2. Provide your mailing list broker with an accurate description of your product or offer. The broker may have suggestions as to the type of list that would be suit your needs.

3. Know the difference between a response and a compiled mailing list. Response mailing lists are comprised of individuals who have responded to an offer either through the mail, phone, television or through other means of mass communication. Compiled mailing lists are a compilation of information from public records and sources such as the phone book, courthouse records, bankruptcy filing, mortgage deed records and more.

4. Have a customer profile – address your offer to an individual. Do some research to understand your customers’ needs and desires.

5. What is your offer? Be straight forward and enticing in the merchandising of your product.

6. Make sure there is quality in your offer – you must show the consumer how they will benefit from your product.

7. Evaluate your costs – what is the cost per lead versus the pricing of your product.

8. The appearance of your mail piece should look personal so the consumer is more likely to open it.

9. You may want to include informative brochures and testimonials regarding your offer.

10. Track responses. You can evaluate the success of your  mail campaign by analyzing and tracking response rates. This will allow you to make adjustments to future mailings which will increase business and profitability.

11 Repetition is key – it takes more than one contact with a consumer to turn a prospect into a loyal customer.

Timing is critical. Your mailing list is custom ordered; it’s not sitting on a shelf waiting to be mailed. Mailings lists are available by e-mail within hours of making your purchase, but you must allow time to receive a specialty list. A general rule of thumb would be to order to order your mailing list before ordering your print material. If the list you have ordered has gone through an update, or a count was pulled a few weeks before your count may change. A discrepancy of even 500 names may affect printing and mailing costs.

If you have dated material to mail – make sure you allow enough time for your mailing piece to be delivered. The post office has 2 working days to process your mail – but don’t forget that the mail piece can go through 3-4 different post offices before being delivered. It could be 6-8 days before your piece actually reaches the destination. If you have taken your mail to the post office a week before your sale, you run the risk of it being delivered on the day of the sale or after the sale has already occurred – resulting in disastrous consequences.

Remember to plan in advance when purchasing your mailing lists and planning your direct mail campaign.

Business Lists
Compiled using yellow page telephone listings then additional information is pulled from Federal, State and Municipal documents such as incorporations, SEC and other published data.  Additional selects include the number of employees, sales volume and executive contact information including their title.

Consumer Lists
A consumer list is one of the largest mailing lists. It allows you to reach residents, or heads-of-households that have an interest in the product and/or service you offer. Criteria can be selected using age, gender, presence of children including age range or exact age, income, marital status, dwelling type, length of residence, mail order buyers, buying habits and more.

Resident/Occupant Lists
If you’re looking to reach every household and/or business in a targeted geographical area, you need a Resident/Occupant list. There is no named individual at the address. Since you are hitting every home and/or business within a designated area, there are no custom selects available (i.e. income level, household with children, etc.). Selections do include state, county, SCF, zip code, carrier route  or radius from a fixed point. It is a very cost effective way to reach a large targeted area.

“Niche” Mailing Lists
While the most common lists available are business and consumer lists, there are “niche lists which represent different stages in life. During our own lifespan, we move through these stages (i.e. student, a registered voter, retirement, etc.). This type of list can be very powerful as you have the ability to use criteria that will “zero” in on your specific target market. In addition, it helps you target your message, offer products and/or services that fit the prospects and it can identify cross-selling opportunities. Here are some of the most popular available:

New Homeowners and Movers
Reach consumers who purchased a new home or moved recently, target within a specific demographic area to reach your audience. Fiiles are updated weekly and monthly. This group has an initial need to purchase all types of neighborhood services such as home furnishings, telephone and Internet service providers, banks, churches, doctors, schools, entertainment, etc.

Ethnic
Ethnic lists are compiled from various sources such as public real estate documents, census bureaus, financial publications and direct mail respondents. Selects include nationality, language preference or religious preference.

Lifestyles
Information is compiled from self-reported data and product registration cards. Target lists of art enthusiasts, automobile enthusiasts, books, camping, clothing, crafts, fishing, fitness, gardening, golf, home decorating, sports, wine, etc.

Registered Voters
Complete registered voters lists by city, state county and broken down by district. Information is gathered from election boards, county clerks and Board of Registrars. Contributors lists are also available with information on who contributed to political candidates, parties and PAC’s.

