5 Questions You MUST Ask Before Buying a Mailing List

If you have ever ordered a mailing list for a direct mail campaign, you know the vast amount of information and choices available — and how incredibly confusing it can be.It can be a nightmare to go through this process only to end up with a bad (e.g. wrong demographic) list. The money you spent on the list is wasted and so are your postage expenses! This can be avoided. If you have an up-to-date, targeted list, it can unlock prospects and leads you may never have found otherwise.How do you know you're getting a "good" list? Here are five questions you need to ask about your list — before you rent it. 1. What percentage of deliverability does the company guarantee?This is, hands down, the most important question to ask. Deliverability refers to how many addresses are bad (or "undeliverable") on the list. If the mail house doesn't guarantee at least a 90 percent deliverability rate — move on! You don't need to waste your hard-earned marketing dollars on advertisements and postage that never reach your prospects. 2. How often is the list updated?A good, high quality list will be updated every month. Constant updates weed out addresses where mail has been found to be undeliverable or the prospect has moved away. If your list isn't updated regularly, you are missing out on new prospects that get added to the list and throwing away money on dead-end addresses.3. Is it a one-time use list or unlimited use?Some lists allow for unlimited use for one year. Other lists, you only have a one-time access or mailing to those contacts. The one-time lists are generally more targeted and qualified, but you will pay more. You can achieve excellent results with each type. Deciding which one to use will vary based on your campaign goals. Repetition is key when producing results in direct mail advertising, so factor that into your decision.4. How often is the list run through the National Change of Address (NCOA) database?The NCOA 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 mail house isn't running the list through the NCOA, you increase your chance of having undeliverable addresses. Make sure you protect your investment by ensuring the most recent and complete information is available!5. How is the mailing information compiled?There are two types of lists: businesses and consumers. Business lists are compiled based on their SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) codes issued by the government and can be narrowly targeted with specific criteria such as "number of employees" and "gross revenue."Consumer lists are more complex. The list may be compiled by "modeling" data. Modeled data means the company is more or less assuming an individual is part of one group because they are part of another. For example, requesting a list of people earning between $40,000 and $50,000 per year might result in a list of people currently living in middle class housing areas or based on a survey the person filled out. The list compiler has no way to know what income people make, so they develop the list based on a model of the individual. Modeling is actually fairly accurate, but it is less qualified than subscriber lists (people who subscribe to a newsletters or magazines). Another way to form a list is to specifically analyze your in-house customer list and create a list based on their demographic findings. For example, you may find your best customers are women ages 30-55 years old that own their own home — then your new list would be based on this criterion. Now you are in control of the contact information you rent. The right list is an enormous benefit to your marketing and will help you narrow down your target market and find new customers.Joy Gendusa, founder and CEO of PostcardMania, has grown PostcardMania into one of the nation's largest and most effective marketing companies specializing in lead generation for small to large-sized businesses. She's been named the Tampa Bay CEO of the Year as well as Business Woman of the Year in Tampa Bay, featured on MSNBC's "Your Business" and has twice been an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. PostcardMania offers full service postcard marketing campaigns, including mailing list services and can be reached at 1-800-628-1804 or www.postcardmania.com.

Performance Marketing

5 Questions You MUST Ask Before Buying a Mailing List

Joy Gendusa

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Joy Gendusa