a compiled list of people who live in a high-income zip code, thinking that they are likely to buy jewelry from a direct mail order catalog. But you have no way of knowing from the compiled list whether those people are comfortable shopping online, by phone, or from catalog. A list of responses indicates that these consumers have done it in the past and are more likely to do it again.

There are general list brokers that offer a wide range of mailing lists and specialists like Market Data Retrieval that focus solely on the industry, such as education in the MDR example. Ask your colleagues which are the best listing brokers in your industry.

Rental of mailing lists

Once you’ve found a listing company, look through their catalog or speak with a listing broker over the phone. Share your ideal customer profile; Who are you talking to? List brokers will recommend various lists to you and send you data cards by email or fax. These cards provide the data about the list: who rents it, if it is compiled or answered, and the selected data available. Data picks are optional methods of using a computer to narrow down the potential customers to respond to your offer. Select can include age, gender, products purchased, or recent purchasing behavior.

The lists have a base cost per thousand. List companies typically don’t rent fewer than 10,000 records, so take the cost per thousand records, multiply it by 10, and that gives you the minimum amount of money you’ll have to spend on a list. Additional charges may be added for multiple selections or for generating the list from the computer.

Make sure the list has been recently updated. Good listing companies run their lists through various databases obtained from the Direct Marketing Association and the US Post Office.These include removing the names of deceased individuals, updating the lists with the new addresses from people who have moved and delete (remove) people who have applied to be on the “Do Not Send by Mail” list or the Direct Marketing Association preference list. All of this can add costs to the beginning of the list rental process, but think of the money wasted mailing items to people who can’t respond. If they moved, died, or hated spam, why send it to them in the first place? You’re spending money on creative design, printing, mailing house costs, and postage, so save money and don’t mail those people.

Testing and using direct mailing lists

Although the minimum number of names in renting a typical direct mail list is around 5,000 to 10,000 names, many companies will allow you to rent a smaller segment for testing purposes. Be sure to code your direct mail pieces with a unique phone number, source code, or other method to track responses so you can see which list performed the best.

Mailing lists are rented for single use or for unlimited multiple uses. You will be asked in advance to specify your intended use, and most companies will request a sample mailing. One of the most common questions I get asked by people new to direct mail is, “Why can’t I pay for a single use and then reuse the list, since most lists are provided electronically today?” The answer is simple: they will catch you! Mailing list companies include addresses called “seeds” on their list that look like any other name on the list to you and me, but actually go back to the company or someone employed by the company to monitor the list. If you are caught using a mailing list more times than you paid for it, you are subject to legal prosecution, fines, or both. Its not cute. Do not do it.

Direct mail in today’s market

Direct mail has been around since the late 1800s, when catalogs opened a world of new products to rural Americans. Although a large number of consumers have changed their purchases online, many still prefer to look at an outdated catalog before buying. Direct mail can attract and invite consumers to visit a website to order. A good mix of old-fashioned direct mail marketing, postcard marketing, and a strong website with search engine optimization techniques in mind is a winning combination for acquiring, retaining, and building loyal customers, and making money in the process.

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