Credit Score
Credit reporting agencies make your information available to banks and credit card companies which then compile mailing lists and sends out offers.

Bankruptcy
Pull any Geography:  zip, zip code with radius, SCF, county, city, metro area and state. Selects include chapter, payment amount, discharge or filing dates.

Ailment and Illness
Created by self-reported survey data, targeted by specific health issues including acid reflux, back pain, cancer, cholesterol, depression, diabetes, emphysema, weight problems and more.

Churches and Religious
Selects include denomination, religious leader, membership size and geography.

Magazine Subscribers
Magazine subscriber lists can tell you a lot about the prospective customer including whether they are the right customer for your business. If you are making a health or fitness product, then subscribers to a health and fitness magazine will be more likely to purchase your product.

Students
Target families by income level and children’s ages. Target this niche group for toys, clothing, photography, pediatrician and dentistry, camps, music, athletic equipment, amusement parks, etc. College student lists are also available.

Teachers
search criteria for this list can be identified by the grade taught, from kindergarten to high school. The individual teach can be identified from any subject department.

Ultra Affluent
The households in this list are extremely upscale, in both earnings and their propensity to spend. They are homeowners who are highly educated and employed in professional, technical, managerial and sales/service occupations. These households enjoy the pleasures of wines, gourmet foods, fashion, travel and cultural events.

1. Who is the target audience I am trying to reach?
Don’t waste time, money and postage mailing to the wrong prospects. Choosing the right demographics, geography, etc. will give you optimum results. If you need help, ask your list broker to make recommendations.

2. Will I send a one-time mailing or mail multiple times?
List  are typically rented on a one-time or multiple times usage. There is a cost difference and the lists are “seeded” so the list broker will know if you use it more than once. There can be significant penalties if you pay for a one-time list and use it multiple times.

3. Will I need phone numbers to follow-up with a telemarketing campaign?
If you’re planning to do a follow-up phone call, make sure to ask for phone numbers when ordering the list. If you decide to do this at a later date, you may have to re-purchase the entire list.

4. If mailing to businesses, what contact person do I need to reach?
Don’t send your mail piece to the President or CEO when you’re trying to reach the Human Resources Department. Determine who your primary contact should be. If there aren’t enough contacts with that specific title, you might want to “title slug” (i.e. Attn: HR Manager) rather than take a significantly smaller list.

Quality versus Quantity
Purchasing a targeted list with the appropriate contact will bring you optimum results – even if the list is smaller than you originally wanted to purchase. In addition, it doesn’t do you any good to purchase a large list and mail over a long period of time – the list will lose its “freshness” and you’ll waste time, money and postage.

Frequency of Updates/NCOA
Before purchasing the list ask how often the list is updated. It’s critical that the data is “fresh”. The NCOA (National Change of Address) is required by the U.S. Postal Service. Their database updates addresses on the list that have moved and submitted a change of address form through the Post Office. If the list isn’t certified, you run the risk of having undeliverable addresses.

List selection is key – all the fancy graphics and the most beautifully created sentences won’t do you a bit of good if you don’t carefully select the people on your mailing list. If you’re selling senior products, you don’t want to target 23 year old people. If you’re trying to reach households with children, is there a specific age group you want to target (i.e. pre-school, elementary school, high school, college students)? Do you want the household to have a specific income; furthermore, do you want the income to include one person or two?  These are critical issues when choosing a list that will work for your business.

Tighten your mailing list as much as possible to be sure it’s tailored to your needs. It difficult to make people believe they need your product and even harder to convince them they need it now. If you’ve researched your target customer, and purchase the appropriate list, you have a higher chance of reaching your potential customs instead of the trash can.

List response can be confused with list deliverability. A list can be 100% deliverable, but you many not get a high response rate. Many people automatically assume that it wasn’t a good list when, in fact, the mailing list was targeted to the wrong market – the key to making the list work for you is knowing who your target audience is!Statistics show the average rate of response for direct mail is 1-2%. If the mail piece is eye-catching, has a call to action, and the timing of the mail piece is correct, we’ve seen response rates as high as 8-10%.